I think the thing is a lot of people go into game testing thinking that is their "way into the industry" and whilst I am not seeing it never happens, I don't think it happens as often as most people hope. Not only will you most likely be testing through a 3rd party company (so you are not even officially an employee of the studio) the pay will be bloody abysmal. Can you live on 12-14$ an hour in California, Redmond Washington, etc.... And the whole "I started out as tester and now I work as a X" kind of reminds me of ye old saying "I started in the mailroom and now I am the CEO". Yeah I don't think mailroom to CEO happens as often now.
@@tiredguy2753 can't really talk about the pay cause i work in Poland, but otherwise i agree, i know like 4 people who went from QA to Dev. If you want to be a dev, QA is not the first step, learning how to code is. Testing games alone ain't gonna make you into a programmist.
@@bzymek7054 That is what I am thinking. You would need some type of education and or portfolio if you wanted to climb out of QA. Just being QA isn't enough-but I fear to many people leap at the QA job thinking "this is all I need to get in".
This is true, you won’t get a dev job for just working QA. You need to be able to code and have a portfolio. The QA experience is more like icing on the cake for the resume.
Play testers should definitely be paid more since the company relies heavily on how the public thinks about the day 1 release and that determines the sales in the future
when there's over 50,000 applications for play testers but 5 for actual developers, the pay's going to be low. They're lucky to get paid in the first place with 0 skills other than being a nerd tbh
@@2ndintelligentWorld lmao this is exactly what people misunderstand about professional game testing, be a nerd and play 1 game for 8hours/day, 5/7 days a week doesn't make you a game tester
I've been working as a game tester for several months, and when it comes to the "ugly section", it's nothing like that for me. Everyone takes their time to report bugs and we work as a team to make sure it's happening for everyone. There is no scoreboard on who is reporting the most. We TALK ABOUT WHO IS REPORTING WHAT BUG, that part was just insane to me like nobody wants duplicates in the database. Maybe it's cuz I work in Europe or the company is just more normal?? One part is legit and that's the low salary and getting sick of playing games xD
I'm from Europe as well and been looking into being a video game tester too. Is this something you could do remotely or just like in the video you go to the office and work there. And if remotely is possible would there be a chance to be able to work for a company in a different country? Sorry if this sounds like a silly question, just feeling honestly curious and interested in this vocation.
Same here!!! My boss is super nice, they let us have our phones. Its not a numbers game and we are told to have active communication with the coders so we can figure out the bugs. BTW I live in Texas in America
This video is such a good insight into the difficulty of working in the game industry, seriously this needs more views. The section about "The Ugly" really shows so much about the game industry from a unique one time perspective.
It sounds like so much in life unfortunately. Taxi drivers paid based on the fares they take. Therefore down time between fares means no money. How can you reduce the impact of that? Drive faster and potentially more dangerously to get to the next fare. Internet company installing fibre optic cable. Where should we lay this 10 mile cable? Well if we lay it in London we can reach thousands of people. We lay it in the countryside then we'll reach hundreds. Guess it's the big city then. Numbers make the world go round.
That is correct. The video isn't much different from any video people can make about how bad their job is. From a business standpoint, it's so understandable and reasonable why video game companies (pr companies in general) do that, plus it's good that they cover their asses and thats why applicants/employees must really read the contract. I worked for a financial company which have similar policies for terminable offenses and it's reasonable. The video feels like he is just ranting about how he didn't like his job, like many people about their jobs..
I've been working in video game testing (QA) for almost 16 years now, and while I could relate to some of the things you highlighted in your video (I've worked on contracts where you get fired at the end of the project), I'd have to say the title should be amended to 'What It CAN Be Like To Be A Video Game Tester'! Unfortunately it seems like you worked at a company still using pretty old and pretty bad practices that ultimately just end up with a disgruntled workforce and bad products. Please believe me that there are plenty of companies out there who really value their test teams and have much better processes in place! For example, a lot of bigger companies now will outsource the bulk of the more basic bug-finding or test script following stuff to companies that specialise in testing. This means they can still reduce costs by cutting the bulk of the test team when projects end (i.e. their contract with the testing company ends), but those testing companies have work from multiple companies at a time so they don't have to fire their workforce every few months and they just move testers onto something else. The development company is still likely to have a core team of test employees who are more skilled and experienced, and they do other test-related activities like test planning and writing test scripts so they can roll onto the next project, so it is possible to have a full-time testing job within a development company. I would also add that the ugly part you describe about tracking bug numbers and pitting testers against each other is a particularly out-dated practice that anyone in their right mind can see is just awful and benefits no one. Most companies have realised the same pitfalls that you observed and use other metrics to track employee performance. As you point out, judging testers on bug numbers just means you'll get higher numbers at the expense of everything else, and it is detrimental to the game's quality - any QA team (QA stands for QUALITY assurance!) worth their salt would never use bug numbers alone as any sort of key performance indicator. As I mentioned at the start, I've been in QA for almost 16 years and I still love it. I'm full-time at a well-established company, and I get paid well for the skills and experience I bring to the job - which at this point is beyond playing the game looking for bugs, instead I specialise in game performance and working with large data sets to identify regressions and opportunities for optimisation (basically helping to make the game run faster and smoother). QA is a very deep and rewarding profession that goes a lot further than playing the game 8 hours a day, and I would encourage anyone to give it a shot, you can definitely make a career out of it - just try to avoid the companies that are still using the bad practices mentioned in the video!
My company is pretty big so quite often there are jobs going! In terms of advice on getting into testing, I started out with zero experience beyond having a passion for video games and found an entry level tester job. The key qualities that will help you succeed in the hiring process for that level would be: being able to identify bugs - you need to be able to spot how a game is not functioning as intended; good investigative skills - you need to be able to figure out HOW you caused a bug to happen and how to repeat it; attention to detail and good communication/writing skills - you will be writing bug reports and need to effectively communicate how you got the bug to happen so that developers can reproduce it. You’ll likely have some kind of practical aspect to the interview where they might sit you down with an already released game and ask you to find a bug and write a bug report, so you could practice doing this at home. Education in computer science/programming is not required at this level but may help you in the future as you look to progress (I did not have this when I started!). Good luck!
