The harsh life of a game tester
Original article: "The Tough Life of a Games Tester" .
What gamer did not dream of making a living playing games? Although this may seem like an excellent profession and a cool way to get your first job in the gaming industry, the truth is not so attractive.
IGN contacted testers from around the world to hear their opinions about harsh reality. We received dozens of letters from employees of numerous gaming companies. They told us stories about harsh working conditions, low wages and a lack of morale among workers.
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Their employers are a huge number of companies, including both publishers of traditional games for computers, and newer organizations involved in the creation of games for mobile devices.
When applying for a job, testers have signed a non-disclosure agreement with their employers and can be fired, they can even be sued for divulging information. All testers we contacted talked to us under the condition of complete anonymity. We came up with pseudonyms for them to hide their real data. We also verified that all these people are really game testers. We asked to comment on this article, referring to the many gaming companies, but did not wait for a single answer.
Although the work may seem like a dream come true, Ruben says that it’s not at all like you’ve been playing games all day, and you’re getting paid for it. “Submit your favorite movie. Now take your favorite 30 second segment from this movie. Now view this segment time after time, 12 hours a day, every day for two months. When you're done, answer me: can you say that what you were doing was watching movies all day? I bet that this is not at all the case. You are given a certain section of the game, this is your section and you have been testing everything that comes across it for several months. ”
In addition, testers do not get any pleasure from the choice of the game in which they have to play. “It's very boring to play a game for children again and again,” says Rich.
Frank adds: “I saw people who once and for all tied up with games because of disappointment in the process of work and the endless monotonous game of the game that you hate, and I myself would never play it. You just become exhausted. ”
Although some boring and monotonous work can be paid pretty well, game testers do not get a good reward. And all because the gaming industry is almost entirely composed of hired workers, they have no advantages and no power.
Companies often pay wage earners a higher basic wage instead of any bonuses or rewards, but Danny earns just $ 10 an hour. From this we can conclude that the average salary of a full-time tester is only $ 20,800 per year. The official minimum fee is $ 7.25 per hour, but game testers are information workers, not burger vendors. In order to test and make judgments about games, we need certain skills and knowledge.
Suppose that newbies without experience in the gaming industry earn quite a little, but what about testers with experience? Danny says: “I have been working with a guy who for the last eight years has only been doing what he is trying to please the management: he never argues, he does everything he is told. But in testing, he's just a genius! After eight years of work, he still receives only $ 14. Damn it, I think we deserve more than $ 10 an hour. ” He believes that game developers / publishers should "offer us any awards or incentives, as they do with the rest of the company."
Kate told the story of how his employer was greedy to give him a copy of the game he was working on. He wrote that "after two months of playing this game, 40 hours a week, I myself would never in my life buy it."
While cash rewards are just one form of reward, Danny believes that they are not being given proper respect. “We deserve to be treated as ordinary employees of the company, and not as those whom you would not invite to your Christmas party. There have been such cases. "
"I am absolutely not alone in my feelings," he adds. “Perhaps most people like me wouldn’t express their discontent because of the fear of being fired; and those who dare would have long since left the gaming industry because of the conditions I’m talking about. ”
In contrast to the usual working day from 9 to 17, the last months before the release of a video game, when all efforts were made to put the product on time, are called “critical” in the company.
According to tester Pete, they simply forgot to pay him a lot of work. "They make us stay in the office, work overtime, but never pay extra for it."
Frank works overtime every day. “This is on the verge of illegality. It got to the point that by three or four in the morning I was so tired that I lost consciousness a couple of times. The rest, too, but we did not bother such a person. We just gave him a rest and brought each other back to life only when it became necessary. ”
Loss of sleep is not the only thing that physically influenced Frank and the company. “Our food was just awful! The only place that was open at night was McDonald’s at Chevron station, and we mockingly called it Chevronalds. I felt like a piece of shit and just wanted to get it over with all of this. ”
Ruben says it is extremely difficult to lead a healthy family life. “As soon as overtime begins, it seems to you that this will never end. The longest period of processing in my life lasted more than 7 months, the shortest working week was 65 hours, and the longest - 92. Then we worked on two projects that simply merged with each other. ”
In addition to the physical and mental stress experienced by testers, companies are completely lacking in providing any kind of stability. “During the training, they told us that it doesn’t matter if you are fired, it’s important“ when ”,” says Kate. “They asserted with all their might that a good employee is distinguished by the number of bugs he found and, based on this number, they will decide whether to leave you or not.” However, this technique did not take into account the loyalty with which the employee works on the project. “I perfectly documented the bugs, went through the same scene over and over again and still understood why the game constantly gets stuck in the tail of the helicopter! I would like the rest of the testers to express their opinion on how they like the bugs I found, because I was one of those who were able to document what the other employees were confused about. But when it came to the final counting, it turned out that my neighbor found more bugs, so I was fired, but he was not. ”
If being fired and so very bad, then the subsequent job search became even worse. “Everyone is trying to get into positions that are currently unavailable, and they will not be released,” says Phil. While this may be true of other industries, not just the gaming industry, he believes that the problem is only exacerbated because testers most often get a job through recruitment agencies, rather than on their own. Many publishers are just not ready to make you an offer. A large proportion of testers are not arranged officially.
