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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to play videogames all day, and get paid for it? Sounds like a pipe dream doesn't it, but the reality is that thousands of people do get paid to play games, and you can too!
Let's make one thing clear from the start being a games tester might be a lot of fun, but it's also a serious job and requires hard work and dedication. In reality you won't always be able to choose the type of games you'll be testing, you'll need to put in long hours, and often you'll need to play the same level or section of a game over and over repeatedly. Think you can handle that? If you can then there are some serious perks of the job!
Aside from the obvious perk of getting paid to play games, game testers get access to the newest games months in advance of public release. Sometimes that even means getting their hands on new console platforms up to a year ahead of the general public. Testers often get to keep the games they're testing, so free games are another bonus. The biggest perk however is a foot in the door of the games industry. For anyone seriously interested in games and wanting a career in game development this alone can be worth the long hours and repetitive work.
The games industry is notoriously difficult to break into. A computing or math related college degree, and experience, are virtually essential to get even a low level design or development job. Testers however often get to skip those requirements. A long term testers for a development company not only gains vital experience of the inner workings of a development studio, but also builds up insider contacts which can lead to the offer of a development job.
Depending on your reasons for wanting to be a game tester it might turn out to be an ideal job for you, or it might not. The best pert is that you can often pick up casual testing work, from home, reporting by email which gives you the best of both worlds and allows you to trial the job and see if it suits you.
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