My son is thinking about doing this and it’s been great hearing all the good and bad things and the interview tips. Also great to read in the comments that some companies work more as a team when reporting bugs and don’t keep scoreboards so thank you all for your time - it’s been very helpful.
I can assure you that many companies see how bad that practice is and don't do that sort of thing any more! I hope your son finds a great company to work for. I started off as a game tester after being pushed by my girlfriend to find a job I enjoyed and I'm still in the industry 16 years later! This could be the start of a wonderful career for your son :)
I was an artist for a video game, but I was basically a couple rungs above the game testers in terms of "Hierarchy" and I often worked with them closely cause I was the in-between for visual bugs and the art team. I want to say that what you mentioned is the same all the way up the ladder till you get to the big guys like the faces of the company and the leads. I quit the video game area for basically the same reasons. Lay offs being the worst since I would be let go once a game was completed, and mind you I was a full time employee too. I was lucky a few times and got shifted to a new game in the company but most of the time it was bye bye, even some of my leads were let go in the same group as me. There was even a horror story where a group of co-workers couldn't get into the building cause they laid them off during lunch and they came back to find their entry cards not working. I couldn't handle having to find a new job every couple of months, and it was a fight against other people being laid off at the same time. Not to mention I had to move close to 3 times in 2 years just to accommodate these jobs.... cross country too...... it got too much.
This is probably the most positive video I have come across so far. And it does explain part of why there are so many bugs in games these days. And its pretty funny cuz the last video I watch of someone telling his experiences said that the number of bugs found didn't matter as much to his company. People would keep people on based on how much they liked them. Thanks for sharing. I love hearing everyone's opinions and experiences.
Thanks for the video man. I’m thinking about taking on a part-time tester job since I already have a great full-time job. I like to know what I’m getting into before I do it and this was very helpful. Even with all the bad parts, I don’t feel dissuaded, but I do feel informed as to exactly what I’m getting myself into.
I will have the interview for the QA/QC game position at Ubisoft, I really nervous now because I'm not good at English and don't know the question that they are going to ask. But I feel more confident, after I watch your video, thanks a lot.
Hey thanks man for this video really opened my mind in the world of video game testers (the bad side and the ugly side hit me more) planning on becoming a video game tester as well :D
The reality of the matter is most jobs consist of you doing something that you don’t want to do to get a piece of paper to make somebody else do something they don’t really want to do, that is why we call this work……
This is my reason to recommend the QA Tester job: I actually have purely good experiences being a QA Tester in Germany, I got payed a bit over minimum wage, but I had a super friendly and fun work environment. Overtime is a real thing that can happen, but I requested a contract that allows me to work only 4 days a week and the company allowed me to do that so that's pretty good. Also we were able to take short breaks every hour that did not count towards the lunch break. Everyone would get up once an hour, go down the stairs, walk around the building or stand in the sun, then go back up, so I never had sore legs from sitting or anything like that. I don't want to name the company despite me only saying good things about it because other people may have other experiences and I can only report on how I felt. I would wholeheartedly recommend this job if you are the kind of person that loves to try and find bugs and feels accomplished when you do find something. If you are ready to try to reproduce the same game breaking bug 30 times in a row to make sure its really fixed and if you are able to communicate bugs that happened to you in detail to the people you're working with by writing a helpful bug report. You just need to know that you're not often going to be "playing" rather "messing around with it" and trying to get outside of the map and things like that.
I'm from Germany as well! May I ask on how you actually applied for the job (don't have to name the company of course) and what qualifications you had before applying? I've been trying to get a foot in the industry for some time now, but the requirements seem daunting no matter where I look. Overall, what you have been describing sounds pretty awesome and like a nice work environment that every company and employee alike should strive for, so here's hoping I might find something similar in the future^^
@jSM2704 I went to their website and saw the job opening, was interested and made my CV and filled the CV with all the qualifications that I have that which are relevant to the job position. When I applied my qualifications were that I had already tested some mods for example for Skyrim, and had written a few bug reports for them so I knew how to work with for example the websites Trello and Jira (Jira is a popular Bug Collection Archive that lots of companies use). Additionally I wrote that I had a passion for gaming and graphic design in my hobby section. (I ended up being hired as a QA Tester with the sub-role of UI/UX Testing meaning I did regular game testing but then also was testing all the UI in the menus) I also had a bit of experience reading crash reports, crash logs and consoles (from all the modding), and that I was learning C#. (Although C++ is much more popular with big companies unless they work with Unity specifically) I got invited to a interview and there we talked about how I love gaming and want to work in the industry, and am looking to become a game developer in the future but for now want to start as QA tester. I was also asked if I was familiar with the games that the company made (I was), its important you read up on which engine they use to develop, which games they have made in the past and which they are working on, and if you haven't played them at least do your best to inform yourself on what games those are. They will likely check if you have done research about the company and their history and their games. Overall the QA Position isn't one where you have to be super qualified, they will train you in the beginning and show you how your workflow will look so I do recommend just applying to QA Positions! I am sure someone without any experience could get hired if you just have a interest in what they're working on. Hope that helped, if you have more questions let me know!
@@rishikeshjaiswal3979 it is, most jobs are suckier and different from what you expect. You also always have to take over roles from other departments too, it just happens
Honestly, you can find this kind of video on pretty much every single job out there. My advice is try it for urself and if it sucks, you can always quit.
