[TRENCHES] Thursday, June 18, 2015 - Dad Jokes

Geth

Dad Jokes
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/dad-jokes

Enjoy it while you’re young, but get out soon

Anonymous

Starting a career in games QA gives you a sort of “Stockholm Syndrome”.  You are greatly underpaid, vastly overworked, and about the only benefit you get is a free copy of the game when it ships (which you’ll have to have mailed to you since your contract ended and you no longer work on that team).... maybe a free t-shirt if you’re on a good team.  You work your ass off in hopes of getting some kind of recognition and promotion up the ranks, and are ever-told there are opportunities on a horizon that never gets any closer.  You bounce from one contract to the next, each time lying to yourself that this will be when you get recognized as an asset and converted to a full time employee, only to be slapped back to reality when you are turning in your key card on that final day, and your manager barely gives you a wave goodbye.

You do all of this over and over because there is something very gratifying about seeing your name in the credits as they roll by. Because you could point to your name in the manual (remember game manuals?) and show the kid at Gamestop that, yes, you are a local rock star in very specific circles.  You do it over and over because you know that no matter how long the hours get, how stressful the tasks at hand, you can push yourself away from your small shared-desk area, take a deep breath, and remember that you “play” games for a living. That usually helps to put a bit of the rage-fire out so it is just a smoldering pile of ash…. for a little while.

While doing all of this feels worth it to be a part of an industry you love, if you actually want to make a living, I advise you to get out of games.

For about 9 years I worked in games QA.  From nearly a year prior to the birth of the original Xbox, to my final games contract on the third installment of a third-person shooter involving sprockets of conflict (I had a few years away from games in between).  For years I worked as much overtime as I could, avoided the doctor and dentist, fell in love with Top Ramen all over again, and generally lived month-to-month.

Just prior to my last games contract ending, I was chatting through social media with someone I had worked with previously and she mentioned needing help at her current place of employment where she was the test lead.  Because I need a paycheck, I took the position with no questions asked.  Having talked to her previously, I knew it would be doing testing on a business website.  Nowhere near the “fun” of games testing, but the paycheck beckons.  It was then that I realized where I had been going wrong.

I walked into the job starting at a 50% hourly raise and working the regular 40 hours a week (as opposed to the 60+ previously).  I was suddenly working in an environment where I could walk 50 feet and talk to the developer who I was testing for and have an in-person conversation about specific tickets.  I went from trying to test the multiple difficulties of an artificial intelligence (a big pain in the ass, BTW), to testing something with a definite cause and effect.  Do ‘A’, expect ‘B’.  My job just got a LOT less stressful, a LOT more compensational, and I was able to reintroduce myself to my children.

It’s not as “glamorous” as working in the games industry, but I can pay rent and buy real food.  And I have plenty of time in the evenings to play the games I WANT to play instead of playing the same broken level for 8 hours a day because we didn’t get a new build yet.  I would even say I enjoy games more now because work doesn’t bleed into my pastime anymore.

Mycroft Holmes

If you want to make games, don't go into QA.
If you want to make games, don't go into QA.
If you want to make games, don't go into QA.

Seriously, QA is valuable and we would never ship a quality project without a good group of them, but they're not content producers. It's not a position that allows you to be one or to show that you can be one.

I got into the industry 13+ years ago and I only know of 4 guys who made the jump from QA to team. One producer, one system designer and 2 level designers. In 13 years and working with hundreds of professionals and it's getting harder. Kids are coming out of college with all of their classes aimed at making them useful to a dev team. You're not competing with them by joining QA.

If you need the foot in the door to start showcasing your already developed skills then QA might work, but do not expect to be part of the .05% that makes the jump from QA to Junior "what-ever" and hope that they'll train you to use tools, work as a team and be responsible for creation tasks.

flenser

What is going on with his mouth in the last panel?