So you wanna work for a video game company? You wanna know what its like to be a video game tester? Here is my experience during my time in QA. Follow Me Here / officialmgc / officalmgc
Hey guys, thanks for checking out my video. I see alot of people have questions so I thought I could make a Part 2 Video answering your guys question. I might be able to get one of my old Coworkers to join me as well to share his experience. Leave a comment Reply here and if I get enough I will make a video answering them. Thanks again
I know this is a bit weird to ask, but do you know of any ways to find testing work that is remote, the reason I ask is because I'm unfortunately from a shithole country. So kind of limited by the place I'm from.
Hey kid, looks like your main challenge was personality clash and that's understandable as you're young and don't have the life experience. Free advice; 1. stop reminiscing as that won't help, it'll just hold you back 2. learn how to appreciate others efforts and give 'constructive feedback' (e.g. this part is great, but this part is letting it down do you think we could do this or that instead?) 3. This is an extension of #2 put yourself in the other persons shoes, try partnership over dictatorship. + never talk ill about your fellow human, that just makes you a cannibal. People have challenges, understanding and supporting is the right thing to do, judging and shaming is the wrong thing to do. ...in few years you will look back on this vid and realise it yourself. Good luck kid, your fellow human from the other side of our planet 😉
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Hey I've been a games programmer for 8 years professionally, I've been looking for someone in QA to ask, do you think it would be difficult for me to transfer to QA? While studios I've worked for had QA, I've never actually communicated with them before xD Unsure if games programming experience would transfer to QA
I think this was his first real job, he’ll probably learn it’s like this in most places. The difference being, you don’t get to play video games, fridges full of food/snacks and a bunch of gaming swag.
It's important to note that this is very specific to different companies, and not necessarily generalizable to ALL QA testing experiences. Some companies can be really great to work on QA for! I run the QA program at a game company (not a AAA company, but a big budget indie or "triple i" company) and I use this video as lessons for what _not_ to do in overseeing our testing program.
@Nitrometutorials What's your company? I am a game tester, also been working as a game scout for a bit of time with connections to indie developers to some decent small studios! I am looking for a place to share my services, I am really passionate about video games but afraid of things mentioned here. A bad environment can breaks someone's passion and thus his performance.
@@ZakariaGhorfati Soma Games. It's a volunteer community of testers that we reward with physical stickers, waterbottles, Discord roles, and lots of other merch. The users are under no obligation at all to join, and most of them join & stay because it's a really fun and welcoming testing community and because it is fun to get to be involved with the development of games they already love. 🙂
@@ZakariaGhorfati Haha sort of! It's the one that has a bunch of Christians making games together but that aren't making "Christian games" 😁 It's on the "About" page of the website. :)
@@Nitrometutorials Where can I find such voluntary positions you mentioned? I would love to do it for little income, but with no testing experience, I would give it a try voluntarily at first. Thank you.
i think this goes for anything but sometimes hobbies should stay hobbies it really just depends on how passionate you are about it you could either love it as a job or hate it but still love it in your free time
this is why when my non gamer friends asked me to be a play tester because they know how much time I spend on video games, I refused because I don't want to hate the very thing i love as a hobby. they say do the thing you love and you'll never work another day in your life. I believe the opposite. If the very thing that you love is mandatory to keep you alive, you will eventually hate and vomit at the thought of it. I actually prefer the opposite. work with the job you're indifferent or dislike and you'll appreciate the non work related things in life like your hobbies whatever it may be, family time, dates, sleep and vacations. same reason why I don't want to be working from home. I don't like the idea of stress and my sanctuary being combined into one.
Great video, shows how game companies really feel about the gamers. Dev's don't really care about players, just the cash they bring to the table. Paying for DLC and pre-orders is proof, not to mention the high levels of crappy re-hashes and remakes we see. Maybe one day testers will have a better work experience.