Great informative video! But, here in India, they do not even train the game testers, instead, they expect them to know software testing while applying for jobs. Knowing it is obviously a perk, but not everyone will know it. I have been rejected for internships as well as jobs for over 50 times now and I have been playing games for more than 10 years.
im a So-Cal American expat living in the Philippines, i used to work at call centers here seasonally, i got lucky and found EA games needed testers/ customer service people for Star Wars Knights of the old Republic. That was right up my alley, i love Star Wars , im a Gamer go, go, go. got the job, became the batch leader, i loved the game it was EA games and Bioware at the time i thought was a Top 10 rpg game ever. my roommate worked there also and the dude was there at work 24/7 they had to cut his overtime off so he was working OT for free, dude never came home. almost 9 mos later SW KOTOR went public so they had to let us go. that sucked, but Diablo 3 was opening so everyone gave that a try, Call of Duty opened too but needed me to relocate out to a different city it wasnt worth it. so I started customizing Motorcycles instead which is cool too but every geek/gamer has always wanted to work for EA, Bioware, and Star Wars it was great, probably my funnest job. no complaints from me except the massive lay off was the worsest thing, grave yard shift sucked too those were the hours cause of the US/EU time difference. id do it again...
well not really, not anymore EA, bioware etc are dog shit companies and make shitty games so I doubt that everyone has always wanted to for for them LOL
Thanks for sharing your experience. The approach of evaluating people according to how many bugs they found is ridiculous, and causes games to fail again and again. It's amazing and horrendous that gaming companies just don't learn. It's about the quality and the process, not the quantity
Mulțumesc , pentru impresiile împărtășite; exprimate de un OM liber, și foarte sincer. ‘Visul meu’ , sa spulberat, DEFINITIV. Auto-sclavagismul , se perpetuează : la infinit…
The video was really helpful for me as I am a software tester and thinking of becoming a game tester and the points you mentioned were great that they made me reconsider my decision.
The most memorable and annoying video game glitch I’ve ever experienced is in the first “Dying Light” video game that I have for PS4 and there was like a floating raft on the water that was being used as a safe house to protect you against the infected. The problem is that after a while that floating raft completely disappeared, but the people were somehow still standing there floating above the water. I couldn’t get to it because you had to jump to it if I remember correctly and I just couldn’t get to it because it completely disappeared but somehow the characters in the game could still stand there. I don’t know if this only happened on my copy of the game, or if everyone else has experienced this glitch, but it’s definitely an annoying glitch to remember.
I learned that trying to fix a large number of bugs requires more work from the staff, and more money to pay them. Its a tricky formula with these sort of companies. They want you to test the bug over and over because they want to confirm its a major problem that effects development. If the bug isn't that noticeable then they'll acknowledge it and worry about it later. You can look at this from different angles and see good and bad outcomes for the team and their audience.
Oh man, so weird this popped up recommended for me today out of nowhere, but I've been in quality assurance for 17 years at this point. I went into video game testing early in my career hopeful and lasted all of 4 days before I noped out. I have a lot of opinions on why the state of it is what it is (at least in part, the bulk of what I would say was the issue then still happens now and your video shines light on that) but I have way too much to say about it to just put a novel in the comments. Just know that there are reasons for the flaws in game testing, some of them are well known and perpetuated purposefully and others happen because the powers that be within the industry lack experience and don't know any better.
This video is a great example of what happens to every company that ends up making it to the top. They let the bean counters take over. Then, all they care about is money and numbers. It's not just the video game world. It's people who take their focus off what they're doing because they're to hypnotized by dollar figures.
I did paid focus testing for a game once, and even that was a slog a lot of the time. I remember one moment in particular where all I wanted to do was take a break from the game. But it was my job to be playing the game, so I just had to keep wandering around an unpolished level for like a half an hour looking for an exit. I was so glad when it was time for a lunch break. It made me realize that if focus testing could be a soul crushing slog then I absolutely did not want to be a regular games tester.
Great example of how mismanagement can make an entire aspect of game development counterproductive. Incentivizing employees to do quantity over quality in terms of bug reports filed leads to all sorts of unsavory outcomes. The “stars” finding tons of (supposed) bugs probably don’t do a great job making sure that they can consistently reproduce the bug, while also doing unsatisfactory bug report write-ups. Meanwhile, there are testers who are actually thorough about reproducing their bugs, and also writing up detailed bug reports. These employees, who are actually doing the job correctly, get disenfranchised or, even worse, disciplined by management for not doing big numbers. This yields poor results. Many testers would prefer finding many small, inconsequential cosmetic glitches versus a complicated game-breaking error. Obviously, the latter should be given priority for repair. But those bugs are deprioritized in the testing/reporting side.
Been farming the exact same wow raid since 2009. So repetition is not a problem..I started as a game tester, and now i work as a game developer developer
Being at the bottom of the barrel for pretty much every company has similar issues and tendencies from the workers. It’s not the workers fault, it’s the culture being created by the company, people complain their packages are all beat up when they get delivered but the employees are pushed to move fast instead of being efficient so what happens? Packages get taken off the conveyor belts and thrown in the truck to save time bc the employee only cares about keeping their job
Thank you for the video. I am looking to become a temp or contract Game Tester. But after this video, I am not too sure because, like you, I value the quality of my work and would not like to post a bad report to get it in first.
Interesting, were you guys testing based on some kind of requirements doc or just freestyle? Coming from a gov office testing I was always curious to know how do you get a decent testing coverage in video games as the variety of actions and functionality is almost endless.
Being a FQA sucks. I did it for a year and a half at Square Enix Montreal and it was the worst. However this brought me to become a development tester and then a QA Specialist which both are 1000% better than being a FQA tester. What you describing is a FQA job. Development tester is such a better position in any shape or form
So basically it is the same as IT Professionals who develop, test, support and analyze Enterprise Software Systems except the software is a video game prodcut
The best people to get into the industry as a game tester is those who have other skills and plan to move up. Gamedevs…..animators…artists etc. like they say with McDonald’s….mcdonalds isn’t a job for living….its more for teens and newcomers to the work force. Same here. Get a game test job as a means to get into the industry and the first chance you get to move to another position, take it.
I am a video game tester and I can tell you most of the things depend on the company. I do work for an indie company and I am treated like a human although sometimes I feel overworked and tired and I want more free time to relax. Also my payment is not minimum wage or slightly above. Quite the opposite, it is fairly high.
If I can give an advice to all the future testers: Don't work for AAA companies ;) they are corporate structures that dissolve humanity at the workplace.
@thrainsend I'm afraid I don't live in the states, but rather in a small European country called Bulgaria. I do not wish to disclose which company I work for, at least for now. Maybe one day, when I start doing something else, I will feel ok talking about it.
Just one question if most game testers get paid above or at minimum wage then why am I hearing other people say they get paid 2 to $3,000 to play certain games?!
