The best time for video game tester jobs is now because we are in just about a horrible recession.  But you already knew that, the only question you may have is: so what? or what do you mean?  Well, you might be one of the hundreds of people that can benefit by becoming a beta game tester for video games you may possibly enjoy playing.

Sure you won’t be in bed all day playing video games (although you can do that if you’re a volunteer game tester) but you can make some extra cash or beer money if you drink.  In fact in a recession, video games may thrive because people are so frustrated and want to forget about their troubles by playing these games.

If you become a beta test gamer you can cash in on this industry.  You will begin as an ordinary game tester getting paid around 10 dollars per hour, but there are so many opportunities to go up as a game tester.  You basically, are getting your foot in the door of the video gaming industry.

Video Game tester jobs are an important part of the video game process, and they play an important role in the release of a popular video game.  It is a constant loop of testing and patching and testing and fixing to get it to the last level and finally to sell it to you so you can play it inside your living room.

It is very important that the games that are released are fixed of any errors bugs or glitches that would just be ridiculous to have in gameplay.  You know, like game freezing, characters doing strange things, getting stuck, weird teleports or anything of that nature.  You see, video game developers have this fear and apprehension about releasing a game with glitches and it makes sense.

Although Grand Turismo 2, a game for the early playstation actually had some type of error since you were unable to play the last portion of the game.  And despite that, this game actually sold lots of copies, so that’s something I found very interesting, so i don’t know what happened with those guys and their playstation game testing.

So now you might be thinking about a video game testing job and whether this is for you or not.  Well in this bad economy, you might want to try it even if you have a different job already to get some extra cash and break into the industry.  In the past I’ve looked for advice on how to become a game tester and I found lots of dumb things out there.  For instance, it went from suggesting i join a book club (hello, do i look like oprah or something)  to some guy telling me to join his monthly membership site.

But then I found a place to get a step by step guide on how to become a beta tester.

Okay so its clear that you don’t have to go to college to become a beta game tester, So what is this funny business talking about Grades and A’s?  Well this is just some plain game tester language that would make you think they were speaking in code if you didn’t know what the hell they were talking about.  

Grade A bugs are the glitches that some game testers encounter when they are going through the game testing phase of developing a video game.  Not only are these bugs icky, they actually happen to freeze the game while you play on your pc or game console.  Basically they crash the game, and they actually give the programmers something to do for the night.  They’ll have to look at line upon line of endless code to try and see what went wrong.

In fact, this is why the person who found the bug would have to report it in a very detailed fashion, like he just had it incrypted and burned into his memory with the precision of finding a needle in a haystack, because that’s just how it feels to be a confused programmer that is told there’s a bug and he can’t find sh** in the code.  If you put yourself in his shoes you’ll see what  a pain that could be.  So always do whatever you can to help out the programming bro.

Companies in the video game industry can have several of these grades to have a systematic way of reporting bugs.  As stated earlier Grade A could be the serious bugs, where Grade D could be a minor gameplay triviality that a game tester thinks is a little sketchy or could be better.  The grading really is just a control for a company and they decide how many grades to have and what they represent.

But don’t worry, its not an entire nightmare working with video games.  Your hard work definitely gets compensated when you get your paycheck, even if its not the biggest in the world, it makes you feel good inside if you just got a paycheck from nintendo or any other such company that you like.

Game Testers can earn from 20 to 25 thousands per year in their introductory periods.  They usually begin as partimers and eventually move into the full time positions, where the salary then increases.  Salary also increases if they move up in the food chain. So after some full time employment grind they may also move up into supervisor testing postions, or travel across departments such as information technology, marketing, or production.  So with some time and persistance this is definitely doable. 

So being a game tester is like a video game in itself.  Except the rules are more having to do with finding bugs and glitchtes in games.  And everytime you go into work you want to break your high score.  You want to find even more glitches than last week or last month or last year if you’ve been at it that long.  Because everytime you find one you get this little feeling inside of your chest, like a little warm pressure of joy.  And you experience that with the rest of your team.

And once the programmer gets that bug fixed by rewriting code or by using a so called patch, the game is given to the game tester again, who will once more continue playing it until his fingers fall of or he finishes his thing.  So that’s all for this post, if this video game tester thing appeals to you visit this test gamer page on how to get the best position as a beta game tester in the best way possible.

