Becoming a Video Game Tester - Myth or Reality?

Before you start getting excited about starting a career as a professional video game tester, you have to step out of fantasy land and into reality. Most gamers want to become game testers because they think that it is a "no work-all play" type of job. They believe that'll just sit around, play the newest and most advanced games, and then rake in tons of cash every week. Unfortunately, that is 100% false. Although video game testing may still be considered as a dream job, it is nowhere near the fairy tale story that some people think it is.

First and foremost, a video game tester does not get paid to plop down into a lazyboy recliner and play the newest video games for 7-10 hours a day. The actual job description of a game tester is to test games, not to have tons of fun playing them.

When a developer hires you, he is paying for your ability to test video games. He is NOT paying you for the ability to play a video game and think that it is awesome; there are other, much less expensive ways to find out if a game is good or not. Having fun while testing video games is just a perk of the profession, as would be "eating food" while working at a restaurant. This doesn't necessarily mean that the developers don't want you to enjoy the video game; it's just that they have more pressing concerns, such as getting the game up to code before their deadline.

When you get right down to it, that's basically the job of the video game tester; to help get the game up to code by the developer's deadline. Due to that fact, the tester has to go over every nook and cranny of a video game in the hopes of finding all the bugs and glitches. Obviously, he won't find them all, but the bugs that he does happen to find must be accurately reported on.

Any problem that is found will be reported with this typical outline; what happened, how it happened, where it happened. The information in these reports will help the programmers find the bug and fix it as quickly as possible. The faster the programmers can fix everything (or nearly everything), the more likely the developer is to make his/their deadline. This is why accurate and concise bug reports are so vital to the testing process; because without them, the programmer would not be able to determine a bug's origin nor would he be able to correct the problem. And, if the programmers can't figure out the problem, there will be costly delays, which will ultimately cause deadlines to be missed. The entire testing process can be seen as a big chain. If there is a chink in the chain, the entire chain may fall completely apart.

In closing, there is much more to video game testing than people think. As a matter of fact, without professional video game testers, there wouldn't be nearly as many great games. Without quality testers, instead of the great XBOX 360, PS3, and Wii titles that you have become so fond off, you would be left with bug ridden, glitch infested, barely tolerable video games. Do you want to pay for, or play, games like that? Of course you don't! So, in that regard, you owe a great deal of thanks to video game testers everywhere. Because without them, you wouldn't love games as much as you do.