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This blog is for all the gamers out there. You know who you are. And if you're sitting beside one, you know who they are too. It's the kid in class who has video game music on their .mp3. The one who has turned in the 5 song mix for the Music of Your Life project and it all sounds like a soundtrack to Mario Bros. *coughcoughCesarcoughcough* OR the one who turns in his Music of Your Life project and all the pictures of of him playing video games "coughcoughRyancoughcough*.
Anyway, have you ever wondered what it would be like to actually TEST video games for a living? How sweet would that be? Well, I found an article written for the Seattle News by this chick who did just that for a while. It's a VERY interesting read.
http://tinyurl.com/286zbd
I would venture to say it's not at all like you think it would be. Take some time to read this. Please don't log in and give me an uninformed opinion.
LATE BREAKING NEWS: If the seattle weekly site doesn't work here's another article:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20070118/NEWS/701180607/0/BUSINESS21
Talk to me . . .
52 comments:
Truthfully this is a lot like I imagined it would be, I never was fooled into thinking that being a video game tester is just sitting around in a relaxed atmosphere all day playing the games you love. If you thought that then you're WRONG! You dont play the games you love, you play the games they tell you to, when they tell you to, for as long as you're told to, and you download the movies they tell you to, reguardless of whether you like it or not. You not only play the game, you must also grade the game on a strictly pass or fail basis. I think after a month of beta testing a true gamer wouldn't be able to pick up another controller ever again.
YAY! This is the first time ive ever only gotten one progress report in a long time. Im also dissapointed that Stephen and I didnt get to finish the DGA project, I was really looking foreward to doing the project. But things here are actually great, this place is a joke, by that I mean, I like it here more than the high school.
We get delicious breakfasts, spend the first 2 to 3 hours of the day doing work and the last 5 to 6 hours socializing and playing games, im the king here at chess, so far undefeated. And lunch here is great. And we get out at 2:45, honestly I think that this place should be regular school and when you get in trouble here you should be sent to the High School as a punishment.
But I MISS ALL OF YOU! Especially you Ashley! and you too Stephen, but not you Jacob or Ryan...
Tyler.
I don't miss you. Sorry.
Oh and I got a new number. You'll have to get it from someone.
I agree with Tyler. It might be a good but at the same time a badjob because you can't play your own video games. and i think that that is one of the worst thing ever. but they earn more than i do (i mean the money) for an hour. And That might be a good thing. but i dont like that they call you at anytime i might be dreaming something nice and they call me to play wich i dont like that. But WE MISS YOU TYLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this job seems ok to me. i mean at the most part i handle this job. I give my opinions and kinda "mind-grade" every game i play so giving it a strict grade wouldn't be so bad. even if i had to play the suckest games (superman returns) and download movies at a constant rate. i can sit there for eight hour or more test games yes you would be nauseous but i can handle it. i'm good at testing betas and if the system crash I'll maybe shed a tear cuz it is a horrible thing to see :(
Overall I see myself do this in a few years if pharacy tech. doesn't work out..
I hate you too, Tyler.
Anyway, as for the blog's actual topic...I never figured vg testing and such was easy, or as simple as most people think it is. And if one has to get in early to sign a 'Bullpen', or not get the job at all for the day, forget that. I'd rather not have a job where I schedule what day and time I'll be there, then come to find out some bloke signed up before I got there and got the job I made an appointment of sorts for. It's completely bogus. I'd rather be a writer, or go off and be the next Crocodile Hunter or something, where I work on someone's schedule without another person taking my 'spot'.
The article itself was, for the most part, definitely an interesting read, to say the most. Otherwise, I didn't find anything worth much, except for the tip about Bullpens. That would be smart to keep in mind, so a note to all people: sleep outside the place you plan on working at.
All in all, interesting article. Keep the Bullpen thing in mind, and remember that you might be called randomly because of a 'Hard Lock' situation, and you should be fine.
This job seems to be ridiculous. There is never a "set schedule” and you even if you do get a shift to work it is not promised that you will even be able to work, because some one could easily walk in and sign up for your time. Then, on top of that I rarely ever play video games, so it’s hard for me to see how people can be so passionate about it that they would want to play them for a living.
The leads don't care how well we play or what we do on the game, they just want to know if we can play for an hour the time it takes for superman returns to arrive without the whole thing crashing. In the Dance Revolution the game you make a Japanese schoolgirl dance by pressing the buttons in time to the music to see how many points you do and to see how well you do in the game.
i think this would be a awesome job to have. i love video games and i would get paid for it too. that would be the ideal job for me to have to work with. but i do know that you dont possibly test out games day in and day out, beacuase you would get bored of the repetition. some days you probably sit there testing out bugs on consoles to make sure they are working righ
When you think of the job in your head it seems like a fun job. but if you really think about how many times you would play stuff and test things and replay. It would make you hate video games forever...
being a video game tester would kind a fun job but if u think of how many time u r going to have to test games is going to make u hate the job. other than that this job sounds wonderful to me and in ur free time u could play cool video games and chill!!
wow i thought it was just play games all day every day i didnt know wants there done with the game there done with you but i guess there right just treat it like a vacation still must be fun though i wonder if they do computer games like that
I would not like this kind of job because the only thing you do id set there and test the games.
