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Death Game Quality Assurance
Working as a quality-assurance grunt in the gaming industry sounds like fun, right? You get to play the coolest new games before anyone else. And all you have to do is to find, reproduce, and report bugs before the last pixel is locked in and the games are launched to an eager public. Sure, there’s the unpaid overtime, the office politics, and the ever-present threat of layoffs. But you get to game!
But when a small third-party testing team is assigned to work on Blade Skill Online - a highly anticipated virtual reality MMORPG - they quickly find that some bugs are more serious than others, and some truly insidious features are "working as intended".
If our intrepid QA team wants to survive the launch cycle, they're going to have to break this game. Hard.
But when a small third-party testing team is assigned to work on Blade Skill Online - a highly anticipated virtual reality MMORPG - they quickly find that some bugs are more serious than others, and some truly insidious features are "working as intended".
If our intrepid QA team wants to survive the launch cycle, they're going to have to break this game. Hard.
3 pages, Audible Audio
First published March 17, 2022
4 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
March 30, 2022
When I thought that Ready Player One and Ready Player Two weren't very good I wrote a couple of scathing reviews. Clearly doing that that wasn't enough for Andrew Rowe. Instead he's written a hilarious novella-length audio drama that details the experiences of a QA team working on the same sort of MMO that the Oasis is in the Ready Player One books.
This is quite brilliant and something that should be read by anyone who's had the Ernest Cline books or movie inflicted on them.
This is quite brilliant and something that should be read by anyone who's had the Ernest Cline books or movie inflicted on them.
March 24, 2022
This book was pretty slow for the first two-thirds, but stick with it because the ending makes it all worthwhile. The plot focuses on a group of test players whose job it is to find bugs in the game design and day after day they meet in a chat room to discuss the bugs they are finding and for one of them to comment on how management insists that none of the bugs are actually bugs. Once in a while we see the back and forths between bug-finder and management and it’s funny even while it’s perplexing.
Then the story takes a Ready Player One twist which shows why that book idea would never work in real life, but no, we are not yet to the climax of the story. I don’t want to give anything away except to say that every bug that had made the first part of the story drag now becomes critical to survival in a highly enjoyable ending.
If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
Then the story takes a Ready Player One twist which shows why that book idea would never work in real life, but no, we are not yet to the climax of the story. I don’t want to give anything away except to say that every bug that had made the first part of the story drag now becomes critical to survival in a highly enjoyable ending.
If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
June 25, 2022
2.5 stars 🌟 *Audible audio *
Narration and effects: 3.5 stars 🌟
Story/characters: 2.5 stars 🌟
---
At times boring and slow 🐌 but not a bad story overall. My eyes glazed over listening towards part of the end but one aspect of it was clever.
The humor was good, I liked the closeness and banter of everyone.. the "John Doe'guy was kind of bland and I never warmed to him really.
This is one that will be hit or miss so give it a try if it sounds interesting to you.
Narration and effects: 3.5 stars 🌟
Story/characters: 2.5 stars 🌟
---
At times boring and slow 🐌 but not a bad story overall. My eyes glazed over listening towards part of the end but one aspect of it was clever.
The humor was good, I liked the closeness and banter of everyone.. the "John Doe'guy was kind of bland and I never warmed to him really.
This is one that will be hit or miss so give it a try if it sounds interesting to you.
June 25, 2022
It started boring and then went stupid.
And all the QA interactions are pretty bad. I mean, it is fiction, but why embedded QA is more privileged than QA in centralized team? The new guy should have been a junior, but he is dumb as hell. "What do you mean by 'reproduce'? Can't developers find the bug in code?", "Should I email defects to a developer?". Who emails anything to developers these days? Bug tracking systems were there for decades (just checked - Bugzilla was released in 1998).
I assume the author tried to ease up readers who don't know anything about how IT works into a story.... So imagine it was about a hospital and a newbie goes like "What is this thing?.. A syringe? Should I stick it in me or in the patient?". It was like that.
There are several good jokes. Ready Player One reference is pretty good. But overall it was boring and too stupid (not in a good way).
And all the QA interactions are pretty bad. I mean, it is fiction, but why embedded QA is more privileged than QA in centralized team? The new guy should have been a junior, but he is dumb as hell. "What do you mean by 'reproduce'? Can't developers find the bug in code?", "Should I email defects to a developer?". Who emails anything to developers these days? Bug tracking systems were there for decades (just checked - Bugzilla was released in 1998).
I assume the author tried to ease up readers who don't know anything about how IT works into a story.... So imagine it was about a hospital and a newbie goes like "What is this thing?.. A syringe? Should I stick it in me or in the patient?". It was like that.
