Why in the name of all that is even remotely good in this world would Q hire any of these people? Gwen is the only one who isn't terrible and that's just because she hasn't actually done anything yet.
Cora is actively insubordinate and Issac is actively negligent (choosing to exploit a bug instead of reporting it). The team's lack of competence led to a game-breaking issue. It turned out ok in the end by happenstance, but any test lead with any sort ot ability wouldn't touch these people with a ten foot pole.
And why is Q leaving anyway? I thought he was a huge fan of the Lone Star IP. Given that he just got a major payday it would make sense for him to stay on board and continue to reap the benefits. Trying to go off on his own is a fool's errand, particularly when he's already displayed a gigantic lack of common sense. Did he really get THAT much of a bonus that he can afford to pay three full-time testers at a higher salary than they were making?
I dunno, I'm just getting more and more frustrated with the comic. I keep going back to thinking that making the reader angry and frustrated must be the point of the comic. It's got to be that they are trying to evoke in the reader the emotions that a typical tester feels.
When I worked in the trenches, I was a QAC, or a person who organized groups of testers and went over their work. As such, it was my ::cough:: privilege to read and edit every bug they wrote. Being a good tester is all about being able to describe PRECISELY any problem you find in a game. As a consequence, the best testers are often good with words, and can come up with accurate yet funny titles for their bug reports. Below is a collection of my favorites.
“Gender confusion ends the game”
This was a bug written for a cell-phone game. The main character is named “Sam” and is a tiny sprite on the screen. At the end of the game, Sam is shown frenching a hairy, moustachioed male. Turns out ‘Sam’ was short for ‘Samantha’.
“Licking bush causes unit to vibrate uncontrollably”
This one is from another cell phone game. The main character was a yoshi-like thing with a long tongue used to eat enemies. If you used the tongue attack on the ‘bushes’ in the game, the cell phone would vibrate without end until you pulled the batteries.
Finally, my personal favourite:
“Not enough whores in the whorehouse”
This was for a console game some of you may know. There is a mission in the game where the main character goes to a whorehouse. The main character has other characters talking into his ear over the radio. One says something like “woo, look at all that hoochie”; another says something like “stop staring at the T & A and get to work”. The problem? Not a single whore. The level was empty except for enemies and other objective.
marsilies on
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FramlingFaceHeadGeebs has bad ideas.Registered Userregular
No new comic, but there's a new tale up today.
you're = you are
your = belonging to you
their = belonging to them
there = not here
they're = they are
After college I was looking for a job… any job, really. I was lucky enough that “any job” for me turned out to be QA testing for a large game company. After putting in about half a year, I got promoted to a team in charge of a specific type of testing. Over the next 18 months, people either left the team or were laid off, and I found myself running the show.
People noticed that I was doing a good job running the tests by myself, and someone suggested that I apply for a producer position within the company. I applied, got the job, and have been having a blast in my
new role ever since.
I’ve been in the trenches, have friends in the trenches, and I know what they can be like. But I’ve also seen people find amazing opportunities—sometimes in production, development, or even senior positions in QA—on the other side of no man’s land.
“Gender confusion ends the game”
This was a bug written for a cell-phone game. The main character is named “Sam” and is a tiny sprite on the screen. At the end of the game, Sam is shown frenching a hairy, moustachioed male. Turns out ‘Sam’ was short for ‘Samantha’.
“Gender confusion ends the game”
This was a bug written for a cell-phone game. The main character is named “Sam” and is a tiny sprite on the screen. At the end of the game, Sam is shown frenching a hairy, moustachioed male. Turns out ‘Sam’ was short for ‘Samantha’.
Err, I can't figure out what the bug is here.
It's not a programming bug, but just a general problem with the game. The name they chose for the main character wasn't gender specific enough, as it is generally a boys name (especially if it's not a nickname).
Good News Is They Really Like You 11/27/2012 - Anonymous
This was way back before I even broke into the industry full-time, but I still had enough of a resume to get callbacks.
