[daycart1]

My son just got a job as a tester for a major video game company. Not what I envisioned for him, but pretty cool!
Anyone else here have a full time video game job?

 

[h3nG]

it sounds awesome. most people actually have to make time for games, but he'll be getting paid for it. lol. and unlike most americans, he'll actually do what he (hopefully) enjoys doing for a living.

i actually wanted to be one of those game reviewers when i was young, but decided it's not for me since english is my second langauge.

do you know which company? hopefully it's one that develops quality games, so he doesn't dread playing some poorly made pos.

 

[D-EJ915]

That sounds cool, but if he's a tester then it's gonna be really hard and stressful at times. Those designers can be nit-picky about finding certain errors and things like that, and it takes AGES to find them, so that's the boring point...but besides that playing games before everyone else does is lotsa fun.

 

[MrSlacker]

thats so cool. can you tell us for what company he is gonna work for?

 

[Shizelbs]

I've heard its not as cool as it sounds, but, its probably much more fun than my job.

 

[daycart1]

Yeah, he tells me it is often hard work (and the graveyard shift), but fun. It is Blizzard, so it is good stuff--mostly online. Nice to get paid for doing what you do anyway!

 

[Patrickhat2001]

Blizzard!

Your son is very lucky indeed. When it comes to quality of game design I'd say Blizzard has the best track record of any American developer out there.

 

[IstariAsuka]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrickhat2001 Blizzard! Your son is very lucky indeed. When it comes to quality of game design I'd say Blizzard has the best track record of any American developer out there.

I'd rather playtest for Firaxis...

 

[Big D]

But you get forced to play all the crap games (to the end!!) as well as the good ones. I think I will stick with playing the games I want in my spare time.

 

[boodi]

the major concern i have about it is that video game industry is gonna take prominance in the world' future so.. just for this , been into it now is a great insurance for the future .
Moreover I think that this particular work , the tester ( which I well understand can be kind of hard / very hard at time , and very cerebro/mind stressing too ) is just a starter that can very well lead on a nice career and a nice life when/if he go through upgrading it .

 

[boodi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big D But you get forced to play all the crap games (to the end!!) as well as the good ones. I think I will stick with playing the games I want in my spare time.

I couldn't for exemple resist more then 2 weeks doing this kind of job - you have to be , imo , quite addicted yourself to video games , so that sacrifing the rest is not so much an issue.

 

[mjg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daycart1 My son just got a job as a tester for a major video game company. Not what I envisioned for him, but pretty cool! Anyone else here have a full time video game job?

nah, they don't really have guys doing that... or do they? I can't imagine making alot of money doing that.

Yet, if he wants to go into developing and programming, testing can be
something he specializes in, and testing out certain modules might be something
as far as a job in the industry. Yet, at that level it's no longer exciting.

The games that are pro gamers, well that's something else, and as much money as they can make, none of them are making tiger woods or michael jordan money
yet (and i doubt ever really) and that can't be a living on it's own, more like a enthusiastic hobby ya know?


I remember back in the day, acclaim hired game testers, my friends did that, they hated it, they paid them, but only in pizza haha... They'd have to play these broken games and do it over and over.

 

[Beach123456]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big D But you get forced to play all the crap games (to the end!!) as well as the good ones. I think I will stick with playing the games I want in my spare time.

Yeah, but when the company you are working for is Blizzard, they really havent made a bad game yet, so you dont have to waste your time testing a piece of crap game that barely runs and requires work to actually make it work.

 

[Feanor]

Waaaaaaaaaay cool. esp. that he works for blizzard.

 

[MrSlacker]

free WoW for everyone?