Employment

Do you love your job?

No, but I do like it quite a bit. I get to test video games for THQ and I'm around some great people. I get paid time off, sick days, overtime (which is actually quite reasonable, especially compared to when I first started) and some great company outings.

Are you ambivalent about your job?

Only when I've been on a project for over a year and especially when it's winding down. *cough*Homefront*cough* Otherwise I go with the flow and there isn't a lot for me to disagree about.

What is your ideal job?

Creative Director for my own game company. Yeah, who doesn't have that lofty ideal? Thankfully with the advent of iPhone, internet games, XBLA and such it makes it easier for people to break in on their own. The ease is certainly extremely marginal and it'll take a lot of hard work, dedication, frustration and money to do something like that, which is why I'm biding my time and money until I get to that point. And who knows how the game industry will be like 10 years from now. It's changing quite a bit but that is ultimately my ideal job. Otherwise I'll be happy with just about any art position.

Is there one task (or more) that makes you really love/hate your job?

What I really love is being able to see games in such an early stage of development and see it progress. You start to become invested in it, especially when your input is asked. Granted, it won't always make it into the final product; but when it is, it's very gratifying. Since I'm on the publisher end of QA I get to test a wide variety of games, good, bad, wrestling, driving, etc that I normally wouldn't have tried.

What I hate is the monotony. This is especially apparent when the title has shipped and all that is left are the Danish demo SKUs. Try testing a single level that can be completed in less than 10 minutes for 8 hours a day.

Are you doing what you dreamed of (you lucky bastard)?

It's not my dream but it's quite a few others' dream. It's still a step in the right direction and I have a whole new respect for the QA department that I probably wouldn't have if I didn't do this job first.

Jam it back in, in the dark.