first day, new job
I used to work for a gaming company. It was Origin Systems to be exact, before they were bought. I was very near to the wilderness -- at 360 and Wild Basin, for those of you familiar with Austin. Now I work for another gaming company, practically in the next building down the street from the old Origin World Headquarters.
The job is good. I like it. The company seems to be good like my last one, in that they hire from within. I'm going to be testing games there. Video games. Video slot machines, to be precise.
On the inside of these machines is a PC running Windows. It's an elaborate system to separate people from their money. These PCs are the life-support system for a giant elaborate scratch-off ticket.
I have an 11 page checklist of things to test on these games. I kind of feel like I'm at NASA, preparing the shuttle for the next launch. It's kind of fun. I work with a great bunch of guys, but all the females I can see are in the next room, from which we are separated by a glass wall. It's taunting, in a way, although I didn't think of that until just now.
Today I sat with a guy who'd been there a while, and watched over his shoulder as he worked on a few machines. Well, we didn't work on the machines so much as we worked on the software that these machines run -- the gaming applications, if you will. I even managed to find three or four bugs, all on my own.
Oh, and I discovered a nugget of potentially valuable information. These things are elaborate systems designed to separate you from your money in as painless a manner as possible. It's like waking up in the bathtub only to find that one of your kidneys has been removed. From my one day on the inside, I can definitively tell you that slot machines are a gyp and a half. If you put in, say, a thousand bucks, you might get back $800 of it if you're lucky. I know this because I put in a voucher worth over $750 ... in a space of about ten minutes, it was all gone.
Sure I won occasionally. And to be perfectly honest, I don't know what "winning level" this machine was set at. But at maximum bet levels, it took 20 bucks to press the brightly colored SPIN button.
But yeah ... it was fun, overall.
The job is good. I like it. The company seems to be good like my last one, in that they hire from within. I'm going to be testing games there. Video games. Video slot machines, to be precise.
On the inside of these machines is a PC running Windows. It's an elaborate system to separate people from their money. These PCs are the life-support system for a giant elaborate scratch-off ticket.
I have an 11 page checklist of things to test on these games. I kind of feel like I'm at NASA, preparing the shuttle for the next launch. It's kind of fun. I work with a great bunch of guys, but all the females I can see are in the next room, from which we are separated by a glass wall. It's taunting, in a way, although I didn't think of that until just now.
Today I sat with a guy who'd been there a while, and watched over his shoulder as he worked on a few machines. Well, we didn't work on the machines so much as we worked on the software that these machines run -- the gaming applications, if you will. I even managed to find three or four bugs, all on my own.
Oh, and I discovered a nugget of potentially valuable information. These things are elaborate systems designed to separate you from your money in as painless a manner as possible. It's like waking up in the bathtub only to find that one of your kidneys has been removed. From my one day on the inside, I can definitively tell you that slot machines are a gyp and a half. If you put in, say, a thousand bucks, you might get back $800 of it if you're lucky. I know this because I put in a voucher worth over $750 ... in a space of about ten minutes, it was all gone.
Sure I won occasionally. And to be perfectly honest, I don't know what "winning level" this machine was set at. But at maximum bet levels, it took 20 bucks to press the brightly colored SPIN button.
But yeah ... it was fun, overall.