That thing about the quality of writing the bugs, the ethical dilemma; I just thought about most of the jobs (if not all) that I have had, and most of the jobs friends have told me about... sooo many jobs have things like that, that it didn't surprise me at all
Tony Sticks hey man I really enjoy your video it was super insightful and informative. I am some one that would like to get into video game testing but do not really know where to start, I would love to pick your brain if you have time. also I was wondering would freelance testing be better?
Ok when he said a tester can pretty much be max lvl online it explains why on cold war i saw someone max prestige no a couple of ppl. I would feel bad doing something like that. Takes the fun out of playing.
Phone being taken away during work hours - he must have been at Ubisoft or EA. Only AAA would do that - I've been in the industry 22 years as a designer and never once have I had to do that or have ever heard of that going on... but then I've always worked for smaller studios, not done any AAA stuff.
I actually love it im even preparing for ISTQB game tester exam im already a Software tester but playing games drives me on even playing crap over and over i replay resident evil all parts anually :) like when its winter time irs Re for me
yeah look mate, i'm not sure how old you are, but this is just how some companies are. you video is a good insight in like what a potential dream job could be, but its like being in vegas, you can't do it for long. bottom line is people are terrible and you want those terrible people on your side, if they are against you they can make your life 10x harder, it just sounds like you were working against terrible people and deep down that was the core of the job you had.
I love exploring every inch of a room and breaking things, along with seeing how I can get passed the map, I love looking for bugs and glitches, btw when starting game testing, do I need to know about coding?
General rule of thumb, don't make your hobby your job. Once you are forced to do it all the time, the less you'll like it over time. If you must make it a business, don't have it as your main income/main job. Preserve your interest and don't make it forced.
![How to Become a Game Tester? [Game QA tester]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n81GxMaHHmo/mqdefault.jpg)
I love how "the bad" section is almost three times longer than "the good". Pretty self-explanatory.
Ya but the bad section is basically they want you to play the game often and pay minimum wage which in California is about 12-15 a hour so not bad
I think the thing is a lot of people go into game testing thinking that is their "way into the industry" and whilst I am not seeing it never happens, I don't think it happens as often as most people hope. Not only will you most likely be testing through a 3rd party company (so you are not even officially an employee of the studio) the pay will be bloody abysmal. Can you live on 12-14$ an hour in California, Redmond Washington, etc....
And the whole "I started out as tester and now I work as a X" kind of reminds me of ye old saying "I started in the mailroom and now I am the CEO". Yeah I don't think mailroom to CEO happens as often now.
@@tiredguy2753 can't really talk about the pay cause i work in Poland, but otherwise i agree, i know like 4 people who went from QA to Dev.
If you want to be a dev, QA is not the first step, learning how to code is. Testing games alone ain't gonna make you into a programmist.
@@bzymek7054 That is what I am thinking. You would need some type of education and or portfolio if you wanted to climb out of QA. Just being QA isn't enough-but I fear to many people leap at the QA job thinking "this is all I need to get in".
This is true, you won’t get a dev job for just working QA. You need to be able to code and have a portfolio. The QA experience is more like icing on the cake for the resume.
Play testers should definitely be paid more since the company relies heavily on how the public thinks about the day 1 release and that determines the sales in the future
We do thank you
True
when there's over 50,000 applications for play testers but 5 for actual developers, the pay's going to be low. They're lucky to get paid in the first place with 0 skills other than being a nerd tbh
That’s not how it works
@@2ndintelligentWorld lmao this is exactly what people misunderstand about professional game testing, be a nerd and play 1 game for 8hours/day, 5/7 days a week doesn't make you a game tester
Game time:
Play for 2 hours take a break for 1 hours play for 2 hours.
Home time:
Day 1 sleep 8 hours, day 2 sleep 9 hours and so on
The gamers life
*Plays destiny for 12 hours everyday and constantly finding new bugs*
Sounds great
It dose he just lazy xD
@ Are you really "being forced" if you willfully applied for the job? You can't just apply for the job and then work whenever you felt like it.
@@CreamyCraig I mean tell that to underpayed workers in undeveloped countries
Same bro
@ sounds like a dream job to me. Especially when it's remote
I've been working as a game tester for several months, and when it comes to the "ugly section", it's nothing like that for me. Everyone takes their time to report bugs and we work as a team to make sure it's happening for everyone. There is no scoreboard on who is reporting the most. We TALK ABOUT WHO IS REPORTING WHAT BUG, that part was just insane to me like nobody wants duplicates in the database. Maybe it's cuz I work in Europe or the company is just more normal??
One part is legit and that's the low salary and getting sick of playing games xD
How did you get the job? Wonder wondering how to get start this job
@@tykizeta201 right i just don't know where to apply
Sounds like a much better work environment! Good for you!
I'm from Europe as well and been looking into being a video game tester too. Is this something you could do remotely or just like in the video you go to the office and work there. And if remotely is possible would there be a chance to be able to work for a company in a different country? Sorry if this sounds like a silly question, just feeling honestly curious and interested in this vocation.
Same here!!! My boss is super nice, they let us have our phones. Its not a numbers game and we are told to have active communication with the coders so we can figure out the bugs.
BTW I live in Texas in America
This video is such a good insight into the difficulty of working in the game industry, seriously this needs more views. The section about "The Ugly" really shows so much about the game industry from a unique one time perspective.
Glad you found it insightful. I noticed there needed to be more people talking about this
The ugly portion sounds so much like my experience as a call center agent -_-
True
It sounds like so much in life unfortunately.
Taxi drivers paid based on the fares they take. Therefore down time between fares means no money. How can you reduce the impact of that? Drive faster and potentially more dangerously to get to the next fare.
Internet company installing fibre optic cable. Where should we lay this 10 mile cable? Well if we lay it in London we can reach thousands of people. We lay it in the countryside then we'll reach hundreds. Guess it's the big city then.
Numbers make the world go round.
exactly!
i work in a call center agent and holy shit i hate this fucking job ...
