| Blogs > Zhek |
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Zhek
Canada342 Posts
I really just wondered if anyone has such a job and could tell me how the job was, how was the work environment and any other relevant or useful information you guys could have :D Also, here's a poll to see who wants me to get such a job. Cuz I can make a poll. Poll: Should I get a job as a QA Video game tester? If all else fails, yes. (25) No (17) Yes (11) 53 total votes Your vote: Should I get a job as a QA Video game tester?  | ||
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anderoo
Canada1876 Posts
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Skazzo
United States102 Posts
>here a poll to see who wants >here a poll >here a >here I think you got bigger problems. User was temp banned for this post. | ||
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TheAntZ
Israel6248 Posts
but yeah sure, why not? | ||
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Zhek
Canada342 Posts
On June 07 2010 22:56 TheAntZ wrote: brag blog in disguise, 'hey guys, gonna get paid to play games' but yeah sure, why not? I haven't applied yet, because I knew a guy who was a QA tester and did not speak of it highly. Then again it was for Ubisoft. | ||
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stroggos
New Zealand1543 Posts
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nayumi
Australia6499 Posts
I can ask him for some more info if you can be a little bit more specific, says a list of 10 questions will do. | ||
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Adeeler
United Kingdom764 Posts
Try and get the job if you can but don't expect it to be amazing. | ||
MrHoon
10183 Posts
As far as I know, some companies give you 1 stage to play on and tell you "I want you to jump over this same platform 9000 times and see if you bug out. When you do find a bug write us a report of why it happened and write the process of creating this bug" | ||
Rekrul
Korea (South)17174 Posts
the idea of game testing is cool and all when ur a kid but it sux balls | ||
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cYaN
Norway3322 Posts
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Shizuru~
Malaysia1676 Posts
depends on what company you are going to apply for? | ||
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ella_guru
Canada1741 Posts
Does this mean anything to you? | ||
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Zhek
Canada342 Posts
On June 07 2010 23:15 Shizuru~ wrote: well.... depends on what company you are going to apply for? I have a solid hard on for Eidos Montreal right now, to be honest. | ||
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ZeaL.
United States5955 Posts
On June 07 2010 23:18 Zhek wrote: I have a solid hard on for Eidos Montreal right now, to be honest. test deus ex 3 and feed us the details | ||
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Zhek
Canada342 Posts
Pretty much that, minus the detail feeding, they make you sign an NDA.  | ||
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Gogleion
United States534 Posts
But if you really don't want to move forward with it, chances are you'll be much happier doing something else. | ||
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Sharkified
Canada254 Posts
Also, you would most likely not test deux ex 3, but some random whack boring phone game that you would have to play all day. | ||
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Zhek
Canada342 Posts
On June 07 2010 23:48 Sharkified wrote: I wanted to do that to, but it seems to be a real pain in the neck, because just trying to make a game bug all day is amazingly repetitive. Also, you would most likely not test deux ex 3, but some random whack boring phone game that you would have to play all day. I'm okay with that. I don't really mind smaller, probably more childish game. In those cases, I'd probably try to break it so much the release day would have to be pushed back  | ||
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Zlasher
United States9129 Posts
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Sigi
United States243 Posts
http://www.cracked.com/article_17066_6-dream-jobs-that-would-actually-suck.html With that in mind I'd have to advise against it. | ||
Chill
Calgary25979 Posts
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Helium
59 Posts
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Zhek
Canada342 Posts
On June 08 2010 00:02 Chill wrote: This is the worst thread. There's no alternative. It's like "Should I have sex with this girl?" There is seemingly no downside so the answer is yes. I've made the thread because I know it looks like the perfect job until you actually get it. I wanted to know the opinions of others, if they had that job once, how it really was etc. | ||
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Saturnize
United States2473 Posts
 Its not like every game is great... there is a reason they have video game testers  | ||
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huameng
United States1133 Posts
On June 08 2010 00:11 Zhek wrote: I've made the thread because I know it looks like the perfect job until you actually get it. I wanted to know the opinions of others, if they had that job once, how it really was etc. I think the idea is... if you aren't gonna be a game tester, what are you gonna do? Sit on your ass all day? Clearly being a game tester is a better job than no job. It's a pretty shitty job though. | ||
Excalibur_Z
United States12235 Posts
