A real life choose your own adventure. (Originally posted on MySpace on Tuesday, September 20, 2005)

For those of you who don't know...testing sucks. Game testing that is...it sucks, a lot. Here is a list of the reasons why.

1) you are totally temporary and replaceable. There is nothing keeping you around...no one would are if you didn't come to work tomorrow...there are hordes of high school kids willing to take your place...you have NO job security...how do they inspire loyalty and instill a sense of pride in the workplace...by dangling the "full time" carrot in front of you. If you work hard and find lots of bugs you MIGHT get hired on permanantly...maybe...

2) overtime. they say it isn't mandatory. and it isn't, unless you want to get hired on and avoid a layoff...so basically it is mandatory...and it is SERIOUS. I know guys who have worked 12 to 15 hours a day SEVEN days a week for FOUR or FIVE months...you get excited to have three days off a month...it's like a vacation to get to go home at 6pm....

3) The pay basically sucks. It's better than most fast food...but for the amount of tedious overtime you work...it sucks...

For these reasons, back when I was a tester I used to take advantage of the company store...now I bought some games for myself...several in fact. and I bought some games for friends and family...I have a couple of brothers and an old man who loves Dawn of War. But then come close to Christmas I bought a few to sell on ebay. Now this was totally against the rules but pretty much it was an unspoken law that EVERYONE was doing it. I sort of figured that if I went through ebay, I'd be sort of letting the market value of the thing sort itself out. And my address would be tehre for all to see...so I wouldn't be hiding anything or lying about anything. Dumb I know...but I'm honest...poor but honest.

So anyway I thought this was more above board than what most people do which i sbuy a game and then go to Wal-Mart and "return" it for full price...in cash. That seems dirty...but to the company it's the same....

Oh well. Anyway. I got caught by someone in HR...they have someone who's job it is to police ebay and make sure no one is selling games before the due date. And I had one online before it was scheduled to be released. Now I didn't even have the game at that point...and I didn't even intend to BUY the game until after it was out...so I wasn't trying to skip the release date...in fact i was so busy with overtime that I didn't even know when the release date was.

Anyway. I fessed up and told them that i bought the game from the company store and sold it. It made me so sick. I love my job. I have the best job in the world and I was going to lose it casue of some dumb shit I did as a temp tester...it sucked. I ended up signing this thing that said I wouldn't violate corporate policy again by selling stuff online.

Now we come to the ethical delima. The corporate office is moving. As such a lot of games are being "thrown away" by being left in the break room with a "Free" sign by them. These games are all about ten years old. No one even sells them anymore. But they are BRAND NEW. IN packaging. I could make about five to six bucks on them on ebay.

But should I put these games online. Could I get fired for selling TRASH? It would seem like the answer is no...but I don't know...I'll probably just end up giving them to Patrick to sell.

God I feel like I"m back in philosophy 103.