Removal of Playtester cykette of Retro Achievements [Mirror]

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Original Link: https://pastebin.com/hHd0RKMY

June 28, 2024

I was treated the same way recently. I was on the play test team for about a year and contributed a lot to the process and to RA as a whole. I redesigned the play tester spreadsheets and that template is still in use by the team.

I also influenced how testing is done and did a lot of testing, spending well over 1,000 hours, during my time on the team. Some of the current features for site integration were also my ideas after talking with Wes. For many months, it was only myself and one other tester that were active and we were testing 3-4 sets at a time.

All that said, I was thrown off the team. Why? Because I asked the CR’s and QA’s why the rule that we can’t show the dev the logic, or talk about it, when we break something. We can send save states, and the dev can see the exact same thing we see in the logic, but we can’t cut the middle man out and just show it to them. Not tell them what’s wrong in the logic, or how to fix the issue, just show and discuss.

The only answer I was given by anyone was “it’s not your place”. So, the actual reason is they don’t have one and showing the logic makes them largely irrelevant. I guess they didn’t like my question because it exposed that they have rules based on ego and nothing more. There’s no logical and practical reason for it, only “because I said so”.

A few weeks later, I was kicked from the team without warning or the courtesy of an explanation. I did eventually manage to make them give me a reason. What was that reason? “Insubordination and violation of the rules.” The “tipping point” was because I stopped being as social as I normally am during the end of the set I was currently testing.

Why was I not as social? Because my health is very poor, I had some serious life issues I was tending to, and it made my mood poor. I wanted to finish testing the set since we were already three weeks into it. I wasn’t rude at the end of testing, either. Just not as talkative.

I didn’t violate any rules, I didn’t argue or say I wouldn’t follow the rules, or anything else of the sort. Actually, I specifically stated in the original discussion that I had no problems following the rules. I simply wanted to know why that specific rule exists.

The actual problem is I asked an honest question based in pure curiosity and they took it as an attack on their egos. How much I contributed to everything meant nothing. I wasn’t given the courtesy of asking me for clarification or reason for my shift in mood. Just kicked without warning.

I’m sure it was Hotscrockofshit that did it. The bullshit message I was sent through the website, I replied with a long message about how they treated me with no real basis for doing so. Hotpocket replied to my response with his own lengthy message. I did reply to it, stating that I’m sure he thinks his opinion is important but I didn’t ask for it and couldn’t give two shits less about it. I still haven’t read it, so I’ve no clue what it says.

His rebuttal was “that just further solidifies the decision to remove you from the team”. That’s why I’m pretty sure it was Hotcracker who did it.

Sorry they treated you the way they did but I can’t say it surprises me. If you don’t lick their assholes clean on command, they want you gone. The quality of everything has tanked since I joined last year and continues to do so.

They just want people to crap out generic, broken sets that have barely been tested by anyone, including the dev who made the set.

Being kicked from the team didn’t bother me because the hobby started feeling less like a hobby and more like a chore. What irked my tits was how they did it. They didn’t have the stones to talk to me before kicking me and gave a bullshit reason only after a QA, that I get along well, with made a big scene about it.

He told them that after all I’ve contributed over the last year, I was owed an explanation. He wasn’t a part of the decision, so he didn’t have an explanation for me, but he made sure I got one.

I was originally told that it wasn’t permanent and I could reapply to the team in a couple months. I told them they can keep the role and I hope they choke on it.

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