Over the course of a few weeks, I’d been interviewing with a small local developer. They didn’t do anything famous, just the usual licensed or second-tier games that can keep a little company going. But it was an entry-level position and it’d look good on my resume, but most of all, I’d finally fulfill my dream of working in the exciting world of the game industry. (God, how stupid I was).
I did the first interview with HR and it went well.
I did the second interview with my potential lead and it went well.
I did the final interview with just about everyone in the company and
it went well.
I get home from my retail job to a voicemail from HR that they really liked me and wanted to talk specifics about compensation. Here we go! This was my shot! The call was time-stamped for 10:30am and I called back at 3:00 pm.
The HR girl answered with the background sounds of activity, as if people were boxing up to move. She told me in a strained but pleasant voice that the company really liked me and they were just getting ready to make me an offer, but unfortunately as it turned out the company was a front for organized crime and the FBI was there RIGHT then and she had to go.
And that’s not even my worst story from the industry.
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
They abruptly ended the "season" with no indication they had done so, realized people were confused by how hard to follow the last few comics were and the numerous unresolved plotlines, and so they did the three "six months later" comics culminating in this one to theoretically provide some closure.
Now they are officially between "seasons" for real, but once again gave no indication whatsoever for casual readers that's what's going on unless you happened to read Mike's one newspost about it on PA (not even on the Trenches site) or click on "Seasons" at the top and see Season 2 ends November 2012.
I expect a majority of those casual readers have no inkling, and will, like @Soopastar, think to themselves, "Hm, I wonder what happened to The Trenches, no comics in two weeks, maybe it's dead?" As I've said before, a little "End of Season 2" in the corner of this comic, or a little banner somewhere saying "The Trenches will return (whenever)..." would be simple things that would help a lot.
But hey, the character profiles in the New Readers section are still nothing but silhouettes and scrambled text, so...
They abruptly ended the "season" with no indication they had done so, realized people were confused by how hard to follow the last few comics were and the numerous unresolved plotlines, and so they did the three "six months later" comics culminating in this one to theoretically provide some closure.
Now they are officially between "seasons" for real, but once again gave no indication whatsoever for casual readers that's what's going on unless you happened to read Mike's one newspost about it on PA (not even on the Trenches site) or click on "Seasons" at the top and see Season 2 ends November 2012.
I expect a majority of those casual readers have no inkling, and will, like @Soopastar, think to themselves, "Hm, I wonder what happened to The Trenches, no comics in two weeks, maybe it's dead?" As I've said before, a little "End of Season 2" in the corner of this comic, or a little banner somewhere saying "The Trenches will return (whenever)..." would be simple things that would help a lot.
But hey, the character profiles in the New Readers section are still nothing but silhouettes and scrambled text, so...
Yeah they really need to figure out a better way to do this. I had thought maybe they took the week off due to the holidays or something but then eventually figured out this was what they were doing. There needs to be some kind of indication on the main page. Hell, throw a "To be continued next season" in the bottom margin of the comic or something.
I just thought it was another Scott Kurtz side project dieing a early death. Ding anybody?
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El SkidThe frozen white northRegistered Userregular
edited November 2012
Yeah, that tale was pretty darned good.
So...I guess the tales will continue unabated while the strip is on hiatus? And I guess we'll just use this thread to talk about them, sort of unofficially?
e- Or maybe we could get @Tube to create a new thread called "The Trenches is in between seasons- talk about the ongoing Tales here"?
El Skid on
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soopastarCincinnati, OH, USARegistered Usernew member
Thanks for the reply guys. Guess I'll stop reading it and try again in the future. How annoying.
I have been reading the trenches since day one, I know about the seasons, and I never saw the point other than making confusion. Seriously, whats the point?
I have been reading the trenches since day one, I know about the seasons, and I never saw the point other than making confusion. Seriously, whats the point?
The people involved have other main projects (PA and PVPOnline). I guess.