That is correct. The video isn't much different from any video people can make about how bad their job is. From a business standpoint, it's so understandable and reasonable why video game companies (pr companies in general) do that, plus it's good that they cover their asses and thats why applicants/employees must really read the contract. I worked for a financial company which have similar policies for terminable offenses and it's reasonable. The video feels like he is just ranting about how he didn't like his job, like many people about their jobs..
Just imagine what mess had been going on in CDPR before CP2077 released
🤣🤣
CP2077?
Dude. That game is a masterpiece compared to Fallout 76.
This is very interesting. Thank you for this information
Your welcome!
I've been working in video game testing (QA) for almost 16 years now, and while I could relate to some of the things you highlighted in your video (I've worked on contracts where you get fired at the end of the project), I'd have to say the title should be amended to 'What It CAN Be Like To Be A Video Game Tester'! Unfortunately it seems like you worked at a company still using pretty old and pretty bad practices that ultimately just end up with a disgruntled workforce and bad products. Please believe me that there are plenty of companies out there who really value their test teams and have much better processes in place! For example, a lot of bigger companies now will outsource the bulk of the more basic bug-finding or test script following stuff to companies that specialise in testing. This means they can still reduce costs by cutting the bulk of the test team when projects end (i.e. their contract with the testing company ends), but those testing companies have work from multiple companies at a time so they don't have to fire their workforce every few months and they just move testers onto something else. The development company is still likely to have a core team of test employees who are more skilled and experienced, and they do other test-related activities like test planning and writing test scripts so they can roll onto the next project, so it is possible to have a full-time testing job within a development company.
I would also add that the ugly part you describe about tracking bug numbers and pitting testers against each other is a particularly out-dated practice that anyone in their right mind can see is just awful and benefits no one. Most companies have realised the same pitfalls that you observed and use other metrics to track employee performance. As you point out, judging testers on bug numbers just means you'll get higher numbers at the expense of everything else, and it is detrimental to the game's quality - any QA team (QA stands for QUALITY assurance!) worth their salt would never use bug numbers alone as any sort of key performance indicator.
As I mentioned at the start, I've been in QA for almost 16 years and I still love it. I'm full-time at a well-established company, and I get paid well for the skills and experience I bring to the job - which at this point is beyond playing the game looking for bugs, instead I specialise in game performance and working with large data sets to identify regressions and opportunities for optimisation (basically helping to make the game run faster and smoother). QA is a very deep and rewarding profession that goes a lot further than playing the game 8 hours a day, and I would encourage anyone to give it a shot, you can definitely make a career out of it - just try to avoid the companies that are still using the bad practices mentioned in the video!
Are they hiring?
any advice on how to get into game testing?
My company is pretty big so quite often there are jobs going!
In terms of advice on getting into testing, I started out with zero experience beyond having a passion for video games and found an entry level tester job. The key qualities that will help you succeed in the hiring process for that level would be: being able to identify bugs - you need to be able to spot how a game is not functioning as intended; good investigative skills - you need to be able to figure out HOW you caused a bug to happen and how to repeat it; attention to detail and good communication/writing skills - you will be writing bug reports and need to effectively communicate how you got the bug to happen so that developers can reproduce it. You’ll likely have some kind of practical aspect to the interview where they might sit you down with an already released game and ask you to find a bug and write a bug report, so you could practice doing this at home. Education in computer science/programming is not required at this level but may help you in the future as you look to progress (I did not have this when I started!). Good luck!
My son is thinking about doing this and it’s been great hearing all the good and bad things and the interview tips. Also great to read in the comments that some companies work more as a team when reporting bugs and don’t keep scoreboards so thank you all for your time - it’s been very helpful.
I can assure you that many companies see how bad that practice is and don't do that sort of thing any more! I hope your son finds a great company to work for. I started off as a game tester after being pushed by my girlfriend to find a job I enjoyed and I'm still in the industry 16 years later! This could be the start of a wonderful career for your son :)
Glad it was helpful! 😁
I was an artist for a video game, but I was basically a couple rungs above the game testers in terms of "Hierarchy" and I often worked with them closely cause I was the in-between for visual bugs and the art team. I want to say that what you mentioned is the same all the way up the ladder till you get to the big guys like the faces of the company and the leads. I quit the video game area for basically the same reasons. Lay offs being the worst since I would be let go once a game was completed, and mind you I was a full time employee too. I was lucky a few times and got shifted to a new game in the company but most of the time it was bye bye, even some of my leads were let go in the same group as me. There was even a horror story where a group of co-workers couldn't get into the building cause they laid them off during lunch and they came back to find their entry cards not working. I couldn't handle having to find a new job every couple of months, and it was a fight against other people being laid off at the same time. Not to mention I had to move close to 3 times in 2 years just to accommodate these jobs.... cross country too...... it got too much.
Oh my gosh! That’s crazy. What an awful way to get laid off. Thanks for sharing this for everyone.
@@TonySticks when they lay you off did you get payed prior to date of laying off ?
Oh wow! If you don't mind me asking, in what country was this? I want to go towards the videogame industry but this horror stories are kinda scary :S
This is probably the most positive video I have come across so far. And it does explain part of why there are so many bugs in games these days. And its pretty funny cuz the last video I watch of someone telling his experiences said that the number of bugs found didn't matter as much to his company. People would keep people on based on how much they liked them.
Thanks for sharing. I love hearing everyone's opinions and experiences.
I’m glad you found it informative and positive!
Thanks for the video man. I’m thinking about taking on a part-time tester job since I already have a great full-time job. I like to know what I’m getting into before I do it and this was very helpful. Even with all the bad parts, I don’t feel dissuaded, but I do feel informed as to exactly what I’m getting myself into.
Good luck! I can see this being a great part time gig.
I will have the interview for the QA/QC game position at Ubisoft, I really nervous now because I'm not good at English and don't know the question that they are going to ask. But I feel more confident, after I watch your video, thanks a lot.
You seem like such a genuine guy. I wish you all the best mate 👍🏻
Thanks! 😁
Hey thanks man for this video really opened my mind in the world of video game testers (the bad side and the ugly side hit me more) planning on becoming a video game tester as well :D
I hope it goes well and you enjoy it! Best of luck to you!
