Author Archives: David Mullich
The Life of a Video Game Tester
Testing, or quality assurance, is an extremely important job in the game industry. It is a low-paying job, at or near minimum wage, and the working conditions aren’t always the greatest (I once visited Activison’s testing department — it was crowded, dark, and the smell of body order was overpowering), but for many people in the game industry — especially designers and producers — it was their first job.
Being a game tester is not as glamorous as it may sound to some. It involves playing the game before it is fun to play. You may be playing the same broken level over and over again, either trying to find new errors, or replicating the one you just found so that you can document the steps for recreating it. Then, after the problem is addressed by the development team, you need to verify that it was indeed fix and that the fix did not introduce new problems.
Being a good tester requires you to be observant, persistent, methodical, and have excellent communication skills. There are actually two personality types or approaches to testing: The Judger, who follows checklists and does repetitive testing to find content errors; and The Perceiver, who does open-ended testing and tries unconventional things to find context errors.
As important as the testing function is, QA people are often not treated with much respect in the game industry. Part of the reason is that it is an entry-level position, but perhaps an even bigger reason is that developers get upset when someone finds bugs in their work. And many of them do not want to be given design suggestions (mainly because they are trying to meet a launch deadline) and would rather you just find programming defects. This is unfortunately, because testers can have great insight and sometimes fixing a problem correctly involves a design change instead of a programming change.
If you are interested in a testing job, many of the big publishers and studios, such as Activision and Electronic Arts, have permanent testing departments. Check their websites for job openings. Smaller developers hire testers on an as needed basis, and some use Craigs List to find part-time help.
I Am A Gamer
Every weekday evening I have the pleasure of teaching game production to a small group of men and women – asian, african-american, latino, and white – most of whom are at least 30 years younger than I. But what unites us all is our love of games.
So, I am saddened that, due to recent incidents of harassment in the gaming community, that there is now talk of the need to “take back” the word “gamer”, as though it were a perjorative. I am even more distressed to read some editorials in the gaming press that we should give up using the word “gamer” altogether, as though it were exclusive rather than inclusive.
Yes, there are trolls who hide behind the mask of anonymity and put down anyone who is superficially (and apparently, morally) different from them – but that happens all over the internet. And yes, there was an (unfortunately) well-publicized case of an ex-boyfriend publicly humiliating someone who just happened to be a gamer – but, again, jilted lovers throughout history have lashed out in even worse ways than this (crimes of passion, as they are called, are among the most hideous crimes).
When we hear about such unconscionable unconscionable incidents, our impulse is to take immediate action to do something to somehow prevent them. Unfortunately, it is no simple task to expunge behavior that represents the worst side of humanity, and simply discontinuing use of the word “gamer” will not stop some people from acting horrendously.
If there is a solution, it is to remind people constantly of the good behavior that is expected of them when they interact with others. And, in fact, gaming can bring out some of the best side of humanity. Just listen to Jane McGonigal’s talk “Gaming Can Make For A Better World” if you need to be remind what a positive force for good “gamers” can be.
David Mullich 