Actually, somebody just figuring out the controls is exactly what you need at a game company, at least as a part-time tester. "New user experience" is essential to a successful game. This goes doubly when your game is open (like Minecraft), meaning you don't have the benefits of some exhaustive tutorial before gameplay begins. This goes triply when you're making an enormous content update just a few short months before the game officially goes gold. This goes quadruply when your game is somewhat infamous for having a horrible beginning if you haven't already committed the wiki to memory; how the heck are you supposed to know that punching down trees works better than punching down stone, let alone why you have to build a house with a light source before night falls?
Now, I doubt she'd be useful as a programmer, obviously. But, from what I understand, Notch basically does the core of the programming himself; his other 'programmers' basically add tiny side-features while desperately trying to figure out how the heck Minecraft works. (Note how long it took to implement pistons, which were pretty much fully-functional in mod form before integration even began!)
To give you a POV: Listen to some of the Valve developer commentaries; in particular, the L4D1 commentary details the development team bringing in family and friends that had almost zero gaming experience. Like Minecraft, L4D is a game with no structured introduction or tutorial, and so making sure new users didn't get confused was essential. Odds are, this is exactly what Lydia is expected to do.
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Topic: Minecraft - It has blocks. (Read 2419177 times)