Learn How You Can Get Paid to Test Video Games

Making a living in today's world doing something you love can't be beat. One of the greatest careers for people who play video games is usually considered a childish myth. But the truth is, you can get paid to test video games. What exactly does this entail, though? And how hard is it to break into the job and start earning? This article will answer all these questions so you can jump into it with video game testing!

First, you're probably wondering how this whole video game testing works. Well, companies like Insomniac, Sony, Nintendo, 2KA and so many more need you to test their games. Why? Because a game that's released with tons of flaws will sell like crap once the flaws become known. And then that entire company's reputation is trashed- they'd be lucky to get another game out at all, much less a best seller. Video game testers can catch innumerable flaws and make a trashy game an A-lister with their feedback.

But why would you get paid to do something that probably any twelve year old would do for free? The long and short of it is that the experiences you have while video game testing aren't exactly the peak of fun. You sometimes get a very fun game you get to review parts of, but most of the time you're recording dialogue from every NPC in a town or traversing every part of a race track to check for loop holes or glitches. Things any 12 year old would probably find considerably less fun. So instead they give the jobs an added perk of payment.

So now you're wondering how you can get into the job and get paid to test video games, right? Well there are a few simple tips you should use to do this:

• Go directly to companies- Companies have no need to list for a tester because they are usually getting applications in spades. Find out how to contact companies and then put in your application at the source instead of relying on job listing services.
  
• Become an industry professional- Well, not a professional per se, but someone who knows different things aside from just how to play video games. If you want to get paid to test video games, then you should also invest some time learning a programming language or the basics behind development just so you'll have that as an asset.
  
• Don't give up too soon- A lot of people quit testing as a career after finding out about less than stellar rates and the tedium of testing. But what they don't realize is that you can actually get higher rates and play more enjoyable games if you stick with it and become a full time permanent tester!