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How to become a Game Tester

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manilamerc
polycounter lvl 6
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manilamerc polycounter lvl 6
Hey guys I want to become a game tester but don't know exactly where to start. I want to become a game tester because I want to get connections in the gaming industry. I feel that this would be a great stepping stone. I do know some companies will post beta's online and will give out their keys to a limited amount of people. I have seen more than a few of these but I don't see where we give feedback or how we can apply to become a professional game tester. I'm actually quite confused on how it all works.

If you guys know anything about how to get started on game testing please let me know.

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  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    You don't want to be a game tester, and the job is called officially called QA or quality Assurance. It'll make you hate games. It's not often a position you can move up from. Your main job would be to catch bugs, try to figure out how to recreate it, and writing everything up.
  • DanConroy
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    DanConroy polycounter lvl 18
    I was a tester at Sony for over a year and to be honest all I did was apply for the open job.

    If you show a keen interest in games in the cover letter/email and land the interview, its pretty much sorted from there.
  • Brygelsmack
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    Brygelsmack polycounter lvl 11
    ZacD wrote: »
    You don't want to be a game tester, and the job is called officially called QA or quality insurance. It'll make you hate games. It's not often a position you can move up from. Your main job would be to catch bugs, try to figure out how to recreate it, and writing everything up.
    QA is Quality Assurance. But yeah, I also heard it's a pretty damn boring job. You might be assigned to do dreadful tasks such as making sure the game won't break if you jump on the same spot 500 times. Bad example maybe. It might be extended to playing a single level over and over to make sure everything works the way it should.
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    You like QA if:

    You like breaking video games. Breaking, not playing.

    You won't like QA if:

    You like playing video games.

    Honestly, it might be better to get a different, light job and spend the time doing work for indie developers or freelance contract.
  • Kwramm
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    Kwramm interpolator
    It's not just gaming alone you'll do. You'll post bug tickets describing what you did and what broke so it can be re-produced by someone. Good communication and observation skills help. You'll probably have to work with visual debugging tools too and understand the info they're giving you while you run through the game world. Be proactive and keep your eyes open for anything else that seems weird. There should be a QA lead who'll help you organizing how you test levels, what to focus on and keeping track what has to be (re)tested and what not.

    I'd say just apply. But usually only the guys who stand out make an impression and move on.
  • GarageBay9
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    GarageBay9 polycounter lvl 13
    Don't do QA. Honest to god. Please. For your sake.

    QA is a crucial part of game dev, and I respect the hell out of people that do it well, but it scrapes off pieces of your soul and leaves you an empty husk of a jaded, cynical human being.
  • DanConroy
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    DanConroy polycounter lvl 18
    Wow I must of come out of QA ok compared to some people :P

    Although testing Eyepet and Friends was a dark time =/
  • Torch
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    Torch interpolator
    Worked at Sega for a couple of years doing QA - its ok, you get to meet people who are like minded and want to get further into the industry, but also like a lot of others mentioned can potentially make you hate games!

    There wasn't much progression there as the devs we worked with were in a separate building to us - some studios might have development and QA in the same building which is handy as you can speak with them and make contacts more easily. I would probably say QA is a better choice than a menial shelf stacking job as you're less likely to go insane, plus if it starts to get tedious you're going to be more inclined to speed up updating your folio :D Good luck!
  • Steve Schulze
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    Steve Schulze polycounter lvl 18
    We did have QA at one of the studios I worked at eventually move up into design roles. Thats sounds like its somewhat of a rarity though.

    The Trenches website features an anonymous submitted story of the horrors of working QA with every update. The comic itself is nothing special, but the stories make for some great reading and are a bit of a cautionary tale to anyone considering QA.
    www.trenchescomic.com
  • mikhga
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    mikhga polycounter lvl 8
    QA at a big company can be tedious and boring work like many here say, but at a small studio, like say up to 50 employees, it can be a completely different story. When I was at Fatshark we had two in-house QA's, one for each project in production. That meant both of them had a lot of responsibilities and different tasks at hand, making for fulfilling and action-packed workdays.

