Aliens: Colonial Marines suffered from a lot of issues, including wonky enemy AI that resulted in erratic and confused Xenomorph behavior. More than five years after it came out, someone discovered that the bad behavior could have been the result of a simple typo in the code—a theory that we put to the test and found to be at least partially correct.
Launching without that typo probably wouldn't have been enough to "save" the game but it sure would've helped, and so to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again, Gearbox has posted a job listing for a Programming Copy Editor. Copy editing, as defined by Wikipedia, "is the process of reviewing and correcting written material to improve accuracy, readability, and fitness for its purpose, and to ensure that it is free of error, omission, inconsistency, and repetition."
"Gearbox Software is looking for a capable and driven full-time engineer to review all code for typos," the listing states. For those interested in applying, the details:
- Responsibilities: Review all code for typos. Just that.
- Desired Skills and Experience: Enjoys finding typos.
- Required Skills and Experience: Click apply and pass the rigorous questionnaire located on the application [interactive on the site, viewable below].
The job listing is "real," in that it's on the Gearbox Job Openings site (between Online Programmer and Senior Systems Programmer), but I'm pretty confident that it's not serious—that it is in fact Gearbox rolling with a bit of self-deprecating, and well-played, good humor. ("Teather" was the misspelling of "tether" that caused xeno AI to go off the rails in the first place.)
(But I applied, just in case. I'll let you know how it goes.)
