by Ted Williams

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If you own a psp, Xbox 360, Nintendo wii, or other gaming station, you probably realize that gaming has become more and more complex, and the user enjoyment level is very high. You probably know either first hand or indirectly that how addictive those games can be. People are spending a lot of time on video or computer gaming. The game publish companies are very knee in keeping their customers happy by producing high quality and faultless games.

In a normal video, computer game development, it usually takes about 1 year to 3 years for a game from inception to market. During that time, normally starts at the later stage of development, testing, ironing out the bugs, are repeated again and again to make sure that the finally product is satisfactory. That is Quality Control in business language. There are different people playing different role in game development, artist who designs the graphics, developers, programmer, managers and testers.

Video game testers are an essential part of the game development cycle. It is not for those faint at heart. To be a video game tester, you do need to be very detail oriented and being able to communicate, and you likely have to play the same game at the same level repetitively for fault finding. You need to make report on any features in the game that are not working probably or not as you liked. You are essentially making input on how the game. If you think that you can handle all the above, then I can tell you there are some distinct advantages of becoming a video game tester.

1. If you are knee on working in the game development industry, become a video game tester would definitely get your foot in the door! You can develop a good relationship with some game publisher and meanwhile learning quite a bit about the business

2. If you really enjoy play games, becomes a video game tester, you use your game playing time productively. You are still playing games, except now, your time brings some income as well

3. If you are a video game tester, you would get FREE new games in the mail that would save you money in buying games. And the best of all, you get to keep the games that you are testing.

4. As a Video Game Tester, you would have intimate knowledge of the game that you are testing; you would become ‘an expert’ of a new game before anybody else does. Imaging what you can do with that knowledge…

5. Not to mention that you get the cheat sheet with the FREE games as well. These ties with the above point. The cheat sheet is normally kept for developers.

6. And in most of the cases, you stay at home while playing the game. You set your own hours. In some rare occasions, you might get invited to an office close by to your neighborhood, but this is not the norm. Being able to set your own schedule in earning a living while having fun is always at the top of my book.

Many people became a video game tester while going to school. You do not need to have a formal education in gaming in order to become a video game tester. All you need is what I have pointed out earlier, attention to detail, good communication skill and able to play games.