    We also had guys move up from QA to design positions, and working at a studio will definitely help you connect with other developers, and you'll probably be invited to launch parties and such which is an awesome way to met even more like-minded people.
  • McGreed
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    McGreed polycounter lvl 15
    Yeah, QA can be quite a boring task, however I would say as a localization QA tester, it's better to do localization, since your primary goal isn't to break the game as much as making sure everything is translated correctly, and there is no issues with the new text/audio. Of course there is some functionality testing, however it's not the primary assignment.
  • slipsius
    When looking into QA positions, you have to ask yourself 2 simple questions to figure out if you`ll actually like the job. 1) Do you get mad / frustrated when you find a bug in a game? and 2) How would those feelings amplify when you find literally hundreds, sometimes thousands of them? If you freak out when you find a bug in a game, then its not the job for you.
  • SnakeDoctor
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    SnakeDoctor keyframe
    A friend told me that there was a week worth of testing that involved grinding his player against every wall and collision based object to make sure there were no errors in the maps. Doesn't sound to fun to me.
  • WarrenM
    It takes a specific kind of person to do QA well and if you're looking to simply use it as a springboard to a dev job, you're probably in it for the wrong reason.

    It's not "fun". You're not playing games, you're tediously and meticulously testing them. Over and over and over and over ...

    You'll hate the game you're working on by the time you ship.

    However, if you enjoy working with developers to solve problems and are good at organizing yourself and tracking tasks ... it might be for you!
  • MagicSugar
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    MagicSugar polycounter lvl 10
    manilamerc wrote: »
    I feel that this would be a great stepping stone.

    If you guys know anything about how to get started on game testing please let me know.

    I personally wouldn't classify it as a "great" stepping stone but like others have mentioned it is possible to transition to another gamedev role IF you prove you have what it takes to do such role via the usual portfolio, skill and personality fit. Personality as in, if you're not a communicative person then Producer is not for you.

    Check out this guy's old blog posts. He was a bioware qa contractor. Contract wasn't renewed so me moved to another part of the country to where there was an opening. Got a lead role (small studio). After maybe a cycle or two he got promoted to Design 'cuz he took the initiative before to learn UDK and make something he could show as proof he knows more than QA duties.

    http://notme2000.blogspot.ca/
  • WarrenM
    I've known a LOT of QA people and I know of 2 that made it up into developer ranks - and that was because they showed a TON of initiative in doing the hours long QA work and then also working on personal work and showing it off. It's a tough grind but it can be done. But it's not as common as you might be thinking!
  • Lazerus Reborn
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    Lazerus Reborn polycounter lvl 8
    Knew a guy in QA who played the same game for an entire year. A month later, he never played on Xbox live again.

    Basically it's mindless repetition of the same level, area or whatever and you need to look over every inch to find a bug etc.
  • WarrenM
    That's an excellent point. If you're not interacting directly with the dev team in the kitchen or wherever, it's kinda hopeless.
  • MagicSugar
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    MagicSugar polycounter lvl 10
    WarrenM wrote: »
    That's an excellent point. If you're not interacting directly with the dev team in the kitchen or wherever, it's kinda hopeless.

    IF networking in commonly used washrooms...wash hands before handshakes. BUT if you're not feeling it but other dude wants to feel you...keep hands wet.
  • R3D
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    R3D interpolator
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGar7KC6Wiw"]So You Want to Work in the Video Game Industry - YouTube[/ame]
  • MartinH
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    MartinH polycounter lvl 8
    I know quite a few devs here at Blizzard that started out in QA. Wouldn't say its that common though but then again, everyone's motivation levels, enthusiasm and innate skills is different.
  • Autocon
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    Autocon polycounter lvl 15
    I got a job over the summer doing QA between HS and College. I think I applied to an ad from SCEA on Cragislist of all places. Didnt take much beyond my ability to properly fillout and application, know how to use a computer and PlayStation software.


    God was that job boring after a month. Same shit every day. If I had already started 3d modeling I would have rather just spent time on my folio than "use as a stepping stone" They make you work so many hours for so long and you dont get to interact with artists really so you dont have much chance to get on the art side. If you do its very difficult and would be easier to make a kick ass folio.
  • Kwramm
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    Kwramm interpolator
    MartinH wrote: »
    I know quite a few devs here at Blizzard that started out in QA. Wouldn't say its that common though but then again, everyone's motivation levels, enthusiasm and innate skills is different.

    yup, the people who make it out of QA are the ones who stand out due to skill, enthusiasm and knowledge. i.e. the ones where you think "this guy could do much more with his skills. why is he in QA?"
  • gsokol
    Some good points here.
    I don't see where we give feedback

    In QA, your job isn't to give feedback...its to find bugs and report them. What you are describing is playtesting....its different.

