Could you handle being a game tester?

[Kane99]

Growing up I had the bright idea of becoming a game tester. It was one of the jobs I had wanted to go for back when I was in like middle school. After a while though, and learning how game testing usually goes, I changed my mind on that job idea pretty fast. The idea of testing games sounds good at first, but it's not as glamorous as we'd think. I hear testers are stuck testing the same thing over and over, and are usually tasked with trying to break the game at that section. 

I think game testing or QA testing as they call it (I think), has been dying out. Main reason I think of this, is because of how many games come out broken messes. Mass Effect Andromeda, or Cyberpunk 2077 come to mind. 

It's a job that is definitely important to making sure a game gets fixed. But it's one I don't think I could do. But could you? Has anyone here worked as a QA tester? 

[Smokey]

I'm pretty sure a lot of companies no longer want to pay for QA testers which is why so many games release in such a buggy & broken state. The consumer has become a free QA tester where the CONSUMER pays to beta test/report issues with the game at launch, rather than the game being released as bug-free as possible like it was back in the old days.

[The Blackangel]

Initially, being a game tester sounds like a dream come true. But in game development, they have one of the worst jobs, because they're on more of a time crunch than anyone else. If I remember right, Nintendo tried to do motion capture for Mario 64, and had the testers running up and jumping into a wall to get Mario jumping right. As a result of that, several of them ended up with concussions and even a few broken bones.

If that's how they want their games tested, then count me out. I could do motion capture as long as the character in question was in a wheelchair. But I'm more into voice acting than being videoed for anything.

[Empire]

I have been offerd to be a game tester myself, Someone said that there is aguy who works with this small compay and next they sent me a URL to the jon information. I read it and was not that pleased about what I was informed and turns out it was bigger then I thought and where they are based it's no good. 

being a game tester sounds easy but end of the day you end up typing a big book worth of every details and if you do not have a gaming system then you are pooped, as most won't offer you a $5,000 system 😛

[Shagger]

Testing video games sounds fun, but the reality is that this is some properly tedious stuff. Move a character one step, have the bring out and use all the items and weapons, have them crouch, use all the items and weapons again, turn a little bit, then test all the items and weapons again, crouch and test them all again, repeat until you're back facing the original direction, take another step then do it all over again. After one day you would probably not want to play a game again.

[Kyng]

Ermmm, no... it'd completely kill gaming as an enjoyable hobby for me. For the same reason that chefs often eat junk food because cooking is the last thing they feel like doing when they get home, I just wouldn't play video games in my spare time if I spent all of my working hours testing them.

And besides, it'd probably open my eyes to just how buggy some of my favourite games are 😞 !

[killamch89]

It sounds like a dream at first until you hear all the horror stories and the amount of mistreatment/poor conditions that testers have to work under. Then it sounds worse than any generic dead-end job.

[Shortie]

Working as a game tester was something I had a strong interest in if I am honest but never knew where to start. I don't think it's as big a thing now as it was a while back though or at least I don't seem to see it as much as I used to now so it's something I kind of pushed to the back of my mind. It would be quite cool to be part of the testing of new video games though and be helping developers with bugs and such. 

[Syntax]

I've had a few friends who were game testers here in Phoenix before a studio shutdown. They said it's a fun job, but a lot of stress and a lot of issues that the developers/publisher can't fix so you end up having to test sections over and over again once they release new versions/builds (sometimes daily), and make sure you try everything possible that a player would (going out of bounds, dragging monsters out, etc.).

[Kane99]

I think the fun comes in from working with these studios and the developers and coders. I think the testing side is a afterthought when most of the testers are probably more interested in seeing how far the game has come and working with other like minded people. 

The actual testing side sounds like a chore for the most part. But getting to work close to devs and other team members has to be a great benefit. 

[Shortie]

45 minutes ago, Kane99 said:

I think the fun comes in from working with these studios and the developers and coders. I think the testing side is a afterthought when most of the testers are probably more interested in seeing how far the game has come and working with other like minded people. 

The actual testing side sounds like a chore for the most part. But getting to work close to devs and other team members has to be a great benefit. 

It sure does. You know when I have read through this thread again, it got me thinking. Fortnite has been a game that we have seen built pretty much from the ground up, we have watched them add things to the game, watched the game get better in terms of graphics and game play and a lot of the time, Epic Games have always asked us for feedback or to report issues when we find them. This in a sense has meant that without even realizing, many of us who have played Fortnite have in actual fact been testers for a game that was live and in development. Seeing where Fortnite is now compared to where it was 5 years ago is just amazing. 

[killamch89]

On 1/15/2023 at 2:59 PM, Kane99 said:

I think the fun comes in from working with these studios and the developers and coders. I think the testing side is a afterthought when most of the testers are probably more interested in seeing how far the game has come and working with other like minded people. 

The actual testing side sounds like a chore for the most part. But getting to work close to devs and other team members has to be a great benefit. 

Based on stories from actual game testers, it's actually pretty stressing because they have to met certain deadlines and the contracts tend to be very performance based so the one who highlights the most issues tends to make far more. In addition to that, game testers are deemed dispensable so it's not a certainty that you'll hold that position for a prolonged period of time.

[Kane99]

2 hours ago, killamch89 said:

Based on stories from actual game testers, it's actually pretty stressing because they have to met certain deadlines and the contracts tend to be very performance based so the one who highlights the most issues tends to make far more. In addition to that, game testers are deemed dispensable so it's not a certainty that you'll hold that position for a prolonged period of time.

Oh for sure. It's not a fun job from what I hear. It's a taxing job that requires you to run through the same things over and over to find issues. I get tired of losing to the same boss over and over, I doubt I could handle testing games for too long. I'd want to rip my hair out haha. 

And yeah, the way games are dropping like broken messes these days, is because they're not letting the testers do their thing. I think it's why some studios do betas, so that they can get their testing done for free on us. Half of the people who do these betas, probably don't even provide feedback when they should. So, we need testers, and we need studios to take it seriously. More than ever too, because so many games have released broken or unfinished, only to be finished with updates and DLC. Which isn't fair to the consumers who expect a finished product at release. 

 

[killamch89]

On 1/20/2023 at 3:31 PM, Kane99 said:

Oh for sure. It's not a fun job from what I hear. It's a taxing job that requires you to run through the same things over and over to find issues. I get tired of losing to the same boss over and over, I doubt I could handle testing games for too long. I'd want to rip my hair out haha. 

And yeah, the way games are dropping like broken messes these days, is because they're not letting the testers do their thing. I think it's why some studios do betas, so that they can get their testing done for free on us. Half of the people who do these betas, probably don't even provide feedback when they should. So, we need testers, and we need studios to take it seriously. More than ever too, because so many games have released broken or unfinished, only to be finished with updates and DLC. Which isn't fair to the consumers who expect a finished product at release. 

I totally agree that the testing must be poor because we keep getting these poor releases of games. Of course companies aren't taking it seriously anymore because they've seen other games released broken and go on to become successful after being fixed post launch.

[Kane99]

On 1/22/2023 at 12:58 PM, killamch89 said:

I totally agree that the testing must be poor because we keep getting these poor releases of games. Of course companies aren't taking it seriously anymore because they've seen other games released broken and go on to become successful after being fixed post launch.

I think it's more to do with studios not giving QA testers enough time with the games in the first place. So you got QA testers probably giving details about a bunch of bugs that will probably never be patched or will be patched after release. I think a lot of these games have known bugs at release, and QA testers let them know, but I can see studios releasing these games because they have the mentality that "oh, we'll just fix these bugs after release".