Meet the TERA Team: Game Testers
by Scott.
This is Scott James Magner, and the powers that be have asked me to tell you about myself and my team. I've been in the hobby gaming industry for some time, but odds are you've never heard of me. Or if you have, only in passing.
The reason isn't a lack of success, but rather an overabundance. I've always found it more challenging to work behind the scenes on a game, tweaking and refining until our published product is the best we can make it. Though I've strayed from time to time into front-line management, I always make my way back to the "fiddly bits."
Here's what the official documents say about me:
"Scott James is EME's game analyst. Using 15 years of industry experience, he runs a team of playtesters that evaluate and provide feedback for products being published by EME and competitors to ensure that we are staying up with the latest trends."
...but here's what I say when people ask me what I do for a living:
"I make games."
On any given day, I'm a writer, QA tester, industry analyst, production assistant, manager, manag-ee, warm body in a seat, or whatever is necessary to come back to those three important words.
"I make games."
Obviously, our focus these days at En Masse is TERA and how to bring the best possible version of it to North America. Our internal playtest teams have logged many thousands of hours this year in the game—poking, prodding, sharing our experiences, and studying what our colleagues have learned. At this point, we've played every class and race multiple times, but no one is tired of coming to work.
There was a time when internal interest in our team was so high, I had to sequester them so their viewpoints were as close to yours as possible. Our feedback sessions always had extra people coming in to ask questions—so much so that I scheduled a separate meeting room for people to listen in by telephone.
Right now, as I type, my team is fighting BAMs (Big-Ass Monsters) in the Celestial Hills. I've lost track of exactly how many we've killed this year, but it's always worth doing and always fun. We did the same thing yesterday, testing out some lower-level characters after taking another batch to level 50 earlier in the week. Playing my new archer, I discovered a skill combo I'd never even considered, and I've been playing the game every day since I started early last year.
Watching our slayer charging in to take aggro from our priest, I got to thinking about how fast I could take it back from him, and what I'd do in the same situation with my sorcerer. I knew that I could ask another of our testers what her best combos were when she fought these BAMs with an archer, especially since she was our priest at the time. Between fights, we also chatted about what we'd do next (we're hoping to get a couple dungeon runs in today), and what to do with our higher-level characters in the coming weeks.
The feedback report I got from our priest that day covered three characters and five zones, and that was just one of the great emails I got from the team. You'll probably never see our names until you read the credits, but we have one of the most important jobs in game publishing.
We're you.
We're not that visible on the forums, but we're there. We're at trade shows and conventions, listening and learning from our fans about what you play and what you want to play. Like everyone here at En Masse, we're united by the goal of making the best possible games we can.
You deserve nothing less.