I did QA at various companies, paid (EA, Namco) and unpaid (every Blizzard beta since Diablo2 [I consider this to be unpaid testing considering I've sent hundreds of formal bug and error reports to Blizzard for all those games]), for about 6-7 years. How much enjoyment you'll get out of it is completely dependent upon your state of mind and your passion for helping to develop a quality game. I viewed testing through the fairly uncommon lens of promotion to the design or production team, but that's not always a possibility depending on your employer. That said, I did get promoted through QA tester to QA lead to Producer, so it's not impossible and your experiences may vary. Your chances of being promoted depend heavily on your personal drive and the size of the company, though that naturally applies to just about every job. One big downside to testing is you have to be willing to work potentially a lot of hours. At EA it was common for us to work 60-80 hours during crunch time, and a couple of weeks at Namco I racked up 100 hours. Let me tell you that it can be really annoying if you ordinarily have plans to go home and play Starcraft (which I did) or, even worse, if you have a girlfriend that demands your attention (which I did toward the latter half of my testing job). You're basically not going to have much of a social life in the event that you need to be at work for 16 hours a day, or some days even 24-hour shifts. I've only done about 6 24-hour shifts throughout testing, and while you get really tired really fast, it's sort of an oddly exhilarating experience. When you're working with the rest of your testing team, things can be a lot of fun. You can have competitions and bets to see who can beat the level or game the fastest, losers chip into a pot for food on the next overtime shift. My personal experience is that your team almost becomes comic caricatures of themselves, which is weird: at EA my team was a guy who tried to get away with sleeping most of the day, an aspiring modeler/animator guy who snapped his fingers and pointed at the screen whenever he found a crash bug, an aspiring CS1.6 CAL-M player, a dbag who thought he was better than everyone, and a really soft-spoken guy. My lead was a Korean who was learning to play War3, and I remember I asked him to translate some SC VODs but he couldn't recognize what the announcers were saying because of their accents. Fun times. The upside is testing rewards creativity. Some companies require you to adhere strictly to test plan documents, and having to sit there and mark checkboxes all day is naturally the antithesis of fun, but there's always plenty of time for "free testing". If you have a creative and analytical mind, it can be fun trying to look at the game from a developer's perspective and thinking how a level or feature is put together. For example, if you see 5 bridges in a platformer game and they all look identical, chances are it's the same asset used 5 times, so if you jump in between the seam where the bridge meets the land and fall through it, that may happen on all of them. I found stuff like that to be interesting. Some of the bugs you find you will invariably be proud of, too. I found one bug in Medal of Honor: Frontline that I believe is still in the game because it occurred even in the retail PS2 version (my team was doing Gamecube localization) where if you use a rocket or grenade to kill yourself while propelling your corpse over the finish line of a stage, you'll start the next stage with 0 hp and enemies won't attack you unless you attack them first. If it sounds like something that interests you, then go for it. It's not a sweatshop but you can't always keep the schedule you want (again depending on the company), and it's not a ticket to be a designer but it's not impossible either. | ||
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Ragnorak
Australia54 Posts
![[image loading]](http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/770836278_VG7Cr-L.jpg) | ||
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Zhek
Canada342 Posts
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Chill
Calgary25979 Posts
On June 08 2010 00:11 Zhek wrote: I've made the thread because I know it looks like the perfect job until you actually get it. I wanted to know the opinions of others, if they had that job once, how it really was etc. Well, how about some insight. Do you have a job now? Do you have any prospects? It's like I can boil this thread down to "Should I get a job?" to which the answer is yes. | ||
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Chill
Calgary25979 Posts
On June 08 2010 00:11 sybris wrote: what? are you seriously saying they're seemingly no downsides to being a game tester? come on.. Given the alternative is 'do nothing' then yes, there is no downside. | ||
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Helium
59 Posts
Game testing does sound really really drab from what I've heard too | ||
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Hidden_MotiveS
Canada2562 Posts
Read the old threads about people on TL who were game testers, and their recommendations and experiences. Here's a more recent one, though I recall a ton more. http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=72628 | ||
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EvilTeletubby
Baltimore, USA22253 Posts
Being a QA tester is pretty horrible from the second hand stories I've heard about it. But yeah, if you need a job you need a job... in this economy if you can't find anything else go for it. You really didn't give us anything to discuss. | ||
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