So why in the hell would anybody want to learn about game testing? Well, there are actually several mind boggling reasons for it.  One is because I recommended it, and i do so to anyone who is interested in video games and or sleeps with an xbox next to him.  I know some people that did that even though they had teddy bears, but those bears just don’t do it anymore.  Anyway here are some reason to learn about video game testing:

1. Because You like video games: duh! You would never have found this such website if you didn’t put something inside a search engine that had the words video game, game tester, video game tester or some type of similar combination.  You obviously enjoy playing video games so much that you are  thinking about making it part of a career or at least an interesting job.  But don’t get it twisted, being  a beta test gamer doesn’t mean its all pretty pretty princesses.  Its a real job with real competition and you want to come out on top.  I won’t tell you its your dream job where you play video games in your underwear all day without leaving your house and you just play for entertainment because that’s just not the way it works.  This is a business like any other and if you are a paid game tester you need to deliver real results to the company that you’re working with.

2. You may also want to learn to understand this business:  The whole video game industry is a gigantic puzzle or at least it can seem that way when you first begin because you just don’t have the experiences necessary and the knowledge of how things work to put everything neatly together inside your head.  Once you get your foot in the door, you’ll have plenty of learning opportunities where you will learn lots of the behind the scenes stuff in the gaming industry.  You will never look at the same way again.  You’ll see how the funness comes out of a video game that took many people’s abilities and talents to create, design, and even test for gameplay, graphics, and glitches.

3. You may want to become a beta game tester as part of your master plan to become a video game designer, programmer, or high position in game development.  Starting as a video game tester allows you to have extra valuable experiences that will serve you once you get into that career.  You might also come across some very important people in that industry and word can get out of how you’re such a bad ass game tester and dependable worker to work on a project.  If you get really involved with the people who are insiders you may get to places you never thought you could have before.

4. Maybe you just want to test video games because you don’t want to sell insurance.  Hell, when worse comes to worse, with the tedious parts of game testing I would still prefer that job over selling insurance.  Who wants to be out cold calling door to door and getting those things slammed in your face?  Not me, and hopefully not you.  If you are one of those people that likes getting doors slammed in their faces, congratulations you are unique and should stop reading this right now. Good luck.

For the rest of you who are interested in getting a video game tester job. Tony has you covered, in a step by step fashion he guides you through the entire process of securing that position you want as a game tester.  No BS just the real deal.  Go here to learn more about video game testing.

In other words, there are certain stages that a video game tester would have to go through to earn in the higher range of the earnings scale.  In the beginning you start all the way at the bottom, usually as a beta game tester or quality assurance game tester. 

These are the two lower stages of video game testing.  Later you can graduate to becoming an Alpha game tester, these are the more higher end game testers that get paid more and are hired by the big game developing companies. 

A person can start out in beta testing or QA game testing and with some determination and hardwork reach a higher position like Alpha Game Testing.  In alpha game testing, the game tester will test the games that are developed very early on and the type of testing they will do is bug testing for big bugs that would just devastate the entire game if they happened. 

After the alpha game testers get their jobs done, then they may pass the games on to the beta testers and Quality Assurance testers.  By the time that a game reaches the Quality Assurance testers the games are very much complete and only the details of gameplay, sound and graphics need to be tested because the major bugs must have already been detected. 

To move up from a beta tester or quality assurance tester to an alpha tester it may require more than just a willingness to play video games.  You may need to take the extra step such as actually getting some type of video game related education.  Since you will be dealing with major bugs in the system of a video game you have to know your stuff.  This is why these guys get paid more than a person who only does basic gameplay game testing.

You will also need some experience, which naturally comes if you began your game testing career as a beta game tester.  This is where you are introduced to the wonderful world of video gaming.  And most useful to you will be the habit of acting quickly on the things you learn. 

For instance if you learn of a glitch you must take action quickly and report it in detail and this will always make you look good.  You have to go in with the right mindset of getting problems solved and taking action and you’ll go far with that.

Anyway, video game testing can be tedious at times when you do the same thing over and over trying to find the exact error, but at the same time it is a very competitive job.  You have to do all the right things to end up in the best position that you can. 

Its even more competitive in the sense that some guys even test video games online for free as volunteers.  Of course if you prepare yourself adequately, you would do a much better job than any volunteer out there that just likes playing, because you need more than that.

Visit this video game testing page to find the right information to get you your first game tester job.

Beta is weird word, it could be a greek letter or a two syllable nonsense word.  Anyway, the word beta in beta game tester just means that you get to play games before anybody else.  This is because the games haven’t been released to the public yet and you get dibbs on playing it first. 

The catch is that your gaming is not for purposeless fun and enjoyment.  Your purpose of gaming as a beta game tester is to examine the game and play with around until you find bugs and glitches in the game.  Some Game testers go really deep into playing around with these bugs in the game.  When you run into them you have to note the exact location of where and when.  This is to make sure the programmer can fix the bug with accuracy. 