El SkidThe frozen white northRegistered Userregular
edited November 2012
New trenches today:
I don’t know if this has a moral…
11/29/2012 - Anonymous
I worked for about eight months testing budget games before I came to my senses and decided I was worth more than that. Though the work wasn’t great, it wasn’t quite the sweatshop drudgery that some others have experienced. I don’t have any good stories about incompetent bosses or corrupt management, just memories of boredom and exhaustion… and one particular coworker, who I’ll nickname Paul.
Paul must have liked to “wake and bake”, because for the two months I knew him, he came in five days a week, every week, with bloodshot eyes and smelling like he’d just doused himself in air freshener to cover up a different smell. He always had this laid back attitude and spoke slowly and casually.
We all talked about him being blazed behind his back, good natured joking, of course, because he was never an irritation to anyone. Nobody ever had the guts to ask him about it to his face, and he never brought it up himself, but we all knew.
At first we all figured he’d work for a couple weeks and they would let him go for lack of productivity, but he’s the thing - he *kicked ass* at his job. I don’t know if being in an altered state of mind helped him divine bugs, but he was cranking out reports left and right, finding problems the rest of us would have never dreamed of. Our behind-his-back conversations took on an air of admiration. I respected the guy for what he accomplished and tried never to begrudge him for making us all look lazy in comparison.
Then one day, walking back from the bathroom, I overheard the boss having a conversation with him. “Paul, you come in every day with your eyes bloodshot, and you seem slightly disconnected. You do good work, but I want you to start getting more sleep.”
I still don’t know if the boss was trying to give him a subtle hint, or he was actually clueless where those bloodshot eyes came from, but after that, Paul started coming in to work sober, and his productivity dropped like an ACME anvil. Two weeks later, he stopped coming into work altogether.
May be there’s a lesson in there, but I probably shouldn’t look for one.
Good luck Paul. I hope you wore sunglasses to your next job
Best part about this? There was an ad for sunglasses on the trenches site with this tale. 8->
Had a friend develop a severe ulcer and various gastric issues from stress, so I could believe this. The sad thing is that this was in university when he was 20. The game industry may suck guys, but architecture will fuck you up as well! :P
Baaaad science. A classic misinterpretation of cause and effect vs correlation.
They used to think stress gave you ulcers.
Science has now proved that Helicobacter pylori bacteria give you ulcers, and crippling stomach pains make you stressed.
No. Science has proved that debilitating stress is actually debilitating, and that though the Will To Live hasn't been proved to exist, there is, sure as shit, a Will To Die.
Stress makes everything worse. Especially dehydration and stomach flu.
They abruptly ended the "season" with no indication they had done so, realized people were confused by how hard to follow the last few comics were and the numerous unresolved plotlines, and so they did the three "six months later" comics culminating in this one to theoretically provide some closure.
Now they are officially between "seasons" for real, but once again gave no indication whatsoever for casual readers that's what's going on unless you happened to read Mike's one newspost about it on PA (not even on the Trenches site) or click on "Seasons" at the top and see Season 2 ends November 2012.
Umm... Gabe doesn't do the comic anymore. From the "About the Authors" section of this site:
About the Artist
Mary Cagle, aka Cube Watermelon, is a recent college graduate, with a degree in Sequential Art from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Mary took over art duties on The Trenches in October 2012. She’s currently doing her best to build up a living as a freelance illustrator/colorist and webcartoonist. Her own webcomic, Kiwiblitz, runs every Tuesday and Thursday.
If she just took over a month ago, I find it hard to believe she's already needing a "break". ESPECIALLY if she's still trying to get established. Maybe we'll be seeing her OWN story about being in the trenches... how she gets hired to do this cartoon, then a month later has to go on a seasonal break.
They abruptly ended the "season" with no indication they had done so, realized people were confused by how hard to follow the last few comics were and the numerous unresolved plotlines, and so they did the three "six months later" comics culminating in this one to theoretically provide some closure.
Now they are officially between "seasons" for real, but once again gave no indication whatsoever for casual readers that's what's going on unless you happened to read Mike's one newspost about it on PA (not even on the Trenches site) or click on "Seasons" at the top and see Season 2 ends November 2012.
Umm... Gabe doesn't do the comic anymore.
