quality assurance
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Activision Blizzard gives 1,100 QA testers full-time jobs and higher base pay
The move comes amid a unionization effort by QA workers at Raven Software.
Workers at Activision Blizzard’s Raven Software end strike action following union push
Having announced plans recently to form the first labor union within a North American AAA game developer, workers at Raven Software are ending their weeks-long strike action against publisher Activision Blizzard.
A group of Activision Blizzard workers is unionizing
QA testers at Raven Software are forming the first union at an AAA gaming company in North America.
Sony axing Liverpool game studio, ends Psygnosis' 28-year history
Sony has confirmed that it's shuttering Studio Liverpool, more famously known as Psygnosis. The publisher was founded in 1984 and is responsible for a legion of best-selling titles including Lemmings, Colony Wars, Destruction Derby, Wipeout and the Formula One games. In a statement, the company said that after a review of its "commercially viable" projects, it's focusing on projects in other parts of the business -- after slashing the studio's remit in a cost-cutting exercise in 2010. The facility is also the location of the company's European Quality Assurance team, which will reportedly remain in operation.
ArenaNet asks of Guild Wars 2, 'Is it fun?'
Colin Johanson, Lead Content Designer for Guild Wars 2, has just posted an update to the ArenaNet blog. In it, he discusses some of the company's philosophy regarding measuring the success of Guild Wars 2 and how best to achieve that success. A big part of that philosophy is to constantly evaluate how fun the game is and whether that fun makes the content compelling enough to stand on its own. To that end, he relates that the fairly standard gear treadmill has been more or less removed from the game. While there is item progression through levels, rare items are made desirable by visual, not statistical, distinction. Dungeons, rather than having a tiny chance of dropping high-demand items, reward players with tokens that can be traded for items. Within those dungeons, variations have been made possible so that players can choose different routes to explore rather than be forced to do the same exact run again and again.
BioWare Ireland is a 'kind of sister studio' to BioWare Austin, offering various levels of support
BioWare's Austin studio had some assistance in developing Star Wars: The Old Republic, which co-founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka have described in the past as a collaboration between BioWare Austin, Edmonton, and Mythic. As it turns out, BioWare Ireland is yet another crucial component of The Old Republic's development harem, assisting the game with "multiple dimensions of support," from quality assurance to localization to networking. And that may not be all that the Ireland studio will be up to in the coming years. "That's where it is right now," Zeschuk told me, before he noted that "over time, we'll see." For now, the Galway-based office is primarily focused on making sure SW:TOR servers aren't crashing and players aren't furious. "It's really a reflection of how important we value the service," Muzyka added. "The commitment as a premium service subscription game is to support it with high quality service every step of the way." BioWare apparently thought that commitment serious enough to bring on approximately 400 new employees to man its Ireland location. And with initial subscriber numbers still on the rise, it looks like that commitment will pay off, at least in the short term. In the long run, however ... well, let's just say it won't be shocking to see the Ireland studio transform into something more than strictly support.
TERA exalts its game testing team
"You'll probably never see our names until you read the credits, but we have one of the most important jobs in game publishing," writes Scott James Magner. He heads up the "unsung heroes" of the TERA development team -- the game testers -- and he's written up a few fun insights into the behind-the-scenes process that is helping to refine this MMO as it heads to launch. According to Magner, the En Masse QA team's been flooded with requests to join the testing and feedback process as they continually poke and prod at all of TERA's systems and content. "At this point," he says, "we've played every class and race multiple times, but no one is tired of coming to work." The team is currently testing fights against "Big-Ass Monsters" in the Celestial Hills, and Magner says he's still learning new combos and techniques even after a full year of testing. While the testing team usually is far out of the spotlight, he says that its job is crucial to the game's success and that all of the testers are "you" at heart -- passionate gamers who want the best for this title. [Thanks to Joseph for the tip!]
