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Sega Settles Discrimination Suit With Filipino Game Testers
Thanks to GamePro for its story discussing the $600,000 settling of a discrimination suit brought by Sega game testers who charged that "Sega directed [employment agency] Spherion to terminate the employment of 13 Filipino game testers due to their national origin." Complicatedly, it appears: "The move to fire the Filipino employees stemmed from a complaint of a former employee, who alleged in his exit interview that Sega was giving preferential treatment to Filipinos." Interviews with the testers paint a downbeat perspective of the job, with one of the fired employees saying: "I look around and see some friends who are game testers, and I talk to a couple of people who are in the industry, and what I get from other people is that game testers... are almost disposable."
Anyone who works for 10 bucks an hour is disposable... and you are probably getting less than 10 so change the word "disposable" to "slave-labor" and it more defines the role. Having to work 100 hours a week must suck. And for the testers I know, they complain... yet they never seem to want another job?
Been doing the QA thing for quite some time. Much longer than I intended actually, but they pay me too much to up and leave now.
Spot on. Though you paint a bit of a bleak picture and I want to polish it off a bit. Yes there is a high turnover rate for testers. Testers are hired generally on a temp basis, and they know full well what they are getting into when they apply. Being the one in a million long-shot cliche here guy to "make it" is rare. This is typical, though we are hiring a little more than we had been lately. Business is good. =)
Who comes in? Kids right out of high school or college looking for a fun gig before starting college or a career. Some guys make the rounds and seem to bounce from publisher to publisher. Then there is always just the random avid gamer who really really really wants to make games but doesn't have any qualifications other than they are good that them. I personally got hooked in out of school. Just applyed on a laugh. Got it, turns out Im good at it, and Im still here 4 years later. Though the whole bust and everything. HA!
Mostly though turnover is high. Some leave because that thing they were waiting for comes through. Others don't work out. And sometimes there is just no work. The best stay, the rest go, sometimes the medium guys get asked back next year.
Good QA is hard. Its not a BS job nor is it a fun job, but its fun-ish. Its fun for me because I actually enjoy the process more than the gaming. In fact I've pretty much been promoted out of actually playing them!
Are you going to come into a publisher, design a sweet game on their time, sell it back to him and become the next Will Wright? Hell no. Be realistic. Enjoy the job, take it serious, try hard, learn the many levels of the job and yes there are opportunities. Many of my good friends are now designers at various developers all over the US. I look at my AIM list and I can contact devs from coast to coast just to bullcrap. Some others are in production here. They all got hired based on their work right here in QA. Others went on to higher positions in other QA departments.
What's this all about? I don't know anymore. Just that yes, turnover is high in QA, but its because so many people want to do it. Not because it sucks or its not worth it. And some of that turnover is to fill a seat of someone who just got their dream job.