Community Updates – June 10th

By Community Manager posted June 10, 2011 at 4:41 pm

Greetings TimeGate Community,

Welcome to the new TimeGate Community Updates Blog. Every Friday, we will be posting a new blog with the latest TimeGate News, community event announcements, as well as a “Get to Know your Fellow” community members and developers section.


Event Announcements

Section 8: Prejudice Clan Tournament – Xbox 360 and PC

We have a lot of big plans for the community in the coming months. Beginning next week, both Xbox 360 and PC clans will be able to register for the first Section 8: Prejudice Clan tournament, which will be held on Thursday, June 23rd, from 7-10PM CST. Starting this month,we will begin hosting monthly clan tournaments for our community members. For those of you not in a clan, we will be announcing an event that all community members can take part of next Friday. More details on registering for the clan tournament will be posted Monday, June 13th.

New Weekly Clan Rankings

We will be posting weekly clan rankings every Monday starting June 13th. One of moderators, Rossinna, will be updating the clan rankings every week. The purpose of this ranking is to stimulate growth and competition between the 800+ Section 8: Prejudice clans. Each clan can compete for a weekly position on this Ladder. We will track only certain stats so smaller clans have the ability to reach number 1. Keep checking the forums for more details, including details on the prizes we will be giving to the top clans.

PC Update

We are also happy to announce that we will be releasing an update for PC that will fix a number of issues, including the FOV issue. More details coming next week, including the full update notes.


For the latest news on current events and game updates, visit www.warisprejudice.com , and follow the us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Section8Game and on Facebook at http://facebook.com/Section8Game.



Get to know the Section 8: Prejudice Developers

Each week, we will be profiling a pair of developers here at TimeGate Studios so you can get a glimpse of what life is like here at TimeGate Studios. This week, we profiled two Quality Assurance Testers, Matt Moore and Jesse Ziglar. Not only are they two of our best testers, but they also sit right next to each other. Let’s just say, it is an interesting dynamic. Here are their hilarious responses to the questions we asked.

Matt Moore- Quality Assurance Tester – Nickname: Moomat

1. What are your favorite games of all time?

Fallout 1 and 2, Warcraft 2, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Secret of the Magic Crystals(Life like weather effects).

2. What was is it like working on Section 8: Prejudice, and what was your favorite part of working on Prejudice?

I enjoyed watching the game grow and change over time. It’s very different playing a finished game, and watching the game slowly change and be shaped into a finished game. Running around a familiar corner in a level, only to encounter an infuriating laser beam of death swaying to and fro that wasn’t there yesterday, really changes how you view the game.

3. Which presentation at E3 did you most enjoy this year? What games are you looking forward to?

I haven’t been paying close attention to E3. It’s not really my thing. However, I love the WiiU. Not because the console interests me, but I enjoy saying the name. WiiU. WiiU.

4. Describe a typical day in QA.

When you get there in the morning, you load up the new build of the game created the night before. You spend a little time playing, testing basic features and functions to make sure nothing obvious or big is broken. Then you verify specific bugs reported the day before have been fixed. These are usually quick and straightforward, but very important to the process of making the game better. In the afternoon you’re given a specific feature to review, and spend a while checking that feature in every way you can think. This can range from verifying every object in the game has collision, to making sure the latest content change is in place and working correctly. While doing this, you are often asked to help devs reproduce issues you’ve found and work on specific things devs need done that day. When all this is done, you head home and get ready to start the process over again. These events can happen in any order during the day and the priority can change at a moment’s notice. As QA, your day doesn’t end until the job is done.

5. What is it like sitting next to Jesse?

Imagine working with an intelligent, interesting, valiant, charming, calm, level headed, courteous, tall, wonderful person. It’s nothing like that at all.

6. If you were not in the Video Game Industry, what would you be doing?

I’d be a lobster therapist, working in a lobster rehabilitation clinic in Maine.



Jesse Ziglar- Quality Assurance Tester – Nickname: Jesse Beiber

1. What are your favorite games of all time?

Persona 4, Morrowind, Halo, Majora’s Mask.

2. What was is it like working on Section 8: Prejudice, and what was your favorite part of working on Prejudice?

It’s like eating a really, really large hamburger. For the first 75% of it, you are loving it, it’s delicious, and you want more. But then, you realize you’ve ate too fast and you’re now full. So, the last 25% is so difficult to eat because you just ate 75% of a really large hamburger.

I think my favorite moment was back in the early playtesting periods, back when the game was going through so many design and balance changes I really got to see the game really grow into a unique experience.

3. Which presentation at E3 did you most enjoy this year? What games are you looking forward to?

I’m a big Uncharted fan, so I think that Uncharted 3 is going to be pretty amazing. Skyrim also looks pretty awesome.

The Nintendo stuff was pretty cool just because they really kept it coming with new stuff. New games, a new console, it’s a lot to take it, but they really brought it home and just kept throwing new things out. A few of the other presentations just kept it simple with sequels and a few weird new pieces of hardware.