This experience sounds so different from my own 4+ years in QA Testing in Australia which, for the most part, has been good. Honestly the work environment sounds really bad (2 days training? tf?) and the work + workers underappreciated at this studio while they distract from that with free drinks and food. QA testers do suffer from burnout (like most devs) so its important to rotate tasks or projects to mitigate that repetitiveness.
Sounds exactly like call center. We had to fill out a language test riddled with mistakes and, since I am a native speaker and extremely pedantic, I corrected the test itself. I also answered e-mails in polite native language and any other foreign language I could speak to the best of my abilities, instead of using generic text blocks as instructed. Had a talking-to by project lead who told me to stop doing things right and fulfill textblock quota if I want to keep the job, so I quit. I think there is an overarching lack of leadership. If you don't have a guy / gal with a vision keeping everything together, the departments will split off and do their own thing and try to keep a low profile to keep payments rolling, instead of working on a goal. Same thing in the army. Keep your head low and make sure command doesn't notice your department, sit back, drink coffee, do the minimum, shut up, get paid. Really, this "bug reports don't matter" mentality bears striking resemblance to the stuff I've seen throughout my work life.
Work at EA as a game tester for 8 years. Love every moment of it, and miss every moment of it. There's ups and down, but when you have great colleagues, you dont have to worry about all the bad shit. I wish i could go back, but i heard they are not what it used to be.
Lol it is quite literally how the working job market works you have to train people to do jobs there's been several jobs I've worked for and didn't have a clue of what company did when I applied for it now on the other hand this people should NOT be in a management position at all but again it's just the way the real world works
Damn man. I’m just looking for a entry level job into the video game industry. I’m currently attending college for computer programming and I intend on transferring to a university to get a degree in video game designer or something of that sort.
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Ubisoft is hiring interns right now, I was going to apply but you have to be a current student with a major related to IT or programming. Good opportunity for someone else though
Depends on the department, functional testing can get repetitive quick but compliance testing is pretty engaging and enjoyable if you like that kind of work, you don't have to report invisible walls, falling through the ground, i.e. doing the check on the same level over and over. In compliance you get to test things like how the game behaves with different peripherals be it controllers, steering wheels, VR sets, if the game is supported by the required OS, if the game supports different aspect ratios, if the copyright info is in order, drm checks and so on, you rarely get to actually play the game from start to finish. source: working in compliance for 4 years.
Cheers for the video content! Excuse me for chiming in, I would love your thoughts. Have you heard about - Ethanton Gamify Extinguishing (do a search on google)? It is a good one of a kind guide for getting paid and achieving financial success minus the hard work. Ive heard some pretty good things about it and my close friend Aubrey at last got cool results with it.
i feel like thats a lot of jobs though, id rather be bored doing some of this stuff than the boredom ive felt at other jobs. i mean studying an enemy over and over seems more interesting than bagging groceries for 8 hours or cleaning the same wall in a restaurant during downtime.
Really great video for those want to know about tester job! Thanks bro! Yet I might have a "feedback", hope you don't mind. Basically in the later of your video is several specific problems in your workplace rather than cons about tester jobs. I mean, bad coworkers or leads are everywhere. It's kinda a catholic pain in every industry. Generally, this video is super helpful!! Thanks!
Thank you for sharing. This put more perspective into the QA tester's workplace and any other workplace where you are just an expendable part of the company.
