Great_Beyond

So - months and months later: does anyone still have their rock?

/e Beams with pride at the small chunk of granite in my pocket

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5. Yes, we'll do trenchcoats - not in Update 3, but soon after.

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So in that we're looking towards Issue 5 now, I wonder if there's any foward progress with this. I want my duster so badly I can taste it.

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Quality Assurance - QA. Like Vyvyanne says, making games better one bug at a time. You start in this field as a pool tester checking bugs. You get a sheet of paper that lists a million things to check and try. It can be rather tedious. As you gain experience you can move up to be a sr. tester, a QACC (Vyvyanne, Valdermic), and eventually, a lead for a game. Attention to detail, unconventional thinking, and patience are required in ample amounts. See also, overtime.

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Of everything on that huge list, QA is probably the easiest to get into (and if you know your stuff, get promoted out of). I started at Electronic Arts about 5 or 6 years ago now knowing nothing about the video game industry, or how to QA a product. I just got lucky with a friend who got a job from a friend - total happenstance.

The one thing that Cuppa doesnt point out (and very well may not be true with their company) is that 95% of QA positions are contract. Meaning that youre only with a company for 6-9 months before youre out of work. I've been very lucky, in that the two big jobs I've had have both elected to extend my contracts for considerably longer than that. Still - the sword of damocles could fall at any time.

Still, the money is good (escpecialy when the long hours hit), so I really cant complain.

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Oh - one important thing to remember! Whatever you wind up working on, odds are you will HATE after the end of the project. By the end, you know of a million bugs that were never fixed, you've just put in 7 weeks @ 80 hours each, you've played the game backwards and fowards and backwards again. In short, QA'ing a game burns you out on it.

I'm a big Star Wars fan, so people are always saying that I should get a job at Lucasarts - but that would be torture for me, seeing that I'd never be intrested in a Star Wars game again. Same thing with CoH - I'd never want to test it because it would spoil it as recreation for me.

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*sad*

Now I wish I hadn't left Columbus :P

oh well, Washington's good too...


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You know - if we could just get States in our neck of the wood. . . . Norwestcon is a pretty big convention, you know.

Boy, the dirty mind can make ALL kind of things out of that subject header. . . .

Um, not that *I* did or anything, mind you.

I'll get me coat.

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Greetings all,

I just wanted to take a moment to let you know that the text is not final in the preview.
The Hellions/Outcasts error and the repeated text boxes will be corrected before the final release.

Cheers,
Manticore

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Yeah, yeah - but what about the important stuff. Are you a ninja and/or mammal?

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"I'm Manticore. I'm the narrator because I'm a ninja

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Oh please - Manticore is NOT a Ninja. I've stood next to him for hours, and not ONCE has he flipped out and cut off someones head and not even thought twice about it.

I'm not even sure he's a mammal.

Wow - in the space of ten pages, the new comic has managed to do what the old comic has been unable to do for 11 issues now.

Consider me totaly blown away. I might actually start giving a damn about the comic book now.

All you whiners about not getting the VIP Badge better shut the hell up. . . .

*checks date on thread*

. . . .

Um, yeah. So take that.

*runs offstage*

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Our great OCR team is going to post a convention calendar so that you can see when we'll be in your neck of the woods. Don't worry - I'll be going to cons in the Northeast, West, MidWest and Texas...

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But where's the love for the Pacific Northwest? Sure San Fran is only 16 or so hours drive away - but I could be working on getting level 40 with that time!

Ok, a quick (and stupid) question - whats the level range for the trial? 41 is the max, but whats the minimum? While I'm still just shy of the trial cap, I've got some friends hanging around level 31-32 that I'd like to try and bring aboard too.

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Bert I really like your entry as well, do you have a bigger version of it though?

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Alrighty... here it is. Had to get a better hosting system.

I posted it at it's highest resolution, as it can be scaled down as needed. I'm glad y'all liked it.

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So how'n the heck did you get all those bad guys to pose for you?

Seriously - the cut and paste job must have been murder, getting all the lighting to be consistant, getting everyone faced the same way, that sort of thing.

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Way to earn that cape. Did you stay with the game and follow him around watching, or did you just hop up on a box, /em yoga, and go watch Oprah?

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Actually I followed him around and did the "judge" emote every time he killed something.

As for the snarky-ness of your response, whats the big deal. That was my 5th (or 6th) cape that I've earned, and the dozenth or so time that I've been on that mission when helping friends. I've connected the dots before so many times that my pencil has worn out.

I just wanted to get back to Icons and start designing my new costume as quick as I could. THAT is where the real fun is. Why should I sweat over having to do the boilerplate again for the millionth time?

Well, I just did a cape mission at 20 without a problem. I did call help in, not so much that I was having difficulty, but I just wanted it over and done with. Who cares about the experiance - I just wanted the cloth around my neck!

So I called one of my level 40 friends and they completly leveled the place. Boom - mission done.

Ok, heres a question for you guys - I have a character with a Huge body model, purple pants, green skin and black hair. The kicker is - his name is Spydor-man. He's a mentalist controler whos hobbys (according to his bio) are picking flowers and knitting. Oh and he hates fights.

I built him well, to poke fun at the thousands of clones, a clear parody of these morons. Now, I dont play him much at all (I think he's 3rd or 4th level now), but I dont want to contribute to Cryptic's problem - even inadvertantly.

What do you guys think? Problem or no big deal?

So wheres the next 50 days? It's been a while, you know.

