Ever more producers

Discussion in 'HOW TO JOIN' started by toaplan, Sep 20, 2005.

  1. toaplan

    toaplan Lurker Not From Round Here

    Where do they come from and what do they do? More field studies necessary.
     
  2. Unsurprised Jack

    Unsurprised Jack Industry God One Of Us

    Give me an anesthetist, a metal harness and a few days in a lab and I can at least tell you what they see.
     
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  3. baboon1972

    baboon1972 Troll One Of Us

    now now children.
    Funnily enough I had a conversation with a guy recently about the various "sections" of development and he mentioned that Production and QA were the 2 "disciplines" that were regarded as superfluous to the development process.
    I say to you:
    You give me a dev team with no competent producer because apparantly we are not really that necessary.
    I'll give you a game that is over budget, late, probably full of great features but more than likely a rambling mess, and a bunch of artists and programmers that haven't the first clue about what anybody else in the team is doing.

    You give me a dev team with no QA because they are just a bunch of annoying people who constantly point out what is wrong with your precious baby, not that that is their job or anything. (Hey Prof Shminky... :D )
    I'll give you a game that is DEFINATELY full of bugs and is probably utterly unplayable except on the latest NASA super computer or a console dev kit.

    Bring it on. =;
     
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  4. Wolf

    Wolf Hardcore Gamer One Of Us

    COMPETENT is the key word here!

    In incompetent Producer will do way more damage than not having one on the team at all. Sadly there's still too many of them in the industry and all too many of them rise to the top :evil:
     
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  5. Prof. Shminky

    Prof. Shminky Truth Wrangler Administrator

    Hey dude... ;)

    Funnily enough, I was chatting to my brother about something QA-related this morning. He's a programmer for a company who have some major government contracts and they're being told off because what they have produced so far is basically unworkable and full of issues.

    Guess what... they don't have a dedicated QA team.

    :D
     
  6. Sartori

    Sartori Industry Legend One Of Us

    Of course, you get some producers whose only apparent responsibility is ordering in the pizza when the coders are working late. But good producers are definitely useful people to have around! :)
     
  7. baboon1972

    baboon1972 Troll One Of Us

  8. baboon1972

    baboon1972 Troll One Of Us

    Sadly this is all too true. Like any industry there are those people in certain positions who got there by being good at what they do and there are a hell of a lot more who got there by stomping on everybody else.

    AND

    That's why I wrote competent.... ;)
     
  9. clunt

    clunt Literate Troll Not From Round Here

    Don't tell me you still haven't got access to the ACTUAL forums?! Surely it's just a matter of a moderator clicking 'Give Access'! I mean.. the private message some moderator sent me regarding how you were going to be given access would've taken longer to write than actually clicking the 'Give Access' button! haha

    Anyway, I couldn't work without my producer. He schedules everything and keeps the publisher and license holder off my back (which gives my anus much needed healing time after our last project). I've only really ever worked with GOOD producers though.

    Clunt
     
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  10. molesworth

    molesworth the curse of st custards Staff Member Moderator

    That's a bit surprising. I worked on a lot of government contracts (in a previous job) and we wouldn't have passed even the first checks on the bids if we hadn't included comprehensive QA plans as part of them. The departments we were dealing with expected as much time to be spent in testing as in development...
     
  11. CaptainFuture

    CaptainFuture Man of Tomorrow One Of Us

    A competent producer might as well save your game from a disaster, I wouldn't work without one. Unfortunately most companies recruit producers from QA, and there is no training in place to make sure they know what they're doing.
    (Nothing against QA, the high quality of my games was only possible because of QA testing them day and night.)
     
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  12. RustyKnight

    RustyKnight Lurker One Of Us

    * points to Enter the Matrix *
     
  13. Miller

    Miller Gaming God One Of Us

    Because QA put the bugs in the game, amirite?





    Sorry, sorry, snarky tonight.
     
  14. baboon1972

    baboon1972 Troll One Of Us

    Nope, still no access. So I'm going to have to start posting inflamatory posts here rather than in private where everyone can flame me without getting into trouble. :)
     
  15. baboon1972

    baboon1972 Troll One Of Us

    Nope. Still no access.
    My "vouch for you" count is now up to 3, including you my hairy little rock troll.
    [-o<
     
  16. Sartori

    Sartori Industry Legend One Of Us

    I still think that whoever is supposed to check and approve things isn't actually there any more...
     
  17. PeterM

    PeterM (name subject to change) One Of Us

    I don't think anyone on here is really all there, admins or otherwise!

    Or maybe it's just a big test and you need to find the real "let me in" link, which lies at the end of some ridiculous alternate reality game spanning the breadth of space and time?

    So, um, good luck with that.
     
  18. RustyKnight

    RustyKnight Lurker One Of Us

    That of course assumes that there was a QA process. I can't vouch for the process, but the end product speaks for itself, unfourtantly.
     
  19. baboon1972

    baboon1972 Troll One Of Us

    Okay, I'm probably going to get flamed horribly for this but, for what it was EtM wasn't really that bad. The main thing that let it down, (other than the bugginess), was that it was attached to the Matrix licence that lost any semblance of credibility as soon as the second film was released. Take away the Matrix licence and you have a half decent game.
    You know it makes sense.
     
  20. RustyKnight

    RustyKnight Lurker One Of Us

    That's a fair comment and one worth consideration...the game still holds the record for the most number of returns through EB's return policy...

    Having said that, it's easy to sit on the out side and criticise, but no one build a statue to a critic...