Games Tester

[Xena]

I'm really intrested in becoming a Games Tester. Please bear in mind I live in the UK so I'm only looking for UK jobs/companies, and I am looking for a career in games but I don't mind starting at the bottom. A few things I need to know:

How would I go about applying for the position?
What qualifications would I need, if any?
What's the pay and hours like? (I don't care about getting low pay for long hours to start with.)

Any other info would be apprciated.

[Borman]

Call up the companies, or check their websites for job openings. Most dont require much more then good writing skills. Pay isnt usually that great, and hours can be long. And the job sucks. You can sit there for a week playing the same level, or the same portion of a level, running in circles, jumping around, and doing nothing. It sure wont make your view of the gaming industry any better.

[Josh]

I second Borman's view of the job. I have read articles from people who were game testers. Many of them say that it is very low pay for the hours. MAny of them have also gotten to the point of hating video games. You have to pretty much test every thing, and try to "break" the game. This is just like what Borman said. You have to play the same level or same part of a level OVER AND OVER AND OVER again.

[kupo]

I've been testing games for Codemasters and Atari/Infogrames myself. Its about five years ago since I quitted (got a _real_ job ), but I suggest you just search for email addresses at the company sites if you want to try. Oh, the pay was very, very low back then and I doubt it has gotten better. I'm still "picking games apart" with walkthroughs now and then - without any payment . I wouldnt mind starting as a tester again, if I could decide how much/when I wanted to do it, but time is limited.

[Kazuya Mishima]

A better job is a game reviewer you actually play and write about the game for e.g.gaming magazine.

[kupo]

A better job is a game reviewer you actually play and write about the game for e.g.gaming magazine.

That's my job
And yeah, I agree. Of course, lots of stress there too.

[Kazuya Mishima]

That's my job
And yeah, I agree. Of course, lots of stress there too.

What magazine do you write for?

[pkt-zer0]

How would I go about applying for the position?
What qualifications would I need, if any?
What's the pay and hours like? (I don't care about getting low pay for long hours to start with.)

"Hey I have lots of free time and patience, can I beta plz?" would be a good start, or something.

As for UK companies, they're rather small, but Introversion comes to my mind. Not sure whether they're accepting testers and the like right now.

Also, based on my limited experience in software engineering: debugging is the worst part of development, but also one of the most important ones.

[kupo]

What magazine do you write for?

Norwegian publication
But that has nothing to do with Xena's question anyhow.
Just send a mail to those guys, Xena! Just write some lines about that you're an experienced gamer, have the time to do it etc.

[Cyberxion]

I write reviews for Borman's site. It's been a great experience. Eye-opening as well, in that it's shown me that I can't write up an interesting game review to save my life.

As for game testing, depending on the company, you're looking at low pay, 10-12 hour work days, sometimes testing one single section of a level over and over. It's apparently high-stress, with very little fun actually involved. Not worth it, IMO. However, if you're looking to get your foot in the door in the industry, apparently that's a good way to do it. So really, it depends on where you're looking to go from there.

[Roux!]

From what I could tell when I was near, there were basically 2 things an aspiring game tester needed:

1. Descriptive writing skills.
2. Patience.

They were pretty much given a HUGE set of rules which needed to be double-checked when playing a game. Found something wrong? Jot it down in full detail and submit a report. Move on to the next game. Repeat. Move on to the previous game. Repeat.

Pretty much all that's been said applies. Keep in mind not everyone moves up to game design from QA, though. It can happen. Just not very likely.

[Xena]

Oh crap lol.

Well I read somewhere that you have to play the same part of a level over and over again all day. I don't mind that really, it would be boring but so is a lot of unskilled jobs. I also heared that yes you have to write about every bug you find, and I'm pretty confident in my writing skills and creativity, so there's no problem there.

Well I'll give a couple of those links a try and I'll also ring up a few companies. I'm definately going to try my hardest and perhaps I'll get lucky.

Thanks a lot for the info guys.

[Roux!]

As long as you can explain things in english, you're good to go. A few of the people (not just in QA) at my old job could barely pull through -- they got paid either way, so...

[UncleEvil]

My dad told me something a long time ago that I believe is true because I have seen it happen personaly and it goes along with what Josh was saying.

NEVER let your hobby become your proffesion on a full time basis otherwise you will grow to hate your hobbies. Now if its just a second thing to do for a little extra cash on the side, thats not a big deal but dont let it become full time if you are realy into video games or you will get burned out. This may not be true for everyone but for a lot of people I have seen it is. My dad is a good example of this. He has loved cars since he was little and got into the car business when he was 12 (working at gas stations and such) and has been working with cars in some form or other since then. He doesnt hate cars now but it deffinetly isnt one of his top hobbies anymore because of it.
It's the same reason I dont want to go into 3D Modeling as a proffesion. 1. its a flooded market right now. 2. I dont want to get burned out on it.
You can still have a great job without it being one of the things you love to do in your free time.

[Sprung]

My dad told me something a long time ago that I believe is true because I have seen it happen personaly and it goes along with what Josh was saying.

NEVER let your hobby become your proffesion on a full time basis otherwise you will grow to hate your hobbies. Now if its just a second thing to do for a little extra cash on the side, thats not a big deal but dont let it become full time if you are realy into video games or you will get burned out. This may not be true for everyone but for a lot of people I have seen it is. My dad is a good example of this. He has loved cars since he was little and got into the car business when he was 12 (working at gas stations and such) and has been working with cars in some form or other since then. He doesnt hate cars now but it deffinetly isnt one of his top hobbies anymore because of it.
It's the same reason I dont want to go into 3D Modeling as a proffesion. 1. its a flooded market right now. 2. I dont want to get burned out on it.
You can still have a great job without it being one of the things you love to do in your free time.

This is true. In my teens, I was ALWAYS under the hood of my car. After I graduated, I went to work in a shop, and it was great for a time, but after a while I began to hate working on cars. I would work on them all day, and then at night or on the weekends, when I usually tinkered with my car, I didn't want to anymore, because it was "work". I knew it was a problem when I worked on everyone else's cars, but I would pay someone to fix mine.