As someone who got their first big break out of college doing QA as an FTE at Microsoft, albeit not in game development, I take some offence with the second to last paragraph suggesting that QA is the lowest rung.
While it is true that much of the software industry treats QA as such, that perspective really needs to change. QA can make or break a company, and depending on your skill level, should be treated as peers with other disciplines.
I know that I came to the industry with more knowledge than many of my QA peers, but what was often overlooked was where I was sometimes more knowledgeable than most of the Devs and PMs I worked alongside.
I am a consultant today, and after 10 years of hard work, have demonstrated my capabilities in other roles, but it has been very difficult to find the right projects to bring these other skills to light. For the past 3 or 4 years, I've been working in Dev and PM capacities, but my inbox is still filled with recruiters that only see me as possessing QA abilities; this is because finding highly skilled and qualified SDETs, or even STEs, is hard.
As long as QA work is regarded as starting in the mail room, this won't change and the good QA employees, like moths to the flame, will leave those roles to less qualified workers. This practice perpetuates the idea that QA is only entry level work and drains the talent pool. As a result, software development suffers.
Dear Halo 4 QA tester: We don’t need to strike
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Re: Dear Halo 4 QA tester: We don’t need to strike
#22This is a hack piece. The paragraph most indicative of this? "This guy failed to make a major dent in music, and then moved into gaming because he thought he was good at Battlefield. He knew, KNEW, that he would be a valued member of any team, and he would rapidly move up to the ranks. He gets angry that he has to do many different tasks, although that's often part of the job. He gets mad that management doesn't allo…
Mean-spirited indeed. I don't really see what rebutting in such a venomous tone is meant to inspire in readers, besides more vitriol and less constructive discussion. It's a shame that this sort of writing is broadcast with such a high profile. In defense of Ben though, I feel the original piece is pretty crass. That is, the author, Nathan, assumes so much self-importance that he feels justified in trying to incite a…
Fast food servers in Seattle are on strike for higher wags right now, so, your analogy is... interesting.
Re: Dear Halo 4 QA tester: We don’t need to strike
#23This is exactly when strikes are called for:
"Every job in video gaming has a line of people waiting to take it, and you will be abused at the lower end of the spectrum. Hell, you'll be abused at the higher end of the spectrum. Make peace with that idea"
That is the philosophy of a predator, and anyone that expresses that sentiment to you is dangerous and not to be trusted.
This Ben Kuchera is now a pariah in my eyes.
Read down in the comments and you will see the abuse continue:
"Ben, we've been tearing this jerk a new one for over an hour over at Kotaku even before your excellent article came out. He refuses to answer any criticism at all, it's really pathetic. Come over and join the fun!"
How fun! The original article was authored by a 32 year old man that was working as a contractor for $11 an hour and made to work unpaid weekends and treated in such a way that Ben calls it abuse, and Ben is defending the employers.
For $11 an hour the man has no protections, no safety net and no health care.
And if you read the article you will see that he really tried to put in his best effort, to go above and beyond, and this is what he is met with.
Then Ben Kuchera has the nerve to say "If you don't like it try to do something about it" after he is eviscerating this man for trying to do something about it.
The machines/networks/technology are coming for all of our jobs. In 100 years (assuming strong AI) there will probably be no job a human can do better than a machine.
Are we going to mock, belittle and make homeless other humans the entire ride down?
Ben Kuchera should be ashamed of himself.
Just because there are plenty of kids willing to be abused for a job in the video game industry doesn't make it right, because your still abusing kids.
Re: Dear Halo 4 QA tester: We don’t need to strike
#24This is a hack piece. The paragraph most indicative of this? "This guy failed to make a major dent in music, and then moved into gaming because he thought he was good at Battlefield. He knew, KNEW, that he would be a valued member of any team, and he would rapidly move up to the ranks. He gets angry that he has to do many different tasks, although that's often part of the job. He gets mad that management doesn't allo…
>>I know that Ben has made his living being an enraged mouth-breather on the 'net for many years now (before Penny Arcade, he was a resident ragemonger at Ars Technica), but really the sad thing here is that he'd still write this.
His ragemongering is what made him successful. He's an immature douchebag and he writes for an immature, douchebaggy audience. It makes complete sense that he would write a piece like this.
I was very disappointed when he was hired by Penny-Arcade. Character-wise, he really, really does not fit in with Mike and Jerry.
Re: Dear Halo 4 QA tester: We don’t need to strike
#25yeah, there's a long line for any job in the game industry, and a long line for people trying to get out.
Re: Dear Halo 4 QA tester: We don’t need to strike
#26I'd thought the Penny Arcade Report a worthwhile read, but this just forced me to reevaluate that.
Pushing this lousy ad-hominem attack when this is absolutely not the first article complaining about poor treatment in the games industry?
I thought the Penny Arcade report was better than that.
Guess not.
Re: Dear Halo 4 QA tester: We don’t need to strike
#27This doesn't actually have anything to do with QA, it's about abusing the definition of "contractor" so you can lower costs, deny benefits, and lure them to this jobs with promises of getting their foot in the door. This is really common, and it's bad behavior. Most companies do this with no intention to hire full-time. Also known as "permatemps".
Re: Dear Halo 4 QA tester: We don’t need to strike
#28Amen. That original article wasn't even worth a rebuttal. I started in QA (on EverQuest) when I was 20. No degree, just a couple level 60 characters. After 2 years of overtime, hard work, and taking programming classes at the community college I got a junior programmer job in another department. 12 years later I'm a cofounder and CTO at my own indie game startup. The system works!
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Re: Dear Halo 4 QA tester: We don’t need to strike
#29> They will work you to death and they will promise you potential, but it is for nothing. You will never truly be a part of anything. It is time to seriously consider unionizing, or organizing a major strike.
Is it a shock that no one will take an $11 an hour [temporary] video game tester seriously? He overestimated his value (there are a ton of other guys who would also take a shot at playing video games for little money) and was just another temp who ended up quitting. If you're being paid $11 an hour and think you're key to a multi billion dollar franchise, you should probably reconsider.
Re: Dear Halo 4 QA tester: We don’t need to strike
#30Sorry but I'm still on Mr. Peter's side. I had a room-mate who did QA at EA and would come home with the same complaints, and similar stories. This is a re-occuring problem in the Video Game Industry. Maybe Mr. Peters' expectations were set way too high but there's a reason why QA has such extremely high turnover. Generally people don't quit good paying jobs, they quit mentally disengaging low paid crappy ones.
And don't think that $11/hour somehow fixes everything.
Another room-mate worked at a defense contractor as a "geospatial technician" aka sit in front of a PC and do mind numbing easy work. The work and hours so mind dulling that they had an extreme turnover despite paying their employees well. The ones that stayed were miserable as hell and new employees stayed away from them.
If there's a problem with the job or with the treatment, increasing pay doesn't fix the original problem. You can't keep putting new bandages on a wound that won't heal and keeps bleeding. You can't keep filling up your tires with air and ignoring the hole that needs to be patched.