Good at raiding? Come work for Blizzard
Have you finished murdering Nefarian on heroic mode? Have Cho'gall and even Sinestra fallen before the might of your raid group? Or are you just looking for a unique and entertaining job? Community Manager Bashiok posted on the official forums that Blizzard is looking for more employees for its QA department. But hold your horses -- Blizzard's specifically looking for people with high-end raiding experience to join its team in order to test future content and provide feedback on heroic raids and class balance. Currently, only full-time positions are available, and employees will be required to live in Irvine, California, home of the Blizzard headquarters. As Bashiok points out, the Blizzard campus offers amenities like a library, volleyball and basketball courts, a gym, multiple arcades and a movie theatre -- something you're not going to find with an everyday desk job. Check after the break for the full post from Bashiok -- and check Blizzard's jobs directory to see just what it takes to put in an application.
EVE Spotlight: An interview with CCP Zulu
EVE Spotlight is a new bi-weekly feature in which we interview prominent members of EVE Online's player community or development team. Twice each month, we'll be shining the spotlight on a player or developer who has a significant impact on EVE to highlight the efforts of EVE's most influential people. It's almost an unwritten rule of game development that someone from quality assurance should never be promoted into a game design role. Game testing and QA are said to be so fundamentally different to design that it's argued the roles require incompatible skillsets. Arnar "CCP Zulu" Gylfason has definitely proven that this isn't the case, successfully migrating from QA to game design and finally being promoted to senior producer on EVE Online. Taking over from CCP T0rfifrans, Arnar has become a very public figure for CCP in the EVE community. Older players will remember Arnar as CCP Zulupark, that horrible guy who nerfed their carriers back in 2007. Alternatively, you may remember a fantastic forum thread from 2008 in which he personally answered countless player questions on game design and balance issues. Since becoming senior producer on EVE, Arnar has been a strong advocate of this kind of heavy communication with players. Through devblogs, interviews and interactions with the Council of Stellar Management, he's helped to fill the information vacuum players have become accustomed to. We caught up with EVE senior producer Arnar "CCP Zulu" Gylfason several weeks ago at the EVE Fanfest. In this EVE Spotlight, I ask him about communication with players, the role of live events in future expansions, and other topics.
Netflix beefing up service center in preparation for global launch
It's no secret that Netflix has grand plans to expand its global footprint that now feeds media to some 20 million North American subscribers. Hell, the company was boasting of the "significant dollars" allocated to its 2011 international expansion plans just four months ago. While nothing's official yet, we've unearthed a few tantalizing openings posted to the Netflix job site over the last few days that could point to an imminent launch. Notably, Netflix's customer service call center in Hillsboro Oregon is gearing up to expand its scope of operations beyond North America. Two new job postings for a Training Supervisor and Quality Assurance Analyst both mention the need to prepare for "rapid" international expansion and "will support a specific country / region outside of North America." The Training Supervisor is being hired specifically to educate customer service reps in preparation for that future international growth. Neflix is looking for fluency in English in addition to Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian and European), and Spanish (Latin American and European), leaving things pretty wide open with regard to the countries targeted for initial launch. We do know that Netflix had plans to launch in the UK way back in 2004 -- plans that were ultimately scrapped in order to focus on its core US business (and later Canada). But if not the UK then we should at least expect to see Netflix target the European continent first if a statement attributed to CEO Reed Hastings from way back in January of 2010 still rings true: "the big market for Hollywood content (after the U.S.) is Europe...Third is Asia. Fourth is the rest of the world." Can't let Amazon have the market to itself now can we Reed? [Thanks, Chico]
Activision shuttering Budcat, downsizing California QA team
Iowa-based Budcat Creations is being closed, Activision confirmed in a statement this afternoon. The company also revealed a "targeted reduction in jobs" at its Quality Assurance outfit in California. Budcat had been owned by Activision since 2008, when the developer was acquired for work on the Guitar Hero franchise. According to the publisher, "approximately 88 positions, or approximately 1 percent of our global workforce" have been affected by today's layoffs -- Budcat is thought to comprise roughly 60 people, putting the California redundancies in the range of 25–35 workers. "We continue to streamline our music development resources to ensure that they are aligned against our slate and strategic goals," Activision explained. "Budcat has been a great partner to Activision and has created a lasting impact on the Guitar Hero franchise." Aside from Guitar Hero, the studio also worked on the Psychonauts PS2 port, as well as Medal of Honor: Vanguard for Wii. Activision also notes it's "working to redirect those employees that are impacted to other parts of the company where possible, as well as offering them outplacement counseling services." Activision's full statement can be found after the break.