I wonder if he quit
@@metalgearjesus5801 same
ey buddy did you become a game tester or did you quit or something?
You still a game tester?
Thank you for sharing your experience. This was a very detailed video.
I’m so glad it helped!
Dont be a game tester, be a game developer, much more rewarding than a test subject.
and is also harder
I agree. I am a developer now without strict deadlines and it’s like the greatest job ever.
@@TonySticks how did you get into it? I need a mentor I want to get into this field
I'm writing a research paper about video games, this was super helpful and interesting! Thank you!
Oh wow! Thanks!
@@TonySticks how come half your videos have like 100 views and the other half have 50k?
Thanks for that ❤️
You're welcome!
The reality of the matter is most jobs consist of you doing something that you don’t want to do to get a piece of paper to make somebody else do something they don’t really want to do, that is why we call this work……
This is my reason to recommend the QA Tester job:
I actually have purely good experiences being a QA Tester in Germany, I got payed a bit over minimum wage, but I had a super friendly and fun work environment.
Overtime is a real thing that can happen, but I requested a contract that allows me to work only 4 days a week and the company allowed me to do that so that's pretty good. Also we were able to take short breaks every hour that did not count towards the lunch break.
Everyone would get up once an hour, go down the stairs, walk around the building or stand in the sun, then go back up, so I never had sore legs from sitting or anything like that.
I don't want to name the company despite me only saying good things about it because other people may have other experiences and I can only report on how I felt.
I would wholeheartedly recommend this job if you are the kind of person that loves to try and find bugs and feels accomplished when you do find something. If you are ready to try to reproduce the same game breaking bug 30 times in a row to make sure its really fixed and if you are able to communicate bugs that happened to you in detail to the people you're working with by writing a helpful bug report.
You just need to know that you're not often going to be "playing" rather "messing around with it" and trying to get outside of the map and things like that.
I'm from Germany as well! May I ask on how you actually applied for the job (don't have to name the company of course) and what qualifications you had before applying?
I've been trying to get a foot in the industry for some time now, but the requirements seem daunting no matter where I look.
Overall, what you have been describing sounds pretty awesome and like a nice work environment that every company and employee alike should strive for, so here's hoping I might find something similar in the future^^
@jSM2704 I went to their website and saw the job opening, was interested and made my CV and filled the CV with all the qualifications that I have that which are relevant to the job position.
When I applied my qualifications were that I had already tested some mods for example for Skyrim, and had written a few bug reports for them so I knew how to work with for example the websites Trello and Jira (Jira is a popular Bug Collection Archive that lots of companies use).
Additionally I wrote that I had a passion for gaming and graphic design in my hobby section. (I ended up being hired as a QA Tester with the sub-role of UI/UX Testing meaning I did regular game testing but then also was testing all the UI in the menus)
I also had a bit of experience reading crash reports, crash logs and consoles (from all the modding), and that I was learning C#. (Although C++ is much more popular with big companies unless they work with Unity specifically)
I got invited to a interview and there we talked about how I love gaming and want to work in the industry, and am looking to become a game developer in the future but for now want to start as QA tester.
I was also asked if I was familiar with the games that the company made (I was), its important you read up on which engine they use to develop, which games they have made in the past and which they are working on, and if you haven't played them at least do your best to inform yourself on what games those are. They will likely check if you have done research about the company and their history and their games.
Overall the QA Position isn't one where you have to be super qualified, they will train you in the beginning and show you how your workflow will look so I do recommend just applying to QA Positions! I am sure someone without any experience could get hired if you just have a interest in what they're working on.
Hope that helped, if you have more questions let me know!
Thank you ! Your message is detailed, clear and useful.
Your welcome!
This is depressing, in my mind I had the job as a game tester as my ideal job, but not anymore 😓
That’s why it’s important to do in depth research about jobs you want to do, otherwise you wouldn’t know this
I mean this dude doesnt strike me as a huge gamer and if you dont know what kinda job it is going in then youre pretty naive
I am starting to believe that this is the scenario in every industry and in every country.
@@rishikeshjaiswal3979 it is, most jobs are suckier and different from what you expect. You also always have to take over roles from other departments too, it just happens
Honestly, you can find this kind of video on pretty much every single job out there. My advice is try it for urself and if it sucks, you can always quit.
Cyberpunk 2077 moment
15:00
Probably lol
Great informative video! But, here in India, they do not even train the game testers, instead, they expect them to know software testing while applying for jobs. Knowing it is obviously a perk, but not everyone will know it. I have been rejected for internships as well as jobs for over 50 times now and I have been playing games for more than 10 years.
Wow
Keep tying! You learn from every rejection and it puts you one step closer. You’ll get it eventually
im a So-Cal American expat living in the Philippines, i used to work at call centers here seasonally, i got lucky and found EA games needed testers/ customer service people for Star Wars Knights of the old Republic. That was right up my alley, i love Star Wars , im a Gamer go, go, go. got the job, became the batch leader, i loved the game it was EA games and Bioware at the time i thought was a Top 10 rpg game ever. my roommate worked there also and the dude was there at work 24/7 they had to cut his overtime off so he was working OT for free, dude never came home. almost 9 mos later SW KOTOR went public so they had to let us go. that sucked, but Diablo 3 was opening so everyone gave that a try, Call of Duty opened too but needed me to relocate out to a different city it wasnt worth it. so I started customizing Motorcycles instead which is cool too but every geek/gamer has always wanted to work for EA, Bioware, and Star Wars it was great, probably my funnest job. no complaints from me except the massive lay off was the worsest thing, grave yard shift sucked too those were the hours cause of the US/EU time difference. id do it again...
Interesting 🤔
well not really, not anymore EA, bioware etc are dog shit companies and make shitty games so I doubt that everyone has always wanted to for for them LOL
Thanks for sharing your experience. The approach of evaluating people according to how many bugs they found is ridiculous, and causes games to fail again and again. It's amazing and horrendous that gaming companies just don't learn. It's about the quality and the process, not the quantity
Glad you found this helpful
Mulțumesc , pentru impresiile împărtășite; exprimate de un OM liber, și foarte sincer. ‘Visul meu’ , sa spulberat, DEFINITIV. Auto-sclavagismul , se perpetuează : la infinit…
Incredibly small world! Came across your video looking into a job ad that popped up. I hope you're doing amazing.