Ruben explains: “Most people will get a job, say goodbye to their“ outer ”life for half a year, and then they will tell him to leave. It’s very sad to watch people who you have spent so much time getting laid off with. ”
While the reduction is an integral part of any profession, he adds that this process is rather cold. “This is how my employer did this: he mailed a notice of the meeting. You come to the meeting and someone comes into our office, where employees who have not been called to this meeting are still sitting, and simply say: “If you were called here, it means you are fired. Pack your things, we will take you to the exit "... You always hope that you will be one of the few who will be left."
Since people mistakenly believe that the job of a tester is that he plays games all day, companies never have a shortage of people willing to get a job. “Anyone testing is easily replaceable,” says Frank. Ruben adds: “If the management does not like anyone, they simply refuse to renew the contract with him, thus avoiding any difficulties. This leads to the fact that people begin to complain that their work has become more loaded or prolonged, they are called brawlers and simply do not extend the contract with them. ”
Frank says: “As soon as a product is released, you don’t have a job. No rewards, prospects or promises to you that they will take you to full time. I worked with so many really talented people that I’m just ashamed to see how their talent depreciates. ” While some companies offer some kind of job preservation measures, “there is no union for testers,” he adds.
Can testers organize their own trade union? Although theoretically this is possible, Ruben believes that this is unrealistic. “The formation of such a trade union at the level of testers is almost impossible due to the terrible treatment of employees. If you try, your contract will not be renewed. The most annoying thing is that the gaming industry is so small that if for any reason you are fired, most companies will be aware of this and will not agree to take you to work. ”
Even after passing all the tests and approval of the game for release, today it is not uncommon that there are still very big bugs and shortcomings in the game. Take at least the version of Bethesda's Skyrim for the Playstation 3. If testers really worked so hard on it, as it was stated, then how did it end up with so many technical flaws?
According to Phil, the truth is that "many of the bugs found are not fixed." Even more - developers often just ignore testers tips. Frank says: “They just ignore our comments, not honoring them with even the slightest attention. They simply spend money and resources. ”
“Sometimes gaming companies just randomly choose bugs that need to be fixed,” says Trent. “The trick of testing is that not everyone plays the same game. There are millions of combinations in the game that a player can take advantage of, so a team of 100, or even fewer people simply cannot find all the flaws, and it all pops up in the final product. ” Combined with the fact that some bugs are not repeated, this explains why such catastrophic problems can leak into the game. "A thousand times you could find a bug, but if you cannot explain in detail how it should be repaired, you cannot take it into account, even if it is critical for the game ... In order for it to be finally taken into account, it is necessary that it be repeated constantly ".
Even when developers are listening to a team of testers, problems still can not be avoided. Trent adds: "Sometimes the developers swear that they fixed something, but in the next build of the game something else breaks down that worked before, or sometimes fixing them doesn't solve the problem at all."
And although testers are not to blame for many of these problems, Saul, who refuses to name the company for which he worked, asserts: "The company blames us for ALL the bugs that are found in the final product." Pete notes that "Producers no longer listen to testers ... but if a bug pops up when the game is already released, testers are to blame for everything, even if before that they reported on this issue."
To avoid delays in the release of the game, Sam says that publishers "intimidate" their testers by saying that "if the product does not go on sale by the appointed time, this will be fraught with long delays at work." He described one employer as “very totalitarian” because of his attitude towards the employees of the testing department. Among all testers who applied to IGN, this complaint was common to many employers.
While the prevailing opinion about the work of a game tester is a delusion, there are still alternatives to overloading at work, and testers should seek this. Companies like Valve or Blizzard are famous for spending their time refining the game and fixing bugs, although for some reason this luxury is not always available to companies that depend on shareholders' expectations. Some companies open their games for beta testing, which leads to a new round of problems.
History shows that when testers are an integral part of the game development cycle, gaming companies produce better products, they have better sales, and most importantly, in the end, they create more humane conditions for work.
