Incredibly enough, I am back.
After being incredibly busy with my life (actually I still am, but I noticed that some people still crashes here from time to time) I have decided to post something?
WHat are you going to talk about? Not sure just yet, but for the time being just know that I am back, and i will be talking about various stuff that I like and enjoy, like food, videogames, animals and anything else that comes to my mind.
I hope you will be enjoying these pages which will be much more carefree than they used to be.
Have a good time!
Informazioni personali
martedì 15 settembre 2015
mercoledì 5 giugno 2013
Updates? Why not!
Been a while since the last post, so here i am, still kicking and alive!
In the past month, the amount of work to be done has increased drastically, we've been recieving loads of support requests, mostly due to prizes to be recieved and stuff like that.
While it generally doesn't take too much time to complete a ticket like that, we're having a hard time trying to do them all, as the daily number of recieved tickets went up by about 3 times.
It doesn't help the fact that we're only 2 people working on them, and there are also a lot of other things to do, like handling events and so on.
And well, that's it, don't really want to bore you with all this work stuff, so let's talk about something else.
As you may (or may not) know, i'm an avid gamer, other than working as a Game Master.
Some time ago i said that i'm working on a browser game, while i still want to do that, right now i don't have the time to be putting my mind on it, older projects need to be finished first, and well, too much work at work, get home tired, and all i want to do is have dinner and get some rest.
Please do not fear! I will get back to it once i'm done with my other projects! I'm almost done with a few of them, it will probably take one more month or so, and after that i'll focus on this game.
There are still several things that need to be put down on the paper before the actual coding work begins (like in example, what language I will use for it...), so just wait for it! Or something like that, if you don't like waiting do something meanwhile.
In the past month, the amount of work to be done has increased drastically, we've been recieving loads of support requests, mostly due to prizes to be recieved and stuff like that.
While it generally doesn't take too much time to complete a ticket like that, we're having a hard time trying to do them all, as the daily number of recieved tickets went up by about 3 times.
It doesn't help the fact that we're only 2 people working on them, and there are also a lot of other things to do, like handling events and so on.
And well, that's it, don't really want to bore you with all this work stuff, so let's talk about something else.
As you may (or may not) know, i'm an avid gamer, other than working as a Game Master.
Some time ago i said that i'm working on a browser game, while i still want to do that, right now i don't have the time to be putting my mind on it, older projects need to be finished first, and well, too much work at work, get home tired, and all i want to do is have dinner and get some rest.
Please do not fear! I will get back to it once i'm done with my other projects! I'm almost done with a few of them, it will probably take one more month or so, and after that i'll focus on this game.
There are still several things that need to be put down on the paper before the actual coding work begins (like in example, what language I will use for it...), so just wait for it! Or something like that, if you don't like waiting do something meanwhile.
lunedì 8 aprile 2013
WeekHell
Weeks never end in the world of online gaming, these games are always on and require constant support and backup.
The last two weeks have been so tough that i decided to name this post WeekHell.
But let's start from the beginning.
Everything started with a regular maintenance, the servers were shut down and a new patch was applied, as usual i performed the regular tests and everything seemed to be working fine, so the servers were opened to the public again and everybody started playing. Just a couple of minutes later i recieved the first complaints, two portals to some of the most important dungeons of the game were not working.
I went to check them myself and it was true, the portals were broken, nobody could get into the dungeons.
A bug report was immediately sent to the game developer, wich provided a patch only two days after.
Because of this issue, i had to skip my day off, since i was the only GM available, anyway, i went to work to test the new patch, it took several hours, did all the regular tests we do when a new patch arrives and i had to re-check every single portal in the game to make sure they were all working. Since everything was looking fine, the patch was applied with an emergency maintenance, of course the players were pissed off by this but as long as it was supposed to solve the issue...
Of course with the maintenance the tests had to be performed again, i double checked the stuff that didn't work before and since the issue was removed, the game got launched once again... much to my dismay.
I was starting to relax but after a bit over an hour, i recieve some seriously disturbing complaints, people were not gaining the correct ammount of status and skill points when leveling up.
That couldn't have been possible, i mean, one of the basic tests we perform during EVERY maintenance is in fact to level up and see if we gain these points, and i did gain them correctly when i tetsted.
