Blizzard has been celebrating its
20-year anniversary with loads of fun features looking behind the scenes at the company, including a look at a day in the life of John Shin, a QA analyst for
World of Warcraft. His account of just a normal day around the office was written during the
Cataclysm development cycle. Read about Shin's adventures in the Blizzard gym, meetings with production specialists, and epic tales of squashing bugs and taking names. If you've ever wanted to know what goes on behind the scenes, especially during the ramp-up to releasing a finished title, check out
John Shin's story.
One of my favorite aspects of the story is that you get a real feel for how the culture at Blizzard wants games to be a vital part of the work environment. You're making video games for a living, after all. You've got to stock the office and encourage game play in all aspects of the job so that you're always thinking about what is fun and what works. John's story highlights Blizzard's goal of creating fun games within a fun atmosphere.
Tags: 20th-anniversary, blizzard-20th-anniversary, cataclysm-development, john-shin, qa, wow-qa
Filed under: Blizzard, Cataclysm
Nov 10th 2011 at 9:00PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Drakkenfyre Nov 10th 2011 9:14PM
Of course the story has been been thru 10 different PR departments, and cleaned up of anything that might look bad.
I am not saying the story isn't true, or that it sucks to work at Blizzard, and the people are put thru hell, but the story doesn't detail every little thing involved in the job. I know there are stressful times, especially in other departments. So don't take this as a "the job is all bright and shiny" all the time.
The patch version did throw me for a loop. 4.0.3? They have been planning this article for awhile, or he was going on recollection for it.
Cetha Nov 10th 2011 10:30PM
and QA stands for...?
Eros Nov 10th 2011 10:37PM
Quality Assurance.
Drakkenfyre Nov 10th 2011 10:39PM
Quality Assurance.
razion Nov 10th 2011 10:41PM
Questions and Answers/Assistance, I believe.
razion Nov 10th 2011 10:41PM
Nope, Quality Assurance, my bad.
Nick Nov 11th 2011 12:39AM
Quiche Attack
Stephen Moore Nov 11th 2011 1:39AM
Shame he comes across as cocky and arrogant ("I am the best at SF IV", "I am the best at SC II", "I am the best at…meetings") throughout...
lownwolf Nov 11th 2011 1:50AM
I worked as QA at EA for a but and its pretty similar. Test all day and play other games during lunch. The"I'm the best" mentality isnt ready cockyness because its true and is a biproduct of the job. Some of the people I worked with tested for various battlefields, needless to say, they were unstoppable. Play any game for 10 hours a day (on average) and you'll be that good.
The bad side of the job is really the hours and the stuff youre testing. Like I said AVERAGE ten hour days, and that doesn't even shine a light on your hours when you get close to release.
It can be fun, but youre not just "playing." On a james bond title I remember a test I had to do was to go through every level and shoot every object and make sure decals show up.
In one year, I met a developer once, and it was very rare.
It can be fun and due to long hours the overtime nets you a good amount of cash, especially since you dont have time to spend it. But personally, I'm not going back
Lemons Nov 11th 2011 4:48AM
I'd love to see "a day in the life of Chris Metzen"...
9:05 AM: Wake up to my "Lok'tar Ogar" alarm clock and change out of my horde crest pattern pajamas.
9:32: Reading the paper while pondering which Alliance town town the Horde should destroy next.
11:17: Writing a bit more on my Thrall fanfic. Probably going to slowly integrate it into the lore until it feels natural to everyone that Thrall is an unstoppable god who is stern but fair.
12:43: Commissioning another piece of Thrall art. I just saw a bodybuilding pose that he hasn't been drawn in. Had to pull some artists off the new character models...they'll get done eventually.
1:53: Shopping online for some new sunglasses. These old ones I bought yesterday have already lost their "X" factor.
2:01: Lore crisis! At the meeting today some of the guys were talking about the Alliance winning an engagement. I had to remind them of one of WoW's unbreakable rules: Alliance don't win.
3:30: The beard trimming guy is here, and a just in time. I could feel my powers draining. A crisply cut beard is the secret to my story writing abilities...like Samson, but in reverse.
4:47: Talked with Knaak...told him to do whatever. Like usual. I'm pretty stoked about his new novel. Spoiler alert, but I think we might see fan favs Rhonin and Lucan Foxblood return!
5:15: Some players just brought up a gaping plothole on the forums. We'll just say an old god did it.
6:00: Just fleshing out the fate of Neptulon and Ozumat. What happened is...oh wait, is it 6:00 already? Eh, it can wait til tomorrow...time to go home and put the finishing touches on "Thrall meets the Justice League." Cya everyone!
datgrl Nov 11th 2011 6:37AM
I will qualify this by first saying that I haven't been able to read the article, yet. However, it's still unclear to me how some of the patches get pushed to production after having gone through QA *and* the PTR. Things like the holiday quests after the Cata release that were totally preventable (turning in quests to Magni and Cairne) come to mind. Admitedly, the patches in Cata have been much better.
zinckiwi Nov 11th 2011 7:22AM
Not sure if I'm just a noob or if this applies to everyone else, but in my experience any test environment can only get 99.9% of the way to prod. When it comes down to it, prod is prod. There will always be *something* that differs from test, despite intentions to have them mirror each other perfectly. (For example, you might cache the hell out of prod, but you don't want testers to have to wait an hour to see changes they make.)
Drakkenfyre Nov 11th 2011 7:26AM
Many times a patch is released containing known bugs, but ones that either couldn't be fixed in time, or were too complicated to fix at the time.
Even patches get expected release dates. If a bug is classified as "minor", such as a wrong color on an item, it might get ignored to get a fix later. If a bug is bigger, such as an incorrect sound for an ability, it might get released anyway. If it's show-stopping, like the game crashes every time it's encountered, it will be fixed.
The "release now, patch later" idea is how those work. If something is being hard to track down, it might get released anyway, and the work put into it to fix it by the next patch release will continue. One time a developer or CM (forget which) said the known bug list was something like 5000 long.
Sometimes some really major bugs get released, and they either knew about it, but couldn't fix them in time, or didn't know about them until they hit live servers, with millions of players.
Sometimes some of the bugs that get released makes it seem like they rush patches too fast. I have seen some major bugs get released, ones that were known on the PTR. And the "couldn't fix them now/ran out of time" thing is the only way to explain them.
Kook Nov 11th 2011 7:39AM
Interesting read, but gosh that's an excessive amount of macho! That place needs more women!
Scott Nov 13th 2011 6:09PM
Yup, he comes across as an arrogant gym-flipping "brah"... or at least, I suspect that's the view he wants people to have... instead of the view we get from the first photo: that of a chubby faced nerd gamer sitting in a smelly snuggy.