Just remember viruses are created by CRIMINALS not by hackers, some may consider themselves hackers, but in reality they are just criminals looking for profit.
Well from what I have noticed in the publishing area, the less we have to deal with a game once it goes out the better, now the developers might be a differnt story altogether.
The bugs you are finding are mostlikly not because of copy protection, if it was then you wouldn't be able to even recognize the disk. Basically the copy protection has the.exe search the disk for a file, a crack usually just has the.exe find the file on your hard drive. Now when a patch is released i checks to see if the.exe has been edited and if it has it makes itself null and void.
The bugs you are finding have most likly been known about and it was up to the producer to waive them if he wanted to.
We try, seriously. I am also a coder, and agree with what you are suggesting, but unfourtunetly the administration feels differnt.
They just want to get the games on the shelves asap, usually before thanksgiving, like right now, and worry about the patch later.
We as game testers have pride in the games we do and want to get every bug fixed, but sometimes you just need to compromise. Usually that ends up screwing a couple people and then I hear about it (I also do tech support for 2 hours a day) and do what I can to get a patch released.
Oh yeah and its just not PC games, I have recently found 2 bugs that we would call showstoppers in GTA:SA. One crash and one falling through the world.
Yeah we "play" the game, imagine beating a game 20 times in less than 20 days.
A lot more time than you think goes into these games, the bugs you do find will be ones that the developers couldn't fix, not the ones that were not reported.
Ok try this, find an error in a game, then make it happen 10 times. Report that, get a new build and find out if it still happens, now do that for 1900 bugs and tell me its not real work.
I have been working 70 - 80+ hours a week (178 hrs in 13 days last time I counted ) playing video games ( Game tester at Activision ) and I still go home and play GTA!
.. with her. Working 70+ hours a week takes a toll on anyone.
Imagine living at your work place with the same people every day and only leaving to go sleep, this is game testing during crunch time.
BUT I wouldn't trade my job for anything (I work at Activision Value Publishing) even though I have literally lived here the last four months.
My work I am the one hiding to the far left.
I do game testing for Activision and head customer support for 2 hours a day.
Also have a degree in programming and have been using computers for 14 years now.
No I'm not only marginally more in the know. I do know whats going on.
...for people buying a computer. I can't tell you how many times I have had some one call me at work....
"This game doesn't work and my computer is brand new."
"Sir, you have a 2mb video card and video drivers from 1999, the computer is not new."
"Yeah it is I just bought it off my neighbor and they said it was new...."
They need to make this a standard for people buying a computer because some people are DUMB!!!!!!
The only way I would do something like that to my sexy 64-bit machine was if I had a command line only system as my other option.
But if it was a choice between OS X and Win, hell even OS 9 and win, I wouldn't touch it with a 50 foot pole even if it looked like Jessica Simpson. (Noticed I said looked)
I don't know about you but i can keep my G5 running for well over a week with high load averages. (Currently up 14 days 10:09 loads- 1.26 0.82 0.71)
I have never had a crash while using major app's, and the majority of my crashes are doing the apple updates and not restarting right after ( Usually Kernal panics after a day or so of no restart after update )
Once you go Mac...... You never go back!!
Oh yeah try this as a test, See how long your computer will run without crashing. not just how long you can use it, but how long will it run before it crashes.
P.S. Say goodby to the spyware, adware, and virus's.
I absolutly love my danger hiptop, this thing is bad ass!
Check this, Mini full size keyboard Real web browsing (minus flash or video) E-mail Instant Messaging Text messaging Phone LED Football!!!!!! ( yes the 1980's one ) And the best part!!!!!! A terminal so i can log into my G5 via ssh!!!
The one downfall is you only get a sim card for storage so that means very little space, at once you can hold about 50-60 short e-mails, 25 text messages, hundreds of notes, 2000 contacts,36 Pictures and just enough storage for 100 blocks of program storage ( Terminal uses 9 )
But there is hope.... the hiptop 2 is due this winter!!
DON"T BUY DELL!!!!!
They only have a handfull of people in the us anymore. They basically moved to india by outsourcing and keep an office here so they can be an "american" company
Slashdot Mirror
Just remember viruses are created by CRIMINALS not by hackers, some may consider themselves hackers, but in reality they are just criminals looking for profit.
It helped Apple when they were in a shitstorm.
Go France!!!!!
EA must die!!
What I have done since OS X came around was once a month i bounce every peice of spam for three days in a row. It cuts my spam down dramatically.
Well from what I have noticed in the publishing area, the less we have to deal with a game once it goes out the better, now the developers might be a differnt story altogether.