He is still involved in the writing process, and he was the one who did the newspost on PA several weeks ago explaining how they were tagging a few additional comics on to the end of the season.
If she just took over a month ago, I find it hard to believe she's already needing a "break". ESPECIALLY if she's still trying to get established. Maybe we'll be seeing her OWN story about being in the trenches... how she gets hired to do this cartoon, then a month later has to go on a seasonal break.
Nobody said she needed a break. What are you even talking about? This is the season ending more-or-less on time when they planned for it to end. They just did a poor job of communicating it.
Posts
Cora is actively insubordinate and Issac is actively negligent (choosing to exploit a bug instead of reporting it). The team's lack of competence led to a game-breaking issue. It turned out ok in the end by happenstance, but any test lead with any sort ot ability wouldn't touch these people with a ten foot pole.
And why is Q leaving anyway? I thought he was a huge fan of the Lone Star IP. Given that he just got a major payday it would make sense for him to stay on board and continue to reap the benefits. Trying to go off on his own is a fool's errand, particularly when he's already displayed a gigantic lack of common sense. Did he really get THAT much of a bonus that he can afford to pay three full-time testers at a higher salary than they were making?
I dunno, I'm just getting more and more frustrated with the comic. I keep going back to thinking that making the reader angry and frustrated must be the point of the comic. It's got to be that they are trying to evoke in the reader the emotions that a typical tester feels.
http://trenchescomic.com/tales/post/in-the-name-of-the-bug
your = belonging to you
their = belonging to them
there = not here
they're = they are
http://trenchescomic.com/tales/post/not-all-bad
New tale today:
http://trenchescomic.com/tales/post/good-news-is-they-really-like-you
They abruptly ended the "season" with no indication they had done so, realized people were confused by how hard to follow the last few comics were and the numerous unresolved plotlines, and so they did the three "six months later" comics culminating in this one to theoretically provide some closure.
Now they are officially between "seasons" for real, but once again gave no indication whatsoever for casual readers that's what's going on unless you happened to read Mike's one newspost about it on PA (not even on the Trenches site) or click on "Seasons" at the top and see Season 2 ends November 2012.
I expect a majority of those casual readers have no inkling, and will, like @Soopastar, think to themselves, "Hm, I wonder what happened to The Trenches, no comics in two weeks, maybe it's dead?" As I've said before, a little "End of Season 2" in the corner of this comic, or a little banner somewhere saying "The Trenches will return (whenever)..." would be simple things that would help a lot.
But hey, the character profiles in the New Readers section are still nothing but silhouettes and scrambled text, so...
Yeah they really need to figure out a better way to do this. I had thought maybe they took the week off due to the holidays or something but then eventually figured out this was what they were doing. There needs to be some kind of indication on the main page. Hell, throw a "To be continued next season" in the bottom margin of the comic or something.
So...I guess the tales will continue unabated while the strip is on hiatus? And I guess we'll just use this thread to talk about them, sort of unofficially?
e- Or maybe we could get @Tube to create a new thread called "The Trenches is in between seasons- talk about the ongoing Tales here"?
Best part about this? There was an ad for sunglasses on the trenches site with this tale. 8->
E- For posterity:
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
No. Science has proved that debilitating stress is actually debilitating, and that though the Will To Live hasn't been proved to exist, there is, sure as shit, a Will To Die.
Stress makes everything worse. Especially dehydration and stomach flu.
Umm... Gabe doesn't do the comic anymore. From the "About the Authors" section of this site:
If she just took over a month ago, I find it hard to believe she's already needing a "break". ESPECIALLY if she's still trying to get established. Maybe we'll be seeing her OWN story about being in the trenches... how she gets hired to do this cartoon, then a month later has to go on a seasonal break.
He is still involved in the writing process, and he was the one who did the newspost on PA several weeks ago explaining how they were tagging a few additional comics on to the end of the season.
Nobody said she needed a break. What are you even talking about? This is the season ending more-or-less on time when they planned for it to end. They just did a poor job of communicating it.