Sometimes (or always) this is easier said than done.  The reason for that is that some bugs are not obvious or easily seen or accessed on the surface.  In other words, you have to really digg down to find them.  For instance, you may go around with your character in the game bumping into every (NPC) you see, Non Person Character, or into inanimate objects and wait and see what happens.  It may have to be that when you bump into a parked car you run into a bug and get stuck. 

However, what if you tried to bump into it again and you don’t get stuck? Well, you have to investigate and know your stuff so that you know exactly what you’re talking about.  It may be that you have to jump over the car and then run into it from the back in order to get to that bug and get your character stuck.  It may be that you tried running into the car from every direction imaginable until you finally are able to recreate a particular bug. 

So this can be hard to enjoy, but if you love video games you’ll be able to handle it.  After all, this line of work might be better than flipping burgers (no offense to the burger flippers out there) but this is pretty chill type of work.  Just make sure you don’t get lost in the crazy world of video games. 

By the way, you don’t have to be super freak gamer that plays for 24 hours straight without eating or visiting the bathroom (yuck!), you could just be an average gamer that plays a few hours here and there.  Although you could definitely score lots of video gamer testing jobs if you’re a freak super gamer guy. 

Anyway, it just comes down to doing some basic video gameplay and communicating or reporting to your superiors (and meeting any deadlines that they give you).  And you definitely want to be patient to play games from all kinds of different points of views and perspectives. 

If you grew up with video games you are extremely lucky because you can understand things that some people might not.  For instance basic navigation knowledge, like knowing that the analogue stick is coordinated to move the character in a particular direction and simple things like that which nobody ever thinks about. 

You may be part of the multitudes of people who wish they can get a beta test gamer job.  If so, check out this game tester page to find out how to get the cheat codes for game tester jobs in real life.

So what does a game testing job usually pay?  You can make up to 80 or 100 dollars per hour, but don’t count on starting up that high.  You may be able to work to that level by filling up your resume with assignments and projects you work on and build up your experience.  After a few years you can get there if you always do your best.  Although, you’ll probably start at around 10 buck an hour or so. 

Remember that as a video game tester you will be playing games not necessarily for fun, but to do the favor (kinda but not really cause you get paid) to the game companies of testing their new developing games for gameplay, graphic, and sound errors.  You’ll be a glitch expert and bug detective.  Its important that you take good notes so that you can tell the guy that will be fixing the bug exactly how it happened.  This can be so that the glitch can be replicated at command and therefore being able to fix it. 

What type of games need testing? all kinds of games need testing: adventure, rpg, action, racing, you name it.  Since all games can have programming or other holes, they all must be tested by a human game testers.  In other words, being a game tester involves actual skillz and its not just about drinking soda all day and playing yourself silly (okay, maybe it can be). 

Be sure you can use a computer easily.  We’re talking about email, downloading software, installations, and even using instant messenger if required.  Just basic stuff.

You’ll be learning lots of insider information and about the process that needs to happen to bring a video game to life.  You’ll have knowledge that most people never find out at all.  And it doesn’t matter if you’re good at math or any other subject you failed at school.  Or maybe youwere a straight a student, good for you, this works either way.

One of the bright sides of being in the game testing field is that you may get to play games that other people will never play.  For instance, you may play and beta test a game that you find a huge glitch on, and if that glitch is too hard to fix, the game will probably not be released. Therefore, you’ll be part of the less than 1 percent of the population who actually got to play that game.  Many times a company may also let you keep all kinds of games as well.

Check out This website to learn the exact steps you need to get the most pay for video game testing.

Anyway,  The beta gaming testers are more often assigned to work at home where they will safely and accurately test the assigned games they are given.  If you were to get a game tester job and you are 16 or 17 beta testing is probably what you would be doing, which is not that bad.  On the other hand, being a quality assurance game tester usually requires that you go in to the “gaming headquarters” of the video game testing company and go test video games under the supervision of superior game tester bosses. 

You usually work in small groups where a project leader emerges and distributes the current tasks that must be done.  You may begin to work on finding a specific bug or glitch for a certain game and you all work together to find it, or you can also be assigned different sections of the game or even different games.  If you are given independent assigments like they give you when you’re a beta tester, they may give you several games to test out where they want you to find a specific glitch or to test out your current abilities.  Out of those few games that they give you not all of the games may have glitches, so don’t Kill yourself because you weren’t unable to find a glitch (you are still a worthy person of existance) 

They may do that to test you or maybe they don’t know wheter or not the game had a glitch or not.  So the lesson for the day is that Glitch detection is actually a skill that you will develop and grow throughout your career (or job or whatever) as a video game tester.  And this is more than just knowing when the screen is frozen and when its not, you will learn to tell the difference of when you are stuck or ran into a glitch error and when you are totally lost just because you suck at that game (right….its not you its the graphics- they’re so confusing..uhu).  Anyway, if you really get all geeky about it you may learn to call different glitches by different names and start to categorize them.  By the way, you know you have been testing too many video games when you use these names on your pet fish or friends (assuming they exist). 