But then again i would like it because some of the games is fun to play with and you can sometimes make good money if you have been doing it for a long time from now on.
Another thing is that you can play and chill instead of doing your work for class and i would like to have that as class and a job.
But there is one more thing i want to say is that im not good at some of the game they be coming out with so i might will need help on that too!!!!
That is truth. I never was fooled into into thinking that being a video game tester is just sitting around in a relaxed atmosphere all day playing the games you love. But if you thought you play the game video all day then YOU'RE WRONG! I think after a month of beta testing a true gamer wonldn't be able to pick up another controller ever again.
It makes sense that video game testing wouldnt just be all relaxed and easy. I mean if that were the case then everyone would want to do that, its kinda cool to know that it acually takes a little talent to test video games. And by talent i mean being able to stay up for long hours starring at a screen. There are many people who truthfully cant do that.
Well, i think that it would be a great intesting thing to do. To play your favorite video game, and relaxing sounds like alot of fun to me. Most video gamers would be unmovable during this time period. And getting paid for the things, you love to do sounds like a good idea to me. In closing, if you find something that you love to do and, you think you are going to be sucessful at it do it. Because, you will feel so much better when you do.
It's ok I gues to see what they are going to do what all they said they need to do. With the Games box 360 and the flat screen t.v. I really dont think that they need all of the stuff to meet their needs. But I think it's cool how they their mind thinks the ways they do. I really dont play all of those X-box games and the 360 games nore the game cube so I really wouldnt have a problem giving them things like that but the t.v. It would be a problem because of the fact I love to watch t.v. and a flat screen. I really wouldnt care what they would do but I'm looking at it at a point of viewe that anyone can think of stuff you just have to be creative in what you think about......! I just wouldnt say that it is ok but if it makes the wourld a bettar place I would do it. I see what they would do and make out of it because you will never know when you you will be able to help out the wourld.
im not shure i could sit there playing a game i dont like or watching something that im not so shure about i think that being a game tester would be such a good job for me
i think this jo would be ok but not the best its gotta be really boring testing games all the time..ive tested games for blizzard before that was really cool but doing it all the time no can do!
I don't see that much problem with the job. Sure you play the same game over and over for hours on end but that is to catch glitches that could be within the game when it's released. Then when said glitches shows up on just about every game, the developers would have to call for a mass recall, costing even more money. Something like this happend to Superman 64....despite the fact it was recalled....it still blew.
Hey, I've found a career. And supposedly girls seem to move up pretty fast. Now if only I could get pasts the geeks with the high pitched monty python voices, playing the little RPG games. BUT, I could sit in front of a monitor all day with a controller in my hand, downing Dr Peppers. Sounds like a dream job. Aslo, I already play some lame game on the internet at night, so basically this wouldn't be all that different. I'd just be getting paid for it. Which would be rad =D
Well, i think that it would be a intesting thing to do. To play your favorite video game and being a video game tester is just sitting around in a relaxed atmosphere all day playing the games you really like.
its a good jod. you get to play the newest games and the good thing is that you get pay for it. i do agree that it might get boring at first. but still i would like to have a job that i can relax and take a nap while waching a movie. i bet that for a while i will then be tired of video gamas. this job has its ups and downs. either way i would like to have it.
Game testing sounds a lot different then i thought it would be. The maintenance sounds horribly boring! i mean writing down how long it takes to turn on a 360 in 5 different ways sounds like the worst thing ever
well the actual playing of the game and how you get the job sounds easy enough...but the malfunctions dont sound too hot...
i would have to just have to sit there and wait til things get working...im impatient as it is so that would drive me crazy
that first have is supposed to be hate btw
as a kid i wanted to be a video game tester, but i thought it would be just playing games as a job and never gave it more thought than that. even as a kid i knew that i would never do that for real, and about middle school even the desire to do it went away. now i can see the evil occupation in its true light and be glad that i didnt commit myself to being a video game tester. based on that article, that place sounds like hell if hell were a waiting room at a doctors office, very boring.
Honestly this is what I figured being a game tester was it's obvious that it's not just playing video games all day that would be dumb but I also didn't realize the lay off rate and thought of losing a job so quick was that bad I at least thought if you got a job working on a project you at least worked till it was finished...but hey I'd defenetly still do it just for the learning experience, knowing things before everyone else, and playing games when you got to.
A viedogame tester never sounded fun to me, I head the kind of stuff you do sometimes is repeat the same task over and over untill you find a glitch/someting like that. On the otherhand, game design sounds ok.