Watching more than half of your video I realize that this is not game tester only but also QA in general, and every other part are pretty similar in other software development environments. Based on your topics in the videos, here are some more infos for everyone to have a look at: 1. Opened working environment: this is pretty much the same in almost every software company nowadays, in my country Vietnam it is the same, my company even have free lunch&dinner, and fruit filling up twice a week. Working hours can be flexible as well, you can go in a bit late and leave early, as long as your work for the day is done. 2. The nature of QA job: repetitive and boring, this applies to all QA jobs out there. Casually you don't get to play what you want, and it's true in the video that you'll be realizing that you're not playing game at all, just basically get your job done. 3. The relationship between QA and Dev: It's true that there are dev who gets annoyed if you report bugs, but it's also our job to make things right. I always tried to talk sense before getting the thing escalated if the dev doesn't cooperate. In your case, if the character is to OP that's pretty much related to how the game was designed, and it's not really something the dev would be able to give an answer, I think this should go to the game designer to decide. 4. company's benefit vs. employee's: I was in a similar company to your, our CEO failed to show his care for his employees. And the company's benefit would always be superior to employees'... it's hurt but true and many companies run the same way. You'll get the boot as long as they don't need you anymore. But there are also companies that try to balance both, so that's a good sign. 5. QA's salary and etc...: I agree that QAs nowadays are doing a lot of works and still being underrated. From what I learned game tester's salary is also worse than other Mobile/Web QA. People need to learn that QA is the closest person to our end-user, which means QA's understandings of users would help our application to do the right thing. No offense but most of the dev I worked with just do what it says in the requirements... yeah some would say that but they're the one who makes the app, but let's accept the fact that user isn't going to use/play an app/game that doesn't care about their experience or feeling, then it would be just another failure. Well, thanks for the video! that's all I've got to say~
You want to hire detail-oriented workers who can efficiently spot and record bugs. It should not be surprising at all that some of them will not like FPS or play many games. Pretty sure their work performance matters more.
Wow. Everything you said about the people sounds exactly like the trade school I went to. Basically no one learned what being professional means. Even though everyone had so much in common, everyone found ways to outcast each other and keep that high school vibe. And the sad part is, this isn't the first time hearing this kind of stuff. Good video. Thanks for sharing. I love hearing everyone's experiences and opinions
Thanks for sharing with us, but actually most of what you say is just your personal experience form your specific workplace, and not general stuff about being a game tester
I knew a kid when I was taking computer repair class back in 2000 who got offered a job to do game testing at a company for like over 200 bucks an hour because he was very sought after unfortunately he didn't get to do it because his mom wouldn't let him because at this trade school they mixed in high schoolers along with us adults as well but from what I've read about video game testing and your video here kind of confirms yeah it's not the same thing as sitting down and entertaining yourself with the night of playing The Legend of Zelda it is work you're trying to make sure the game is his top shelf as possible before they release it to the public but nowadays with the internet and stuff the way it is it seems like they're releasing the very early version of the game and still charging you $60 for it and you going download a day of release and it doesn't work right so what the heck is the video game testers doing at this point it's like they're not passing on the video game testing to the customers instead of leaving it in the house and paying people like you do the work so that we can have a playable game when it comes out cuz you off and now you hear of like patches like coming out for games a week after the release date because they're unplayable
Okay, lets be honest every business and industry is not perfect, there's always some sort of drama at every workplace I've been in when it comes to the behind the scenes work. Its saying called shit happens. Its just how well you cope with it. Obviously if your getting abused or other stuff that's not right and you should leave but you have got to understand every workplace has issues.
@@S_wing_Z and the people who do need to read the credits read them Having your name there at all is a potential opportunity, especially if your name apparatus in multiple credits
All jobs can be dreadful where they hire and fire on a whim and pay you below the going rate and there are no positions available for advancement. It mainly comes down to who's hiring, shty people hire other shty people. Decent people hire decent people. If it sucks stick it out if you can, while you arrange another job. If it's degrading and abusive walk; sometimes no job can be better than a soul destroying abusive one.
I wanna be as first game tester, then trying to graduate for Level designer, my dream would be working for Ubisoft first as internship, or maybe Activision or something like.
