What It's Really Like To Be a Video Game Tester

What I thought would be a fun job turned into a stressful job. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly about being a Video Game Tester or Quality Assurance Tester. I go over how much a Video Game Tester is paid, what were the interview questions they asked me, and my overall experience working as Video Game Tester.

Please keep in mind I have left the name of the company and the game I worked for private for legal reasons.

⏱️TIMESTAMPS⏱️
0:00 - How I became a Video Game Tester
1:52 - Interview Questions
2:37 - What does a Video Game Tester do?
4:33 - The Good
6:30 - The Bad
11:50 - The Ugly
17:30 - Overall Experience

★ My Gear

DISCLAIMER
Some of the links in this description may be affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission at NO ADDITIONAL cost to you if you decide to purchase something through them. Note that, I only link out to products and services I believe in.

[bzymek]

I love how "the bad" section is almost three times longer than "the good". Pretty self-explanatory.

[TheXfoxUK]

I've been working in video game testing (QA) for almost 16 years now, and while I could relate to some of the things you highlighted in your video (I've worked on contracts where you get fired at the end of the project), I'd have to say the title should be amended to 'What It CAN Be Like To Be A Video Game Tester'! Unfortunately it seems like you worked at a company still using pretty old and pretty bad practices that ultimately just end up with a disgruntled workforce and bad products. Please believe me that there are plenty of companies out there who really value their test teams and have much better processes in place! For example, a lot of bigger companies now will outsource the bulk of the more basic bug-finding or test script following stuff to companies that specialise in testing. This means they can still reduce costs by cutting the bulk of the test team when projects end (i.e. their contract with the testing company ends), but those testing companies have work from multiple companies at a time so they don't have to fire their workforce every few months and they just move testers onto something else. The development company is still likely to have a core team of test employees who are more skilled and experienced, and they do other test-related activities like test planning and writing test scripts so they can roll onto the next project, so it is possible to have a full-time testing job within a development company.

I would also add that the ugly part you describe about tracking bug numbers and pitting testers against each other is a particularly out-dated practice that anyone in their right mind can see is just awful and benefits no one. Most companies have realised the same pitfalls that you observed and use other metrics to track employee performance. As you point out, judging testers on bug numbers just means you'll get higher numbers at the expense of everything else, and it is detrimental to the game's quality - any QA team (QA stands for QUALITY assurance!) worth their salt would never use bug numbers alone as any sort of key performance indicator.

As I mentioned at the start, I've been in QA for almost 16 years and I still love it. I'm full-time at a well-established company, and I get paid well for the skills and experience I bring to the job - which at this point is beyond playing the game looking for bugs, instead I specialise in game performance and working with large data sets to identify regressions and opportunities for optimisation (basically helping to make the game run faster and smoother). QA is a very deep and rewarding profession that goes a lot further than playing the game 8 hours a day, and I would encourage anyone to give it a shot, you can definitely make a career out of it - just try to avoid the companies that are still using the bad practices mentioned in the video!

[connorm]

Play testers should definitely be paid more since the company relies heavily on how the public thinks about the day 1 release and that determines the sales in the future

[GrimoireGauss]

*Plays destiny for 12 hours everyday and constantly finding new bugs*
Sounds great

[foolsanticsstudio]

This is probably the most positive video I have come across so far. And it does explain part of why there are so many bugs in games these days. And its pretty funny cuz the last video I watch of someone telling his experiences said that the number of bugs found didn't matter as much to his company. People would keep people on based on how much they liked them.

Thanks for sharing. I love hearing everyone's opinions and experiences.

[mojang]

Game time:
Play for 2 hours take a break for 1 hours play for 2 hours.
Home time:
Day 1 sleep 8 hours, day 2 sleep 9 hours and so on

[KatBat]

I've been working as a game tester for several months, and when it comes to the "ugly section", it's nothing like that for me. Everyone takes their time to report bugs and we work as a team to make sure it's happening for everyone. There is no scoreboard on who is reporting the most. We TALK ABOUT WHO IS REPORTING WHAT BUG, that part was just insane to me like nobody wants duplicates in the database. Maybe it's cuz I work in Europe or the company is just more normal??
One part is legit and that's the low salary and getting sick of playing games xD

[marissasealyris]

My son is thinking about doing this and it’s been great hearing all the good and bad things and the interview tips. Also great to read in the comments that some companies work more as a team when reporting bugs and don’t keep scoreboards so thank you all for your time - it’s been very helpful.

[SoraTheKobold]

This video is such a good insight into the difficulty of working in the game industry, seriously this needs more views. The section about "The Ugly" really shows so much about the game industry from a unique one time perspective.

[pepethefrog]

I will have the interview for the QA/QC game position at Ubisoft, I really nervous now because I'm not good at English and don't know the question that they are going to ask. But I feel more confident, after I watch your video, thanks a lot.

[CeilloNoll]

This is very interesting. Thank you for this information

[MochiGhost]

I was an artist for a video game, but I was basically a couple rungs above the game testers in terms of "Hierarchy" and I often worked with them closely cause I was the in-between for visual bugs and the art team. I want to say that what you mentioned is the same all the way up the ladder till you get to the big guys like the faces of the company and the leads. I quit the video game area for basically the same reasons. Lay offs being the worst since I would be let go once a game was completed, and mind you I was a full time employee too. I was lucky a few times and got shifted to a new game in the company but most of the time it was bye bye, even some of my leads were let go in the same group as me. There was even a horror story where a group of co-workers couldn't get into the building cause they laid them off during lunch and they came back to find their entry cards not working. I couldn't handle having to find a new job every couple of months, and it was a fight against other people being laid off at the same time. Not to mention I had to move close to 3 times in 2 years just to accommodate these jobs.... cross country it got too much.

[entry]

Just imagine what mess had been going on in CDPR before CP2077 released

[ellejay]

The ugly portion sounds so much like my experience as a call center agent -_-

[jagadishputtaraj]

You seem like such a genuine guy. I wish you all the best mate 👍🏻

[Surgex]

Thanks for the video man. I’m thinking about taking on a part-time tester job since I already have a great full-time job. I like to know what I’m getting into before I do it and this was very helpful. Even with all the bad parts, I don’t feel dissuaded, but I do feel informed as to exactly what I’m getting myself into.

[zamfirachejoacabine]

Mulțumesc, pentru impresiile împărtășite; exprimate de un OM liber, și foarte sincer. ‘Visul meu’, sa spulberat, DEFINITIV. Auto-sclavagismul, se perpetuează : la infinit…

[d]

The reality of the matter is most jobs consist of you doing something that you don’t want to do to get a piece of paper to make somebody else do something they don’t really want to do, that is why we call this work……

[firelord]

Hey thanks man for this video really opened my mind in the world of video game testers (the bad side and the ugly side hit me more) planning on becoming a video game tester as well :D

[LukeoXx]

Thank you for sharing your experience. This was a very detailed video.