What do Game Testers do?
I know they're supposedly QA for gaming companies...but does that mean all they do is sit down and play games and provide feedback etc? Seems like a pretty awesome job to me...Is the competition to become one really stiff?
I did it for a summer back in college. In general it is not fun. The game is buggy and repetitive, and debug shortcuts are not provided. Pay is just above min. Wage. I had some good times testing multiplayer with coworkers, and got some decent OT pay by working two games at once.
They don't suggest features, they do the same Repetitive tasks over and over again to repro issues, then do the same to verify as fixed. It is not just 'playing the game'
Playtest is the worst job in a game company. You would need to play same things again and again and write reports about them, for example, trying the same game from different devices, from iPhone 5 to iPhone x, etc. You will soon realize that you don't want to play any games soon. Quotes from my QA team.
the competition is stiff, the pay is often miserable and it isn’t *nearly* as fun as you’re describing. You have to run test cases, test out new maps, features by trying to abuse it as much as possible. As fun as this might sound, it is repetitive and boring work for most people. There are “ux testers” (User eXperience) which essentially play new content, but that’s an even harder job to get, not all places have them, and to top it all off it isn’t as fun as it sounds either. Theres also basically zero upward mobility outside of your organization. Most companies also hire contractors which are terminated once a test cycle is complete, we dont do this, but that just makes the market for permanent positions all the more competitive. If you want a gig that might be fun and think it’ll be a good stepping stone to something else, I’d say give it a shot, very little to lose - if you’re dreaming of something permanent and stable, dream on.