Why “Quality Snark”?
The idea came out of a discussion with a friend of mine – I was, as usual, ranting about some foolish game design choices made by a certain developer and he sort of flippantly referred to it as “quality snark” – as I work in video games quality assurance, you can imagine that I have a lot to snark video games about when it comes to quality!
Wait, you work in video games?
Yes, and I can’t talk about work. Really. Also, I probably won’t help you find a job. In fact, if you think you might want to work in video games, I direct you to watch the following video. A lot.
(Obviously, watching this video numerous times hasn’t helped me, because I still want to work in video games. But I still recommend that you think very seriously about it because it really is hard work, oftentimes unrewarding with low pay and long hours. But sometimes it’s worth the trade off to be doing what you love. At least for me.)
But you’re a girl!
Really? I’m shocked to hear that. >.>
Yes, I’m probably going to talk about girl stuff here too. But maybe not what you’re thinking of as girl stuff. I have done a fair bit of reading and thinking on the internet and elsewhere about issues of privilege, oppression, sexism and other isms, and I will definitely touch on these things here. This is my soap box and I will stand on it as much as I want to! That said, I’m pretty sure I’ll talk about other things too.
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| It may not be a soap box but it is a box. And it’s from a video game. |
Like what?
Well, part of the reason I’m doing this is so that I’ll stop spamming my friends on twitter* and Facebook* with my constant updates about the games I’m playing. Instead I’ll spam it here! I like to share thoughts I have about design issues, themes, story, gameplay and interface design while I’m playing, as well as accomplishments and insights.
*note: while I will add anyone on FB, my twitter is pretty much restricted to people I know and like.
What you’re not likely to read here
I don’t really do reviews, cheats or walkthroughs. I will give opinions, insights and tips, but nothing so structured as a review or walkthrough. And, as I mentioned above, I won’t talk about work – not only did I sign an NDA which means I can’t talk about any titles I’m working on or give any other work related details, but I have plenty of people to talk to about work. This is a place for more general thoughts about the games I’m playing for fun.
Just Video Games?
First, I think we have to agree on what our definition is for video games, for which purpose I refer you to the Wikipedia entry. Basically, all sorts of electronic entertainments are video games, for my purposes. I own an Xbox 360 plus Kinect, a desktop PC (currently running Windows 7) which I use for both PC games and web based games, a Kindle (yes, it has games on it) and an Android phone (T-Mobile G2). I will probably talk about some techy type stuff that’s not directly related to video games in some cases – I’m a big fan of open source development (yay, another soap box!) and the Android OS, so I may touch on issues related to those in some instances. I’m also a big Japanophile with a B.A. in Japanese and I lived for nearly a year in Japan, so I may occasionally reference issues related to Japan and Japanese pop culture (horror, anime and manga, in addition to video games).
Originally posted here.