There are several good jokes. Ready Player One reference is pretty good. But overall it was boring and too stupid (not in a good way).
September 11, 2022
Pure comedy gold.
I loved it. I was laughing all the way through.
I especially liked the back and forth between QA and the Devs, especially since I happen to live on the Dev side. I wish I had such dedicated and competent QA. Bad faith and painting bugs as features is something I am quite good at. 😅
The narrators did a splendid job bringing the chippy irreverence of gamers to life. I don't think this book would even work in another format than audio, with the fantastic voice acting.
A massive recommend from me.
I loved it. I was laughing all the way through.
I especially liked the back and forth between QA and the Devs, especially since I happen to live on the Dev side. I wish I had such dedicated and competent QA. Bad faith and painting bugs as features is something I am quite good at. 😅
The narrators did a splendid job bringing the chippy irreverence of gamers to life. I don't think this book would even work in another format than audio, with the fantastic voice acting.
A massive recommend from me.
June 25, 2022
This was bad.
More info: the performance value of the was great - the music and sound effects brought this to life. The voice actors were really good as well. On the surface the it was interesting but there was no space for it to breathe and the execution of was terrible. The characters were one note (too short to be complex) which made them stereotypes and possibly worse.
Overall, an interesting concept but the book fell very, very flat as it didn't have enough room to do what I wanted from it.
More info: the performance value of the was great - the music and sound effects brought this to life. The voice actors were really good as well. On the surface the it was interesting but there was no space for it to breathe and the execution of was terrible. The characters were one note (too short to be complex) which made them stereotypes and possibly worse.
Overall, an interesting concept but the book fell very, very flat as it didn't have enough room to do what I wanted from it.
March 31, 2022
I have absolutely loved almost everything I had read by Rowe but this one just did not resonate with me.
Essentially the QA team for SAO argues with the game devs and gets caught in some shenanigans. It felt unoriginal and while the voice acting was great I’m not sure it was the right format.
A fun little read to kill some time but I wouldn’t go out of my way to pick this one up, even if you’re a big fan of Rowe’s other work.
Essentially the QA team for SAO argues with the game devs and gets caught in some shenanigans. It felt unoriginal and while the voice acting was great I’m not sure it was the right format.
A fun little read to kill some time but I wouldn’t go out of my way to pick this one up, even if you’re a big fan of Rowe’s other work.
March 18, 2022
Actual rating : 3.5
Stupidly fun. I just wish it was longer.
Stupidly fun. I just wish it was longer.
July 20, 2024
Four stars for a hysterically entertaining time.
This story is a mix of Ready Player One and Sword Art Online, both of which I loved. So this feels a bit derivative, but done intentionally. And the format was unique too: the audiobook reads as if it’s an Internet chat log between five QA testers working on an online game with many technical errors, which I thought fit perfectly with the story.
I would recommend this book, especially to those who like stories surrounding video games. Also, the audiobook is only two hours long, so why not?
This story is a mix of Ready Player One and Sword Art Online, both of which I loved. So this feels a bit derivative, but done intentionally. And the format was unique too: the audiobook reads as if it’s an Internet chat log between five QA testers working on an online game with many technical errors, which I thought fit perfectly with the story.
I would recommend this book, especially to those who like stories surrounding video games. Also, the audiobook is only two hours long, so why not?
September 23, 2025
I liked the idea of a QA team for video games battling the video game developers. The back and forth between the team finding the “bugs” and the developers were mildly funny. The big battle was not.
April 5, 2022
2.5 Stars.
It may appeal to folks who didn't like Sword Art Online or Ready Player One
It may appeal to folks who didn't like Sword Art Online or Ready Player One
December 1, 2025
3.5/5 Fun and cute novella.
March 28, 2023
3.5 stars. Not something I would normally gravitate toward, but I love Andrew Rowe, and I'll read anything by him. This is a superb full cast audiobook (and it's only available on audio, at least right now). Some funny moments, even though there's really not much to this. I love the mockery of Ready Player One and shitty video games though. This was just a fun and short listen.
August 14, 2022
This novella is full of insider jokes. First, there are a ton of jokes for those in the software industry, both about the process of making software, the way different roles in those companies you each other, in the industry a large. Second, there are a lot of jokes about video games, from really bad game design to references to famous games. Third, there are even more jokes That assume you know the biggest movies and/or books about video games (like Ready Player One). And all of this is packed into a series of team chat sessions. It is funny and very well done. If you don’t know software and video games and it’s possible you and miss a lot of the jokes. If you do this will be a really entertaining read for you.
