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Death Game Quality Assurance  By  cover art

Death Game Quality Assurance

By: Andrew Rowe
Narrated by: Dina Pearlman, Travis Baldree, Yoshi Amao, Andrew Call, Fiona Rene, Judy Alice Lee, Adam McArthur, Jalen Gilbert
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Publisher's summary

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.

©2021 Andrew Rowe (P)2022 Audible Originals, LLC.

About the Creator

Andrew Rowe is The New York Times best-selling novelist of the Arcane Ascension, War of Broken Mirrors, and Weapons and Wielders series. Each of these books is set in the same sprawling, interconnected universe and known for their intricate world building, detailed magic systems, analytical characters, and epic anime-style action.
Andrew started his career as a game designer working for tabletop RPG books for companies like White Wolf, then later entered the video game industry to work on the legendary MMORPG World of Warcraft at Blizzard Entertainment. After leaving Blizzard, he worked at other amazing companies like Cryptic Studios and Obsidian Entertainment. As a long-time RPG enthusiast, Andrew draws heavily from games for his inspiration, especially Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs) like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Ys, Fire Emblem, and The Legend of Heroes.
In his free time, Andrew still runs roleplaying games in the same universe as his books, including Spider Climb, an interactive web serial where fans vote on how the story progresses after each chapter.

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What listeners say about Death Game Quality Assurance

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

fun, love the humor

The computer voice takes a minute to adjust to, but the actors all play/voice their part well! Fun.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

short, fun distraction

great dialogue and semi-interesting characters in a geeky context. emphasis on realities of qa process detract from the story imho

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Awesome book!

Really, really funny. It does require some specialized knowledge of MMO's and shows/manga/books about MMO's to get every last laugh out of it. But I bet its pretty cool even without it. The Narrative cast was great, I felt like they nailed the personalities instantly. I loved the 8 bit sound effects, and obviously I thought the story was great. It really made me think twice about a bunch of different problems with other stories that I had let my suspension of disbelief give them a pass on.

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1 person found this helpful

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  • TJ
  • 11-01-22

Unexpectedly entertaining

The first few minutes are jarring because of the various voice actors and sound effects, but it grows on you pretty quickly as everyone settles into their characters. The story was short, sweet, and entertaining. This is also the first story I’ve listened to that is comprised almost entirely of conversation and no physical descriptors, but it worked really well. I’d recommend this as a fun palate cleanser before your next book.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Takes storyline from ready player one

it was okay, the performance was done well but one of the main points in the story is ripped straight from ready player one. on top of this the story feels oversimplified and ripe with cliches.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Wish I could get my 2 hrs back

I think someone that is a gamer or developer may enjoy it but a complete waste of my time.
The performances were pretty good but that’s all I can say about it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible work by Rowe!

Once again, I find myself totally captivated by the characters Rowe has written! With such a short book, his skill with dialog and characterization is even more apperant.

The conversation in this book took place over a chat log and was performed by many different narrators. I've listened to books where each character is a different voice talent, and typically, they feel a bit disjointed or off. But this story completely reversed that and felt so natural! The voice actors did an incredible job in taking these characters the extra mile!

On top of that, the story itself was super incredible. There were a number of references to all kinds of pop culture, in specific things like Sword Art Online, Ready Player One, and those are just the major ones I caught! There are plenty of smaller references too, direct and indirect, that are sure to please!

But even if those are unfamiliar or not your cup of tea, this story has some really fun insights into quality assurance and game development and is generally just a lot of fun! I highly recommend it for anyone interested or looking for a light read.

And of course, check out Rowe's other amazing work! He's a great author, and the talent shown in this work is not a one-off thing! (Especially if you liked this but want some more serious moments, his other books have a great mix of levity and seriousness.)

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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QA at its finest

Peak QA humor. Amazing SAO parody. Amazing characters with stunning performances by an amazing cast.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Hilarious

amazing, possibly as good as How to defeat a demon king. thanks for your talent Rowe

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4 people found this helpful

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short but a lot of good here.

it's one of the shorter books by Andrew rowe, but even so, it had me captured from word one. give it a listen. you'll thank me.

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2 people found this helpful