Being A Video Game Tester

My brother had always gamed casually, playing the big named titles: The Zelda’s, Final Fantasies, and Super Mario games. It wasn’t like he’d never picked up a controller. So after my initial pangs of jealousy, I started to think how cool it would be to have a connection into the video game industry.

Fast forward three years. I had just completed my first year in the journalism program and I was looking for a summer job. My brother was a 3D artist for a big time gaming company, and he pulled a few strings to get me a job as a video game tester. Score.

It’s probably the job that majority of males in the world would love to have. For the entire summer, it was my job to test out the newest soccer game for the Wii and PSP. So after my two days of training, I was officially a member of the QA (quality assurance) team.

Going into the job, I was expecting a wide assortment of geeks, and techies (all men) to make up the majority of my co-workers. I was right. But nothing could have prepared me for walking into QA for the first time. It was a single room, the size of probably two gymnasiums put together. The area was split into two sides, each row crammed with testers. Every row had about 15 people, each equipped with their own TV, console, and PC. I think there were around 500 testers in the room.

My senses were assaulted. Visually, it looked like a sweat shop; rows upon rows of people sitting next to each other working. My jaw actually dropped at the sheer number of people testing. Next I noticed a familiar smell. A very strong, almost medicinal odor permeated the air.