›

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register

Quick Links

Video Game Tester Advice

AzianGamer86AzianGamer86 Member Posts: 56
in Off-Topic Discussion

For the past month and a half, i've been reading posts about game testing, some of it good, some of it bad. The repetative tasks that make you want to hate a game, but being paid to play a game all day overcomes that for me. Just having a job that enables me to play games and get paid to do it is awesome. Its work, some of its not going to be fun. But I was wondering how an 18 year old kid still in high school can get started in this line of work. I really want to do it, I figure its good to get my hand in it early so I can start getting the experience I need to work for big company's like Sony, EA Sports, etc. Any advice and help is greatly appreciated. Thanks. :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I bet my dad can beat up your dad *sticks tongue out*

Comments

  • knives22knives22 Member Posts: 375

    I think, SOE has one of those tester centrals or whatever down there in Miami.

    image

  • LivinDeadLivinDead Member Posts: 16
    If anyone has any info on Tester jobs open in the Atlanta area it would be much appreciated to let me know...

  • DienekesDienekes Member Posts: 484

    Here is my biggest advice to anyone who wants to test games in North America: Move to the Bay Area. There are SOOOO many gaming companies in the area that is hard to not find a job testing. Here is a short list of some of the companies in this area that might be looking for testers:

    Sony (Where I work...PS2 testing meaning your testing all PS2 games)
    EA
    ESPN
    Lucas Arts
    Eidos
    SEGA
    plus many more that I can't think of off the top of my head,

    I know Sony online isn't hiring but first party and offline might be. You would want to contact Nelson staffing for hiring information. If your in the area I can give you the number if you PM me. I can also look into companies in your area if moving is not an option. I don't know how many are in Oregon but I can look.

    "Feel free to hate me, but hate me for the right reasons."

    "Your still ignorant if you believe the first thing you see when the blindfold is removed."

    "Be smart enough to know I'm smarter than you."

  • AzianGamer86AzianGamer86 Member Posts: 56

    If you could that would be great, I just need help getting started, I have no clue where I should start. Thanks.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I bet my dad can beat up your dad *sticks tongue out*

  • OrccOrcc Member Posts: 3,043
    I wish my standards were high enough to become a game tester.

    image
  • DienekesDienekes Member Posts: 484

    I'm not sure I should take that as an insult to QA people or yourself....

    "Feel free to hate me, but hate me for the right reasons."

    "Your still ignorant if you believe the first thing you see when the blindfold is removed."

    "Be smart enough to know I'm smarter than you."

  • AzianGamer86AzianGamer86 Member Posts: 56

    What I would like to do is either test PS2 games for Sony, or X-Box.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I bet my dad can beat up your dad *sticks tongue out*

  • DienekesDienekes Member Posts: 484

    For PS2 you would need to move to the Bay Area (mainly Foster City area) or San Diego. For XBox, I'm not sure but I would assume outside of Seattle in Washington at the MS hq.

    "Feel free to hate me, but hate me for the right reasons."

    "Your still ignorant if you believe the first thing you see when the blindfold is removed."

    "Be smart enough to know I'm smarter than you."

  • AzathothAzathoth Member Posts: 357

    Originally posted by AzianGamer86
    For the past month and a half, i've been reading posts about game testing, some of it good, some of it bad. The repetative tasks that make you want to hate a game, but being paid to play a game all day overcomes that for me. Just having a job that enables me to play games and get paid to do it is awesome. Its work, some of its not going to be fun. But I was wondering how an 18 year old kid still in high school can get started in this line of work. I really want to do it, I figure its good to get my hand in it early so I can start getting the experience I need to work for big company's like Sony, EA Sports, etc. Any advice and help is greatly appreciated. Thanks. :)

    Here are some links for excellent info. The first one is a link off of the second. I put it first because it explains the interview process the person whom wrote the page had to go through.

    http://www.planetnintendo.com/mariokart/videogametesting.html

    http://www.gamestester.com/

    http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson5.html


    Hope this helps.

    They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

    Cartman has a big fat ass!

  • AzianGamer86AzianGamer86 Member Posts: 56

    Wow, I read some of these articles, and they are right, Game Testing isnt all fun and games! But I think it would be cool, to tell people that I have played a game that hasn't even come out yet. Im not doing this because of what people will think of me, I want to do this because I love playing games. I can play games for hours on end, doing nothing really, just messin around. Sometimes I drive backwards around a track, see how many times I can I can do a backflip on my bike on a street course. I like to do quarky things on th egames, just for the hell of it. But I also want to do this because a Game Tester is the last line of defense for a bugged out game. I see it as a consumer service, I make sure teh game runs smoothly before its ship date. I want to get started as soon as possible, if there are any game companys in Oregon who need/want more game testers please let me know so I can apply. I really appreciate all the tips and links you guys are posting, Thank you. ::::28::

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I bet my dad can beat up your dad *sticks tongue out*

  • DienekesDienekes Member Posts: 484

    Hate to burst your bubble but a lot of what goes through QA doesn't get fixed. It is also not all just playing in strange ways. You also can't tell others what games your testing or what you find and such even after the game comes out. There is a lot of suits involved because of the amount of money. However, QA is sort of the unsung hero in the gaming industry. ::::28::

    Here are some companies I could find, however, I don't know that much about them:

    BraveTree based in Eugene
    Tesseraction Games in Eugene
    GarageGames in Eugene

    Your best bet will be GarageGames since they are at least a large popular development studio. No idea if their QA dep is in Eugene though. I will add more companies as I find them.

    "Feel free to hate me, but hate me for the right reasons."

    "Your still ignorant if you believe the first thing you see when the blindfold is removed."

    "Be smart enough to know I'm smarter than you."

  • AzianGamer86AzianGamer86 Member Posts: 56

    Thanks, I will look into garagegames later on tonight or tomorrow.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I bet my dad can beat up your dad *sticks tongue out*

  • ColdmeatColdmeat Member UncommonPosts: 3,409

    http://www.gamasutra.com/ has a pretty good list of game development jobs. I believe I've seen a couple listings for QA/testers there as well.

    image

  • AzianGamer86AzianGamer86 Member Posts: 56

    That was what I was looking for Coldmeat, thanks.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I bet my dad can beat up your dad *sticks tongue out*

Sign In or Register to comment.