What gamer did not dream of making a living playing games? Although this may seem like an excellent profession and a cool way to get your first job in the gaming industry, the truth is not so attractive.
IGN contacted testers from around the world to hear their opinions about harsh reality. We received dozens of letters from employees of numerous gaming companies. They told us stories about harsh working conditions, low wages and a lack of morale among workers.
')
Their employers are a huge number of companies, including both publishers of traditional games for computers, and newer organizations involved in the creation of games for mobile devices.
When applying for a job, testers have signed a non-disclosure agreement with their employers and can be fired, they can even be sued for divulging information. All testers we contacted talked to us under the condition of complete anonymity. We came up with pseudonyms for them to hide their real data. We also verified that all these people are really game testers. We asked to comment on this article, referring to the many gaming companies, but did not wait for a single answer.
Tedious tasks
Although the work may seem like a dream come true, Ruben says that it’s not at all like you’ve been playing games all day, and you’re getting paid for it. “Submit your favorite movie. Now take your favorite 30 second segment from this movie. Now view this segment time after time, 12 hours a day, every day for two months. When you're done, answer me: can you say that what you were doing was watching movies all day? I bet that this is not at all the case. You are given a certain section of the game, this is your section and you have been testing everything that comes across it for several months. ”
In addition, testers do not get any pleasure from the choice of the game in which they have to play. “It's very boring to play a game for children again and again,” says Rich.
Frank adds: “I saw people who once and for all tied up with games because of disappointment in the process of work and the endless monotonous game of the game that you hate, and I myself would never play it. You just become exhausted. ”
Low salary
Although some boring and monotonous work can be paid pretty well, game testers do not get a good reward. And all because the gaming industry is almost entirely composed of hired workers, they have no advantages and no power.
Companies often pay wage earners a higher basic wage instead of any bonuses or rewards, but Danny earns just $ 10 an hour. From this we can conclude that the average salary of a full-time tester is only $ 20,800 per year. The official minimum fee is $ 7.25 per hour, but game testers are information workers, not burger vendors. In order to test and make judgments about games, we need certain skills and knowledge.
Suppose that newbies without experience in the gaming industry earn quite a little, but what about testers with experience? Danny says: “I have been working with a guy who for the last eight years has only been doing what he is trying to please the management: he never argues, he does everything he is told. But in testing, he's just a genius! After eight years of work, he still receives only $ 14. Damn it, I think we deserve more than $ 10 an hour. ” He believes that game developers / publishers should "offer us any awards or incentives, as they do with the rest of the company."
We are not respected
Kate told the story of how his employer was greedy to give him a copy of the game he was working on. He wrote that "after two months of playing this game, 40 hours a week, I myself would never in my life buy it."
While cash rewards are just one form of reward, Danny believes that they are not being given proper respect. “We deserve to be treated as ordinary employees of the company, and not as those whom you would not invite to your Christmas party. There have been such cases. "
"I am absolutely not alone in my feelings," he adds. “Perhaps most people like me wouldn’t express their discontent because of the fear of being fired; and those who dare would have long since left the gaming industry because of the conditions I’m talking about. ”
Severe working conditions
In contrast to the usual working day from 9 to 17, the last months before the release of a video game, when all efforts were made to put the product on time, are called “critical” in the company.
According to tester Pete, they simply forgot to pay him a lot of work. "They make us stay in the office, work overtime, but never pay extra for it."
Frank works overtime every day. “This is on the verge of illegality. It got to the point that by three or four in the morning I was so tired that I lost consciousness a couple of times. The rest, too, but we did not bother such a person. We just gave him a rest and brought each other back to life only when it became necessary. ”
Loss of sleep is not the only thing that physically influenced Frank and the company. “Our food was just awful! The only place that was open at night was McDonald’s at Chevron station, and we mockingly called it Chevronalds. I felt like a piece of shit and just wanted to get it over with all of this. ”
Ruben says it is extremely difficult to lead a healthy family life. “As soon as overtime begins, it seems to you that this will never end. The longest period of processing in my life lasted more than 7 months, the shortest working week was 65 hours, and the longest - 92. Then we worked on two projects that simply merged with each other. ”
Low stability
In addition to the physical and mental stress experienced by testers, companies are completely lacking in providing any kind of stability. “During the training, they told us that it doesn’t matter if you are fired, it’s important“ when ”,” says Kate. “They asserted with all their might that a good employee is distinguished by the number of bugs he found and, based on this number, they will decide whether to leave you or not.” However, this technique did not take into account the loyalty with which the employee works on the project. “I perfectly documented the bugs, went through the same scene over and over again and still understood why the game constantly gets stuck in the tail of the helicopter! I would like the rest of the testers to express their opinion on how they like the bugs I found, because I was one of those who were able to document what the other employees were confused about. But when it came to the final counting, it turned out that my neighbor found more bugs, so I was fired, but he was not. ”
If being fired and so very bad, then the subsequent job search became even worse. “Everyone is trying to get into positions that are currently unavailable, and they will not be released,” says Phil. While this may be true of other industries, not just the gaming industry, he believes that the problem is only exacerbated because testers most often get a job through recruitment agencies, rather than on their own. Many publishers are just not ready to make you an offer. A large proportion of testers are not arranged officially.
