On playing games for a living

Song of this post:
Hooverphonic - Revolver

So now I've been working as a game tester for an upcoming MMO for nearly a month. And, aside from the crazy stuff that has been happening in regards to finding a place, things are great. It's a somewhat big "aside" at the moment, and transition into the Netherlands so far has been a lot less smooth than transition into Finland was in 2006, but I guess you can't have it all.

The job and the team is fun, and that goes for both the small QA team and the overall office team.
I've mostly been doing quest-testing, and although that technically means I have to play the game like an end-user/player, it's not really as "omg you get paid for that?" as it might appear on a first glance. We do have some rather handy cheats that allow us to complete quests faster - insta-teleport to NPC anyone? Insta-travel to whatever part of the game world you need to go to? Sure, here you go! - but that's a bit of a two-sided thing; while it does improve our abilities to test entire quest-chains pretty fast, it also means that despite having "played" the game for nearly 4 weeks, I'm still a clueless noob in regards to "normal" traveling and reaching quest objectives - and I have no bloody idea at all about anything outside the area people will start in, as that's what we've been focusing on for the most part in the past 2 weeks.

I'm looking forward to testing the content beyond level ~15 and exploring the game further. We met up with a whole group from the office yesterday and just gave each other a good bashing, running around killing poor wildlife creatures and stuff ... it was great fun to have larger groups and actually having the synergy of the different disciplines working together.
The combat system is quite something, and it took me a bit to get my mind out of the "button-mashing" mode used by the MMOs I've tried so far (EVE/WOW). Once I had adapted though ... well, you'll just have to try it! Personally, I like it a lot, I think it's a lot more versatile and more thought as well as concentration needs to be put into combat, even PVE.

If you're waiting for a fantasy-based MMO or just any fun-to-play MMO that doesn't require hours of mindless mob-grinding, I can only recommend Spellborn.
And that's enough of my sales pitch. ;)

Ta-taa.

Fear and loathing in The Hague #3

Song of this post:
Bush - Everything Zen

Another day later, my first landlord writes a mail saying that we took some of his stuff, which we really did, albeit accidentally and mostly due to everyone having the same IKEA stuff these days because it's the only affordable stuff unless you've got a nice big monthly pay-cheque.
Before S and I headed there to return it, he called me wanting to confirm that I brought not only his stuff, but also the half-month rent I had offered and which he had "declined" before. I told him I wasn't going to pay him anything anymore, that he'd has said it was my decision and I had decided and that the whole affair would be over as far as I was concerned once I had handed him his stuff. He went on another mab rambling argument trying to cite contract violation - what contract? Oh yeah, the one we never signed! - until I told him I wasn't going to change my position no matter how much he kept talking.
When S and I showed up at the place, he answered the door in full running-gear and carrying a camera. When he asked me if I had "throught about it again" I told him there were no changes in my position regarding the money - and *flashflash* he started taking pictures. S and I turned around and started walking away ... and he followed, running around us like a mad paparazzi trying to get pictures of our faces and babbling on about how he was going to stop once I had paid the money I "owed" him. S was getting quite scared by his behaviour, he was still following us back to the tram stop, and when he didn't stop even though we repeatedly told him to get lost and stop trying to take our pictures, I called the police...

I think that's only the second time ever I called the police, and the first time because I actually felt threatened.
Anyhow. They arrived within a few minutes, we told our story to one officer, he told his story to another officer ... and that was pretty much it. He was sent home and told to delete all the pictures he took (which he did), and we learned that he wasn't even allowed to sublet the place as it was, since he was only renting it himself and it didn't belong to him, and that he would be getting a lot of trouble and probably get kicked out if the official places heard of this!

We went home and tried to salvage what we could from the mostly-ruined evening, which wasn't that much, with S being wired and me in utter disbelieve and still high on adrenaline.

Now I found another place, rented out by an old guy (around 70 I'd guess), I have receipts for the deposit and partial rent I paid and my only worry is that he could die early.
I'll be moving my stuff next weekend, and from then on I'll hopefully have finally arrived in The Hague and can start worrying about just work and a long-distance relationship and fill my sparetime with fun stuff like playing games and planning visits of/to my friends' places.

...just waiting for the next desaster to hit...

Ta-taa.

Fear and loathing in The Hague #2

Song of this post:
Bush - Float

I had just left for work the next morning when S sent me a somewhat panicky text message saying "get online ASAP, there's some house supervisor guy here saying you're not allowed here". Erm, what? Oh great!
Turns out that some junk that my new "landlord" had left for me to throw away in the hallway had spawned the building supervisor a few minutes after I had left, was surprised to find my girlfriend in the flat and from there on it went kinda downhill. Subletting the apartment was not legal. I got a call from my "landlord", asking me how I could fuck this up like that and that I'd better call the supervisor telling him some story how I was just a buddy visiting for a short time, else he, my "landlord", would get kicked out. Called the building supervisor, told him something of unicorns and princesses which he seemed to swallow well enough ... and found myself having to start looking for a place again, since I obviously couldn't stay for long after this. A full month of rent, 450€, gone with the wind, pretty much...

End of part #2

Ta-taa...

Fear and loathing in The Hague #1

Song of this post:
Bush - Hurricane

On February 12th, I moved to the Netherlands. I first stayed at Xandria's place (much thanks again!), started to work on the 15th and was looking for rooms and apartments "on the side".
The first place I found and moved to seemed quite nice: huge common living/dining room, large kitchen, bathroom with bathtub, second small bathroom, about 23m² to live in for myself. The landlord, who also shared the apartment, seemed to be rather cool as well, mid-30s, even spoke German. We agreed to sit down and go over the formal contract when we found the time, and with both of us working that took a while.
About a week after I had officially moved in, I actually collected my stuff from the old flat and moved whatever I needed to the flat in The Hague. S stayed for the remainder of the weekend, helped with moving in, eventually left on Tuesday morning.
Tuesday evening, the landlord and I wanted to go over the contract. When I got home and after talking for a few minutes, it suddently turned a bit odd. He told me he didn't really appreciate me having visitors (my girlfriend S in this case) without clearing it up with him first and that he wasn't fond at all of "having an additional person living" there; also, it'd be appreciated if I could be home before 11pm so I wouldn't "wake everyone up every night".
Needless to say, I felt like I had just run headlong into a concrete wall. A thick one. I told him I'd have to think this over - and started looking for alternatives right away.

No visitors? Home by 11pm? Please sign here if you've not made it to the 21st century in Central Europe yet.

2 days later, I was lucky and found a place I could move to right away; a pretty cool and relaxed late-20s-early-30s student subletting his apartment in a student apartment tower.

After coordinating with my parents and S, we managed to pack everything up and move it on one afternoon, about an hour after I had told the landlord that I wasn't going to sign any rental agreement with "house rules" like the ones he wanted me to obey; when I told him I was willing to pay half a month rent (because I had lived there for 10 days), he went on a mad ramble about how he either wanted it all "fair" - by which he meant me paying him a full rent of 450€ and another 450€ as deposit which he was then going to keep because I was moving out in violation of our (non-existing) contract - or he wasn't gonna take any money at all, the decision would be up to me. 3 guesses which option I decided to go for...

End of part #1.

Ta-taa!