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Exemplars get *nothing* of value for doing it. Risk does NOT equal reward here... we're still at risk. When we are defeated, we get *more* debt to pay off, and more liklihood of debt as we have gimped powers.

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No, we get the ability to play with our friends who may not have as much time as we do to dedicate to this game. I've gone from soloing with strangers to playing with friends ALL the time. That sounds like a *HUGE* perk to me.

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In all cases, I'd rather Sidekick them up than Exemplar down. Simply paying off my debt faster is not a reward, and neither is influence.

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Unless you have three friends at level 20, and you're at level 30. Which two do you leave behind?

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Yeah, I can also play with my friends if I either SK them, or roll a new toon to level up with them. Both are better options to my mind than using the Exemplar system.

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Great - so go make a new character and leave those of us who LIKE our characters to go play with our friends.

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4 hours and counting.... Plus the 30 mins it will take to get home!

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Plus the half hour it takes to download the new patch. I've been going at it a while - DAMN this thing is huge. And this is with the content of issue 2 already pre-loaded.

Well there is either no "Kill X Hellions" badge or it's gotta be well over a hundred. I think I'm up to 125 or so of them in Atlas Park, and no badge yet.

Oh well.

-what the hell, I'll play along -

Harris: First of all I would like to thank you for taking the time to appear on the program.

Great Beyond: Happy to be here. I'm always glad to be of service. 'Sides, I'm kind of flattered that you think I'm an important enough super hero to interview.

Harris: Could you tell the viewers at home a little bit about how and why you became a hero.

Great Beyond: Certainly. Well, my name is Great Beyond. And to be honest - as I was growing up, I always thought that being a super hero was kind of dorky. Sure when I was a kid, I tied a towel around my neck and leaped from the garage roof - who didn’t. But as I grew up, I fell out of fascination with them. I guess I was kind of discouraged by my father.

Anyway, when my father died - I discovered his hidden past, that in the 1940's he was The Great Beyond, that he fought against the Nazi menace and against the communist menace in the 50's. Well, a little bit humbled - imagine if you found out your father was secretly George Lucas or something - I decided to study his work in the arcane arts.

Well, there was - ah. . . um, an incident and a revelation - but that’s probably something I shouldn’t get into in public . . . but anyway, it made me realize that this was not a game, and that I had a higher calling. So I decided to take up his name and serve for the forces of good.

Harris: What would you say is the greatest reward for being a hero?

Great Beyond: I think the biggest reward I could get would be that I am doing some real good, assisting the helpless and the innocent, stopping people who are above the law. That sort of thing.

Harris: Have you ever found there is any drawback to being a hero?

Great Beyond: The biggest drawback? Probably the often long hours, icky places I've had to go and the demands on my social life. Crime fighting is not a nine-to-five job, and the call to duty could come at any time.

Well, that and the hospital stays. I could really do without those.

Harris: What is going through your mind when you are in a dangerous situation that could lead to civilian casualties? That must be a scary situation.

Great Beyond: Yeah, that’s a very scary situation. Obviously the safety of the civilians is foremost in my mind, but you can't dwell on "Am I doing the right thing". I have to trust in my abilities to carry the day the best I can.

And I've pulled off 35 rescues with no incidents. Well, there was this one woman I'd saved from a Circle of Thorns ritual on a rooftop in Kings Row. She was so flustered by the attack that after the fight was over, she just simply walked off the edge of the roof. Fortunate she only fell a short ways before landing on the fire escape below - but still.

Oh, and if you were on the receiving end of one of the nastier Thorn rituals, and they actually did finish up the job, you'd probably be more than happy if I put an ice blast through you. Those guys are not happy people doing happy things. Some of the rituals they do would keep you up at nights for the rest of your life.

Harris: How do you feel about people that use their powers for crime like the outcast or the super villains we starting to see around the city?

Great Beyond: Well, the old axiom is true - power can corrupt. It's unfortunate that some people don’t have the strength of character to not fall to the dark side, to steal a phrase from a popular movie.

Not that they're all bad, or it's their fault. In some instances, like in the case of the Lost, it's a person who's slipped through the cracks of society. They become what they are by circumstance. Or take some of the Fifth Column - they've fallen under the sway of powerful and charismatic leadership. They've been brainwashed and duped into performing evil acts. Left to their own devices, I suspect that some of these people would be normal and upstanding citizens.

Harris: What do you think is going through these criminals minds when they commit these acts?

Great Beyond: Who knows how a criminal thinks? I try not to dwell too much on thinking like them - I subscribe to Nietzsche's belief about gazing into the abyss too hard.

Harris: How do you feel about the various anti hero and anti mutant groups that believe heroes course more problems then they solve? Given the amount of work heroes do for the city this must be quite upsetting.

Great Beyond: Well, everyone is entitled to their opinions. I mean the whole point of what I'm doing is personal freedom, so I have no problem with whatever they chose to think. I may not like what they say, but I'll defend to the death their right to say it.

Harris: and finally, have you ever worked along side the Statesman? What is he like?

Great Beyond: I've never had the opportunity to work with him. I've heard good things about him, but I've never met the man personally. I think it would be a great honor to battle at his side someday, but until then - I'm content to do what I can.

Harris: I would like to thank you for coming on the show and on behalf of the citizens of Paragon city thank you for keeping the streets safe

Great Beyond: A pleasure to be here.

Guess what - there is ALREADY a secret identy feature built into the game. The toggle is the little button on your computer's tower just above the reset switch.