The Daily Grind: What would your MMO dream job be?
I'll be Frank and you'll be Ernest, and we'll both admit that we as players have the tendency to be armchair game designers. No, no, don't deny it; it just makes you look defensive. If there's a single theme that pervades every official MMO forum out there, it's that the players think they know what's best for the game, even more than the devs themselves, and if they were making the calls, Game X would be mopping the floor with World of Warcraft. So hey, why not indulge in the daydream -- what if tomorrow you could have any job in the MMO industry? If you could make a very real, very direct impact on the games that are being made or are operating in live mode, what would it be? Would you be a writer, finally free to pen the perfect quest? Would you be a project manager, in charge of the direction and goals of the teams at your disposal? Would you be a big-shot CEO, making the major calls and shaping the future of the company? Or would you settle into a creative role as an artist or composer, helping to contribute to the game's frills? No, wait, I got it. You'd totally want to be a quality assurance tester. Those guys and gals get all the glory, am I right?
Peek inside Lord of the Rings Online's QA team
Working on a QA team is simultaneously one of the more important and least glamorous parts of any game's development. On the one hand, QA has the important job of trying to make sure that everything plays smoothly and correctly; on the other hand, a QA team has best done its job when there's very little that the player notices as missing. Lord of the Rings Online has recently posted a QA team diary, with Amanda "Brynhildr" Cosmos discussing the process involved in testing the recent Volume III update for the game. Contrary to some popular beliefs, testing generally doesn't consist largely of playing the game -- it's more about finding areas of the game that might be a bit weak and straining them to the breaking point. As the diary points out, it's also about investigating the smaller areas of gameplay that might not be immediately apparent from looking at the big picture. Travel routes, pricing on small-scale consumables, and minor text quibbles aren't easy to spot unless you're looking specifically for places that can be shored up. The full diary is worth reading not just for Lord of the Rings Online players, but anyone interested in seeing what the QA teams are actually responsible for in an MMO's production.
Anti-Aliased: A Cryptic opinion
So, wow, what a set the last week and a half has been. There seems to be a very strong theme going on in my inbox recently, and that's, without a doubt, Cryptic Studios. I've read unflattering comments about my integrity as a journalist, the usual statements of how this site is Cryptic's lapdog due to all of the Star Trek Online and Champions Online coverage, and, even more oddly, people want to know my opinion of Cryptic's recent actions -- specifically Star Trek Online and Vibora Bay. Well, I was never one to shirk from the truth. I've been wanting to give my personal opinion on these events since Vibora Bay hit, so I might as well dedicate this column to my evaluation of Cryptic Studios. But, before we get to Cryptic, I have a few ground rules that I want to go over with you guys. Some facts that I'd like to set straight for, oh, I dunno, the fifth time.
Rumor: Rockstar New England's QA department laid off
News that our fellow gaming industry professionals have been stripped of their employment is always a bad thing -- even when said professionals work for a studio that we ... kind of ... forgot about. Hey, it's not our fault. Do a quick search for "Rockstar New England," and the only result is a post about the studio's origins published April 2008. They've reportedly been working on an unannounced project since then -- but then again, who isn't these days?According to Kotaku, Rockstar New England (formerly Mad Doc Software) just axed about 10 percent of its staff -- including the entire quality assurance department. Unnamed sources reported Rockstar is cutting QA across the board in favor of having a single QA studio -- a fact that doesn't bode well for the non-bugginess of Grand Theft Auto V. Strangely enough, Rockstar New England's site says the studio is hiring for a few programming and designing positions. Rarely do gaming studios have such Wal-Mart-esque turnover.We've contacted Rockstar to find out if Kotaku's sources were accurate.