    I guess I'm in the minority here...I had fun in QA. I enjoyed breaking stuff. But yes, the hours will suck during crunch. And you will have virtually no time or brain capacity to do anything creative at home when your crunching.

    Things to know about QA:

    1. You are most likely getting hired on as a temp, to help finish a game when they need asses in seats. Its pretty hard to get a full time QA job at a studio.

    2. You are going to need to be on-site. And its almost 100 percent certain you will not get paid relocation reimbursement. So if you aren't near a studio..you will have to move on your own dime..

    3. You are not going to be making a lot of money. Testers usually get paid hourly, and its usually close to minimum wage...not much different than flipping burgers. However, you will probably get paid overtime, and with the crazy amount of hours you will work during crunch...you can definitely double the size of your paychecks.

    It ended up working out for me in a roundabout way. I was a full-time tester, but still ended up being part of a layoff...however, I made friends with a handful of artists while I was there. Later on down the road, when an art gig opened up, I was recommended and got in.

    I was also very lucky...so I won't tell you that doing QA is the right thing...but it *can* benefit you. You still need an awesome portfolio though...connections only put your work in front of the right people...if your work isn't up to snuff, your still not getting the job.
  • Mstankow
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    Mstankow polycounter lvl 11
    Don't work QA. Most QA people are crazy people. It is the people that make testing suck. I am not going to say any more.
  • Bobby J Rice 3rd
  • boondock
    Hey bro like was mentioned above, the game testing gigs are not always all they're cracked up to be. It will almost always involve a lot of repeating things over and over and trying to get the game to crash. Sometimes you will have to play the same level like 10 times or more. It does pay pretty well to be a game tester though not over the top really. Also, a lot of the work out there is not out of your home.

    Many times you actually have to work at the location of the developer. I have a buddy that signed up for it and it was not quite what he expected but he is still working there. He originally read about it at www.videogametesting.org but I think there may be a lot of other informational sites you can find on the subject. Someone also mentioned in a previous reply that the work will make you hate games. I think there is probably a lot of truth in that as hard as it is for me to imagine. Hell, I've been playing Skyrim for like 3 years now and I'm still not sick of it, but I'm just a freak that way I guess.
  • dambrold
    Hi all

    i've been investigating for along time now and i find this site very interested to follow, maybe this could help to find the better guide to becoming a Game Tester
  • bcottage
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    bcottage polycounter lvl 13
    I asked the QA guys here at Splash Damage and to get started all you need is a passion for games, that is all.
  • SuperXtra
    dambrold wrote: »
    Hi all

    i've been investigating for along time now and i find this site very interested to follow, maybe this could help to find the better guide to becoming a Game Tester
    I've tried above site and it pays for my LoL skins and WoW subscription now :)
    Its fine for people who want to get experience and get something into their portfolio before starting a full time QA job.

    I have worked before in a corpo. It depends on a company, you may to work around devs and try to switch to game design position later on.
    But there are companies which do pure QA and you won't get anywhere with it. The most you can get is to be a QA manager later on and thats it.

    A lot of patience is needed. I've been working on Starcraft 2 (localisation) before it was released, that was cool! I got to play a few console games. Getting paid for multiplayer is fun ;)
    But then, there were projects like Tinkerbell adventures which is very girly, or a solitaire for new Windows ;)
    The bad thing is writing reports for all minor issues, but well, work is work:p

    Soo linked previously http://bit.ly/game_testing is a good start to get some experience.


    How did I managed to get into QA? I applied three times, I got lucky that recruiter was playing WoW and we could talk about it :D
  • borja_p4
    hii i'm looking for a game tester :) who is interested?
  • Odow
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    Odow polycounter lvl 8
    Honestly, QA job is more like a student job, you're paid like crap (minimum wages), you work a lot (+70h week), no one CARES what you think about a game and that's normal IT'S NOT YOUR JOB, you're not a game designer, you're supposed to find bug by running in a wall during 16min while spamming buttons in a certain order. You have 2% chance of working on a game you will actually like.

    The job is nice when your team is nice, I just had a wonderful summer with my sku, while people on another sku wanted to kill themselves by the end of the summer.

