OhNoItsOnFireAgain

Hi Jason. Big fan of your reporting and I can say from the inside that I’ve been seeing some changes in the game industry over the past few years. Can’t say it’s because of your reporting, but I’d say it has at least something to do with it.

Anyway, my question is if you’ve interacted much with people who do QA on games and what your thoughts are on how they are treated within the industry?

Thanks!

This has been my experience. I have years and years of experience, and people I work with value my contribution. But I’m still paid poorly and am contract with no safety net. Why? Because some people higher up in the company who have barely said two words to me don’t think QA deserve it. But every single person I’ve worked directly with knows how important our work is and that things would fall apart without our daily input.

We typically have a better idea out of anyone on the production team about what state the game is in, but our opinion is only important when we get closer to release when any input we could supply is far too late to do anything about.

The place I’m at now is better than most and will help us out and take us seriously … but I’m still paid poorly and still on contact for no good reason, and there are few other options other than just leaving games entirely.

And just like every other position the industry will lose one more person who has valuable experience and knowledge because people at the top don’t take the position seriously.

That’s my rant. Thanks for taking to QA folk. We often just feel forgotten about or thrown under the bus. It’s not a rewarding job in any sense of the word.