US: Exclusive Interview with NCsoft's Ashiva

We've left NCsoft alone for a few months and haven't really bothered them much since E3... so we thought we'd interrupt their sleep. Things turned out even better than we had thought... there, locked in a cupboard, at the back of the darkest room in the basement, was a new face... one we hadn't seen before. Naturally, we just had to talk to her!

Ok... so she wasn't really locked in a cupboard, but she is new to our Community, and she does know alot about Lineage... please welcome to LineageOne for the first time, Ashiva - Lead QA Tester for Lineage I in the US!

Read on for the full article...

Rooella	Hello Ashiva! It's great to finally catch up with you.  I hope you're settling in nicely?
Ashiva	I am -- although "settled" isn't quite the word.  There is always a lot going on here!
Rooella	So tell me... how is it you came to join us all here in Lineage-Land... Where did you come from?
Ashiva	I transferred onto Lineage, having previously worked on other projects as part of the NCsoft Quality Assurance team.  In all, I've been doing software QA for a few years now, both in and out of the game industry.
Rooella	So ya'll playing musical chairs in the office huh? What have you been doing the past few months whilst you've been finding your feet? Anything exciting? Oooh go on... you can tell us ^^
Ashiva	Orientation and organization.  I've been learning the details of the Lineage testing and publish cycle, as well as establishing some processes of my own.  This includes things like customizing and updating our bug tracking database, and getting on board with the support tools that allow me to receive all those bug reports submitted by players. And, of course, non-stop research and testing!
Rooella	Sounds like you've been a busy bee! So who are you working with? Presumably NCsoft doesn't have ya'll locked in dark rooms on your lonesome? Mind you... if Scout really *is* a vampire...
Ashiva	No, not lonesome at all.. actually there are a lot of us locked in this dark room .. OK so naturally I work with the NCsoft QA team. I'm also constantly pestering people in Publish, OCR and Customer Service, including Scout, Kyzah, Mistryl and GMSylvia.
Rooella	How are you finding things so far? Do you hate us all yet?
Ashiva	Things are busy, which I thoroughly enjoy.   And I don't hate any of you!  You guys find some great bugs -- how can I not love that?
Rooella	Bugs? We have those? *ducks* What are you enjoying the most?
Ashiva	Working with the fantastic Lineage team at NCsoft.
Rooella	What do you dread turning up at the office for?
Ashiva	...ehh..  they let us leave the dark room?  ;-)
Rooella	Yeah... Roo worries 'bout that too... Do you play much in your off-time?
Ashiva	Yep!
Rooella	I'd ask you what server and about your character - but i sooo know you won't be telling us that *pouts*... So i'll ask this: Dark Elves or Knights?
Ashiva	I won't be commenting on that either!  :-)
Rooella	Bah! Spoil-sport :( Antharas or Valakas?
Ashiva	GMSylvia!! :-)
Rooella	Hmm... are you calling her a Dragon? O.o Marmite, Love it or Hate it? (marmite is like a beef flavoured Jam - ask Kyzah... she likes to eat wierd and evil things apparently hehe)
Ashiva	Marmite is not available to us in the dark room.... and Kyzah will not speak of it.
Rooella	LOL... Do they feed you at all? O.o Speaking of dragons and cool stuff... aside from the impending arrival of the uber-so-uber Episode 4 content, what's going to be keeping you busy over the coming months?
Ashiva	We just finished publishing a sizeable build out to Test Server, and that one is still keeping me busy with a few loose ends.  Plus there's always documentation to be written, some in preparation for testing Episode 4.  I expect Episode 4 content will be on my desk sooner rather than later!  Not to mention testing on any cool stuff Scout might cook up in the meantime.
Rooella	So we still have lots to look forward to before the next major update?
Ashiva	There's always something to look forward to -- Lineage changes at an amazing pace!
Rooella	Don't we know it! Hey... you better get back to work or Mistryl will get cranky with me.... It took me weeks to get the custard off my shirt last time she got mad!  Thank you so much for taking some time out to come and talk with us today.  I'm sure we'll be talking again soon!
Ashiva	Any time!  And thank you for the chance to chat!  :-)
Rooella	I'll be back!!! (Arnold Swartzenegger-style voice)