I logged into the game with a new character and leveled up, i was recieving the points so i didn't bother with a bug report. Went to have lunch and i got called back into the office, the issue was getting bigger, in fact a lot more complaints arrived, and luckily, this time they went into more details, only some charachters in a particular game mode were not recieving the points.
New tests performed, confirmed the bug, but it was too late to send a bug report, i had to contact the higher ups and they had to directly call the developers, but a patch was sent only the day after, meanwhile people kept leveling despite the warnings, unbalancing the game.
With the new bug fix, more tests were required, took the better part of the day to test and i also needed some external help, otherwise i would have never been able to try out everything in a single day.
After making sure that EVERYTHING in the game was working as intended, the patch was applied with another emergency maintenance, but we could not remove the imbalance that had been created so far.
A new and longer maintenance was needed for this, so we waited for the next weekly maintenance.
Unfortunately, the query needed to restore the points of all the affected characters did not work properly, more complaints arrived, and a new solution had to be found.
Doesn't sound like much? Well, it was really a lot, believe me, and it's not even over.
As if it wasn't enough, the company started a security campaign, and due to this, a lot of accounts got blocked, adding even more complaints and recovery requests. In the end, i was about to burst, being the only GM around for 2 whole weeks i couldn't keep up with everything.
I got uber stressed and overworked, spent 9 days straight in the office, but i learnt much about how a gaming company should be directed and organized, this experience showed me how unprepared the company i work for is. I'm not going to do the same mistakes as them working on my own videogame, that's for sure.
The last two weeks have been so tough that i decided to name this post WeekHell.
But let's start from the beginning.
Everything started with a regular maintenance, the servers were shut down and a new patch was applied, as usual i performed the regular tests and everything seemed to be working fine, so the servers were opened to the public again and everybody started playing. Just a couple of minutes later i recieved the first complaints, two portals to some of the most important dungeons of the game were not working.
I went to check them myself and it was true, the portals were broken, nobody could get into the dungeons.
A bug report was immediately sent to the game developer, wich provided a patch only two days after.
Because of this issue, i had to skip my day off, since i was the only GM available, anyway, i went to work to test the new patch, it took several hours, did all the regular tests we do when a new patch arrives and i had to re-check every single portal in the game to make sure they were all working. Since everything was looking fine, the patch was applied with an emergency maintenance, of course the players were pissed off by this but as long as it was supposed to solve the issue...
Of course with the maintenance the tests had to be performed again, i double checked the stuff that didn't work before and since the issue was removed, the game got launched once again... much to my dismay.
I was starting to relax but after a bit over an hour, i recieve some seriously disturbing complaints, people were not gaining the correct ammount of status and skill points when leveling up.
That couldn't have been possible, i mean, one of the basic tests we perform during EVERY maintenance is in fact to level up and see if we gain these points, and i did gain them correctly when i tetsted.
I logged into the game with a new character and leveled up, i was recieving the points so i didn't bother with a bug report. Went to have lunch and i got called back into the office, the issue was getting bigger, in fact a lot more complaints arrived, and luckily, this time they went into more details, only some charachters in a particular game mode were not recieving the points.
New tests performed, confirmed the bug, but it was too late to send a bug report, i had to contact the higher ups and they had to directly call the developers, but a patch was sent only the day after, meanwhile people kept leveling despite the warnings, unbalancing the game.
With the new bug fix, more tests were required, took the better part of the day to test and i also needed some external help, otherwise i would have never been able to try out everything in a single day.
After making sure that EVERYTHING in the game was working as intended, the patch was applied with another emergency maintenance, but we could not remove the imbalance that had been created so far.
A new and longer maintenance was needed for this, so we waited for the next weekly maintenance.
Unfortunately, the query needed to restore the points of all the affected characters did not work properly, more complaints arrived, and a new solution had to be found.
Doesn't sound like much? Well, it was really a lot, believe me, and it's not even over.
As if it wasn't enough, the company started a security campaign, and due to this, a lot of accounts got blocked, adding even more complaints and recovery requests. In the end, i was about to burst, being the only GM around for 2 whole weeks i couldn't keep up with everything.
