Game Testers

admin answers:

Yes. It’s called a consumer.

admin answers:

The best way to get into this field is to compile a list of the companies that develop the games you’re interested and try to figure out who’s in charge of hiring testers or in charge of the Quality Assurance (QA) department — get their email addresses, physical addresses, and phone numbers, if possible.

1. Write an email describing (use a lot of adjectives) your INTENSE interest in their game(s) and explain the you would LOVE to be a “beta tester” (volunteers who test, often for free until proven)

2. Send them a letter with the same content of your email.

3. Try to reach them by phone with the same content of your email and letter.

Never mention money or ask them to send you free games.
Build rapport with your contacts and offer any reasonable gig they offer.

admin answers:

A game tester analyzes video games to document software defects that may occur during gameplay. It’s basically a ‘quality control’ job with a difference — You get paid to play games.

Some of the video game tester job options include:
1. Self Employed Video Game Tester
2. Freelance Video Game Tester
3. Full Time Corporate Game Tester

The pay varies based on gaming skills, eye for detail, quality of feedback that you send back to the hiring company, and time spent in testing the latest or soon-to-be-launched games.

admin answers:

Go to the Job sites and search for game tester.
There are several sites that specialize in the games industry make sure you hit those.
Try the major classified sites for jobs too.

Make sure your searches are by location so that you can narrow into Las Vegas.

Let’s talk about Location. Some locations in the US have few jobs in the Game Industry.
It is also hard to get a farming job in downtown New York.
The question is, if you can’t find a job in your area, are you willing to go to where the jobs are?

So, 1) find the websites that tell you where the publishers are… I think the IGDA website will.
2) Find the Publishers that are in your state.

If a close publisher will not hire you, you will have to go to the main Video Game Hubs in the US.

What do you need to get a job as a game tester?

It is good to have good communication skills, good team skills, to know about technology and how games are put together. Foreign language, etc are all good education to have on your resume and you could use in a game testing position.

I know of hundreds of people hired to be game testers that didn’t have any additional college education. I have personally helped over 1000 people get into the industry through becoming a video game tester. I developed training and education for people to become video game testers.
It has been made into online self paced training on the PowerUp Games Website.
Http://powerupgames.com/videogametester.html It has a certification course for Game Testing at a lot cheaper price than a single college course.

The reason people get more education is that it is becoming competitive to get a game testing position. The better your resume and cover letter and references and portfolio…. The better your chances.

Now lets talk about some other answers you may need to know about…

Now lets talk about what some people consider to be video game testing….
Stay as home game testing should be considered an Urban Legend. Winning the lottery would be easier than finding this as real employment. If it was real, what percentage of the US or world population would like this as a job or career? 40% or more? How many billion people is that…

Becoming a game tester is do-able but sometimes you need someone to show you the way.
Of the people offering help, this will help you avoid SCAMS…

Here are some articles

http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=488864

http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=488665

http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/mod/journal/journal.asp?jn=250978&reply_id=3291165

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2006/09/why_game_tester_guide_sucks_in.php

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2006/03/game_testings_incredulous_road.php

http://www.affiliatebling.com/gamer-testing-ground/

ALSO:
Never pay for a job or job list.
Never pay for a subscription to find a game testing job. They are usually scams.
To see if they are… Email them and see how long takes them to respond to a specific question.
Make sure you get 2-3 phone numbers of people who have been with them for 6 months or more
and call them to see if they think it was worth it. Ask these people 2-3 specific questions about what they got for the money, how helpful was the staff, what jobs they applied for etc…
Who they worked for.
Has their education ever been used by some company involved in the industry?
How industry connected are they?
Do they have a business phone number that you can call them to ask a question?
Do they have a business license?
If they entire site justs hypes high paying jobs in video game testing, be careful.

To increase your chances of getting a career game testing position…
Become familiar with what game testing is, terminology, etc and build out a good cover letter and resume.

Get some good experience and be able to talk about what you did in with the knowledge and terminology you have learned about Game Testing.

Become familiar with the basics of game testing so after you land a position, you can keep it.
(there are some companies that will hire 10 game testers knowing that after 2-3 days, they will know the best of the group and will lay off the rest. It is cheaper than doing a deep interview process)

Remember, there will be several hundred people applying to any game testing position and you have to get your resume to the top for a phone interview and past the face to face interview so you can get the position and show that you know what it is and that you know what you need to do to become a Game tester.

Have someone in the Game Industry review your resume and cover letter. Get someone who was a game tester or even better, someone who has hired game testers.

If you want help completing the above steps, please investigate our Training at http://www.powerupgames.com/video-game-tester-faqs.html
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admin answers:

Full Sail has a great program that includes most of your examples. Kind of expensive and located outside of Orlando, FL, but worth possibly looking into if you’re looking for quality.