Disciple of MSSP
Gold Member
I already game a lot, and I have downtime during my week. I wondered if paid playtesting was even a thing. If so, any legit sites that would be worth looking into?
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Anyone get paid to playtest?
- Thread starter Disciple of MSSP
- Start date
Northeastmonk
Gold Member
No clue how to help, but i encourage you to go for it. Back in the day i thought they'd send you some sorta beta version to play through the mail. That's when I was a teenager and the Xbox/PS2/GC were all brand new. You'd see those commercials on TV where the actors are all weirdly impressed that that's their job. Usually to boost their "game design" college degree.
I'd imagine there are in-house playtesters especially with NDA's as big as they are now. Good luck if you don't live in California, right? I wanted to go into it but the more money I spent the less I saw myself getting there. Where I lived was a big part of it and I enjoy gaming more as a hobby than something I could work on. I had more fun playing the latest release than putting work into something.
We have had so many betas and stress tests over the years. There's gotta be some sorta pre-public beta testing out there. I'd imagine that isn't something you could easily find unless you worked at the physical studio.
IMO you could journal or blog about the games you play. I have tried making something for my step daughter and I. Like a review site, but my motivation for it tanks. I'd much rather play games and chat about them here. When I go to write a review of something, it feels so robotic. My spouse writes beauty reviews and she gets so much free stuff. I'd absolutely love having that, but it being about games. It's a lot of work and you have to stick with it.
I'd imagine there are in-house playtesters especially with NDA's as big as they are now. Good luck if you don't live in California, right? I wanted to go into it but the more money I spent the less I saw myself getting there. Where I lived was a big part of it and I enjoy gaming more as a hobby than something I could work on. I had more fun playing the latest release than putting work into something.
We have had so many betas and stress tests over the years. There's gotta be some sorta pre-public beta testing out there. I'd imagine that isn't something you could easily find unless you worked at the physical studio.
IMO you could journal or blog about the games you play. I have tried making something for my step daughter and I. Like a review site, but my motivation for it tanks. I'd much rather play games and chat about them here. When I go to write a review of something, it feels so robotic. My spouse writes beauty reviews and she gets so much free stuff. I'd absolutely love having that, but it being about games. It's a lot of work and you have to stick with it.
nush
Member
It was, but it's probably outsourced for the most part now. Also, it's shit. You play broken games for hours, well one game anyway. You're just looking for bugs and then filling in a form. There's no creativity input on the actual quality of the game.
TVexperto
Member
its terrible, I get paid 11 bucks an hour, they havent raised the monthly salary in years. You have to check in 10x per hour and fill out stupid surveys, the screen is filled with placeholder text and nda protection text etc
Disciple of MSSP
Gold Member
I kinda figured as much. That's a shame. Oh well. Thanks!
John Marston
GAF's very own treasure goblin
We do have paid playtesters at various stages of game development.
I usually watch when we are close to Gold, a few weeks before release.
As a quest designer it allows me to tweak a couple of things like a ladder not being obvious enough or combat being too difficult in some areas.
I'm grateful for this because fresh pairs of eyes are always welcomed when you've been working on the game for 2 years and inevitably suffer from tunnel vision.
I usually watch when we are close to Gold, a few weeks before release.
As a quest designer it allows me to tweak a couple of things like a ladder not being obvious enough or combat being too difficult in some areas.
I'm grateful for this because fresh pairs of eyes are always welcomed when you've been working on the game for 2 years and inevitably suffer from tunnel vision.
SJRB
Gold Member
I've play tested for a couple of years but it was not a fulltime job. Every once in a while this company I signed up with would send a mail like "hey would you like to participate in testing Project Y for two hours" and I could sign up.
It typically was online network testing. Connecting to other players, do some co-op, that sort of stuff. Signed a lot of NDA's but got to play several big releases way before they came out which was very cool.
It typically was online network testing. Connecting to other players, do some co-op, that sort of stuff. Signed a lot of NDA's but got to play several big releases way before they came out which was very cool.
MMaRsu
Member
Same
Porcile
Member
There was an old UK gameshow, I guess it was Gamesmaster, and the final prize was a job testing games for Sega or somewhere like that. And they presented it as some kind amazing prize to the bloke that won it lmao. Always cracked me up because even back then games testing was considered a real horrible job that you had to do for years and years before they let you on the development team.
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Avid Reading Horse
Gold Member
Did it for like 3 months about 20 years ago. The job itself was kind of okay, the people I worked with were mostly retards. Actual Sony employees treated us (to some extent understandably) all like criminals. It didn't feel like a legit entry point into the industry. I ended up taking a random job offer for over double the pay to test printers.
nush
Member
Most employees never escape the QA dungeon to the promised land of actual game dev.
Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
I did it years ago because I thought it would be fun and interesting, but it was neither.
You'd get tasked with doing stuff that wasn't like playing a game - load into a game and then immediately quit and repeat for half an hour. Also keep an eye on discord and answer a random question "What's your favourite pizza topping?!" Answer within a couple of minutes to show you are still active or don't get paid.
Also, the pay is terrible and the games sometimes don't have any textures so they look horrible, even if you can look beyond the fact that your tester id is overlaid over the top of the screen 40 times.
So, not a good experience and the money isn't good.
I did it on about 4 titles before I decided this definitely wasn't going to be more interesting.
You'd get tasked with doing stuff that wasn't like playing a game - load into a game and then immediately quit and repeat for half an hour. Also keep an eye on discord and answer a random question "What's your favourite pizza topping?!" Answer within a couple of minutes to show you are still active or don't get paid.
Also, the pay is terrible and the games sometimes don't have any textures so they look horrible, even if you can look beyond the fact that your tester id is overlaid over the top of the screen 40 times.
So, not a good experience and the money isn't good.
I did it on about 4 titles before I decided this definitely wasn't going to be more interesting.