As a student at a pretty well-known school with the intent of becoming a video game developer, I definitely put in my share of 40+ hour weeks (60-90 aren't uncommon).
But hearing a company's CEO say he won't hire people who aren't constantly willing to put in hours beyond the workweek is definitely disheartening.
What happened to the EA legal woes of a few years back? Is the solution to just say "Oh, well we expect it" up front? Hello to the new EULA of being hired? That's a grim future for all of us, if that's the precedent Epic is trying to set.
I'm sure you have a professional opinion on which animated shows are done better, but are there any you don't work on but especially enjoy?
Part Duex:
I read an interview with Trey Parker where he got extremely insulted when the interviewer compared South Park to Family Guy. Apparently he felt Family Guy was essentially a hack (even before the new episodes). Is there a lot of that my-cartoon-is-better-than-yours in the voice acting biz?
Really, I think Blizzard's downfall is they have a billion dollar product, as the article says, yet they still treat it like its some fly-by-night operation with cheap, unqualified testers.
I went to BlizzCon because I am a self-professed WoW-addict. I am, however, also a QA Manager. Out of morbid curiosity, I went and talked to their reps who were telling guests about "How you join the Blizzard team."
Their testers? Pretty much low $10's range for QA. I inquired about QA management. I was told: "Oh, we don't hire from the outside. Pretty much if you do a good job, then we promote our QA managers from within."
Ahh, so you pay horrible wages to people and then hire a QA manager out of those people, instead of realizing that someone with 5-10 years experience might actually be MORE useful than someone who has 0 management experience, but happened to have more games testing experience.
Is it really any wonder that they are having these issues?
Having been a slashdot reader for years, I suppose I shouldn't be shocked at the lack of insight some of the comments here have shown. Seriously though, comments like "don't take your sexuality/politics to a game" or "words never hurt anyone"... Who do you think you're fooling?
If the controversy had been over a topic involving racism, I wonder if some of you would have been as quick to jump onto the Get-Over-It bandwagon. I will grant that not being gay/bisexual/transgendered, perhaps you are unaware of the daily things which people talk about and seem commonplace for many, yet are not the same for LGBT folks. In a LGBT-friendly guild, you do not have to worry about saying "I am going to the movies with my boyfriend" if you are male.
More to the point, the issue was never Blizzard kept those groups from being around, but that they were not allowed to talk about it. If "words do not hurt" as you put it, then I suppose you are the type of person to refer to your African American friends as n*****s?
No? Oh, then I suppose your analogy was incorrect.
Bill Gates certainly sees similarities between Google and his own company. This spring, in an interview with Fortune, Mr. Gates, Microsoft's chairman, said that Google was "more like us than anyone else we have ever competed with."
I think that translates into: "Join us. You cannot imagine the power of the dark side."
Well put.
Moreover, isn't one of the driving purposes of hacking to do something that hasn't been done just to see if you can do it?
It's not as if running a webserver from your NES (which has been done and posted about here on/.) is "needed" -- it's more about the experience.
Oh so now Date is better then Quality? I'll be sure to forward that to Hollywood.
"Give us movies! We dont care about if they're good or not! We just want new movies!"
You obviously haven't seen many things that have come out of Hollywood recently... I don't think many people down there are having any sleepless nights over quality.
With the quality falling in the past few seasons (celebrity guests every week? who cares), I'm sure the big screen will just be another opportunity for the writers to wallow in their own crapulence.
WoW isn't any more or less challenging than any other MMO I've ever played. EQ, DAoC, UO, AO, WoW... they're all of roughly the same complexity, with pretty shallow combat
I disagree wholly with that assessment.
I have played WoW since it opened and I have played FFXI Online for a year prior to that. I also spent time playing EQ, SWG, etc.
WoW, while I admit it is quite fun, has relatively little challenge. While it is true you can have a crappy group, it does not seem to take a lot of skill to be "decent." Final Fantasy, on the other hand, takes a lot of skill to be really good at. You need to understand your class, as well as how it should interact with various creatures with your group.
The people I play with had a very high level of coordination in the game. Despite playing with the same group of people in WoW, we have found we can basically "Half-ass" it in WoW and do fine.. whereas FFXI requires a lot more timing and sophistication.
I think this is a credit to FFXI's design, not to WoW's, because who wants to play a game which a "button masher" can win? We all disliked the kids in the arcade who had no skill and literally just pressed anything and everything without any rhyme or reason. Why should that be rewarded?
I still play both WoW and FFXI, but for two different things. WoW is a fun "Casual" game... but long-term I think it has minimal staying power. FFXI is a more long-term payoff.
Interesting idea. And on that note, while Joel's bug tracking software does do a "fair" job (and I'll agree with his comments about it being a usability-friendly piece of software), it also is very poor for being dynamic or extensible.
Slashdot Mirror
As a student at a pretty well-known school with the intent of becoming a video game developer, I definitely put in my share of 40+ hour weeks (60-90 aren't uncommon). But hearing a company's CEO say he won't hire people who aren't constantly willing to put in hours beyond the workweek is definitely disheartening. What happened to the EA legal woes of a few years back? Is the solution to just say "Oh, well we expect it" up front? Hello to the new EULA of being hired? That's a grim future for all of us, if that's the precedent Epic is trying to set.