    It's nowhere near anything you can imagine, trust me. And it's not a career, trust me, there's a reason why the average age in QA is between 18-23, and that the crunch periods are always during summer, it's a student job. even huge company keep less than 100employes for the rest of the years, while there is more than 700 during summer.

    It's really easy to work in Qa, just wait around may when mass recruitment is starting, and apply in time. They employed everyone, even more if you're willing to work during night.
  • Two Listen
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    Two Listen polycount sponsor
    QA/testing positions - like other types of "game studio" jobs, differ drastically depending on the studio and the types of games you're testing.

    It appears that some studios hire in bulk for crunch time testing on a project, don't pay all that well, and aren't very demanding. But there are definitely studios where QA is a full time, salaried position where you need to be more than a high school graduate with an interest in "games". Think of Facebook/mobile, or studios that focus on casual game projects to be released yearly, or even monthly - QA is a constant thing, as much a part of the dev cycle as anything else. In those instances, QA isn't a simple matter of playing a PS3/4 for hours trying to cause glitches, it's a matter of "If you don't catch this, that big ass sale we're about to go live with could completely bomb."

    In either circumstance, though, I wouldn't look into it as a stepping stone. Unless it's a small studio and the testing is done among the rest of the dev team (in the same area/same building at least), you're generally focused on set tasks and your creative input isn't hugely relevant. Even if you are in the same area of the building, all that really gets you is the chance to chop it up with people on other teams, but that's not a guarantee of anything. Better than working at Target - maybe? But people's drastically different experiences, as reported in this thread, make me think it unwise to count on QA as anything more than a way to support yourself financially.

    Some general pros about working on QA tasks, from my experience:

    -Work doesn't follow you home. There are plenty of other "day job" types that can be much more stressful (anything phone/customer related) and will screw with your ability to focus when you go home for the day. QA is generally you show up, you test what you need to test, you go home.

    -Heavily dependent on the studio, but it can be a good way to get some experience working with a team, and working in a production environment. This may not be the case at all if you're brought on towards the end of a project and are working in a different building.


    Some general cons:

    -Just because you find bugs, doesn't mean they'll get fixed. It's your job to test things, to complete assigned tasks, to log things appropriately - it's up to other people to determine if things are worth the manpower to resolve. (It is super annoying seeing reviewers go "How did this pass QA!?", chances are the QA team found the issues and logged them - someone else just decided they weren't worth the time.)

    -How much crunch/overtime you have generally depends on other people. If someone more on the development side of things decides to show up late or drag their feet, that might mean you're staying late to test whatever they're dragging their feet on. If you're getting a salary rather than an hourly wage, calculate for some anticipated overtime hours as a result of things like this (and just unavoidable crunch in general).

    -Because application requirements can be fairly lax, your coworkers can be all sorts. Some of them might be super ace, being organized and clear with their methods of testing/reporting information, some of them might be high school kids or recent college grads looking to "get their foot in the door", and aren't actually focusing at all on their jobs. But this is a potential con of any job, it doesn't happen strictly as a result of it being QA.

    tl:dr - QA seems to be something that can be all over the place. Pay wise, job duty wise, location wise, etc. I wouldn't count on it as a stepping stone unless it's something permanent at a small studio, and even then - if it would come at the cost of you being able to continue working on your long-term dream job skills, it may not be worth it for you.
  • thomasp
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    thomasp hero character
    only one small 20 person place i once worked at had QA properly integrated with the developers. as soon as it's even just a separate floor, don't expect much interaction outside of bouncing bug tickets around.

    unless of course you are a smoker! ;) plenty of opportunity to make friends with stressed out devs. not a fan of the aftertaste personally though.
  • tynew
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    tynew polycounter lvl 9
    I QA tested this game in 2009 for two weeks.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Super_Hero_Squad_(video_game)

    Literally the worst 2 weeks of game development in my life. Monotonous, repetitive, boring. The lead developers were extremely rude and they seemed extremely proud of the titles they were developing. They were all hush hush with NDA stuff like it was the next big hit.

    Talking with the other departments they seemed like they didn't like their jobs at all. Even the artists didn't seem like they were enjoying their job.

