The trials of a game tester exposed
This is a tale that isn’t often told, but deserves some telling. Destructoid got something in the mail from someone who once worked as a video game tester, and it is a sordid tale that starts off happily enough, but descends into depressing territory rather quickly.
Suffice it to say that no game company is truly incriminated in this article, though you’re free to guess at which one it is. For now, here’s an excerpt of just how large a toll it took on them during the beta test process, much less after the whole testing phase ended:
I clocked over 110 hours that week. Consider that. 110 hours. Let’s stop and run the numbers. There are 168 hours in a week. 168 minus 110 is 58. Subtract the lunch breaks, dinner breaks, and commutes, and you end up with 44. That’s 44 hours that week not spent in the office, near the office, going to the office, or leaving the office.
Even if I had spent every single second not at work sleeping, which didn’t happen due to basic hygiene, that’s only 6 hours a day to sleep. Plus, I’m an insomniac. So that’s why I don’t remember it. It was because of that week that once, just once, the first time in five years and the only time since, that I smoked pot. I know I’m not supposed to say this, but it helped. I had visions from when I was a 3-month old baby, but it helped.
Now, we’re definitely not advocates of recreational drug use, but we can definitely imagine the gaming hell presented to this anonymous soul. To you, kind sir, QJ offers its salute. To everyone else, we urge you to read the article via the Read link below and appreciate what some people in the industry have to go through.
This is a tale that isn’t often told, but deserves some telling. Destructoid got something in the mail from someone who once worked as a video game tester, and it is a sordid tale that starts off happily enough, but descends into depressing territory rather quickly.
Suffice it to say that no game company is truly incriminated in this article, though you’re free to guess at which one it is. For now, here’s an excerpt of just how large a toll it took on them during the beta test process, much less after the whole testing phase ended:
I clocked over 110 hours that week. Consider that. 110 hours. Let’s stop and run the numbers. There are 168 hours in a week. 168 minus 110 is 58. Subtract the lunch breaks, dinner breaks, and commutes, and you end up with 44. That’s 44 hours that week not spent in the office, near the office, going to the office, or leaving the office.
Even if I had spent every single second not at work sleeping, which didn’t happen due to basic hygiene, that’s only 6 hours a day to sleep. Plus, I’m an insomniac. So that’s why I don’t remember it. It was because of that week that once, just once, the first time in five years and the only time since, that I smoked pot. I know I’m not supposed to say this, but it helped. I had visions from when I was a 3-month old baby, but it helped.
Now, we’re definitely not advocates of recreational drug use, but we can definitely imagine the gaming hell presented to this anonymous soul. To you, kind sir, QJ offers its salute. To everyone else, we urge you to read the article via the Read link below and appreciate what some people in the industry have to go through.