I’m 15 and very interested in video game testing when I’m able to but I have a couple questions; 1 what are the requirements, 2 what are things I should learn or do to be more fit for this job, 3 what’s the hourly pay and how long would a new hire work for, 4 is it as complicated as it sounds, 5 what type of experience do you need for this job that’s all my questions for now sorry if some or all of them are stupid or bad questions
@@platinumpineapple9943 I am quite new in the QA industry (half year), but from what I can tell job's nature is high repetitive which means will be boring after some time
BS Jason yea for sure where r u qaing? activision? what game u working on? and yea thats why you are supposed to use the job to jump to a higher job, u can leave without penalty anytime
Your experience with QA and development having an adversarial relationship sounds like it represents an unhealthy workplace. I did QA as part of a different role for a couple years and was always on good terms with the few developers I interacted with. I imagine the devs where you worked must have been under a lot of pressure and/or stress if they reacted negatively to you doing your job. (then again the devs I worked with were Russian & Ukranian and their attitude is like, OK, I get the work done, I don't complain)
As a dev i can imagine on both sides when you have tight deadlines on creation team (usually on montreal or US studios) that they even don't have time to testing the release build and to reproduce bugs can be a daunting task since some of them are not 100% reproduceable , not to mention different build they have (there some times that QA get older build and devs have build that alrd fixed like 10 minutes back by other programmers that maybe not in the studio , like in co-dev studio).
I have tried to get hired by different video game tester but I lack the real experience in the video game industry no luck getting my foot in the door.?? Rejected 10 times. I just don't think they like my resume and cover letter so I'm not sure anymore . I will keep applying but not going to hold out for hope here. In my late thirties to now in my forties no hope.??
Where did you work? Like a physical location and how can i apply? To be honest I just need a job right now Ive been working warehouse jobs and they're great but I'm not trying to mess up my back this you since I'm barely 19 and I just wanna see if I can find a good office or remote work job
I never wanted to play videogames for a living, I wanted to LIVE for a living, or play music, the past 10 years life went so shitty that I spent most of my time playing video games and NOT being paid, while searching for jobs, much more horrible jobs then what you say here. Looks like a dream job.
Not sure if I'll get a response from a 4 year old video but I'll try my shot - how hard is it to get into QA? I'm down to taking courses to join the gaming industry but for the most part, I see job listings mainly being posted in the US/Canada however I'm based in Europe. I don't even know what's a good source to look for job listings.
This was informative the thing is all i do is play all day everyday unless im doin sum productive or goin out but the ppl sounds like thatd test me the most, the only reason im saying maybe still is because im really good at any game i touch and feel like youtube/streaming + the job would go so well and help me grow and get on a esports team etc. But this opened my eyes tho. Thanks‼️
Thank you it was helpful so if one day I hired people to test my games I know how hard it is and make sure they are in good mental environment. Unfortunately as Im releasing my first game I cant pay those who get paid to test my game so for know I have to ask RU-vidrs who just test games for fun.
Thank you for sharing your experience. However I have one thing I would like to respectfully point out: the title of the video signals that the topic should explain day to day responsibilities of a QA tester, and general things related to such a job position. You certainly did cover that briefly, but it felt like a lot of the video was spent describing your experience relating to the toxic work environment there. I am sorry you had to go through such an experience, but I am pointing out that this may be specific to a company and its environment. Thank you for the information provided though.
I'm actually looking to apply to a QA position or a junior designer position, do you have any tips or suggestions to writing a good cover letter? Or what skills to improve on, for context this is my last semester in school amd graduating with a degree in game design. I appreciate the response!
that's sound more a problem with the place of your work, I do game testing too, but I don't have that office problems XD. Another problem, if you have a bad day, you can´t tell your friend because "how can you have a bad day!!! you work testing games!!!"
Some of your issues are just typical office culture issues. SJWs, open harassment, leads not leading, cliques, talking behind back, nepotism, ect. Not to say "get over it" or anything like that, just saying that its not directly associated with the job.
I was like you, I always dreamed that being a game tester would be the perfect job for me, I have always been a gamer, luckily I was never able to find much opportunity from in the UK. I feel I dodged a bullet. Great video. Was there a part 2? I can't seem to find it
This sounds really common actually everyone I know in this feild says its not nearly as good as you would think. I think every gamer has considered wanting to be a tester just know what ur getting into.
I’m going into voice acting because I’ve done theatre for most of my life. I feel like the sooner the world takes these jobs seriously the sooner the care for QA’s will go up.
