Testing SimCity: The Dream Job
           by Ben Farley, Senior Software Tester

Taken from the official SimCity 4 site at www.simcity.ea.com

Greetings, my fellow SimCity Mayors! My name is Ben Farley and I
have been a SimCity Mayor since 1990. At first it was just another
fun time for me in my adolescent years, but as I grew up and went
off to college, SimCity 2000 hit store shelves. I was once again
consumed by the need to plan and develop massive metropolises.
Soon I found that my college classes in business were not as
complex or thought-provoking as balancing the RCI demand levels of
my SimCity. Nowadays I have found the perfect balance of work and
play -- I am an Electronic Arts Senior Software Tester for SimCity
4.

Q: What is the coolest thing you can do in SimCity 4 that you
couldn't do in previous SimCity games?

A: I would have to say connected city play. This stuff was sort of
available in 3k, but it has seen so much improvement that it's
really something new. Sims can work or live in a neighboring city
and still participate in your city. The demand for housing and
jobs carries across from one connected city to another, allowing
for the development of true residential-only suburbs with integral
economies. This allows me as the mayor to do what we are referring
to now as the suburb savior city.  When my main city is going into
a declining state for whatever bad mayoral decision I may have
made, if I add a city next door and create a positive demand
balance, it is possible to go back into the city that was
declining and see it escalate again due to the suburb city's
shared demands.

Q: How many people does it take to fully test an enormous game
like SimCity 4?

A: There were over 30 core testers on the main testing team, along
with several experienced consultants brought in to concentrate on
the tuning, as well as 16 foreign testers from Asia and Europe.
Several more quality control testers around the world finished up
the process and made sure the game is ready for you in your
region.

Q: What is the normal bug count on a PC project of this size?

A: Projects of this magnitude generate several thousand
functionality bugs. When the game is going to be released around
the world at the same time, you get to add in thousands of text
translation issues, add in all of the foreign operating systems
and the need for importation compatibility with The Sims in all of
those languages--and you're looking at an overwhelming number of
issues. Thankfully, we are experienced and ready for all of this
at Electronic Arts.

Q: What constitutes a bug?

A: A bug can be something as small as a missing punctuation mark,
a missing shadow, or bad sound. A bug can also be big - - really
big -- such as every tree missing the trunk texture, none of the
user interface functioning, or actions that result in corrupted
save game files. As you can imagine, finding all of the big bugs
is a major priority, but we also need to make sure the little bugs
are fixed as well. You wouldn't want a game in which the
Washington Monument had no shadow or made inappropriate sounds.

Q: What was the funniest thing you did while testing SimCity 4?

A: I think it was the day The Sims: Unleashed was released.  One
of the testers got it installed and started a family named "The
driving cat." Then he imported the cat from the family named
"Toonces" into SimCity 4. I think he started with a small truck,
but by the end of the day, he was in driving 4 x 4 vehicles and
complaining about not living close enough to the city dump.

Q: What excited you the most in the game while you were Mayor?

A: I was the most excited the first time I got the Zoo reward. It
took a lot of careful planning and development to reach, and I was
really happy to enjoy the positive effects of placing the Zoo in
my city.

Q: What are some of the perks of working on a project like SimCity
4?

A: Well, there are many perks involved, but I think the highlight
of this project was when we got treated to a prerelease viewing of
the new "Harry Potter" movie, and my testing team happened to be
lucky enough to sit next to Will Wright in the theater.

That's all for now! There are always more Sims that need testing,
and I better get back to challenging everything.








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