Blog

  • Removal of Playtester cykette of Retro Achievements [Mirror]

    To follow cykette on RA, click here.

    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.

    Related Posts:

    This post has been viewed 23 time(s).

  • Departure of Developer Blazekickn of Retro Achievements [Mirror]

    To see Blazekickn’s developed sets on RA, click here.

    Original Link: https://pastebin.com/g3FT22Tk

    June 19, 2024

    I was given a year ban from the discord and social features of the site for supposed “constant developer harassment”. The site motto is currently my only method of reaching the outside world, so I’m thankful that I have as much of a presence here as I do for you to be reading this.

    I’m aware that I am very blunt and very stubborn. It’s just how I am. These conversations are never personal, at least on my end. Simply disagreements on RA politics or set design – far from “harassment”. A lot of the people I supposedly “harassed” are people I would consider friends, or at least are willing to be friendly towards. RA is a creative outlet to share pngs at the end of the day, taking anything personally is a mistake.

    I wish I could truly love this website and sing its praises without putting a bunch of asterisks, but there’s so much bullshit that it makes it hard to truly immerse myself and enjoy it. Not necessarily related to my current situation, but for a long time with each passing week it just felt like the site got worse and worse, staff making the worst possible decisions at every opportunity and going farther away from what I used to like about it. Occasionally there is hope the site will get better, making a good change or two, but it’s quickly followed by 5 bad ones that just add more restrictions and more bureaucracy to the creative process. I’m sorry, but I’m not going to just sit back and take it while more and more of my rights get taken away from me. I’ve been contributing to this website for longer than most of the current staff have even been around, I deserve to have a voice. My voice is ignored but I can only hope that they can’t ignore everyone.

    A lot of the time it feels like no one really cares about the work I do for the site – that I’m replaceable and some new developer that’s willing to comply will take my place. Given that the ability to do developer work for the site is the only right I’m given in most cases, clearly that’s not the case. My contributions are valued enough that despite taking away everything else, you still want them from me. I’d be stupid to not quit in this situation, considering I’d be giving you exactly what you want – silenced, but still doing free labor. Unfortunately, I AM stupid, so I have asked for a site un-mute, which should give me back most of the tools I would need. Everything in my brain tells me to quit, but my heart does genuinely love the site deep down. It’s probably just sunken cost fallacy, but it’s really hard to leave when the place I’ve dedicated my life to is so close to perfection. I hope one day RA will get to a state where everyone can be happy – I have a feeling it’ll be close even, but I also have my doubts it’ll ever get there at all. Maybe I’ll find an alternative creative outlet that doesn’t actively want me gone. Only time will tell what the future holds.

    Related Post:

    This post has been viewed 32 time(s).

  • FFV: Whirlwind Released

    Randomizer Romhack of Final Fantasy V

    For the Whirlwind (Four-Job) Fiesta event, click here.
    For the Whirlwind family of mods, click here.
    For clymax’s projects, click here.

    The Final Fantasy V: Whirlwind mod has been released. The news publication is available here.

    The mod is unofficial and unaffiliated with Square Enix.

    For a sampling of features, check out the Whirlwind landing page. A comparison chart of the different builds is here.

    Whirlwind is designed as “Definitive FFV” mod. But how does it compare against similar mods? See here.

    What about Pixel Remaster? See here.

    How does it compare against other randomizers? See here.

    A wiki is also available.

    Optional Clean font and icon improvement patches are available courtesy of xJ4cks. These can be applied before or after Whirlwind. See our Discord for more details.

    Early access to the dev build is available via Game Jolt. You can also get a free dev build via our Whirlwind Fiesta event.

    Release Trailer

    A speedrun leaderboard is available here. Automated leaderboards are also available via the Retro Achievements publication. Player reviews can be seen there as well.

    You can pick up the release build on Romhack Plaza here.

    Player Review

    Check out this review of the mod and its Whirlwind (Four-Job) Fiesta event, courtesy of NeoKakarot.

    World Warps

    In a latest update, you can now press the Select button to warp between worlds, so using the world warp locations is now optional.

    A warp overview is below. Note that a fifth warp to Neo ExDeath has been added to the twin counterpart of your warp arrival map in Cleft of Dimensions: Ruins.

    Showcase Run

    A mod showcase run without commentary is below.

    Special thanks to playtesters solidification and BladePotato.

    Update: presets are now available.

    Patching Info

    1. Final Fantasy V (Japan) [CRC32 C1BC267D]
    2. RPGe v1.1 [CRC32 17444605]
    3. Whirlwind

    This post has been viewed 180 time(s).

  • DressCode Mod in Open Beta

    Final Fantasy V

    The DressCode mod of Final Fantasy V is in beta courtesy of Cubear.

    A demo of the new job sprites is below.

    This post has been viewed 236 time(s).