So what else do you need?  well, if you’re working from home you’re obviously going to need a computer.  Not just if you’re testing pc games, but just in general to stay in contact with yor project manager or whoever is in charge of you.  So you should be good as long as you have basic computer skills (which undoubtedly you awesomely absolutely probably have). 

Also, i don’t want to scare you or anything, but you’re going to have to do some weird things….they call it experimentation; now i’m not talking about girl on girl kissing or anything crazy that britney spears would do (you don’t have to shave your head to be a game tester), I’m merely talking about experimentation inside the video game.  Things you would normally not do while playing xbox with your friends (common, we all have at least one…..right?). Things like holding the joysticks in different directions, holding more than one button at a time, running your character into a wall (actually you probably do that anyways), or unplugging your controllers just to see if the game will freeze on you.  And with that, if you still have desires to become a video game tester make sure you read this game tester page.

Okay so video game tester jobs exist and you can become a professional game tester.  What’s the catch? Well you’re right whenever somethings overwhelmingly sounds too good to be true there’s usually a catch.  The main catch that comes as a video game tester is the moments of tedious projects.  You may be assigned to a specific area or level in the game trying to find a glitch some else said existed there, and it may be a bit hard to find it.  In fact you may spend hours just looking for it on that platform.  In other words, remember that a video game testing  job is still a job, you would still be doing plenty of things that you wouldn’t normally do when you play at your house.

So if you’re still here and that didn’t send you running that’s great news.  For those of you who did run out of here, tough….. but now there’s less competition for those that are willing to do what it takes to make a living testing games for big video game companies like any from the games you are currently playing (games you are playing for free).

As a game tester you need to hone several skills.  You will NOT need a college degree regardless of the myths you may have heard.  A degree would come in handy for other jobs like video game design or video game programming, but not necessarily for video game testing jobs.  But you will definitely need to be a team player to work with others well enough to solve the mistakes that video game developers have made on the games.  It can be similar to the good old days when you played counter strike or another similar game where you guys had headsets and you communicated in code while playing online. 

 You basically team up to kill the bad guy and use some hardcore strategies.  Except, that now the bad guy is finding and eliminating the glitch, if you happen to be a video game tester.  But hey, when you come to work, you basically deal with a video game console or a computer, its not exactly tough cookies like digging ditches.  Digging ditches is a damn tough job you don’t really want to have: not only is it exhausting but you’re basically digging out the house of someone that just died or is expected to die soon! God forbid that you fall asleep on the job and-  lets just not go there….

Other skills that you need will be describing skills.  These will come in very handy when you write a report or verbally communicate with a superior about any bugs or glitches that are present in the current game you are testing.  You must be clear and articulate.  Ideally, you would have the ability to describe a glitch or bug with so much clarity that you could basically touch or taste it.  Pinpointing the exact location and the exact timing of how the glitch happens with deadly accuracy.  This way the programmer doesn’t get angry like he would if you just describe it generally and without detail.  If you meet him, take him out to lunch why don’t you…. he has a tough job too.

Another thing, not everyone you work with will be an absolute delight, and this brings me to necessary skill number 3.5 >>> Patience .

As a game tester you will need dedication toward your craft.  You will play a variety of video games.  When you beta test games you will find bugs and glitches.  Then you will take notes and describe exactly where and when they happened so that they can fix these glitches.

So you get to play the games first, and that makes you special.  But you’re also kind of a guinea pig for game testing companies because they will try out new games on you, and after you beta test for them, and tell them about the bugs, they sell the fixed, clean versions of the games to the masses of people. (let me catch a breath, that was one LONG sentence !)

You do have to be assertive when you communicate with your game testing employers because they want to know exactly what’s going on and any changes that they will have to make.  If you buy video games, then you know that video games are expensive and these companies bring in the big bucks.

Now… the little age requirement.  I recommend checking out  the following website if you’re considering buying a guide on how to be successful getting game tester jobs.  I recommend this guide to people that are atleast 18 years old because Anyone I know that is a game tester is of that age.  I suppose it could be possible to get a job as a beta tester if you’re younger but I don’t know anyone personally.