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Dragon Hired as QA Tester for NRS's Next Game

RoboCop

The future of law enforcement.
Administrator
Premium Supporter
Well-known fighting game player, Dragon, has recently been hired by NRS as a QA tester. This would indicate that they have a product far enough along in development to warrant such testing. There's no way to know when we'll get an official announcement, but this at least tells us that NRS is deep into the development of their next title.
 

Dankster Morgan

It is better this way
Hope it’s something new, not super excited for MK12 or Injustice 3. Would definitely like to see more of each but neither feel special anymore
 

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
Did you miss that Big D was also hired as a QA tester?

Cetrion players out here about to run the place.

I was about to post the same thing.

It’s interesting that Dragon took this job. BigD makes sense, considering he has retired from competing. But I guess having an actual guaranteed job for Dragon is better than competing. Way less stressful, don’t have to grind the game 24/7 at a high level, don’t have to travel to compete to pay your bills, etc.

I’m happy for them, definitely is a dream job. Reminds me of back in 2011 when I was wanting to get a job at NRS as a QA tester. I wish I would have AT LEAST gotten some props for finding the parry glitch in MK9, but very few people even knew it existed (even to this day not many people even know what the parry glitch was), let alone that I was the one who discovered it. I immediately told REO when I found it, he made a video about it, then it was patched within a week or 2. So it never was able to be abused, so it never really got that “mainstream” attention I feel. But, I always have had a knack for finding glitches in video games, so I always saw myself getting into QA video game testing at some point.

Anyways, it’s dope how many QA testers that work at NRS came from our community. And it’s smart on NRS’ end to hire people within the community. Especially top player who have tons of experience with all of these games. Congrats to them both!
 

RoboCop

The future of law enforcement.
Administrator
Premium Supporter
Yall know QA Tester is not the same thing as Game Designer, right? His job is to find bugs and broken shit and bring it to the attention of his superiors. He will have no say over the game's design. QA tester is literally the lowest paid position in a game dev studio. Him telling NRS how to change their game would be like a burger flipper telling Burger King how to change the Whopper.
 

Eddy Wang

Skarlet scientist
Yall know QA Tester is not the same thing as Game Designer, right? His job is to find bugs and broken shit and bring it to the attention of his superiors. he will have no say over the game's design. QA tester is literally the lowest paid position in a game dev studio. Him telling NRS how to change their game would be like a burger flipper telling Burger King how to change the Whopper.
This is true, and ppl were mad at Steph for Kitana's design and she even made it public on twitter, that she doesn't change data in the game or does affect balance decisions.

The best she can do its giving her feedback if needed but the devs are still going to decide to change on their own ultimately.

I think Dragon and Big D are now under the same umbrella.
 

Immortal

Blind justice....
Yall know QA Tester is not the same thing as Game Designer, right? His job is to find bugs and broken shit and bring it to the attention of his superiors. He will have no say over the game's design. QA tester is literally the lowest paid position in a game dev studio. Him telling NRS how to change their game would be like a burger flipper telling Burger King how to change the Whopper.
I'm just gonna add to this, since it's probably the same as in my company - we often hire "temps" for QA when it's crunch time (last 6 or so months before game release) and let go (most of) them after that. This is common as there is no point in having lets say 40 QA testers throu the whole development cycle.

I even doubt they're in the same position as Stephanie, since in our case - QA people who work full time in our studio usually are 1 step above the QA temps. In a way it's a good position/first job to see how current game bussines is and if you even want to be a part of it (most[99%] don't - coz it's a soul crushing grind not even remotely close to what people think when they "dream" about working in game industry/making games).

That being said - i wish them all the best.
 
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B W1zZ

Noob
I keep hearing people talk about "how little say" testers have in terms of what's left overpowered and what's toned down but I have my doubts. NRS seems to hire people based on them having a good tournament resume or community clout, which usually boils down to abusing the most overpowered and broken tech/characters in said game and not necessarily because they are the right person for the job. I'm wondering how much they are going to just "let it rock" because QA suggests so, and if the game is going to essentially be a year-long beta test after release and drastically change later on like with the past few games.
 
I keep hearing people talk about "how little say" testers have in terms of what's left overpowered and what's toned down but I have my doubts. NRS seems to hire people based on them having a good tournament resume or community clout, which usually boils down to abusing the most overpowered and broken tech/characters in said game and not necessarily because they are the right person for the job. I'm wondering how much they are going to just "let it rock" because QA suggests so, and if the game is going to essentially be a year-long beta test after release and drastically change later on like with the past few games.
A QA testers job is to find bugs and exploits, not balance the game. These high profile players no doubt would and possibly do offer suggestions there, but it's up to the developers to listen to them and balance the game as they see fit.
 

Darth-Nero

Come Thunder! Come Lightning!
It is very naive to assume QA testers do not influence design and balance decisions. If you wanna believe that 16bit have nothing to do with the pages of buffs kitana's been given every patch across 3 games then that's just you.

Dragon, however, is notorious for being a huge tier whore even more so than ForeverKing, man doesn't care about tearing down a tournament hype by mashing trident rush or all the fullscreen boulders in the world so long as he gets that W. I have no problems with him personally, everyone says he's a nice guy but i don't want him influencing my next mk game.

Also the notion that ppl working for NRS can't compete is false, any of them can "temporarily quit" to compete in a tournament like what GGA Dizzy did in combo breaker, then return to their jobs the next day after the tournament. it's all a big joke really, but it is what it is.
 

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
I know for a FACT that testers in the past NRS games have not only indirectly, but DIRECTLY have contributed to balance changes. And these were the TEMPORARY QA testers. Having top players as QA testers is FAR different than having random people who are just good at QA testing as QA testers.
 

Darth-Nero

Come Thunder! Come Lightning!
I have no doubt she suggested things, and in some cases, the designers listened. But she can't order things and actually make changes herself.
i never said that testers make changes themselves or make demands from designers. but they are buddies working in the same studio. if im a tester walking up to you, a designer, during brunch break and be like "yo my favorite character Raiden is one of the OGs yo, he should really shine more with these changes i've been thinking about during testing" you ain't really gonna turn me down. cuz at the end of the day, if it's not game breaking, then who gives a fuck?
 

B W1zZ

Noob
It seems some folk are overestimating the kind of pull a QA tester has.
I don't think so. If someone with a big enough voice in the community can complain incessantly about a character and receive a comprehensive package of unnecessary buffs (Kenshi in MKX), who's to say a tester can't do the same thing and maybe even have a stronger influence on the designers since they are under the same roof?