So you wanna be a Game Tester? The Truth about video game testing

So you wanna work for a video game company? You wanna know what its like to be a video game tester? Here is my experience during my time in QA.

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[MGCofficial]

Hey guys, thanks for checking out my video. I see alot of people have questions so I thought I could make a Part 2 Video answering your guys question. I might be able to get one of my old Coworkers to join me as well to share his experience. Leave a comment Reply here and if I get enough I will make a video answering them. Thanks again

[affidavid]

As a QA Tester working with QA studios, best job I've ever had.

[MinnesotaNumberOne]

This was very informative, thanks for taking the time! I just got hired for QA at a AAA company and I’m still very excited to learn.

[Random_entity]

A lot of the problems you mentioned like toxic workplace, bad management, boring and repetitive work and etc. Are present in other office jobs.

[Nitrometutorials]

It's important to note that this is very specific to different companies, and not necessarily generalizable to ALL QA testing experiences. Some companies can be really great to work on QA for!

I run the QA program at a game company (not a AAA company, but a big budget indie or "triple i" company) and I use this video as lessons for what _not_ to do in overseeing our testing program.

[shwickid]

"Devs don't even play there game"


Resident evil umbrella corps were looking at you

[TheBlckIce]

Video Game Testing may get boring but still sounds fun.
I like going through checklists and stuff.

[farlonmuentes]

this is why when my non gamer friends asked me to be a play tester because they know how much time I spend on video games, I refused because I don't want to hate the very thing i love as a hobby.

they say do the thing you love and you'll never work another day in your life. I believe the opposite. If the very thing that you love is mandatory to keep you alive, you will eventually hate and vomit at the thought of it. I actually prefer the opposite. work with the job you're indifferent or dislike and you'll appreciate the non work related things in life like your hobbies whatever it may be, family time, dates, sleep and vacations. same reason why I don't want to be working from home. I don't like the idea of stress and my sanctuary being combined into one.

[YoungCub]

As an accountant, your description of the cons sounds great . Got a AAA interview this week!

[SuperWiiBros]

I mean what do you expect when being a game tester, is right there in the name if you think about it deeply

[simonnewport]

This experience sounds so different from my own 4+ years in QA Testing in Australia which, for the most part, has been good. Honestly the work environment sounds really bad (2 days training? tf?) and the work + workers underappreciated at this studio while they distract from that with free drinks and food. QA testers do suffer from burnout (like most devs) so its important to rotate tasks or projects to mitigate that repetitiveness.

[jonrodriguez]

Great video, shows how game companies really feel about the gamers. Dev's don't really care about players, just the cash they bring to the table. Paying for DLC and pre-orders is proof, not to mention the high levels of crappy re-hashes and remakes we see. Maybe one day testers will have a better work experience.

[MrProg-eytl]

A lot of these issues honestly sound like generic office work problems that you could have anywhere.

[LootFragg]

Sounds exactly like call center. We had to fill out a language test riddled with mistakes and, since I am a native speaker and extremely pedantic, I corrected the test itself. I also answered e-mails in polite native language and any other foreign language I could speak to the best of my abilities, instead of using generic text blocks as instructed. Had a talking-to by project lead who told me to stop doing things right and fulfill textblock quota if I want to keep the job, so I quit.

I think there is an overarching lack of leadership. If you don't have a guy / gal with a vision keeping everything together, the departments will split off and do their own thing and try to keep a low profile to keep payments rolling, instead of working on a goal. Same thing in the army. Keep your head low and make sure command doesn't notice your department, sit back, drink coffee, do the minimum, shut up, get paid.

Really, this "bug reports don't matter" mentality bears striking resemblance to the stuff I've seen throughout my work life.

[nwyk]

Work at EA as a game tester for 8 years. Love every moment of it, and miss every moment of it. There's ups and down, but when you have great colleagues, you dont have to worry about all the bad shit. I wish i could go back, but i heard they are not what it used to be.

[slimeplayz]

Imagine hiring non gamers for a gamer job smh

[KMReviews]

After being military this sounds like cake lol

[julesthed]

Damn man. I’m just looking for a entry level job into the video game industry. I’m currently attending college for computer programming and I intend on transferring to a university to get a degree in video game designer or something of that sort.

[Florin]

Depends on the department, functional testing can get repetitive quick but compliance testing is pretty engaging and enjoyable if you like that kind of work, you don't have to report invisible walls, falling through the ground, i.e. doing the check on the same level over and over. In compliance you get to test things like how the game behaves with different peripherals be it controllers, steering wheels, VR sets, if the game is supported by the required OS, if the game supports different aspect ratios, if the copyright info is in order, drm checks and so on, you rarely get to actually play the game from start to finish. source: working in compliance for 4 years.

[littlestbroccoli]

You want to hire detail-oriented workers who can efficiently spot and record bugs. It should not be surprising at all that some of them will not like FPS or play many games. Pretty sure their work performance matters more.