Ruben explains: “Most people will get a job, say goodbye to their“ outer ”life for half a year, and then they will tell him to leave. It’s very sad to watch people who you have spent so much time getting laid off with. ”
While the reduction is an integral part of any profession, he adds that this process is rather cold. “This is how my employer did this: he mailed a notice of the meeting. You come to the meeting and someone comes into our office, where employees who have not been called to this meeting are still sitting, and simply say: “If you were called here, it means you are fired. Pack your things, we will take you to the exit "... You always hope that you will be one of the few who will be left."
You can't change anything
Since people mistakenly believe that the job of a tester is that he plays games all day, companies never have a shortage of people willing to get a job. “Anyone testing is easily replaceable,” says Frank. Ruben adds: “If the management does not like anyone, they simply refuse to renew the contract with him, thus avoiding any difficulties. This leads to the fact that people begin to complain that their work has become more loaded or prolonged, they are called brawlers and simply do not extend the contract with them. ”
Frank says: “As soon as a product is released, you don’t have a job. No rewards, prospects or promises to you that they will take you to full time. I worked with so many really talented people that I’m just ashamed to see how their talent depreciates. ” While some companies offer some kind of job preservation measures, “there is no union for testers,” he adds.
Can testers organize their own trade union? Although theoretically this is possible, Ruben believes that this is unrealistic. “The formation of such a trade union at the level of testers is almost impossible due to the terrible treatment of employees. If you try, your contract will not be renewed. The most annoying thing is that the gaming industry is so small that if for any reason you are fired, most companies will be aware of this and will not agree to take you to work. ”
The tester’s fault
Even after passing all the tests and approval of the game for release, today it is not uncommon that there are still very big bugs and shortcomings in the game. Take at least the version of Bethesda's Skyrim for the Playstation 3. If testers really worked so hard on it, as it was stated, then how did it end up with so many technical flaws?
According to Phil, the truth is that "many of the bugs found are not fixed." Even more - developers often just ignore testers tips. Frank says: “They just ignore our comments, not honoring them with even the slightest attention. They simply spend money and resources. ”
“Sometimes gaming companies just randomly choose bugs that need to be fixed,” says Trent. “The trick of testing is that not everyone plays the same game. There are millions of combinations in the game that a player can take advantage of, so a team of 100, or even fewer people simply cannot find all the flaws, and it all pops up in the final product. ” Combined with the fact that some bugs are not repeated, this explains why such catastrophic problems can leak into the game. "A thousand times you could find a bug, but if you cannot explain in detail how it should be repaired, you cannot take it into account, even if it is critical for the game ... In order for it to be finally taken into account, it is necessary that it be repeated constantly ".
Even when developers are listening to a team of testers, problems still can not be avoided. Trent adds: "Sometimes the developers swear that they fixed something, but in the next build of the game something else breaks down that worked before, or sometimes fixing them doesn't solve the problem at all."
And although testers are not to blame for many of these problems, Saul, who refuses to name the company for which he worked, asserts: "The company blames us for ALL the bugs that are found in the final product." Pete notes that "Producers no longer listen to testers ... but if a bug pops up when the game is already released, testers are to blame for everything, even if before that they reported on this issue."
To avoid delays in the release of the game, Sam says that publishers "intimidate" their testers by saying that "if the product does not go on sale by the appointed time, this will be fraught with long delays at work." He described one employer as “very totalitarian” because of his attitude towards the employees of the testing department. Among all testers who applied to IGN, this complaint was common to many employers.
Conclusion
While the prevailing opinion about the work of a game tester is a delusion, there are still alternatives to overloading at work, and testers should seek this. Companies like Valve or Blizzard are famous for spending their time refining the game and fixing bugs, although for some reason this luxury is not always available to companies that depend on shareholders' expectations. Some companies open their games for beta testing, which leads to a new round of problems.
History shows that when testers are an integral part of the game development cycle, gaming companies produce better products, they have better sales, and most importantly, in the end, they create more humane conditions for work.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/213787/
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