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Trenches comic: Tuesday January 10, 2012 - Elixir

BogeyBogey I'm back, baby!Santa Monica, CAModerator mod
edited January 2012 in The Penny Arcade Hub
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The Dreams

01/10/2012 - Anonymous

On the second day of Orientation, we were told about the dreams.

“You will eventually dream about the games you test. It won’t be pleasant.” The lead said. The way he said it made some of us newbies laugh. We should have known better.

After testing a game for 12 to 15 hours a day, 6 to 7 days a week, it quickly becomes a part of your consciousness. You start finding yourself thinking about the game on your off hours, or telling stories about the game to other testers when you should be talking about something else. Eventually it will get into your subconscious, and that’s when the dreams start.

I remember a fellow tester telling me about how he dreamt he was in the game and how awesome it was. Since we were testing a shooter I thought that I could see the appeal (the moral implications, at the time, were clearly lost on us).

My dreams … my dreams were different.

I dreamt that I was testing the game. There was nothing interesting about it. I simply dreamt that I was doing my job. Eventually in the dream my shift would end, and I would go home and go to bed, and then in real life I would wake up and realize that I just dreamt about doing what I was about to do.

That’s not rest! That’s hell! I could not help but thinking that I was losing my mind. This had to be what going mad was like. Not even sleep was a break from the job itself.

When it becomes hard to tell if you’re awake or asleep when doing your job, you know that job might not be for you.

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Posts

  • EndEnd Registered User regular
    this one seems different
    something about the font...

    I wish that someway, somehow, that I could save every one of us
    zaleiria-by-lexxy-sig.jpg
  • AnteCantelopeAnteCantelope Registered User regular
    I see what you mean, it looks a bit weird. I went to the site and it's the same there.

    That story sounds pretty hellish, 70-100 hours a week is enough, but dreaming about the same thing would be the point where I quit, move in with my parents, and spend a month or two in bed.

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    Man, I remember having those dreams. Though for me it was being a Kmart cashier that caused them, rather then endlessly running the same level in an early game build.

    Hope you enjoyed your brief glimpse into my personal hell everyone. Don't forget to visit the souvenir stand on your way out.

  • FalxFalx Registered User regular
    Friend of mine was acting all angry and frustrated once. Finally got him to tell me why and he said for the last month he would dream every night of him doing his job as a counter assistant, and then he'd wake up and go do it for real. I thought he was going to start crying. I only have sympathy for people who go through a period where that happens to them, it sounds like it sucks big ones :(

  • IvarIvar Oslo, NorwayRegistered User regular
    Is Q using a plastic ladle?

  • ibenderibender Registered User new member
    The answer to the new font is "no." Just no. Love the comic and tales. Keep 'em coming!

  • ArakonArakon Registered User regular
    The real question is, where can I order that stuff, in large quantities?

  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    There are multiple bottles of that 4-hour energy drink shit on the table. Someone is going to enter a coma.

    Edit - When the high runs out, or when they simply overload.

    Henroid on
  • jackaljackal Fuck Yes. That is an orderly anal warehouse. Registered User regular
    Ivar wrote:
    Is Q using a plastic ladle?

    A dissolved ladle is the secret ingredient.

  • E.CoyoteE.Coyote Registered User regular
    5 hour energy, Bawls, and some sort of red can in the front.

  • MaigaardMaigaard Registered User regular
    This one seems different. Could it be that Gabe drew this one? Something about Q's mouth in panel 1 is very... Gabe-y.

  • AyulinAyulin Registered User regular
    Maigaard wrote:
    This one seems different. Could it be that Gabe drew this one? Something about Q's mouth in panel 1 is very... Gabe-y.

    Yeah, the mouths of both of them look a lot more like PA-style mouths than the previous strips. The "feel" of the whole thing is subtly different, too.

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  • JucJuc EdmontonRegistered User regular
    I never had the dreams, but a guy I used to work with did.
    It started on month 6 or so of around 10 months of crunch.
    The best part is when he'd get to work each day he'd write up the bugs he found in his sleep and they were all valid issues.

  • Andy JoeAndy Joe We claim the land for the highlord! The AdirondacksRegistered User regular
    I worked at an amusement park during summers in high school, and sometimes while I was drifting off I would imagine customers asking me for directions or other assistance.

    I would tell them, "First of all, I'm off duty right now. Second, you're a figment of my imagination. Go away."

    XBL: Stealth Crane PSN: ajpet12 3DS: 1160-9999-5810 NNID: StealthCrane Pokemon Scarlet Name: Carmen
  • MHYoshimitzuMHYoshimitzu Registered User regular
    I've done this a few times, particularly when I used to work at a grocery store in the dairy department.

    One time, I stayed at work until 12:45 am because there was so much work to be done. Note: if you're thinking to yourself, "What in the world needs to be done in a dairy department at 12:45 am that couldn't be done at, say, any other decent hour of the day," good question.

    At any rate, eventually I had to call it quits and start my hour ride home because I had to be back in at 7 am. I dreamed of actually finishing my work, went back in at 7 am and... finished my work. Not fun.

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  • agilemaniaagilemania Lyon EstatesRegistered User regular
    edited January 2012
    @pvponline wrote:
    Today's Trenches comic was drawn by @cwgabriel. We split duties this week while I'm visiting family. Thurs will be my art.

    agilemania on
  • jackaljackal Fuck Yes. That is an orderly anal warehouse. Registered User regular
    He's homeless, and his employer won't let him go home. Sounds like a match made in heaven.