March 19, 2022
This was actually really cute, it was a much lighter read and the characters were all adorably done!
March 31, 2022
Quick fun performance for nerds/gamers :)
April 1, 2022
This ended up being such a funny and enjoyable listen!
April 2, 2022
It's not necessarily a good story, but it is a fun story.
May 6, 2022
Recorded well, good narrators, just not my cup of tea. It did not seem to go much of anywhere.
May 30, 2022
This is my first book from Andrew Rowe and only chose it as it was free on audible.
I was excited to listen to this book as the blurb seemed interesting and appealed to my "gamer" side, however, I must say - I am not impressed by this book.
Beyond the fact that it seems very 'cut and paste' from a well-known anime it just fell short in the story.
The book is quite rushed and you struggle in getting to know any of the characters as everything is very superficial and no depth goes into the characters.
There is some instance where you cannot help but laugh due, however, it does not justify the fact to finish this book and I quite honestly only sat completed it due to its short time (only 2 hrs) and the fact on wanting to see if this ends the same way as the anime and no shocker it does.
The only redeemable factor for this audiobook is the performance of the narrators - they truly made it more manageable.
Storyline: 1/5
Theme: 1/5
Characters: 1/5
Performance: 4/5
I was excited to listen to this book as the blurb seemed interesting and appealed to my "gamer" side, however, I must say - I am not impressed by this book.
Beyond the fact that it seems very 'cut and paste' from a well-known anime it just fell short in the story.
The book is quite rushed and you struggle in getting to know any of the characters as everything is very superficial and no depth goes into the characters.
There is some instance where you cannot help but laugh due, however, it does not justify the fact to finish this book and I quite honestly only sat completed it due to its short time (only 2 hrs) and the fact on wanting to see if this ends the same way as the anime and no shocker it does.
The only redeemable factor for this audiobook is the performance of the narrators - they truly made it more manageable.
Storyline: 1/5
Theme: 1/5
Characters: 1/5
Performance: 4/5
October 2, 2022
I think this book is only in audio format. So, given that it was specifically made with that in mind, the writer and editors failed. This was unpleasant to listen to. Imagine a game like Pathfinder, which has the plays written down on the side.
There was something like this at one point in the book:
Player X has hit Player Y with a spell.
Player Y is immune
Player Y has hit Player X for 10 damage
Player X has hit Player Y with a spell.
Player Y is immune
Player Y has hit Player X for 10 damage
Repeated over and over for a few minutes. In a machine voice. It was not fun. And most of the book is like this. It is a series of service reports submitted, and updated.
I only finished because I read the ending was supposed to be worth it. While it was good, I don't think it was worth the pain.
There was something like this at one point in the book:
Player X has hit Player Y with a spell.
Player Y is immune
Player Y has hit Player X for 10 damage
Player X has hit Player Y with a spell.
Player Y is immune
Player Y has hit Player X for 10 damage
Repeated over and over for a few minutes. In a machine voice. It was not fun. And most of the book is like this. It is a series of service reports submitted, and updated.
I only finished because I read the ending was supposed to be worth it. While it was good, I don't think it was worth the pain.
January 11, 2023
2.3/5
Going to be honest. Didn’t really love this one. I was expecting for a short story audiobook that it would be a little more just in the action of the game fighting. Alas it was not (shoutout Odysseus there).
The story was more of less legit just quality assurance lol submitting tickets. It was obvious the tickets and bugs being submitted were clues for how they would win the battle in the end. But the battle was kinda short and easy and not difficult at all. I did enjoy the Prometheus character. Loved the cockiness.
The parts where they would go back and forth opening the tickets with the weird voice was very strange and made the listening experience weird. It was a different concept so I’m glad I experienced it. I just didn’t really love it and the story wasn’t too exciting.
Going to be honest. Didn’t really love this one. I was expecting for a short story audiobook that it would be a little more just in the action of the game fighting. Alas it was not (shoutout Odysseus there).
The story was more of less legit just quality assurance lol submitting tickets. It was obvious the tickets and bugs being submitted were clues for how they would win the battle in the end. But the battle was kinda short and easy and not difficult at all. I did enjoy the Prometheus character. Loved the cockiness.
The parts where they would go back and forth opening the tickets with the weird voice was very strange and made the listening experience weird. It was a different concept so I’m glad I experienced it. I just didn’t really love it and the story wasn’t too exciting.
March 26, 2023
Audible Freebie
I thought the plot was leading to a Sword Art Online / Ready Player One / HunterxHunter style trapped in a video game scenario but was surprised to learn it was much more like 2 hours of foreshadowing in the form of bug reports.