    Imagine if you were the QA tester for the next barbie game or something? That would be absolutely mental.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    This is based on some people I know so it might not be industry wide but it feels like the game industry treats QA like other software industries treat artists and vice versa.
  • venain
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    venain polycounter lvl 12
    Speaking as someone who made the jump from QA to art, I would not recommend this path to anyone. If I could go back in time, I would have spent all that time 100% focused on studying art.

    If you QA at a big company like Sony or EA, you will almost certainly have ZERO developer contact. In fact, you can actually get in trouble/fired for attempting to talk to them. You'll work insane hours, be paid the absolute minimum possible, and probably be laid off after 6 months to a year.

    They will in fact, encourage the cycle of in for 6 - 12 months, out for 3 months, dangling small raises over your head each time. I knew countless artists that got stuck in this cycle, only to realize that they'd been there so long, their art skills had deteriorated due to lack of motivation, and they were now basically stuck in QA.

    It is extremely hard to stay motivated while working constant overtime, and the reality is that since you're using so many hours of the day on a dead end job, you're going to need to be working on art every possible second that you aren't on the clock. Gaming and any other hobby will probably have to take a back seat.

    If you want to get a job as a tester, and move up that chain to become a producer (this is the most common path I see), then by all means, go for it. If you want to attempt to use QA as a springboard into an artist position, I would not recommend it.

    If you need a job and feel you have no other choice, I would at least attempt to QA at a small company where you can have direct contact with developers.
  • Autocon
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    Autocon polycounter lvl 15
    Crazyeyes wrote: »
    Graduate highschool!

    lol that isnt even really a requirement to be a game tester
  • JacqueChoi
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    JacqueChoi polycounter
    If your goal is to become a developer, then QA is not the way to go.

    QA is a lot like being a dishwasher in a fancy restaurant. There's not really much of a path to become an actual chef from dishwasher. You never get to really work with the food, and you're pretty much spending all your time cleaning a never ending mess.
  • Mstankow
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    Mstankow polycounter lvl 11
    For the love of God and all that is holy do not become a game tester.
  • Auldbenkenobi
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    Auldbenkenobi polycounter lvl 11
    On this note, I'm currently interning as QA tester at Creative Assembly in Horsham. Ultimately I want to become an artist, and I'd really like to get to know the artists here a bit better but it feels like there's never a good moment to "break the ice" as it were, because they're either busy working and I don't want to disturb them or at lunch, they go in groups which results in the whole High School problem of feeling intimidated about approaching a group of people who are essentially strangers...

    Does anyone have any tips for getting to know Devs? I realise this may be a case of just being confident but if anyone has had similar experiences I'd love to hear how you approached it, so I can use your example as a springboard for my own leap!
  • oglu
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    oglu polycount lvl 666
    Does anyone have any tips for getting to know Devs?

    drinking beer... :D
  • Popol
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    Popol interpolator
    oglu wrote: »
    drinking beer... :D

    I second that. :D
  • JacqueChoi
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    JacqueChoi polycounter
    Does anyone have any tips for getting to know Devs?

    Show them some art you're working on, and ask for a completely brutally honest critique.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    Does anyone have any tips for getting to know Devs?

    Easiest method is just post on polycount or similar forum.
  • Darth Tomi
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    Darth Tomi polycounter lvl 12
    Tried getting a QA job at Name Company. Would have JUMPED at a QA job. Company had a good reputation, made good games, even knew a few of the guys there. But got nothing.
    Good luck.
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    Brook_ms wrote: »
    If you want to know where to start to become a video game tester then there is an amazing course that you can take and at the end of the course you could start earning £150+ per hour!! If your interested in earning £150+ per hour then use this link to enroll in the course ---> **LINK REMOVED** (ninja admin edit)

    £150+ an hour? Sign me up!
  • MiAlx
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    MiAlx polycounter lvl 10
    oh god, the spammers are back at it again? :poly127: I thought the introduction requirement had eliminated them.
  • CandyStripes05
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    CandyStripes05 polycounter lvl 9
    johnstar12 wrote: »
    few of my friends are testing games, they are not making thousands, but about 70$-100$ a day
    here:
    http://prioritystar.comxa.com/game

    but you need to sign up for like 20 bucks
    cheers

    guy has 2 posts to his name, and the link requires a $20 sign up.... yea that's not sketch at all : /
  • Thekappa1844

    i want to be a video game tester but i don't know anything about testing but love playing video games . been trying to get hire no luck no dice. do not know anyone in the video game industry .?? looking a new job

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