DR TWISTER GETS ANOTHER ONE RIGHT [Author: wirehead]

Dr. Twister weighs in on the God-I-Don’t-Want-To-Make-Up-A-Name-For-This story. Check it out.

He also reports a story I’ve been sitting on while waiting for more confirmation. Namely that Origin is laying off their ENTIRE QA TEAM when U9 hits the door (which happened Friday) and COMPLETELY relying on volunteer labor to bugtest EVERY SINGLE UPCOMING ORIGIN RELEASE.

According to my informant, the feeling among those being laid off is that it is solely to avoid paying out bonuses and vesting that comes with being with the company over 7 years. Up until this point, the QA team had worked 12 hour days 7 days a week, so it wasn’t like there is any lack of work. Since the only project that’s made money for Origin in over 4 years has been UO, Origin’s corporate heads are scrambling to make every project in the pike conform to the “successful” UO model. There will be NO internal QA for UO2. NONE.

This is, um, unprecedented among professional gaming companies. Of course, the history of QA testing for UO has not been among the most stellar, but if you were worried about OSI being committed to the Volunteer Program, wonder no more.

They have staked their corporate future on it. Woo woo!