Game Testing is as Bad as Your Story Says
Published 7:00 am Tuesday, July 17, 2007
You Sucked Me In
DEAR EDITOR: The article about testing video games [“Crash Test,” July 11] was excellent! Informative but also felt like a story. It sucked me right in from start to finish.
Erin Fritz
Roseville, CA
It’s Bad All Right
DEAR EDITOR: Having been the primary game-test recruiter between January ’04 and March ’06 for the company mentioned in the story, it was nice to see this world exposed. It is every bit as bad as described in the story, if not worse. It should be said, however, that the game-test recruiting team works extremely hard to meet the (oftentimes ludicrous) requirements placed upon them.
Most importantly, this article shouldn’t deter those that have an interest in testing software/games. There are many companies out there that offer a legitimate career opportunity in the industry.
Dan Lowery
Seattle
Author not Geeky enough
DEAR KARLA STARR: Thank you for including Magic: The Gathering in your Xbox story. In future references to Magic, however, please kindly clarify that a 20-sided die is not required to play the trading card game. The dice you saw were likely “life counters,” which some players prefer to other methods of scorekeeping. Wizards of the Coast also makes Dungeons & Dragons, which does require a 20-sided die.
Lara Bain
Wizards of the Coast
Renton
Karla Starr responds: Thanks for the letter, Lara! I’ll be sure to update my notes to include the fact that while Magic: The Gathering does not require a 20-sided die, evidently you do need the ability to make voices in the high-pitched style of Monty Python.
This Latino Not Offended
DEAR EDITOR: Satilla Moulton [“Letters to the Editor,” July 11] claims that, as a white woman who works with many Latinos, she finds “Ask a Mexican” extremely offensive, and she says it perpetuates stereotypes. This to me is a very stereotypical reaction from someone who has no clue what they’re talking about.
Coming from a very non-uptight Latin background, I can honestly say that most Latin families and friends would probably be the first to joke about your shortcomings to your face, before they gave you the biggest hug ever. Maybe your Latin co-workers don’t joke with you about racy subjects, Satilla, because you’re not as close friends as you might have thought.
I for one look forward to “Ask a Mexican” every week. I think the weekly installments are hilarious. I also give the Weekly props for printing something that I thought was out of their politically correct radar.
If you’re going to bow down to Moulton’s request to not print “Ask a Mexican,” then you also need to do the same with “Uptight Seattleite,” which I feel may be offending and stereotyping my Caucasian co-workers. If I were a non-gringo from out of state, and reading the Uptight Seattleite was my only insight to people in the Northwest, I might get the wrong idea about an article that was otherwise trying to be funny and ironic. That in turn, might make me write in to the Weekly protesting said article. Oh wait, too late.
Augustine Pagan
Seattle
Write to Seattle Weekly at letters@seattleweekly.com.
