I bet they were just sitting there killing each other with the javelin like "lol" this games horrible.

You all know that the Publishers push for a game to be released before they are finished, which doesn't even factor in proper QA.

That pins sometimes lazy developers (who can apply some common sense themselves in what they are doing instead of just listening to everything they are told) between bug testers generating all kinds of reports and feedback (go to gamespot and watch the GDC 2010 Sid Meier keynote to see how feedback can stall and ruin games), versus what they want to do, and insane deadlines. (that keynote breaks my heat, both because it centers around CIV and ignores Railroads which was so rife with bugs I have to wash every five minutes of playing.. which is how frequently it crashes)

It is a no-win situation. Add piracy and limited revenue potential and you can figure out devs don't put much stock in killing themselves making quality products that are going to be stolen anyway.

As frequently ex-gametester because even though I generated x hundreds or thousands of bug reports, they don't all get fixed, and often we don't set the priority of bugs. When a game ships there's always hundreds or thousands of bugs left and few of us (from my varied jobs) get to play a game from start to finish and just rip it apart and report whatever we want.

You're sat in front of a section of a game and told to test and ignore everything else. I felt like quitting every time I was told to focus on just one spot. How are you going to really test for everything if you're told what to do??

QA is an ongoing battle devs which most developers assume they'll lose so they don't bother to fight. They do what they can within the time limit based on the little feedback testers can provide before being forced to ship their game. But since money comes from shipping a product, how can you blame them for filling it with eye candy and not finishing it properly? That's a business decision (and nothing to do with QA)

i'm a hardcore gamer and was working as a QA for 3 years in 2 different game companies, and being a perfectionist made the job pretty easy for me :) but i learned, that the publishers are pushing on the developers so much because of the release dates and that's how so many bugs just can't be fixed on time... seeing the latest trend of more and more buggy games makes me wanna kick some publishers balls.

and i've also worked as a QA Tester for quite a few years.

i was damn good at my job also.

being a QA tester really only requires a handful of things:

1) An attention to detail.
2) An ability to think outside of the box.
3) An ability to turn off the "gamer" part of you (it's not easy, but it's certainly doable), so you can accomplish 1 and 2 more efficiently.
4) Patience. LOTS of patience.

the job is dull and monotonous (although, depending on your team, it can be an AMAZING experience; the guys at Obsidian were great, as were my team at Luxoflux), and it's NOTHING like playing games at home.

working behind the scenes with developers/publishers takes a way a LITTLE bit of the magic of video games, but on the flip side, the eye opening experience could also give you a better appreciation of what actually goes into making a video game.

i've worked for Activision, Obsidian, Square-Enix, Vivendi (before the merger), etc, and they all do things differently, but what i've really learned is that NOBODY sets out to make a bad game. even the devs at Activision. there are OTHER factors that can work against a developer giving their very best (budget, time constraints, Bobby Kotick), but they aren't aiming to produce sh*t.

not every game can be Uncharted 2 or God of War 3 caliber. it's just not possible, and i don't expect every game to reach such standards.

the QA department gets a lot of sh*t from gamers, and even the industry, but the role of a QA team is vitally important to the development of a game, but their input is only as useful as the developer's willingness to FIX what they bring to the table.

i can't count how many times critical bugs were reported, only to have them marked as "will not fix" because they were low repro, or didn't effect TRG requirements that would cause the build to fail submission. time, budget, resources, they affect QA as much as they affect the developer actually MAKING the game. it should also be noted that most developers aren't actually PLAYING the game they create. they are too busy making the game to spend hours seeing how it all fits together.

that's another reason why QA is so important.

no, you don't have to be a hardcore gamer to be a QA tester, but it certainly doesn't hurt when you have to do Speed runs, or Trophy/Achievement runs (i can't tell you how many times i've had to Platinum or Unlock all Achievements on a build, only to have to do it ALL OVER AGAIN when the new build arrived).

what it really takes to be a QA tester, whether hardcore or not, is a PASSION and LOVE for video games. as QA, you are treated like the dreggs and cattle of the gaming industry. you are worked insane, unreasonable hours, and forced to sacrifice as much of your outside life as any developer. and you don't get paid NEARLY as much as they do. it's a relatively thankless position, but depending on the developer you work for (ie, Obsidian was a GREAT company; i had a ball there), your input is treated differently.

at Obsidian, we regularly had meetings with the devs and programmers, and they'd ask for our input on what they could implement to make the game better, balance it better, polish it better. it was more than just QA work there. we'd even have meetings with Feargus Urquhart, where he'd make sure we knew that our hard work was appreciated. even if it's just a pep talk, hey, it WORKS. feeling appreciated is always welcome when you're an overworked employee. it's a shame i left the company due to commute issues, because i would have loved to stay on (i was slowly working my up the chain to become an artist). they were genuinely good people, with a love of gaming.

A game testers job is to continuously break one little corner of the game over and over.

Its not about hardcore or casual, those who have a passion and unbias veiw on every game out there. People who love games for what they are.

Bugs, glitches to abuse etc. always hail from the hardcore underground.
If there is stuff that can be abused in games they always find it.
So another waste of time article.

How about hiring these people who find glitches to QA games?

Only a handful of games I've bought this gen I haven't noticed numerous glitches or issues in. I've now got a decent collection of about 20 games on my PS3 now since i realised how lame trade ins are, but over the 2 years I've had it i've probably bought closer to 30 games, far and away most of them I've always ran into a major glitch- some a lot worse than others. I think it's typical of this generation that QA falls by the wayside and devs rely on patching too much. Typically its 3rd party multiplatform titles that are the worst offenders.

yeah and when games get completel f'ed up, who's fault is that?

Need to step their game up. Alot of games have been coming out with major bugs.

I blame publishers for putting deadlines on games. You can't rush art, but I guess they only care about making money.

I have a few friends that work as game testers for sony & ea and as much as a game tester job sounds like a dream job but my friends tell me it aint & it could be boring at times aswell because your not just testing games u want to play, u test games of all types, even games u would dislike in taste.

Theres also benefits being a game tester, and alot devs now making the games we enjoy today started off as a game tester. If u ever watched the show on PSN called, "The Tester" u can dl free u can see just how IMPORTANT game testers are to sony as one of the executives said, "Game Testers are the backbone of how great games turn out". Really makes me proud that being a game tester was always a dream job in my opinion & I always knew it could also lead to bigger dreams as I would love to be a dev one day & be proud to make great games. Seeing ppl dig your game would just push me to make an even better game the next time around.