Omg!!!! Haha! Been fantastic. Hope your doing great! 😁
The video was really helpful for me as I am a software tester and thinking of becoming a game tester and the points you mentioned were great that they made me reconsider my decision.
I appreciate your honesty. I was trying to decide between game testing or mobile testing but now I think I'll go for mobile for sure.
Hope it’s a better experience!
This explains how battlefield V and mass effect Andromeda happened.
And... cyberpunk
Yep.. So insightful.
Probably 😅
Really good video, man! Great insight on what doing that for a living would be like!
Thanks! Glad it was insightful!
Me who is introvert and doesnt has a sociall life: Oh so i can play whole life for money, well great deal
U dint watch the whole video did u? They fire u after release
youll get sick of it eventually
@@gr.newtron008 so? Ill find another betatester job
Cyberpunk was getting made for what 8 years?
@@izawa9211 same with rdr2
@@ASubscriber wdm
The most memorable and annoying video game glitch I’ve ever experienced is in the first “Dying Light” video game that I have for PS4 and there was like a floating raft on the water that was being used as a safe house to protect you against the infected. The problem is that after a while that floating raft completely disappeared, but the people were somehow still standing there floating above the water. I couldn’t get to it because you had to jump to it if I remember correctly and I just couldn’t get to it because it completely disappeared but somehow the characters in the game could still stand there. I don’t know if this only happened on my copy of the game, or if everyone else has experienced this glitch, but it’s definitely an annoying glitch to remember.
this was very informative, thanks for the input
Glad it was helpful! 😃
I learned that trying to fix a large number of bugs requires more work from the staff, and more money to pay them. Its a tricky formula with these sort of companies. They want you to test the bug over and over because they want to confirm its a major problem that effects development. If the bug isn't that noticeable then they'll acknowledge it and worry about it later. You can look at this from different angles and see good and bad outcomes for the team and their audience.
Very true
Oh man, so weird this popped up recommended for me today out of nowhere, but I've been in quality assurance for 17 years at this point. I went into video game testing early in my career hopeful and lasted all of 4 days before I noped out. I have a lot of opinions on why the state of it is what it is (at least in part, the bulk of what I would say was the issue then still happens now and your video shines light on that) but I have way too much to say about it to just put a novel in the comments. Just know that there are reasons for the flaws in game testing, some of them are well known and perpetuated purposefully and others happen because the powers that be within the industry lack experience and don't know any better.
My favorite games are Division 1 and destiny 2… playing the same levels repetitively will not be a problem.
Agreed
Thank you for explaining how the job work.
Your welcome!
This video is a great example of what happens to every company that ends up making it to the top. They let the bean counters take over. Then, all they care about is money and numbers. It's not just the video game world. It's people who take their focus off what they're doing because they're to hypnotized by dollar figures.
Whats a social life?
😯
I did paid focus testing for a game once, and even that was a slog a lot of the time. I remember one moment in particular where all I wanted to do was take a break from the game. But it was my job to be playing the game, so I just had to keep wandering around an unpolished level for like a half an hour looking for an exit. I was so glad when it was time for a lunch break.
It made me realize that if focus testing could be a soul crushing slog then I absolutely did not want to be a regular games tester.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Great video I really needed to see this thanks man
Glad it was helpful!
Love this video! It was real and detailed
Glad you liked it!!
Moment of silence for Cyberpunk's game testers, they have to find bugs by working 24/7.
Glad i dodge that game
I tested out tom clancy ghost recon
@@YOURFAVORITEDOOMGUY do you enjoy it?
@@ItachiUchiha-nb5cv it's okay without the bugs
🫡
Great example of how mismanagement can make an entire aspect of game development counterproductive. Incentivizing employees to do quantity over quality in terms of bug reports filed leads to all sorts of unsavory outcomes. The “stars” finding tons of (supposed) bugs probably don’t do a great job making sure that they can consistently reproduce the bug, while also doing unsatisfactory bug report write-ups.
Meanwhile, there are testers who are actually thorough about reproducing their bugs, and also writing up detailed bug reports. These employees, who are actually doing the job correctly, get disenfranchised or, even worse, disciplined by management for not doing big numbers. This yields poor results. Many testers would prefer finding many small, inconsequential cosmetic glitches versus a complicated game-breaking error. Obviously, the latter should be given priority for repair. But those bugs are deprioritized in the testing/reporting side.
Sounds like the actual game is keeping your job, instead of making the videogame good! Thanks for sharing
Been farming the exact same wow raid since 2009. So repetition is not a problem..I started as a game tester, and now i work as a game developer developer
Good for you!
Being at the bottom of the barrel for pretty much every company has similar issues and tendencies from the workers. It’s not the workers fault, it’s the culture being created by the company, people complain their packages are all beat up when they get delivered but the employees are pushed to move fast instead of being efficient so what happens? Packages get taken off the conveyor belts and thrown in the truck to save time bc the employee only cares about keeping their job
Thank you for the video. I am looking to become a temp or contract Game Tester. But after this video, I am not too sure because, like you, I value the quality of my work and would not like to post a bad report to get it in first.
The duality of being a game tester. Hope you find work that fits you!
I'm interviewing for one of these positions tomorrow. Thank you for sharing information no one else is talking about
How did it go
how did it go?
Yeah, How did it go?
I got the gig! Fingers crossed it goes well
@@milestrout4192 and is it going well now? Lol
I think that's how CG industry is you have to support during crunch time
"Happiness is priceless" hit hard
😊
Lol I play all day almost every day at the moment, just waiting for lockdown to end so I can do gigs on some days as well
Have fun!
thank you so much for this it helps alot
Glad it was helpful!
Grate presentation.
THX
Im just 14 and already thinking about my future job
Since in good at gaming i might as well think about being a video game tester
Totally give it a try!
I’m in the UK and wanted to get into video game testing. Does this video still apply to UK game testers ??
I am in the US. I don't know what game testing is like in the UK.
