Support NeoGAF

[Disciple of MSSP]

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?

 

[Northeastmonk]

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.

 

[nush]

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?

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]

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?

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

 

[DKehoe]

I've always heard it's a shitty job. I also try and avoid turning my hobbies into work.

 

[Disciple of MSSP]

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

I kinda figured as much. That's a shame. Oh well. Thanks!

 

[John Marston]

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.

 

[SJRB]

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.

 

[MMaRsu]

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.

Same