I got uber stressed and overworked, spent 9 days straight in the office, but i learnt much about how a gaming company should be directed and organized, this experience showed me how unprepared the company i work for is. I'm not going to do the same mistakes as them working on my own videogame, that's for sure.
lunedì 4 marzo 2013
Coming (not so) Soon
Hello people!
It's been a while since my last post, i've been busy lately, a lot of work to do, i have more duties to attend to now, and i'm also working on a little project wich takes what little time i can spare.
And this little project is what i want to talk about, can't disclose all the details about it, but i assure you it's going to be something fun.
I am in fact working on a videogame, sort of. Right now i'm still on the planning part of the job, deciding how stuff is suposed to work, how the game should look like, and things like that.
I want to make a videogame that resembles the good old RPGs, i want to bring back the splendor of those games full of passion and emotions, but i want to do it with style. I'm also planning to combine it with a newer kind of gameplay, allowing people to decide their strategy and customize their characters. I'm also writing a story for it, i want it to be as entertaining as possible.
Only bad part about it all, is that the game is going to work on a browser. Yes, i know, browser games suck, but my knowledge in programming stops there for now, maybe in the future (far far away), i will work on a stand alone, PC game, but i have to start somewhere.
A couple of friends will be helping me, as i can't exactly make a whole game on my own, even though it's a browser game, it will still need art, and for this i asked a very good friend, adept in drawing, she'll make the characters in a Final Fantasy Tactics style (looking forward to them), and another friend with a certain degree of expertise in databases is helping me plan a good structure to not have the game fall apart.
It's been a while since my last post, i've been busy lately, a lot of work to do, i have more duties to attend to now, and i'm also working on a little project wich takes what little time i can spare.
And this little project is what i want to talk about, can't disclose all the details about it, but i assure you it's going to be something fun.
I am in fact working on a videogame, sort of. Right now i'm still on the planning part of the job, deciding how stuff is suposed to work, how the game should look like, and things like that.
I want to make a videogame that resembles the good old RPGs, i want to bring back the splendor of those games full of passion and emotions, but i want to do it with style. I'm also planning to combine it with a newer kind of gameplay, allowing people to decide their strategy and customize their characters. I'm also writing a story for it, i want it to be as entertaining as possible.
Only bad part about it all, is that the game is going to work on a browser. Yes, i know, browser games suck, but my knowledge in programming stops there for now, maybe in the future (far far away), i will work on a stand alone, PC game, but i have to start somewhere.
A couple of friends will be helping me, as i can't exactly make a whole game on my own, even though it's a browser game, it will still need art, and for this i asked a very good friend, adept in drawing, she'll make the characters in a Final Fantasy Tactics style (looking forward to them), and another friend with a certain degree of expertise in databases is helping me plan a good structure to not have the game fall apart.
sabato 24 novembre 2012
Testing fun... or not?
Finally something interesting to do at work! Or that's what i thought.
I have been asked if i was interested in testing a game, why even bother asking? OF COURSE i'm interested in testing a new game, so i agreed and a few minutes later i was given the setup.
Took me quite a bit to install the thing as it was in korean and i needed to install the language support for it, the patching took several hours with a super fast connection as the launcher would occasionally decide to stop from downloading for whatever reason (and needed a reboot every time).
After the hassle of installing i tried to log in, only to find out that the game was under maintenance, hence no testing could be done.
The day after i managed to get the game to start (8 hours of maintenance? Heck, that's a lot!) and i found, to my great displeasure i might add, that my PC at work isn't good enough to run this game, i mean, the game can be started and all, but it's laggy as hell due to the heavy graphics, and even when on minimum settings, i won't get any higher than 20~23 FPS in open wide areas with no people, and as low as to 10~15 FPS in towns, so it's hardly playable.
At that point i thought i'd test it at home since my machine is more powerful than the one at work, and even though i get better performance (25~30 FPS in town with MINIMUM settings) you can understand that it's not exactly playable. It would be good if it was a PvE game, but this is a PvP Based MMORPG and that kind of lag means certain death in battle.
I'll keep testing it for a while longer but, well, i wouldn't play it.
I have been asked if i was interested in testing a game, why even bother asking? OF COURSE i'm interested in testing a new game, so i agreed and a few minutes later i was given the setup.
Took me quite a bit to install the thing as it was in korean and i needed to install the language support for it, the patching took several hours with a super fast connection as the launcher would occasionally decide to stop from downloading for whatever reason (and needed a reboot every time).