4. Describe a typical day in QA.

It’s like a rollercoaster. We start off slowly going up the tracks before lunch, not really much is happening, but we’re making it. Then, after lunch, a ton of stuff is thrown at us, we’re holding on for dear life just trying to make sure we don’t fall off. Then, we slowly slide into the end of the ride. Then somebody tells us that we’re working late and we cry, stay on the ride, finally get back up to the top of the ride where they throw us off and tell us to come back eight hours later. It’s the life .

5. What is it like sitting next to Matt?

Moomat is a hippie. We tend to have very long discussions about random things like whether or not it’s a teacher’s job to make sure people are learning, and why he doesn’t like cheese. Who doesn’t like cheese? Throughout the day, I have to wonder whether or not he’s trolling me or he actually has a serious argument (75% of it is trolling). Then he’ll switch my chair and blame it on one of our other coworkers, or try to incite my wrath by saying something completely ludicrous. Occasionally, he spouts lyrics from Norwegian musical artists that are so bad I have to put on headphones, and I still hear it. And he wears the same ridiculous shirts every single day; he looks like a plumber. He’s a hippie plumber. So, working next to Moomat is like working next to a hippie Norwegian plumber pop-star.


Get Get to know your fellow Community Members

In addition to our new section on Getting to know the Developers, we would also like to give everyone the opportunity to learn about your fellow community members. Each week we will profile two community members. This week we have chosen two of our moderators, Dark Pulse and Rossinna.

Dark Pulse – Moderator

1. Name?

Thomas, same as my father.

2. Where are you from?

In Buffalo, NY, born and raised, on the playground, is where I spent most of my… sorry. Go Bills!

3. What are you favorite games of all time?

Depends on genre… I’ll try to keep it to three of each, and I’m counting the whole series, not specific games. FPS: Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, Doom (But not Doom 3). RPG: Shadow Hearts, Valkyrie Profile, Elder Scrolls. Misc: Any “Metroidvania” (such as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night), Professor Layton, and a little unloved fighting game called Melty Blood.

4. How long have been a part of the TimeGate community?

I was a part of the first Section 8′s Closed and Open betas, and worked up enough of a presence that even when I vanished after Borderlands came out and then returned once Prejudice was announced, people actually remembered me. I’ve been here mostly non-stop since I returned last fall, active in Prejudice’s beta as well as ingame, of course. Most would probably consider me one of the prominent guys, I’d figure.

5. What is your favorite feature of Section: Prejudice?

It’s hard to really pick one thing, because a lot has changed under Prejudice compared to the first Section 8. I guess I would say the increased customization options for your soldier, in the form of both additional passive mods and the new weapon mods, are ultimately what impressed me the most. During the lagtime between Prejudice’s beta ending and the main game coming out, when I picked the first S8 back up, I was finding myself wishing my machinegun would set people on fire, that tanks could jump up and get unstuck… things like that.

6. Which presentation at E3 did you most enjoy this year? What games are you looking forward to?

E3 this year was actually kind of lackluster! The big three aren’t trying anything really amazing, Sega still isn’t getting back into the console race, and it all kind of felt like a preview for next year. 2012 will be a better year due to the announcements of the Wii U and the Playstation Vita, though. As for games, out of what’s been shown at E3, I guess what impressed me best is – no points for guessing right – Deus Ex: Human Revolution, although I’m also looking very forward to Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Mass Effect 3. I can’t wait to play all three of those.



Rossinna – Moderator

1. First Name?

Ross

2. Where are you from?

Australia – Queensland – Brisbane

3. What are your favorite games of all time?

Command and Conquer Tiberium Sun – Total Annihilation – UT1999 – UT2004 – Tsukihime (its actually a visual novel) – Dune 2000 – World of Warcraft – Galactic Civilizations 2 – Sins of a Solar Empire

4. How long have been a part of the TimeGate community?

October 23rd, 2009 was the official join date. However I silently trolled the forums since a few days before the launch of Section 8 when I first stumbled upon its trailer on Steam.

5. What is your favorite feature of Section: Prejudice?

Impromptu Co-Op mode: 4\5 human players on one side, 57 trivial bots on the other on a 2 CP map. Otherwise it would be the ARM bike, I love that thing when it’s not been landed on, EMP’ed or something else which will scratch its paint.

6. Which presentation at E3 did you most enjoy this year? What games are you looking forward to?
That’s two questions.

The one that impressed me the most was BF3, though I’m not overly looking forward to it as the addition of Prone Snipers is going to drive me nuts, as I hate snipers.

The game I am most looking forward to (apart from Section 8′s 3rd game) would have to be Star Wars: The Old Republic. I can’t say I’ll be playing it constantly when it comes out since it is an MMO and I don’t play MMOs alone anymore, but it’s still a day 1 purchase\pre-order.