When people tend to think of video game testing as a career they think, oh it must be easy and fun so I’ll give it a try and just live for years on a steady income. What they need to realize is that it’s not as clear cut and simple as that, so when you decide to embark on a quest to discover if this is true or not, first keep in mind these simple instructions.
Video games are developed in stages for good reason. The stage you are primarily concerned with is beta testing, while there is a thing called alpha testing that is mostly for in company testing only so you would not be testing the game for that stage. Beta testing is where the game is mostly finished, maybe a few parts are left out such as graphics refinement, online compatibility, and a few extras that don’t affect the core of the gameplay but only add additional content to the user.
There are a few things you should always keep in mind when considering becoming a video game beta tester as a job or career path. Keep these things in mind when you are deciding whether or not you want to approach this venue. Personally I suggest you go for it, there’s no real downside and you always can make a few extra bucks on the side.
1. While video game testing can be a full-time job, I strongly suggest you do it as a part-time or just fit it into your schedule for only a few hours a day. Unless you just got fired, in which case this isn’t such a bad idea for a few weeks or months.
2. Being a beta tester does NOT mean you are playing video games for fun. This is a real job and should be considered as one, meaning you need to be very careful in how you execute your job, and you need to put in the hours to get money out of it.
3. The pay can be fantastic considering you don’t need a formal education or a real background to go into this industry. It can also be seen as a stepping stone to try and edge your way into the industry, but honestly it’s not nearly as effective as trying to be a graphic artist or programmer and getting in from there. The pay can be upwards of 40+ dollars per hour but you need to realize that’s with alot of report writing, alot of grueling hours spent whittling away at a game and a lot of cursing.
4. So what are the good parts you ask? Well as I said before, pay can be good going upwards of 40+ dollars an hour if you work hard, you put as little or as much effort into this as you want, but really you should be dedicating a few hours a day all week if you’re going to do this at all. But you really need to consider how much you enjoy playing video games or not, as this does test your patience in a very demanding way. It’s like fighting a boss battle where you constantly die and don’t know why you are, but know you just have to keep trying and eventually some dumb little thing will work.
