Ross Pastones, QA Tester
Marvel Heroes Forums: SuperRossome
Ross always had a knack for play-testing and doing tests on various websites for hours at a time. This lead to the start of his testing career and four-year tenure at PlayStation, just down the street here in San Mateo, California. “PlayStation is a very large company, so it was hard to move up – that was part of the appeal of coming to Gazillion.” When I asked what he worked on with PlayStation, he threw his head back and laughed — assuring me he pretty much worked on everything. At PlayStation, Ross was responsible for looking at multiple games at the same time, and only having so much time to do it; he specialized in requirements and standards.
“Stuff like an underage child talking to people online when they shouldn’t be able to due to parental restrictions (bug on controls). Or reporting that your save data got deleted for no reason.” He really enjoyed looking for these bugs and fixing things, but after nearly half a decade, his contract ended. He had heard about Marvel Heroes and started with the beta. Diving into the forums, he tracked down as many Gazillion employees as he could, sending them his resume and showing his appreciation for the game. Shortly after Ross started to communicate with folks on the forums, a job listing popped up, and he got in. “I really wanted to work here, so I took every avenue I could to get a job here.”
Like most people in QA, Ross does not take the stigmas against his line of work lightly. Ross speaks for himself and everyone else on the team: “There’s a stigma that if a bug isn’t caught, it’s our fault. I feel like the honest truth is that for every 1,000 bugs we find, one may slip through. A lot of the world doesn’t acknowledge that. Yeah, it’s our job to find every single one, but people who look at QA in any industry – we are trying our hardest. We get that stressful view from outside parties, but we still love what we do.” Ross truly believes Gazillion appreciates QA, as they include the team on the creative process, and ask for recommendations for content and genuinely listen to their feedback, and implement their suggestions.
