On Sun, 9 Oct 2022 16:13:11 -0000 (UTC), "Mark P. Nelson" <
markpnelson@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
Don't know if you've all seen this: >https://www.pcgamer.com/quantic-QA-tester-report/
I hadn't, so thank you for the link.
The story is about - for those too lazy to follow the link - Quantic
Labs, a company that provides QA testing for a number of games,
including "Cyberpunk 2077" and "Necromunda Hired Guns". The company
has recently been accused of mismanagement and 'duplicitous business practices,' particularly in not providing enough or trained employees
to projects they were responsible for testing, with the implication
that this may be why some games ("Cyberpunk 2077" in particular) were
released in such a shoddy state.
But, honestly, while the specifics here are interesting, none of this
is really news in the sense that this is something unusual or
happening for the first time. Developers - whatever their part in
getting a game out the door - have been short-changed and ill-treated
by management pretty much since video games started being made, and QA
teams - always the lowest on the totem pole - have always gotten
shortest shrift. And QA testers' advice has routinely been ignored if
it meant pushing back a release date (or was just too burdensome to
fix). Activision is currently fighting the unionisation of its own QA
testers who are tired of being shit on.
The only really novel thing about this story (and again, that's not to
suggest I didn't appreciate the link, just that this is a problem
that's been ignored for too long) is that Quantic has apparently been double-dealing both sides: it's been overworking its own employees
while at the same time charging a premium to developers for services
it wasn't able or willing to provide. And it certainly doesn't excuse
companies that used its services (CD Project RED, in particular, as
they used outsourced QA to multiple companies and probably were well
aware of "Cyberpunk 2077's" unfinished state prior to release).
But it's good these issues are getting more attention, if only to help
other people in the industry recognize that their plight isn't unique
to them, and that maybe they need to consider new options.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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