There is no I in Game Qualty Assurance.
You’ve just purchased Perfect Madden Zero: Hyperlegume Tournament Manager Collector’s Edition ($70, what a steal, they’re for collectors see it says so on the cover!), the latest in the hit series by PA games.
You slide it lovingly into your Xbox 360, awaiting the awesome extreme legume action like you’ve never seen it before, complete with the special collector edition marketing manager interview and then the game breaks. Maybe the legume eaters are
breaking the rules of the tournament and web forum trolls are up in arms about this. Maybe John Madden himself demanded the game change the rules, but most likely it was an error in the testing stage of development. Any statements to the contrary from the publisher are baloney, of course.
If you’re lucky the publisher and developer will either patch the game or recall it, If you’re not lucky they’ll say this is as it was intended and encourage you to buy the version released next year.
Why is Perfect Madden Zero broken? Who failed you?
Most likely, we’re seeing a combination of failure here. On the part of several testing teams, and possibly a developer. Plus some lower testing standards. I think to some extent all parties involved have lowered their standards, deliberately or not, with the lower quality of their testing teams. Which isn’t to say the testers themselves are entirely to blame. I think it has something to do with how they are treated, how much they are paid, what their expectations are coming into the job, and how long they work at whatever particular testing facility.
I’m going to address these issues in order, since I don’t think I’ve done so coherently in the past. Once again I’m going to prefix this with the warning that most of what I’m saying only applies to larger companies, smaller developers/studios can have better testing procedures
and treat their staff better.
Tester Treatment
As I’ve alluded to in the past, most testing facilities at larger companies consist of large rooms
full of consoles and televisions piled high on cheap desks (sometimes even folding tables). Developers I know describe seeing their publisher’s testing facilities as scary darkened
halls of smelly masses. This sounds like an exaggeration but it really isn’t that far from the truth. Windows are often covered - when I worked in the northwest United States I would often get to work before the sun rose and leave work without having seen it all day - to prevent glare. Free drinks are provided, and your coworkers are usually friendly.
I know some people will think I’m silly for even mentioning this, though I feel I must. For whatever reason, due to cheapness perhaps, the toilet paper in the facilities is very often the coarsest sandpaper available. I hope this is not indicative of misguided attempts to improve tester efficiency.
Pay
Most beginning game testers are paid around nine to thirteen dollars an hour. I don’t think anyone can properly live off of this kind of pay, especially if they are on-call, especially if they live in the areas around these facilities (expensive burbs), or if they don’t live around them, they have to commute and own a car with the required costs involved. Bussing in to Microsoft each day from Seattle would require waking at 4AM. Naturally if the tester ops for health care (which everyone should, this isn’t a very relaxing job), their pay will be further reduced.
Job Expectations
One of the few things Major Nelson says that I agree with is that games are like sausage, you don’t really want to find out how they’re made, you just want to enjoy the end result. Most people interview for these jobs thinking they will be cake, you go in for work, you play some games, you go home happy. If you are a mole man and can live without the Sun’s rays for a few months at a time, please do go work in the northwest at one of the testing facilities there.
In reality the testing is fun if you are like me and enjoy making sure that what somebody buys is a finished product. I do not believe all of my past-coworkers have shared this love of bug hunting, and that the end-product may have suffered as a result. Even crap like Sims: Urbz in the City needs good QA. Somebody enjoys the Urbz, for the sake of their happyness, you have to pretend that you like it as well.
Length of Job
As I’ve mentioned in the past, at some companies you might notice your coworkers magically disappearing one day. Turnover rates are ridiculously high in many larger facilities. Sometimes this is good, sometimes they’re throwing out good experience in favor of cheapness. I have seen some excellent coworkers disappear one day, never to return, with no explanation from management. Others clued me in, these folks were fired when there “weren’t enough games to test”. Which really means “we’re all entirely disposable.”
I believe that this policy of replaceable tester units contributes to the lack of quality in many games. If you throw out the accumulated experience of these testers, don’t let them know up-front what to expect, treat them like dirt, and pay them as such, you will have a lower quality product in the end.
