Survey Details Game Developers' Salaries
The data, which was partially posted by Gamasutra, notes that the average salary was slightly up from 2006 figure of $73,316.
Business and marketing positions remained top of the heap, with average salaries figured at $101,848. Programmers, which were among the most educated of the groups surveyed, raked in an average of $83,383.
Art and animation employees were compensated an average of $66,594 in 2007, with 66% reporting at least a bachelor's degree. Game designers clocked in at $63,649, while producers claimed an average of $78,716. Sound designers reported $73,409.
As expected, quality assurance brought up the rear, averaging $39,063, though QA leads with more than six years experience averaged $70,658. The report noted that testers with less than three years experience made up the largest percentage of the group.
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MoreVespeneGas
replyNeed to start treating their QA better
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I'd say it's more a factor of development time pressure rather than the quality of testers that leads to bugs. Companies like Valve and Blizzard can afford to ship their games when they're ready. Most places can't.
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Well, there's also the fact that most QA is contract work. They come in for the game, spend half the time learning to do their job (like anyone does for any job), then the publisher lets the majority of the group go. So, when it comes time for another game, sequel or otherwise, you have to train the entire QA group again.
We need more regular, full time testers. -
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You are joking right, Valve and Blizzard make the most buggy games/software out there. (steam being near the top of that list) don't get me wrong i love buying games on steam but dam that software is some buggy shit....its definitely getting better though.
Blizzard .... just look at WoW man that thing had bugs out the ass when it came out....and still has some, but it did eventually get better, right around when the QA team became the whole world....and the company started to get paid to have a QA team ($15 a month for every tester!) instead of have to pay a QA department. Yea Blizzard definitely knows what they are doing though!\-
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Someone must have opened up a portal into bizzaro shack.
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I wouldn't call either company's games the most buggy, but Valve certainly had its moments. Half-Life was notoriously buggy at launch and probably still is to a degree. Steam was a colossal pile at release and for a good year+ afterwards, but has since matured into a very stable platform. Half-Life 2 had some early issues but, thankfully, I didn't experience most of them.
I don't follow World of Warcraft and I would probably be more forgiving about bugs in it given the scope of the game, but most of the change log items in their other games are rebalances, not bug fixes. They put out pretty solid games.
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To put it in perspective, WoW had the smoothest launch of any MMO. Given the demand that was so beyond incredibly anyone's estimates, it's amazing it handled as well as it did.
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This is one of the wrongest posts I have ever read in my life.
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Pretty much.
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You are awarded no points, and may god have mercy on your soul
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Unpolished games don't happen because of under-funded QA. it happens because developers and publishers typically have unrealistic schedules.
QA people I've known have always reported everything that could be found with all due diligence.... but they're not the ones who fix problems. That has to go back to the development staff, who probably doesn't have the time or budget.
So most developers know what the problems are, but don't have the resources to fix them.
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