Ah, wow. Being a tester sounds loads of fun. Not really, but the job sounds just flat out boring to me. Sure it can be fun for a while but all in all, it's just not a good job. Certainly people don't have lives when clearly all they do it play games. I guess there is an up side to being a tester. Hardcore gamers must think it's the greatest job in the world.
Really i dont think it would be that bad. In a eyes of a girl who never really play a xbox 360 before. It would be hard for her to play 8 hours stright. But for me to do that it would be no problem at all. I would really like to get into this if i could.
good.
ness.
i never thought about the video game industry as being a health concern to its workers - and its abnormally large suppliment of workers? I just thought a random group of kids show up, play video games and get to work..
Rather - the video game industry is the new docks.
imagine that.
like in comparsion to what Gilbreath said i never thought VG testing was a difficult job.. i guess i thought they'd like idk use professional bums who don't MINDDD sitting on their butt all day - but the whole blood clots and the South Koreans.. wow..
Video games are very isolated to begin with. So there would be no human interaction for eight hours even in a room full of people, and that in its self would drive me crazy. I had to do five hours of computer training to be a KROGER BAGGER. That was torture. I would never want to be a game tester; I like to talk to people more than stare at screens.
This totally destoryed what i thought would be a amazing job...I think i might have lost interest in this.
The process just to get a chance to actually test the game is ridiculious, then again i might try it once, who knows
Wow I think this job would be pretty fun. Plus I live playing video games and so do most people i now. I bet the people who have these jobs make alot of money.
Im not really all that interested in video games. But doing that seems very boring.
I wouldnt be interested in that.
being a game testor sounds like a boring job just sitting there all day doin nothing but playing games what geeks. The Xbox 360 has always been a piece of crap and will never ever get it to actually work right. Anyways its great to be a gamer but it sounds like it's hard because of all of the problems. I couldnt be a game tester but I could be a game designer.
Being a game tester would just BORING to me.... im not really into games.... so thats why it would be boring to me
i always thought people that test games for a living just sit around and play games all day but its really alot of hard work for 8.25 a hour. they test alot of other stuff that has to do with the games to.
Being a learner i guess you also being a teacher you're testing yourself at a game as you play it learning more things about it testing your skill.
it would be awesome if you really like to do that,but i would be bored. if you have the mind to do it then your great for tyhe job. not everyone can do this kind of job..only the gifted..
thats different then i thought it would be,like more fun
ok to be honest i didnt know that there were that many computer geeks in the world. (Sorry if that hurts anyones feelings that is reading this!) but thats an honest statement. First of all i completely SUCK at video games. the best that i have ever been at any electronic game is guitar hero and even then, i am only on medium.... sometimes =) if i truely loved games as much as these people do, then i wouldnt be waisting my time standing in a room with 30 other nerds just to test games all day - i would be sitting at home playing my own games trying to get to higher levels. But thankfully i am not a nerd. The end.
Wow. I thought being a video game tester was sitting on your caboose all day playing video games and eating bunch of junk foods. And boy, I was wrong. At least you get paid munnies!
I only play video games for a good hour, one or two times a week. If I had to play video games every single day for 8 hours straight, I am going to pass out. And me finding bugs in a console is like me picking between the red and the green tubes. It's a VERY dangerous job for me.
But I'm sure if I was a true lover of video games, as in video games were my life, then it would be the perfect job for "moi".
First of all, even though it sounds like no-fun to me, it's cool that these people get hired so easily...or at least "female games" did at the beginning of the article...but it's strange how random people can take other people's shifts. Hmmmm...I don't know if I would appreciate that so much. It's too bad that the "dream job" for gamers isn't all that it's cracked up to be. By the sound of it - although there wasn't any sound while I was reading this except for the blaring music coming through the headphones - these people would have more fun cleaning out animal cages at the zoo...maybe.
ok im not a game player but 8.25 sounds nice to do absolutely nothing.although i would think you have no life at all if u chose to play games all day..
I thought this article was very interesting, i figured being a video game tester would be alot more fun and relaxing but i guess i never really thought of all the glitches you have to look for and how mind numbing it could be.
i sometimes play games but i dont think that would be a job for me. sitting there all day doing the same thing....i would hate that!
the people that sign up for a job like video game testing are just lazy... they probably think that all the job is going to be is sitting around eating, chilling and playing their favorite little games...
however that is not how it is... they dont get to pick the games they play they sit their for hours apparently finding all the bugs in the games and the machines... and they dont even have a fixed schedule...
Video game testing is a growing industry that really is more than just fun and games. I have always wonderd if there has been a little more in this than siting and playing, but now I've got my answer.
If i really liked playing video games all day i wouldnt mind, but i dont like to!! It would like be so boring finding the mistakes..ugh.. instead of actually having fun. Hmm i feel like playing rockband right now..lol
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