JW: Do you
think QA is a fun and interesting way to go?



JS:
Absolutely, absolutely, I know that there are several people on the
QA team right now that have animation degrees, graphic-design degrees.
I know there are a couple of QAs who have degrees in writing code. We
“could” be developers, but we just don’t
ever want to do that. There are quite a few of us that have said they
are never gonna leave QA.



JW: For the
people who “might” want to leave QA, as
far as Mythic goes, what’s your perception of being able to
come to QA, stick around for six months, show that you are a clever
person, that you have good ideas and design sensibilities, and then
move on up from QA to other departments?



JS: You
know, there were actually a few of us who wanted to do just
that – to start out in QA, just to get their foot in the door
of the industry, and, they’re not in QA any more.
They’ve been picked up by other teams. What they did is just
prove themselves on their embedded teams, got some face-time in with
the higher ups, showed that they knew what they’re doing.
They usually get sucked up and taken away.



JW: So it
works!



JS: It does
work.



JW: In the
last week, have you seen any difference in
people’s habits?



JS: [laughs]



JW:
… Maybe new bizarre caffeine-delivery systems. Anyone
taken up smoking? Any new tattoos?



JS:
There’s no time to get tattoos. Tattoos take a while. I
wanna get a WAR symbol here on my left shoulder and the Chaos star
right here. But habits, yeah. We sleep less, we shower less, we
don’t put on makeup or clean clothes …



JW: Red Bull?



JS: Coffee.
A lot of Sugar.



JW: So you
are coffee and sugar, and Finnigan (QA Live Lead) is Red
Bull and crazy cod-flavored chocolate.

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A pic of the
cod-flavored chocolate.

JS: Pinky is
drinking like 6 or 7 Red Bulls an hour these days.



JW:
Who’s Pinky?



JS: Chris
Chang



JW: Is that
because of his hair? Or something more embarrassing?



JS: Yeah,
it’s the hair. It’s starting to fade now
so I’m gonna start calling him Rusty.



JW:
What’s the team spirit like for the QA Team? Are you
really tight?



JS:
It’s incredible. I think they’ve done a really,
really good job at picking people who can get along with each
other.  We have a lot more solidarity than a lot of the other
development teams. You take an artist or a coder and they’re
gonna sit in their darkened cube and just work on the one thing that
they are assigned. Well this is an MMO. If we were working on a FPS or
a single-player game, it would be a little different, but we HAVE to
work together…all the time…all day, every day.
I’ll need probably six people to help form a guild. Or
we’ll need 20 people to go and fill up both sides of a
scenario to make sure things are working there.



JW: Do you
guys have a fight song?



JS: Oh my
god, yeah, actually we do. It would probably be the House of
Pain, Jump Around. [laughs] We’re all really, really close.
It’s almost the kind of kinship that you get from working in
a restaurant, You know, the restaurant is like the front lines.
Everything is horrible all the time. You’re in the weeds.
There’s bombs falling around you.



JW: Sounds
like Band of Brothers … and Sisters …
in parentheses.



JS: Yeah, it
actually is. Maybe it’s like a modern-day Band
of Brothers but they actually allow women in this military ... as
secretaries. [laughs]

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Mark Davis
under the hands of a masseuse.

Day
2 Part 3



People’s kinetic energy is pretty high right now as they whiz
around bouncing off the walls finishing off the final touches on WAR.
To avoid any instances of spontaneous human combustion, or third-degree
friction burns, Mythic has brought in some trained professionals to
help everyone chill out.



Here we see Mark Davis (Deputy Content Producer) enjoying a rub down.

He seems to be enjoying it.

Day
2 Social Experiment



As launch approaches, tempers begin to fray. As a social experiment, I
want to see whether small insignificant requests can push someone who
is stressed over the edge. This small regular column is something I
like to call “Can I borrow a dollar please”. Today,
I try to” borrow a dollar please” from Colin Hicks
[Insider Note: Colin is the Deputy Producer]. It’s 11:30PM
and Colin clearly wants to go home. Let’s see what happens:

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Is he
getting his happy ending?

JW: Hello
Colin.



CH: Hello.



JW: Could I
borrow a dollar please?



CH: [audible
groan] What’s the dollar for?



JW: I need
it for the soda machine.



CH: **** the
soda machine. Why don’t you have a dollar? Did we stop paying
you guys?



JW: Umm. I
have a ten. Do you have change for a ten?



CH: [pause]
No.



JW: Then a
dollar will be fine.



CH:
Here’s the dollar. Enjoy your ******* soda.



JW: Thanks
Colin.



Result! There was definitely some swearing there, and perhaps a hint of
actual violence. Join me tomorrow when I try to borrow a dollar from
Jon Farranelli.



target="_blank">(Editor's Note: If you'd like to read all of
Justin's exclusive WAR launch blogs, simply click here!)