Professional Video Game Testing- What Are The Benefits?

By Sean Saunders

Everyday lots and lots of gamers are discovering the wonderful opportunity of being a professional video game tester. If you play video games often, are quite good at them, and have average writing/communication skills, then you should consider a career as a professional video game tester. In this article, I will tell you about some of the benefits that come with paid video game testing.

Let's start with the obvious benefits -- you get to do something you're already doing and you get paid for it. In complete honestly, testing a video game is not as enjoyable as just playing it. You have to have an eye for detail and extreme amounts of patience; otherwise, it would be virtually impossible to minutely explore all aspects of the video game. But then again, you are still getting paid to play video games; so it can't all be bad, right? As a matter of fact, you could probably bet money that video game testing is more than likely 90% better than any of the other jobs that are currently available to you.

Another great perk is that you will get to play advanced versions of unreleased video games. This basically means you get your hands on the latest hot new game before any other gamer or critic will. Also, your honest feedback can literally result in changes made to the game prior to it's release. Therefore, when the game is finally released, you can tell your friends and family that you were responsible for changing and improving certain aspects of the game. Won't they be impressed?

One of the best perks is, of course, the fact that you get the video games for free. Imagine how quickly you could build up your library with different video games; and you would have done it just by testing each of them. So, when the job is over & done with, you get to keep the game and play it whenever you like. Sounds like a pretty great bonus, right?

Another decent advantage to being a video game tester is that you get your hands on cheat codes, secrets of the levels, and other tricks that only game testers are privy to. This means that when the game is released to the public, you can totally dominate your friends in head-to-head competitions. They won't know what hit 'em.

Another point you should consider is that by becoming a video game tester, you develop a deeper appreciation for video games as a whole. You get to see the different aspects of the video game industry and how it operates as a whole; how a game is developed, how it's marketed, and how it is tweaked and improved upon in the various stages.

There you have it. 5 key benefits that accompany a career in professional video game testing. While there may be some work involved, the alternative would be to work as a slave for someone else for something you never liked doing in the first place. Don't try to fool yourself, a career as video game tester is what you have wanted all along!