If you are in the UK I recomend you this video: ruclips.net/video/QWB5Me1rf8g/видео.html
Hope this will help you. Regards from Argentina.
You deserve way more subs man
Thanks! 😃
As a kid I used to think it this was a dream job...as I got older I realized not so much.
Same, I learned about how brutal the video game industry can be
thanks for the informative video
Your welcome! 😊
This is why we play video games because the most important thing about it is to have fun, even online.
agreed
Interesting, were you guys testing based on some kind of requirements doc or just freestyle? Coming from a gov office testing I was always curious to know how do you get a decent testing coverage in video games as the variety of actions and functionality is almost endless.
Being a FQA sucks. I did it for a year and a half at Square Enix Montreal and it was the worst. However this brought me to become a development tester and then a QA Specialist which both are 1000% better than being a FQA tester. What you describing is a FQA job. Development tester is such a better position in any shape or form
You really got 6 ads on this video lol gezze
Brave search engine is free, remove all commercials from RUclips and other sites.
RUclips had an update a while back that changed ad count
This was a very helpful review. Thanks 👍
No problem! 😊
thanks for the video.
Of course!!
So basically it is the same as IT Professionals who develop, test, support and analyze Enterprise Software Systems except the software is a video game prodcut
The best people to get into the industry as a game tester is those who have other skills and plan to move up. Gamedevs…..animators…artists etc. like they say with McDonald’s….mcdonalds isn’t a job for living….its more for teens and newcomers to the work force. Same here. Get a game test job as a means to get into the industry and the first chance you get to move to another position, take it.
"you play with other gamers"
My fucking face hearing this contorted to sadness because i can count about 3-4 teammates that are actual gamers
🙃
I am a video game tester and I can tell you most of the things depend on the company. I do work for an indie company and I am treated like a human although sometimes I feel overworked and tired and I want more free time to relax. Also my payment is not minimum wage or slightly above. Quite the opposite, it is fairly high.
If I can give an advice to all the future testers: Don't work for AAA companies ;) they are corporate structures that dissolve humanity at the workplace.
@thrainsend I'm afraid I don't live in the states, but rather in a small European country called Bulgaria. I do not wish to disclose which company I work for, at least for now. Maybe one day, when I start doing something else, I will feel ok talking about it.
Just one question if most game testers get paid above or at minimum wage then why am I hearing other people say they get paid 2 to $3,000 to play certain games?!
Must be a different company
ok now I'm wondering if being a beta tester is worth it cause I just want to find a job that pays more than the one I have now
I’m not even doing it for the money, I’m doing it because I love playing games and my mom keeps telling me to get a job
@@nickevershedmusic8927 That Makes perfect sense. Turn your passion into money while still having fun. Kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
is that a way for finding bugs?
my technique is just to go where there is a lot going on on screen and just do random stuff
Greed, selfishness, arrogance, confusion, and other ignorances are no stranger to most forms of employment.
👍
That thing about the quality of writing the bugs, the ethical dilemma; I just thought about most of the jobs (if not all) that I have had, and most of the jobs friends have told me about... sooo many jobs have things like that, that it didn't surprise me at all
Tony Sticks hey man I really enjoy your video it was super insightful and informative. I am some one that would like to get into video game testing but do not really know where to start, I would love to pick your brain if you have time. also I was wondering would freelance testing be better?
I know nothing about freelance testing. But go ahead and start applying. You never know what could happen!
The company I applied to actually has this video linked to their application haha
Wait really!? Which one? 🤣
Ok when he said a tester can pretty much be max lvl online it explains why on cold war i saw someone max prestige no a couple of ppl. I would feel bad doing something like that. Takes the fun out of playing.
Agreed
hey bro can u tell me where can i apply for such jobs i want to be a tester since a long time but im not getting any reliable source to opt in.
Something I've always thought about and actually insightful. Thanks and I don't think I want to kill video games for myself lol
Glad it was insightful!
Game tester should Be A Side Hustle
Phone being taken away during work hours - he must have been at Ubisoft or EA. Only AAA would do that - I've been in the industry 22 years as a designer and never once have I had to do that or have ever heard of that going on... but then I've always worked for smaller studios, not done any AAA stuff.
Good guess!
Great video
Thanks!
I actually love it im even preparing for ISTQB game tester exam im already a Software tester but playing games drives me on even playing crap over and over i replay resident evil all parts anually :) like when its winter time irs Re for me
yeah look mate, i'm not sure how old you are, but this is just how some companies are.
you video is a good insight in like what a potential dream job could be, but its like being in vegas, you can't do it for long.
bottom line is people are terrible and you want those terrible people on your side, if they are against you they can make your life 10x harder, it just sounds like you were working against terrible people and deep down that was the core of the job you had.
Thanks Tony. Insightful sharing. What are your thoughts on this Tester or QA role at Ubisoft?
No idea, sorry
I love exploring every inch of a room and breaking things, along with seeing how I can get passed the map, I love looking for bugs and glitches, btw when starting game testing, do I need to know about coding?
No code necessary. Sounds like you’ve got the personality for it!
its weird the bad stuff hes talking about sounds right up my alley, infact i already sit for 12+hrs a day playing games for free.
Then maybe you’d be a perfect game tester! 😁
If you are a Speedrunner playing something over and over is something you are used to
And speedrunning can be a good way to find bugs
Today is my interview... I will put some of this points
I hope it went well!
🇿🇦thanks a lot for the info about game testers great video have good day life
Thank man! You too!
The game tester positions I see online require mutiple languages for translation, and technical knowledge sorts. I think.
Most of that stuff is listed by HR people who don’t know what the position actually needs. Shoot your shot if you really want to
General rule of thumb, don't make your hobby your job. Once you are forced to do it all the time, the less you'll like it over time. If you must make it a business, don't have it as your main income/main job. Preserve your interest and don't make it forced.
Agreed 👏
Hey! Which degree should I get in college/University to become a game tester?
Used to play games 12 hours a day with no sleep and don't need to have a cup of coffee to wake me up :D
Oh wow! 🤣
this sound like the perfect job for me. I am also good at breaking things, Pretty much have no social life to the point my family argues over it lol
I hope it works out for you!