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.

Whenever you think about video games you probably don’t think about girls, although they probably come into the picture if you’re playing something like dead or alive or any game where the girls are in 2 piece swim suits.

But that’s not what i’m going to talk about here (i know, disappointing?) anyway, when you hear the word game tester you probably don’t think of a girl.  At best you probably think about a few young guys in their twenties who like to play video games and wear t-shirts that say I love StarWars or something like that.

This brings up an interesting question: Should girls be video game testers?  Well, that depends on whether women possess the traits necessary to be successful as a video game tester.  And by they way, yes they do exist.

I know a girl that is just a freak about video games and plays them all the time.  She actually blogs about video games too, which is strange because I didn’t know she was good at writing.  Anyway, she inspired me so much that I had to write this post right now.

If I told her she should be a game tester, i would probably tell her to imagine she was like this fancy food tester.  All she had to do to get paid, was visit restaurant after restaurant and taste the food.  And after tasting the food (the new video game) she would report and tell the chefs (the programmer) if the soup had any flies in it (bugs) or if there was anything wrong with the recipe (errors).  Wow that took a lot of my creativity, i usually don’t get this creative.

Anyway, I don’t know if she would be able to handle a job as a video game developing tester.  Girls usually aren’t acustomed to working long hours and she’s a pretty girl that’s kind of spoiled, since people buy her all kinds of video games all the time for any occassion.

Also, you may have to play the same game for span of a few months, and this girl i know tends to not have a big attention span.  She would probably be able to stick with it for 3 weeks tops.

Finally, another issue would be that most girls tend to “spread the word” a lot about all kinds of things.  This would probably come in handy in the marketing stage, but definitely not in the video game testing stage.  In fact, having lots of girls being game tester might increase piracy rates because they might just feel the need to share the current new game she was was given to test.

I mean, there are so many different ways a company can stop piracy with more restrictions and systems, but some girls just can’t keep a secret, you know?  I don’t know if any companies descriminate about hiring women as game testers, but other then the above issues, i’m sure women can be excellent game testers.

Feel free to tell me your own perspective on this, I find it very interesting. And if you’re interested in beta testing games, go ahead and visit this game tester job paradise to find out how you can get the best game tester job.

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.

Whenever you look at a glamourious job, it usually doesn’t end up being exactly what you thought it was when you first thought or fantasized about it.  The same scenerio applies to video game testing jobs.  Its kind of like that song about becoming a rock super star that talks about how you may think its about having a big house and five cars.  But he says you gotta look over your shoulder constantly, and that first you get played, like all damn day, and then you get dissed by the media and fans.  So its a fun job, but its still a job and you gotta put in the effort and the daily hours, and meet deadlines just like you do in video game testing jobs.

Being a beta game tester for video games can be a similar situation.  Its not just about playing the latest blockbuster games and nonstop fun.  There is plenty of work involved, and you have somebody to answer to.  Don’t get me wrong, this is still a better job than others and it is a field where lots of people are turning towards and is highly sought out.  But many times people get the wrong idea when they hear the word game tester and the get a fantasy in their mind about just playing halo or call of duty all day, and getting paid 100 dollars per headshot.  But that is just not reality.

In fact, the industry is so popular that many game developers, programmers, and even video game designers begin their carreers as game testers.  Being a beta game tester allows you to gain valuable experience about the process of how a game is developed and this can serve you down the road to advance in this field.  It is also a job that is ideal for beginners because it doesn’t require you to have a college degree.  However, if you want to reach the top paying positions in the game company you must get some type of education, because they don’t just hire anyone.  While you get your education you can get the applicable experience by being a beta tester and earn money while doing it.  On top of that you’ll be playing video games, what more do you want?

So other than game testing mmo games or any other type of game, another thing you can do for experience is get your hands busy and writing your own mini games using xna or any other programming related activity.    So what will get you hired?  Hiring managers are definitely looking for a few charactertics, among others. 

For instance, you would be a favorable hiring choice if you are a person that demonstrates sound judgment and an ability to make good decisions, therefore, if you were to participate as a beta game tester in a certain company, you would have the tremendous opportunity of demonstrating this such talent and thereby getting a promotion opportnity as long as you’re doing the rest of the other things that you must do to get the position.  If you’re in any kind of doubt of whether this is even for you, just at least try taking a related class at a local community college and see how that goes.  The high end jobs will always require lots of knowledge.

Not just knowledge, but you have to appear to be a self motivated solution master that will use his extensive knowledge base to solve problems and situations you run into as a game tester.  So even though game testing can be tedious at times, it is definitely for a fun purpose and is an essential part in releasing an extremely fun game.  If you take the right steps there is no doubt that these companies will be interested in hiring you, they all want well trained personnel.

See this game tester jobs page to find more about the exact steps to securing a 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.

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.