Stage 2 - Part 3 - "Beggars can't be choosers"

Hello to all!

Yes I am back and looking forward to potentially getting myself back on track with some gaming chat.

I had managed to, thankfully, find myself a position in QA thanks to a buddy of mine who informed me of the position; something that is worth noting for later.

In regards to the interview, I will only say this. Be modest, but passionate. Oversell yourself on anything, and believe me, it will show should you start working there. Also, be ready to do a bit of testing yourself. Although, I guess as a gamer, you should probably be passively doing that all the time!

I have discovered and learnt a great deal in the 2 months I worked there, and it caused pause for thought on how QA is approached from what angle, and thus how people might approach the role when applying.

Just like in the hospitality industry, wherein customers generally treat waiters poorly and try to devalue the role as much as possible, from my experience only those who do not have any direct contact with QA have a similar attitude. Within a company, it can be easily percieved as a "nothing" job, where people do "nothing" and "nothing" is achieved. Granted, once the game is released the work of QA can make or break the success. You can argue to the death whose responsible, it is a team effort to create a game, and in this case either they did not consider this an issue, or no one was willing to step forward and say this was a problem.

EXERPT FROM A REVIEW OF 'STORMRISE' (http://www.consoleob.com/reviews/stormrise-ps3-review/)

"...Stormrise is crippled by a number of nasty bugs, which seriously detracts from the enjoyment of the game: path finding for your units is quite simply terrible, with soldiers struggling to walk around a simple wall... whilst other times they opt to take more dangerous routes, when there are much safer options available, resulting in needless losses, worse still is that units will on occasion sometimes drop dead for no apparent reason..."

The reason this blog is titled so is because at this stage, although it is not a desirable status, you are at the first step in the ladder. But this is not a negative nor a frowned upon position because of that. Find yourself in the right office, perhaps where the development team are nearby, or at least accessible from where you work, and you are in an extremely privileged place where you have direct contact with animators, programmers, directors, producers, audio directors and the list goes on.

This does not mean of course, that you go galavanting off trying to make something of yourself. Quite the contrary, you make yourself worth something. While you are unknowingly under the watchful eye of some huge decision makers and influencers you work, and you work damn hard. You do not really have an option, unless of course you're not really into working in games. In which case, what are you doing there and how the hell did you get there in the first place?!

This brings me comfortably onto my next point. The work. Now let me very quickly quash a rather distasteful misconception of what QA actually is. For those of you who do not fully understand the term "Games Tester" and believe that it is an opportunity for people like myself to "play games all day" I will simply ask you this. Imagine someone told you to test drive a new car, and gave you the Nurburgring to try it out on, paid you and said "Break this car". Would pull out into the race track and take it on a comfortable 30mph (48kmh) stroll? Or would you run that machine until the wheels fell off? Or the petrol ran out? Or the tires burst? Or your arms couldn't take it anymore? Or indeed, until you crashed...?

I am in no way arguing that you are driving the car (or playing a game), but the stark difference lies in the word 'test'. I will be honest, when my project lead told me to "break the game" I had no idea where to start. To find a bug in a game requires far more than just sitting back and playing, every second needs your full attention, the entire screen is to be scanned at all times, just in case you miss that stretched texture, or that hole in the environment, or a flicker in the animations.

Towards the end of the project this can be mentally exhausting, and your mind will indeed feel a little worn out. Particularly due to overtime requirements and weekend work, which became a prominent part of my time in the role. Again, this was not a negative, when given the choice to show you're a willing employee and indeed care enough for the job, you SHOULD go for it. At this stage, you either do it, or you'll struggle to make movements in your career. 

This has nothing to do with games, it has everything to do with the creative industry. If you want to succeed, you have to prove in actions that this is DEFINITELY what you want to do, that you are willing to give up your time for the project. It requires passion along with some self respect ("Yes Men/Women" are cringeworthy) in order to demonstrate to your bosses and employers that this is in your blood. If you are not willing to put the time in, I would suggest asking yourself if you truly do want to work in games, or perhaps in the creative industry.

What this can lead on to, is linked to a point I made at the beginning of the blog. Should you prove yourself worthy, and find yourself in contact with people in good places, you get to a stage wherein not only may it benefit you to go to them asking about other roles, but in SOME cases, they might come to you only mentioning that there are positions either within the company or another company in which they have worked. It will be a case of who you know, not what.

I don't think I need to make it any simpler than that. QA can actually be a very good role to start in. Sure the pay might not be great, the hours are quite unsociable, but don't fret about it. Keep on trucking through, because little goes unnoticed, especially if you're getting paid for overtime. Remember, you got the job for a reason, and first step of the ladder or not it is not unheard of for a member of QA to jump to Producer.

If you have anything you wish to share with me or indeed the readers, feel free to comment or e-mail me at twentyfiveand0@hotmail.co.uk - Don't forget to check outthe What Have I Been Playing pages found on the right! OR Check out my channel at www.youtube.com/ike1luv