After the hassle of installing i tried to log in, only to find out that the game was under maintenance, hence no testing could be done.
The day after i managed to get the game to start (8 hours of maintenance? Heck, that's a lot!) and i found, to my great displeasure i might add, that my PC at work isn't good enough to run this game, i mean, the game can be started and all, but it's laggy as hell due to the heavy graphics, and even when on minimum settings, i won't get any higher than 20~23 FPS in open wide areas with no people, and as low as to 10~15 FPS in towns, so it's hardly playable.
At that point i thought i'd test it at home since my machine is more powerful than the one at work, and even though i get better performance (25~30 FPS in town with MINIMUM settings) you can understand that it's not exactly playable. It would be good if it was a PvE game, but this is a PvP Based MMORPG and that kind of lag means certain death in battle.
I'll keep testing it for a while longer but, well, i wouldn't play it.
lunedì 12 novembre 2012
Organization...
Not sure if i said this already or not, but work organization sucks quite badly in this company.
I have yet to understand to who i have to listen to, it happens often to recieve orders from various people above me, and it's quite difficult to manage everything at once, not to mention that everybody claimst that their orders must have the top priority... This is just driving me insane.
As i said in the past, my job here is supposed to involve customer service, you've heard me complain about these so called tickets quite a few times already, afterall most of them consist in complaints and ridiculous requests. Other than that i'm supposed to provide the paid services to our paying players, check that the game rules are being followed and organize events, i should also give support to the sales team when requested.
Point is, i'm not helping, i'm doing half of the work they're supposed to do, sure, i'm not the one planning the stuff, but if i'm the one who always has to do the physical work...
And then i recieve complaints that things aren't being done in time... Maybe they should be start asking themselves WHY.
I have yet to understand to who i have to listen to, it happens often to recieve orders from various people above me, and it's quite difficult to manage everything at once, not to mention that everybody claimst that their orders must have the top priority... This is just driving me insane.
As i said in the past, my job here is supposed to involve customer service, you've heard me complain about these so called tickets quite a few times already, afterall most of them consist in complaints and ridiculous requests. Other than that i'm supposed to provide the paid services to our paying players, check that the game rules are being followed and organize events, i should also give support to the sales team when requested.
Point is, i'm not helping, i'm doing half of the work they're supposed to do, sure, i'm not the one planning the stuff, but if i'm the one who always has to do the physical work...
And then i recieve complaints that things aren't being done in time... Maybe they should be start asking themselves WHY.
martedì 18 settembre 2012
From the frying pan into the fire...
The title says it all...
First update in a long time i know, forgive be but i've been incredibly busy with the transfer to the other game, lots of stuff to learn, lots of work to do.
Long story short, i got from an FPS to a MMORPG PvP centered, so i wasn't expecting much difference from the two player-mentality wise... couldn't be any more wrong than that.
There is an abyss of difference, i knew for a fact that FPS players are "rough" to each other... but MMORPGs player are by a tenfold!
People were bickering for stupid things, now they bicker for even more stupid things, when i read their tickets i feel like a teacher in a kindergarten "that guy called me stupid! i want him banned!".
Now, if only i could i would reply to them like this "Dear user, if you're filling in a report because someone called you stupid, i have bad news for you, for you really are STUPID".
Unfortunately i can't.
Of course there's much more, enough to write a book out of it, and who knows, maybe i will write one.
First update in a long time i know, forgive be but i've been incredibly busy with the transfer to the other game, lots of stuff to learn, lots of work to do.
Long story short, i got from an FPS to a MMORPG PvP centered, so i wasn't expecting much difference from the two player-mentality wise... couldn't be any more wrong than that.
There is an abyss of difference, i knew for a fact that FPS players are "rough" to each other... but MMORPGs player are by a tenfold!
People were bickering for stupid things, now they bicker for even more stupid things, when i read their tickets i feel like a teacher in a kindergarten "that guy called me stupid! i want him banned!".
Now, if only i could i would reply to them like this "Dear user, if you're filling in a report because someone called you stupid, i have bad news for you, for you really are STUPID".
Unfortunately i can't.
Of course there's much more, enough to write a book out of it, and who knows, maybe i will write one.
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