Adonis
From The Extended Group
Revision as of 07:21, 10 February 2006
"Adonis" was a worker at the Microsoft playtesting center in Redmond Washington. Gavin and Kevin met him in 2004 when they went to a playtest to experience the game of "Sudeki". While Gavin had done multiple playtests before, lured by their bright lights and easy cash from reselling the Microsoft items, this was the first one that Kevin had been to. Kevin was recruited after Microsoft called Gavin and told him that people had dropped out of the playtest and that he should call anyone who might be interested. Gavin placed multiple phone calls but because this was UW midterm time, Kevin was the only one able to go. Gavin was later verbally admonished for not recruiting Kjell, although Gavin would defend himself by how he doesn't know Kjell very well.
Adonis was directly in charge of the playtest that involved around sixteen people, and he was required to constantly read reminders about the playtest and what we were supposed to be doing in the game. It is important to note that the game was an awful action-rpg that was believed to be actually killing Kevin as he played. The fact that this playtest was split into two six hour sessions didn't make it any better and Kevin and Gavin would often compare their experience to that of coal miners.
The game made little sense about who it was supposed to be appealing to, as it was too violent for children because of a lot of blood and innuendo, but at the same time it failed to appeal to adults as the story was idiotic with talking animals and puzzles never went beyond the color coded variety. The fact that Gavin and Kevin were expected to write about the experience in the form of a nearby computer commentary system meant that Gavin would write comments such as "I just got a telescope that I am supposed to deliver to the lighthouse, but I don't want to" while Kevin would write "awful".
Adonis was closely associated with the phrase "the Spider Queen of Shadani-Mo" as this described a boss that we were supposed to stop playing once reached, so that we could be skipped later in the game. It is important to note that once Gavin reached the final boss the whole game crashed upon itself, so in the remote possibility that the game was being enjoyed it would have been unfinishable anyway.
Gavin and Kevin were given multiple breaks to eat pizza and drink grape water and these breaks were held in a nearby conference room. The room tv was set on Comedy Central, but this was made sad by how the only program that seemed to be aired was a show about the search for comedians and due to the timing of the breaks Gavin and Kevin only saw the comedians walking off stage. This experience was made even worse by how Ronald Reagan died the second day of the playtest.
Gavin and Kevin were well compensated for their work with four pieces of expensive Microsoft software each. Gavin promptly put his up for sale on E-bay and arranged for a cash exchange to happen at the Lynnwood Third Place Books parking lot. The fact that this sort of deal with a total stranger should have raised red flags was ignored by both Kevin and Gavin who were driven to the location by Gavin's dad. Gavin and Kevin waited at the appointed time with two grocery bags with hundreds of dollars of software inside, and after the guy didn't show up Gavin called his cell phone from a nearby pay phone while Kevin played with a dog. Gavin reached him and found that he was on the other side of the building and would drive around. Kevin and Gavin watched as a hatchback drove up with a guy inside wearing a baseball hat and sunglasses (which he removed) and they approached the car. Greetings were exchanged and Kevin handed his sack of software into the car, in exchange for a roll of bills. Kevin then counted the money, found all to be in order, and so Gavin handed his software to the guy and the deal was over. It is important to note that this exchange looked extremely suspicious to onlookers, and was probably not made better by Gavin and Kevin then jogging to their getaway car. Gavin deposited his money at Washington Mutual and Kevin bought an iPod.
