Game testing job

[Anarchist420]

Can someone tell me what it's like, specifically how I get started, the pros and cons of it, who I should work for, and/or who I shouldn't work for? For now, I'm fine with minimum wage (even less actually), so wages is no issue (again, for now). I'm not going to work more than 25 hours a week now, however.

I could finish my paralegal stuff, as I've got good grades on what I've done so far, but I'm not motivated enough to finish it on time and I'm not sure I want to be a paralegal anyway.

My parents are getting all stressed out about me not having a job and I've applied to a lot of places. I've been rejected by every place I've applied to presumably because I've never had a job before, possibly because I'm looking only for part time for now, and possibly because of affirmative action (my city is like only 1/2 white).

Anyway, I was asking about game testing because my mother has always said that's what I should do.

 

[jhbball]

lol.

 

[SunnyD]

Basically, unless you have a degree and LOTS of QA and testing experience (from any field), you may as well put this dream in a pipe and smoke it.

 

[polarmystery]

I like your career goals.

 

[darkewaffle]

It's easily confused with game playing but really they aren't much a like. Aside from the fact you may need to progress through the game to reach different areas to bug test you aren't actually "playing" much. You spend a lot of time literally doing simple, stupid, mechanical things over and over and over (jumping over objects, running into corners, testing attack sequences, testing menu sequences, testing random input sequences).

Also every time you actually do something with the game itself you have to do it over, and then again, and then again and again trying to think critically/programmatically about what you could do differently that may reveal a bug. What if you kill the boss in midair? What if you kill it with a fire attack? What if you defend three turns in a row against the boss? What if your party leader is knocked out when the boss dies?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Is this a parody thread of some sort?

 

[ViviTheMage]

watch grandma's boy

wait, that will make you want to become game tester, hrmmmmmm

GL

 

[lozina]

Hmm... game testing or the rack... which is better form of torture...

 

[Capt Caveman]

Is this a parody thread of some sort?

Read his stuff in P&N and you'll realize you're not dealing with a fully developed human.

 

[ichy]

Is this a parody thread of some sort?

I wonder the same thing about most of Anarchist420's threads.

 

[Jeeebus]

Why take a shitty job as a game tester when Hawaiian Tropic is desperately seeking young men to fill several positions as "Senior Sunblock Application Technicians" - job only pays $65,000/year (25 hours/week max), and you spend all day lathering up models, but hell, at least it's a job.

Certainly beats focusing on a totally unrealistic job like paralegal.

 

[Zeze]

How old are you?

Testing a game is no different than testing any apps, programs, system builds in software development life cycle. You're not having fun. You're doing same crap over and over again, finding bugs, etc.

Do you think it'll be like playing Diablo III multiplayer all day?

 

[Capt Caveman]

Only 25 hours a week? I'm guessing you want the other 15 hours to troll P&N about Ron Paul?

 

[Alienwho]

Besides the fact that 99% of the games you test are going to be absolute pure crap and games for little girls like my little pony, you'll spend most your time running into walls looking for clipping and glitches. Imagine playing the first level of the worst FPS you have played in the past 5 years for 8 hours a day for months at a time.

 

[xBiffx]

I can think of no better way to ruin the gaming experience than by becoming a paid tester.

 

[Glitchny]

QA testing isn't fun. It's repetitive, tedious and thankless.

 

[endlessmike]

You will also need to make sure that they tighten up the graphics on level three.

 

[EagleKeeper]

QA testing isn't fun. It's repetitive, tedious and thankless.

This.

Also, you will have to move out into the real world.

No one is going to pay you to sit at home and test.

You have to be able to document each test you do and also remember conditions that may have existed.
Not a job for slaggards.

There are a couple of companies in Las Wages that look for testers for new items being delivered to the gaming industry; High turnover in the field w/ low salary up front until you prove yourself.

 

[Zeze]

Besides the fact that 99% of the games you test are going to be absolute pure crap and games for little girls like my little pony, you'll spend most your time running into walls looking for clipping and glitches. Imagine playing the first level of the worst FPS you have played in the past 5 years for 8 hours a day for months at a time.

It would be shit even if you were QA testing AAA titles.

 

[AzNKiD]

First off, stay away from EA, and second, gaming QA requires no special degree or experiences.

I was a Game Tester for THQ about 6 years ago, and it could be fun, but it could be also horrible as hell. Really depends on which group you get put in, which games you will be doing, etc.. for example, if you get lucky and get put in a AAA title group, you will have fun for min wage pay, but if you get stuck with some lame handheld game, you will hate your life. Imagine you stuck playing on a cellphone for 8 hours a day, doing the same thing over and over.

I was lucky and got put in the PC section, you are not really playing the game, but rather trying to break it and document any bugs. When you find a repeatable bug, you write it up and send it to the programers, they send you another build, and the process goes on and on until it goes gold.

Do not expect to go career with this type of work UNLESS you plan to move up to game development/level design etc... Its only good to put your foot in the industry as they tend to hire people that does well here internally. I knew a couple of people that was smart and was able to promote up to a legit job. Most places wont hire part time, and they expect to work long hours when the game is near completion, we talking about all nighters and weekends.

Lastly, you get to have your name on the game credits when your done, and they give you a free copy, not like you will ever play it. I remember I was able to see and beta test warhammer and stalker way before anyone have even seen the games.

CLIFS, horrible horrible job, unless you cant find any other work. decent blip on your resume if you plan to career in game design

 

[Anarchist420]

I didn't know about it really so that's why I asked here. I guess I'll look at something else then.

 

[Anarchist420]

I like your career goals.

I never said this was a career goal because it wasn't.

 

[KaOTiK]

It sucks. You do the same crap over and over, chances are you will be put on a game you have no interest in whatsoever so it makes playing that game even worse. Best case, you end up getting a game you have interest in, but by the time you are doing doing QA on it you wont ever want to play it again anyways and will probably have some hatred towards it as well.

I was never a game tester, but I was a developer and talked with the testers from time to time and that was the attitude towards it.

From others I know in the industry, from what they heard, testing for a large publisher is 10x worse than for a small one or just for a single company.

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

If you're hard up for money, you could always wiggle your little dick on webcam for the gays. They pay for that shit. I know a few straight dudes making a living off that, ballin' owning houses & driving Benz's & shit.

 

[Possessed Freak]

How old are you?

Testing a game is no different than testing any apps, programs, system builds in software development life cycle. You're not having fun. You're doing same crap over and over again, finding bugs, etc.

Do you think it'll be like playing Diablo III multiplayer all day?

This, I was a tester on vmware way back when. Dear god it was mind numbing. I was given a task to perform that somebody else reported errors on, then I would test... retest...retest...retest. Then I would move on to the next bug that was reported. It was only when the list of bugs was gone could I possibly use the program in an attempt to break it myself.