It seems like not only in Romania you encounter the problems you've mentioned (as a game tester). Yesterday I was thinking about applying for such a job, and I thought that I should do some research before I proceed. I've seen some feedbacks online from people that have worked for that specific game company, and they also complained about the low wages, the bad team leaders, devs and so on. Now with your video, I know what to expect. Thankies!
Thanks for you're perspective on this. Job hunting rn and came across game testing. I'd think I would love it but their are 2 sides to every story lol.
Would you be allowed to screen record for the purpose of documenting while you play the game? Just in case there's an issue with communication you could send in the video to offer proof of all these issues. Just as long as it's not being uploaded publicly online I mean.
When you write bug reports alot of the times you would screen record so you can send them proof. Especially if its a sequence in what you have to do and not just like a texture that needs to be fixed.
Dude you say it like all QA jobs are like this. I don't even work QA but I can say for a fact every issue you had was based upon having a bad work environment and bad staff. Just cause I have an issue at one mcdonald's location, it doesn't mean every single mcdonald's around the world is the same.
Awn that's sad, it's a sad experience, so far I love this so much! We also have the chance to wfh too so it's really cosy. The people are amazing and they really prone wellness either from work or in general, they are so comprehensive! The salary just raised because of the cost of living. There is con, but with my experience I have many more pro's! Even get to work with my brother so that makes it more amazing!
Thanks for giving some insight into this position, as its something Ive had growing interest in since Covid hit and the need to find opportunities that fit within this new work dynamic where traditional workplaces are changing. Some of the cons you mentioned remind me of stories ive heard from former Blizzard or EA employees. I feel so bad for people who put in so much effort, only to be dissed. Thats not right.
if you ask me half of those cons are subjective and that was a bad work environment not all of em are like that but i came looking for info for the career im going into and i found some great info so thanks
I’m curious if you’ve ever had a time we’re you just went nah I’m not doing that like something ridiculous. Also I’m 16 and I’m trying to look into this as a job but this seems pretty bad would you recommend it as a first type thing?
I’m thinking about leaving a job many people consider a dream job, as a flight attendant. And one thing I always know I’m passionate is video games. I think about joining a studio like Sony San Diego as a game test analyst, but I don’t know after hearing everything, I’m much better off at my unionized flight attendant job🙃 but A+ video, lots of info
Sounds like every Company with a corporate ladder I've ever worked for... except video games instead of income reports. Work sucks no matter what field you're in. That's why they pay you.
I stopped watching at the "women were trying to pick fights" part. One of my friends is an art director at a video game company and constantly calls out his subordinates and colleagues for LITERALLY ADDING A FIGHTING TONE to their words. He'd politely ask them to re-read their email just plainly and ask if it still came off as aggressive and the answer was almost always no. Trash.
Well maybe you should have finished what I said. The 2 females on my room were like that. especially 1 of them. None of the guys ever had " aggressive " tones. We were all chill and trying to work or chatting about fun stuff. She was the one who would say off the wall things or be hatful. I don't like how you think its me who are all to blame.
Dang, that's a bit deflating. Sounds more stressful than it should be because of the whack people and leadership, at least in your case. But it seems the norm because of expendability. Which, like you said, being grossly underappreciated by the company and staff. And the lack of communication between developers and testers is baffling, stupidly so. I don't like the sound of that but I know alot of jobs are the same. Some people like the power they have over others and treat their fellow human beings like sh*t. As if somehow their title makes them better than us. I quit my last job because of stress caused by customers and leadership. Just couldn't put up wit the bullsh*t anymore. Thanks for the honesty tho. Good vid and appreciate you for giving your take.
7:33 that's literally any job tho 😂 that happened to me and I worked at rite aid, that happened to my sister and she does door dash, tbh I feel like when people say there's pros and cons to anything it's 90% of the time based on opinion and not facts, yes some things are rules but what's a job without rules and restrictions, make it make sense