This would have been better if given the room to grow characters and story lines but because it was so short and included so much boring exposition about what game testers do it just felt very blah.
Lots of potential, fun though cliché, but no excitement or stakes.
I thought the plot was leading to a Sword Art Online / Ready Player One / HunterxHunter style trapped in a video game scenario but was surprised to learn it was much more like 2 hours of foreshadowing in the form of bug reports.
This would have been better if given the room to grow characters and story lines but because it was so short and included so much boring exposition about what game testers do it just felt very blah.
Lots of potential, fun though cliché, but no excitement or stakes.
October 22, 2024
So, yeah. I don't like to be one of those readers that say that complain about authors who try truly niche fiction -- yeah, this coming form an author that writes pretty good LitRPG, which is quite niche -- but yeah, there is a niche too far.
In this case, it's video game quality assurance -- you know, game-breakers -- sitting in their shoes and enjoying tons of in-jokes, but honestly, it should have been more grounded and less short. Maybe. Or more relatable. -- and this, coming from a guy who loves playing video games.
It's okay, not great, but okay. It's not Sword Art Online.
In this case, it's video game quality assurance -- you know, game-breakers -- sitting in their shoes and enjoying tons of in-jokes, but honestly, it should have been more grounded and less short. Maybe. Or more relatable. -- and this, coming from a guy who loves playing video games.
It's okay, not great, but okay. It's not Sword Art Online.
April 14, 2025
(2.5 Stars)
This was just "ok" for me. But full disclosure, I'm not a huge fan of the audio docudrama. Don't get me wrong, I love a book narrated by a full cast, but only when it is abridged. So this is really more about me than the book itself.
The characters were good, the voice acting was decent... there was one character who was difficult to understand, and the synthesized voice was not always at the same volume as the other characters, but other than that, it was good.
It was very short, short enough to finish in one sitting.
This was just "ok" for me. But full disclosure, I'm not a huge fan of the audio docudrama. Don't get me wrong, I love a book narrated by a full cast, but only when it is abridged. So this is really more about me than the book itself.
The characters were good, the voice acting was decent... there was one character who was difficult to understand, and the synthesized voice was not always at the same volume as the other characters, but other than that, it was good.
It was very short, short enough to finish in one sitting.
December 17, 2025
I enjoyed the multiple narrators, I think that they give each character a more unique voice and it made the characters easy to distinguish. The characters were relatable and their interactions were pretty funny.
I think that this might not have been the right format especially given the referencing of file names and usernames. Although I am grateful that it didn't include timestamps which would have been truly awful.
My other struggle is that I feel like I've seen a lot of this in other forms before. And also now I have the code monkey theme song stuck in my head.
I think that this might not have been the right format especially given the referencing of file names and usernames. Although I am grateful that it didn't include timestamps which would have been truly awful.
My other struggle is that I feel like I've seen a lot of this in other forms before. And also now I have the code monkey theme song stuck in my head.
March 18, 2022
A fantastically humourous and realistic take on the backend of game dev with some wholesome slice of life vibes. It's a quick but awesome and hilarious listen. Would recommend to everyone who plays or consumes media related to video games/fantasy. The voice casting is perfect for this style of work and really helps with the immersion!
March 18, 2022
3.5 stars
Tbh it’s probably closer to a 3, but the ending was funny, and I think this story (and Rowe in general) deserves a good chance, even if it didn’t resonate with me as much as Rowe’s other works.
Possible spoilers ahead but very light:
As someone who loves his work, I can say that this is a verrrrrry Andrew Rowe story; both in its strengths and flaws.
Rtc
Tbh it’s probably closer to a 3, but the ending was funny, and I think this story (and Rowe in general) deserves a good chance, even if it didn’t resonate with me as much as Rowe’s other works.
Possible spoilers ahead but very light:
As someone who loves his work, I can say that this is a verrrrrry Andrew Rowe story; both in its strengths and flaws.
Rtc
April 3, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I got to learn how QA works behind the scenes and I got a solid satire of the tropes from Ready Player One and LitRPG. The voice acting was great too. I probably wouldn't have spent a credit on it the book, but since it is included in my Audible subscription, it was worth the couple hours to listen to it..
February 14, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed the story all the way up to the final chapter. The character was fun, the storyline was predictable-yet-entertaining, with just enough to let you guess where things are going, and bring every detail of the story into the grand finale.
Then they spent the last chapter as an ad for Socialism. Completely ruined the whole experience.
Then they spent the last chapter as an ad for Socialism. Completely ruined the whole experience.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews