Video Game Testers – What They REALLY Do!
Do you love gaming? Have you been dreaming of securing a job where you could simply play all day? If so, you are not alone!
Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world would love to join the leagues of today’s handsomely paid video game testers, but unfortunately not everyone has a real sense of what the job entails.
By the basic definition, a tester is someone who simply plays new video games that are still in the developmental stages. Therefore, games that have already hit the market and which you are already familiar with are usually not going to be on your paycheck, unless by some chance a remake or next edition is being planned.
The games that a tester will work with are new, and they can be anything from a silly children’s game to a more advanced adult game with breaking technology, out of this world imagery, and never before seen features. Testers do it all!
That is exactly how you pictured it, right? Probably so, but there is a little more to the story of what video game testers really have to do.
This is actually an advanced field where some expertise is needed. A tester has to know when there is a problem in a game, whether it be something big or something small that is harder to catch. The tester has to be able to diagnose what is going wrong so that the issue can be fixed prior to the game hitting the market.
In order to determine all the glitches and problems that may be in a game, testers work long, hard hours dealing with the game. In order to adequately evaluate the current state of the program they have to become very familiar with how the game is played on all levels.
For simple games it may be rather easy to figure out all levels and give it a proper evaluation, but for something more technical a lot of expertise and long hours will go into the process. While there can be a lot of fun times learning new games and playing away, there is also a more technical side when it comes down to figuring out exactly what needs improved or enhanced within the game program as it stands.
The real question you should be asking yourself about this line of work include whether you have the patience to work with a game that may not work exactly right or that has a lot of kinks and is not very smooth to get through. Also, can you work for hours on end every single day on a game that does not interest you at all? Do you have the ability to learn the highly technical details that go into creating and developing a video game?
Often, video game testers will have to test the same game day after day for months on end. They may have to do it at different stages of development until everything is ready to hit the market. Yes, it can be an entertaining field of work but there is some highly technical aspects of the job. With the fun comes the hard work, which many people are not prepared for. Are you?
If you are then great! There’s no reason why you wouldn’t suit working as a game tester for one of the leading companies out there.
So Where Do You Go From Here?
Here’s what I recommend you do.. sign up with one of the 2 leading game testing websites (I’ve reviewed the best one’s for you) and start applying directly to the games companies.
This is certainly your best option and will save you a lot of wasted time trying to do it all by yourself.
My reviews of the leading game testing websites can be found at the bottom of the home page.
>> My no.1 recommended site is: BecomeAGameTester <<
Good luck,
~ Pete Wotton

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