The disaster of patch 3.0.8
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Is_Patch_3_0_8_the_biggest_disaster_to_hit_WoW_since_launch'; Bugs plague any developer of computer software -- even when you think your code is perfect and it's been seen as such by everyone in the company, you'll still have your users find bugs faster and more frequently than you ever thought possible. And Blizzard is no stranger to bugs -- though they have a reputation for quality releases, they've always had a few bugs sneak through. As big a game as World of Warcraft is, there's always bound to be something not working quite right.But patch 3.0.8 goes above and beyond the bounds of normal mistakes. Adam put together a terrific roundup last night of bugs found so far, and the list goes on and on: Wintergrasp (one of the biggest promoted features of Wrath) shut down. Unbearable lag on the realms and in instances (and this patch was supposed to fix that). Blizzard even went live with the patch knowing that major bugs (the Warlock summoning and animation and clipping errors) were in there, and, perhaps worst of all, bugs that have been in the game so long they seem to belong there (we're looking at you, Pet Cower bug) didn't even bother showing up in the patch notes, and haven't been fixed.In short, patch 3.0.8 has been a disaster. If Blizzard feels that this patch lives up to the quality of content they released in Northrend (or if they, unbelievably, somehow though this was meant to be a bugfix patch for Northend, that ended up screwing up more things than it fixed), then they need to take a long, hard look at their quality assurance system again.
The Queue: Who cares about 3.0.8, where's 3.1?
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.The title above is only half-joking. Patch 3.0.8 didn't supply any real content which is what we're all waiting for, but at this point rolling out patch 3.1 too quickly would be a disaster. I think game quality is worse now than it was before 3.0.8, so I'd much rather see things working smoothly again before they throw patch 3.1 at us. Of course, I'm also pretty bored with Wrath already, so...Zoidberg asked...So, what do we know about 3.1? What do we know about dual spec? Anything about Ulduar? Anything about DK nerfs? Warlock buffs? Will I get any Silver Covenant rep?
Mage solos Naxxramas Military Quarter
WoW Insider's inbox has been absolutely flooded with tips about the video you see above. Yes, what you're seeing there is a Mage soloing the Military Quarter of Naxxramas. Not the 10-man Naxxramas, but Heroic Naxxramas.This crazy stunt comes from the same crew that pulled off the two-man Loatheb kill, and uses another pretty funny gimmick. This one uses a combination of Spellsteal on specific mobs, a talent called Incanter's Absorption, and a talent called Burning Determination.The Bone Armor that is cast by the Death Knight Cavaliers was able to be spellstolen, and it absorbs 1,200,000 damage. You could get up to hundreds of thousands of points of spell damage, in theory. In practice it probably comes out to much less than that most of the time. Still, as you can see from the video, 100,000 spell damage was completely possible. Burning Determination was necessary because those same mobs like to spam Strangulate.
BluFocus beefs up Blu-ray control labs with BD-J / THX certification
At the front end of this year, we heard that BluFocus was getting a facility going to help studios pumping out Blu-ray Discs to the adoring public make sure no terrible backlashes occurred. Now, the quality assurance specialists are offering up two more critical certifications: THX and BD-Java. What does this mean for you? Hopefully nothing that you can tell, but it's not like we're complaining about one more layer of scrutiny before a flick hits the open market.
The many faces of Community Management
Have you ever submitted a bug report, petitioned a GM or posted a message on an official forum? If so, then you've interacted with a game's community team in one way or another. This is probably not news to you, but were you aware of the distinct departments that make up a community team and how they differ?Believe it or not, being a part of an MMO's community team is more than just reading forums or bug reports all day. In a recent post at SOE's official company blog, Senior Community Relations Manager EM Stock breaks down the four main categories of the community team. There's Quality Assurance, Customer Support, Tech Support/Accounts Billing and Community Relations. Read how SOE handles these main components of online gaming, and how they can effectively serve as the "face" of the company.