The bugs you are finding are mostlikly not because of copy protection, if it was then you wouldn't be able to even recognize the disk. Basically the copy protection has the .exe search the disk for a file, a crack usually just has the .exe find the file on your hard drive. Now when a patch is released i checks to see if the .exe has been edited and if it has it makes itself null and void.
The bugs you are finding have most likly been known about and it was up to the producer to waive them if he wanted to.
We try, seriously. I am also a coder, and agree with what you are suggesting, but unfourtunetly the administration feels differnt.
They just want to get the games on the shelves asap, usually before thanksgiving, like right now, and worry about the patch later.
We as game testers have pride in the games we do and want to get every bug fixed, but sometimes you just need to compromise. Usually that ends up screwing a couple people and then I hear about it (I also do tech support for 2 hours a day) and do what I can to get a patch released.
Oh yeah and its just not PC games, I have recently found 2 bugs that we would call showstoppers in GTA:SA. One crash and one falling through the world.
Yeah we "play" the game, imagine beating a game 20 times in less than 20 days.
A lot more time than you think goes into these games, the bugs you do find will be ones that the developers couldn't fix, not the ones that were not reported.
Ok try this, find an error in a game, then make it happen 10 times. Report that, get a new build and find out if it still happens, now do that for 1900 bugs and tell me its not real work.
Nope no Rome here, but if you find some problems with Rapala let me know!
They also get days off after their 20+ hour shifts, game-industry workers in crunch time do not.
$90k a year is what they SHOULD be paying if you are not getting overtime pay, NOT what they are currently working.
I make about $22k a year and do the game-industry crunch time, but still wouldn't give up my job for anything.
You know whats really bad?
I have been working 70 - 80+ hours a week (178 hrs in 13 days last time I counted ) playing video games ( Game tester at Activision ) and I still go home and play GTA!
.. with her. Working 70+ hours a week takes a toll on anyone.
Imagine living at your work place with the same people every day and only leaving to go sleep, this is game testing during crunch time.
BUT I wouldn't trade my job for anything (I work at Activision Value Publishing) even though I have literally lived here the last four months. My work
I am the one hiding to the far left.
I do game testing for Activision and head customer support for 2 hours a day. Also have a degree in programming and have been using computers for 14 years now. No I'm not only marginally more in the know. I do know whats going on.
...for people buying a computer. I can't tell you how many times I have had some one call me at work.... "This game doesn't work and my computer is brand new." "Sir, you have a 2mb video card and video drivers from 1999, the computer is not new." "Yeah it is I just bought it off my neighbor and they said it was new...." They need to make this a standard for people buying a computer because some people are DUMB!!!!!!
Naaa we just settle out of court saying we can infringe on each others patents and both reap rewards!
Hey I know! I'm going to patent Breathing so anyone who takes a breath needs to pay damnit!!!
What was it 20 minutes hooked to the net for an unprotected, out of the box, Windows XP machine to get infected? But wait thats my fault.
The only way I would do something like that to my sexy 64-bit machine was if I had a command line only system as my other option. But if it was a choice between OS X and Win, hell even OS 9 and win, I wouldn't touch it with a 50 foot pole even if it looked like Jessica Simpson. (Noticed I said looked)
It would never happen, Why would apple allow for vendors to put their OS on some $500 POS??
I don't know about you but i can keep my G5 running for well over a week with high load averages. (Currently up 14 days 10:09 loads- 1.26 0.82 0.71) I have never had a crash while using major app's, and the majority of my crashes are doing the apple updates and not restarting right after ( Usually Kernal panics after a day or so of no restart after update )
Once you go Mac...... You never go back!! Oh yeah try this as a test, See how long your computer will run without crashing. not just how long you can use it, but how long will it run before it crashes. P.S. Say goodby to the spyware, adware, and virus's.
I absolutly love my danger hiptop, this thing is bad ass!
Check this,
Mini full size keyboard
Real web browsing (minus flash or video)
E-mail
Instant Messaging
Text messaging
Phone
LED Football!!!!!! ( yes the 1980's one )
And the best part!!!!!!
A terminal so i can log into my G5 via ssh!!!
The one downfall is you only get a sim card for storage so that means very little space, at once you can hold about 50-60 short e-mails, 25 text messages, hundreds of notes, 2000 contacts,36 Pictures and just enough storage for 100 blocks of program storage ( Terminal uses 9 )
But there is hope.... the hiptop 2 is due this winter!!
DON"T BUY DELL!!!!! They only have a handfull of people in the us anymore. They basically moved to india by outsourcing and keep an office here so they can be an "american" company