[TRENCHES] Thursday, September 18, 2014 - Guest Art: Maki Naro

Geth · September 2014

Guest Art: Maki Naro
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/guest-art-maki-naro1

The horrors of Shovel-ware
Anonymous

Spare a thought for the poor developers at a company that produces crap at an alarming rate. Shovel-ware if you will.

Often the company is own by a single man who has final say on everything. We are trying to make the best game we can with the constraints of a power mad dictator throwing tantrums day after day because people aren’t buying his crap games.

The hours are no less grueling.

The verbal abuse no less cruel.

The withheld pay while we wait for publishers to pay. (The boss is still driving his fancy Mercedes of course while you are using credit cards to pay rent)

Then when we get it all done and ship a game we can’t point to it on a shelf and be proud.

marsilies · September 2014

So... comic....

Um, it looks like Janet (I had to look up her name) dressed as The Man with No Name in the desert holding a bottle with a note in it. Not sure I get the reference?

Tale is pretty much standard "working at a shitty place sucks" story. Although one wonders how many "pay withheld until we get check from the publisher" loops one has to go through before quitting and finding a job that, if not better, at least pays on time.

wormspeaker · September 2014

The author of the story could easily spin that work experience into a job writing business software for $60K to $100K more than they're being paid now. And they'd get paid on time every two weeks like clockwork. They'll get to go home at 5pm every day and get every weekend off. I don't think I can generate much sympathy for them.

Skunkape · September 2014

I am sorry , but it looks like she has two mouths. I cannot un-see it.

marsilies · September 2014

So no new comic yesterday, but a new tale:
http://trenchescomic.com/tales/post/17733

Of Bags and Tea
09/23/2014 - Anonymous

This isn’t so much a “horrible working conditions” story, but one I found hilarious nonetheless.

I worked for a very large electronic manufacturer based in Japan and was on the QA team for their game console. I was stuck on the floor for a first person shooter that has already been released, but was mediocre at best. It was a mil-sim game that was decidedly a rocketfest.

Anyway, the Vice-President of this very large corporation decided to drop by for a visit. We’d been warned beforehand of this visit. What we weren’t warned about was that the VP decided to drop in one of the matches we were in (testing connectivity issues with another country). We were given a quick “don’t do anything stupid” talk, so we played around on the game like you were “supposed to”.

A few minutes later, another call came down to cut loose. So we did, instantly turning the battlefield into chaos. The VP, needless to say, died very quickly. But what did happen, is one of the testers ran over to the VP’s body and teabagged it (as was the custom in those days).

Not a full minute passed before the test lead burst into the bay and screamed his lungs out, demanding to know who did it. None of us spoke, since we didn’t know who did the deed and the person who did it didn’t speak up.

So, after having a job where I got to play video games for a whole month, our entire section was unceremoniously fired.

Thinking about the guest art more, I think the joke is Janet wears a shawl, which is reminiscent of the poncho that The Man With No Name wears. Still not sure about the message in a bottle.

Andy Joe · September 2014

That sounds like an overreaction.

Showsni · September 2014

How would you write that on your CV? Reason for leaving last job: "One of the other testers on the team ducked in an inappropriate place whilst testing the game."

Penny Arcade

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[TRENCHES] Thursday, September 18, 2014 - Guest Art: Maki Naro

The horrors of Shovel-ware

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