I'm sure you have a professional opinion on which animated shows are done better, but are there any you don't work on but especially enjoy? Part Duex: I read an interview with Trey Parker where he got extremely insulted when the interviewer compared South Park to Family Guy. Apparently he felt Family Guy was essentially a hack (even before the new episodes). Is there a lot of that my-cartoon-is-better-than-yours in the voice acting biz?
Really, I think Blizzard's downfall is they have a billion dollar product, as the article says, yet they still treat it like its some fly-by-night operation with cheap, unqualified testers.
I went to BlizzCon because I am a self-professed WoW-addict. I am, however, also a QA Manager. Out of morbid curiosity, I went and talked to their reps who were telling guests about "How you join the Blizzard team."
Their testers? Pretty much low $10's range for QA. I inquired about QA management. I was told: "Oh, we don't hire from the outside. Pretty much if you do a good job, then we promote our QA managers from within."
Ahh, so you pay horrible wages to people and then hire a QA manager out of those people, instead of realizing that someone with 5-10 years experience might actually be MORE useful than someone who has 0 management experience, but happened to have more games testing experience.
Is it really any wonder that they are having these issues?
Having been a slashdot reader for years, I suppose I shouldn't be shocked at the lack of insight some of the comments here have shown. Seriously though, comments like "don't take your sexuality/politics to a game" or "words never hurt anyone"... Who do you think you're fooling?
If the controversy had been over a topic involving racism, I wonder if some of you would have been as quick to jump onto the Get-Over-It bandwagon. I will grant that not being gay/bisexual/transgendered, perhaps you are unaware of the daily things which people talk about and seem commonplace for many, yet are not the same for LGBT folks. In a LGBT-friendly guild, you do not have to worry about saying "I am going to the movies with my boyfriend" if you are male.
More to the point, the issue was never Blizzard kept those groups from being around, but that they were not allowed to talk about it. If "words do not hurt" as you put it, then I suppose you are the type of person to refer to your African American friends as n*****s? No? Oh, then I suppose your analogy was incorrect.
Can't it be both? :)
the people who create bank vaults will now be sued whenever a bank is robbed. Stupid, stupid idea...
comes pre-loaded with Duke Nukem Forever!
Bill Gates certainly sees similarities between Google and his own company. This spring, in an interview with Fortune, Mr. Gates, Microsoft's chairman, said that Google was "more like us than anyone else we have ever competed with."
I think that translates into: "Join us. You cannot imagine the power of the dark side."
Aren't those referred to by Data as "booty-traps" these days? ;)
Well put. Moreover, isn't one of the driving purposes of hacking to do something that hasn't been done just to see if you can do it? It's not as if running a webserver from your NES (which has been done and posted about here on /.) is "needed" -- it's more about the experience.
Oh so now Date is better then Quality? I'll be sure to forward that to Hollywood.
"Give us movies! We dont care about if they're good or not! We just want new movies!"
You obviously haven't seen many things that have come out of Hollywood recently... I don't think many people down there are having any sleepless nights over quality.
With the quality falling in the past few seasons (celebrity guests every week? who cares), I'm sure the big screen will just be another opportunity for the writers to wallow in their own crapulence.
Actually, no, since Hilary Rosen is a lesbian... I'm guessing when she said girlfriend here, she really meant her girlfriend.
Has the US ideals of democracy sunk so low that this is just a given now and not worthy of comment?
You must be new here...
And acting ability? ...
If that's so then Slashdot will be the first to declare allegiance
;)
If anything was ever crying out for a "I, for one, welcome our _______ overlords" joke, that is.
hey, you sound cool. can I add you to my journal? kthx. ;-)
WoW isn't any more or less challenging than any other MMO I've ever played. EQ, DAoC, UO, AO, WoW... they're all of roughly the same complexity, with pretty shallow combat
I disagree wholly with that assessment. I have played WoW since it opened and I have played FFXI Online for a year prior to that. I also spent time playing EQ, SWG, etc.
WoW, while I admit it is quite fun, has relatively little challenge. While it is true you can have a crappy group, it does not seem to take a lot of skill to be "decent." Final Fantasy, on the other hand, takes a lot of skill to be really good at. You need to understand your class, as well as how it should interact with various creatures with your group.
The people I play with had a very high level of coordination in the game. Despite playing with the same group of people in WoW, we have found we can basically "Half-ass" it in WoW and do fine.. whereas FFXI requires a lot more timing and sophistication.
I think this is a credit to FFXI's design, not to WoW's, because who wants to play a game which a "button masher" can win? We all disliked the kids in the arcade who had no skill and literally just pressed anything and everything without any rhyme or reason. Why should that be rewarded?
I still play both WoW and FFXI, but for two different things. WoW is a fun "Casual" game... but long-term I think it has minimal staying power. FFXI is a more long-term payoff.
I know you're joking, but XP actually comes from eXPerience.
:-)
Hence, the Windows Experience.
I believe the exact phrase uttered by the professor was "Sweet zombie Jesus!"
Interesting idea. And on that note, while Joel's bug tracking software does do a "fair" job (and I'll agree with his comments about it being a usability-friendly piece of software), it also is very poor for being dynamic or extensible.
Your dog wants extra cheese?
Umm, the first GTA is from 1998. That was after Doom. So how would GTA be "way retro" and Doom not be?
PuTTy
Less than 3 Megs. A quick search for it on Google brings up the download link.
Damn right. ;-)
I hate it when my caramel mocha blue screens on me too. Stupid Microbucks...