  • Lindsay LohanLindsay Lohan Registered User regular
    Best Trenches so far in my book. It's much more expressive in the faces and the noses somehow seem less obnoxious (probably because their mouths are larger). Maybe they could have Gabe draw a few more of them...

  • OmnomnomPancakeOmnomnomPancake Registered User regular
    no surprise the one drawn by gabe is the most expressive. really like his take on the character's faces.

  • Lindsay LohanLindsay Lohan Registered User regular
    no surprise the one drawn by gabe is the most expressive. really like his take on the character's faces.

    The characters overall feel less defined by their shapes. Trenches has this look of "I drew a bowling pin shape, now I decorate it to look like a lady" - this one is much more animated feeling than that.

  • PeccaviPeccavi Registered User regular
    Ugh, dreams about work are the worst.

  • PeccaviPeccavi Registered User regular
    Oh wow, the ladle is actually dissolving. Didn't notice that at first.

  • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    Man, if I'd quit any job that gave me dreams about work I would be a unemployed hobo now. You gotta give a job a little time and see if the nightmares go away again. I guess you have to think about what you're doing more when you first start out and you're still processing that shitton of information you get flooded with, I suppose your brain is trying to manage that in mysterious* ways.

    *mysterious to me because I know fuck all about neurology.

  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    jackal wrote:
    He's homeless, and his employer won't let him go home. Sounds like a match made in heaven.
    Actually where I work, we have an employee with a similar issue. They made him take a week off and we might as well have told the guy that we were eating his dog. My boss was trying to help him, but instead we essentially put him out for a week.

  • MagnumCTMagnumCT Registered User regular
    Back in high school working at EB, I had a Saturday where I was getting sick, fever/flu sick, but had to go in because no one else could take the shift. I worked the eight hours and went home to pass out, but as I was falling asleep, people kept coming up and wanting things.

    NFL2K? Hold on, gotta get the keys for the cabinet. All right, I'll just get this...hey, you're not real!

    Relax, try to get comfortable. But then a dude has some games to trade-in. So I start to look up his values until I declare him unreal as well. And this is while I was still awake. This repeated until I actually did fall asleep and had a dream about Mulder, Scully, the X-Men, and a task of great importance having to do with the thermostat. I didn't even watch the X-Files.

  • AntimatterAntimatter Devo Was Right Gates of SteelRegistered User regular
    Juc wrote:
    I never had the dreams, but a guy I used to work with did.
    It started on month 6 or so of around 10 months of crunch.
    The best part is when he'd get to work each day he'd write up the bugs he found in his sleep and they were all valid issues.

    oh dear lord.

  • VestyVesty Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Andy Joe wrote:
    I worked at an amusement park during summers in high school, and sometimes while I was drifting off I would imagine customers asking me for directions or other assistance.

    I would tell them, "First of all, I'm off duty right now. Second, you're a figment of my imagination. Go away."

    I also worked at an amusement park (for 5 summers). I also used to sleep walk a lot. One time I ended up in my sister's room pounding on her dresser (about the height of the control panel at work). She goes "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" to which I reply "Ma'am please stay behind the yellow line."

    One other time I was half awake half asleep walking around my room trying to put kids into rides wondering why the hell we were still open at 4am.

    Oh those were the days.

    Vesty on
  • BirudojinBirudojin Registered User regular
    Juc wrote:
    I never had the dreams, but a guy I used to work with did.
    It started on month 6 or so of around 10 months of crunch.
    The best part is when he'd get to work each day he'd write up the bugs he found in his sleep and they were all valid issues.

    I think you might be speaking about me. If not, I know it definitely happened to me on some of the projects we worked on together. Running through levels in your dreams, and seeing trees pop into view incorrectly or people take cover strangely, and then seeing the same issue in the main game, where everyone was so used to seeing it that they didn't notice it anymore (consciously) is rather terrifying.

    The worst is that by the time you are over the dreams on one project, you're likely into crunch for a demo or finaling of another one, so they can start over again.

  • JucJuc EdmontonRegistered User regular
    Birudojin wrote:
    Juc wrote:
    I never had the dreams, but a guy I used to work with did.
    It started on month 6 or so of around 10 months of crunch.
    The best part is when he'd get to work each day he'd write up the bugs he found in his sleep and they were all valid issues.

    I think you might be speaking about me. If not, I know it definitely happened to me on some of the projects we worked on together. Running through levels in your dreams, and seeing trees pop into view incorrectly or people take cover strangely, and then seeing the same issue in the main game, where everyone was so used to seeing it that they didn't notice it anymore (consciously) is rather terrifying.

    The worst is that by the time you are over the dreams on one project, you're likely into crunch for a demo or finaling of another one, so they can start over again.

    I was thinking about our vegetarian friend but I think you told me about seeing bugs in your sleep before too now that I think of it.
    I mostly don't remember the 10 months from that first project all that well so it was probably lost in the mishmash of missing memories.

    That previous project would have had crappy dreams for you though, watching the game save over and over again.

    I'm glad I didn't get any dreams on that one either, I'd just be looking at progress bars and log files all night.
    I thank swine flu for rescuing me on that one, thanks to that we all had at least one week of coma-like sleep.

  • TleilaxuTleilaxu Registered User regular
    Henroid wrote:
    There are multiple bottles of that 4-hour energy drink shit on the table. Someone is going to enter a coma.

    Edit - When the high runs out, or when they simply overload.
    E.Coyote wrote:
    5 hour energy, Bawls, and some sort of red can in the front.

    Not as effective as Francis's Quake Shake.

    Oohhh, the colors...

    checkpointangrybirds.gif
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