I'll fix your damn sports game!

[8 1/2]

I've just finished my first week as a playtester for Visual Concepts. These are the kids behind the 2K series of sports games. I hate sports games as a rule, and have never owned any if you don't count Mutant League Hockey, but I saw an ad in the paper for the job opening and lied my ass off about being a big sports fan, padded out the interview with a bunch of random game knowledge, and now I have the job. It pays $10 an hour and is full time, which is fairly ass in San Francisco, but it's more than I was making at Gamestop and the job is a hell of a lot more fun. It's an odd staff though for sure... a weird mix of super-nerds (like me) and sports bros.

It's incredibly tedious, and I imagine it will only get more so. The upper guys send down "test plans" which are basically big 20 page layouts of all the options, menus, graphics, plays--essentially anything that's in the game. A big part of the job is going through this step by step. Example: "Go into options and change passing to the "X" button and see if anything goes wrong." "Go into options and change passing to the "Y" button and see if anything goes wrong." "Go into options... you get the idea.

Still, there are some really cool people around the building, and what other job do you get to play Hot Shots Golf on PSP with your boss during break? And I'm such a tedious OCD bastard that it actually really fits my personality to sit down and very carefully destroy a set system of patterns. That's why I love shmups after all.

On Monday I start on a real team (I've just been training on last year's NBA game) which will likely be NHL 2K6. I've already drank so much Red Bull that my pee has turned bright yellow from an overdose of chemicals. My boss thinks that I may have an eye for the standards testing team too, which is a group that looks at things like loading times and overall game speed in accordance with the standards of Sony and Microsoft.

If nothing more I'll get my name in the credits of a game and hopefully the company will move some people back toward non-sports stuff now that their NFL franchise is dead. Still, and I mean this seriously, when have you ever sat down and just played a game for eight straight hours a day? Let alone do that same thing five days a week for three months. I guess I'll learn me some hockey.

[Ord]

Sounds intresting, but truth be told that would drive me nuts! Keep us updated eh?

[Naiera]

I'd want a raise

[Capt. Takehiko]

Sounds like the best videogame related job you can get, it seems better then mine (Selling games) but yes very boring indeed.

[roushimsx]

That kicks ass. You know Dave, from the mid/late 90s classic Saturn page, Dave's Sega Saturn Page works there as a producer, right?

[Vexorg]

Sounds interesting. I'm a software tester myself (I currently do localization testing on Microsoft Systems Management Server) and there's a lot of games testers around here between Microsoft and Nintendo. I don't think I'd ever do games testing myself (the money's much better where I am now) but testing is something that you can eventually make a career out of. Use it as a learning experience, and enjoy it.

[Diabollokus]

I'd hate to be a tester, i'd get fired for being too critical.

You call this a game!??????? send it back and make me a new thunderforce!

I said thunderforce not ikaruga 2!!! who the hell do you developers think you are treasure??

but seriously 8 hours of american football and baseball 5 days a week would destroy me. Being an rpg tester would be okay i suppose unless it was a really bad one.

[alpha5099]

Still, and I mean this seriously, when have you ever sat down and just played a game for eight straight hours a day? Let alone do that same thing five days a week for three months. I guess I'll learn me some hockey.

I think the most I've ever played a traditional sports game was maybe an hour or two. I played a little NBA Jam for the Genesis at a friend's house. And I've played Madden I think twice. The second time, I spent the whole time picking inapproriate plays, running field goal attempts at the 80 yard line. And I almost won too. No, the only sports titles I've ever gotten into have been some extreme sports titles: Tony Hawk, Aggressive Inline, SSX.

But I've definitely spent that long playing games. I played that much Animal Crossing, Skies of Arcadia Legend, Paper Mario 2, and Grandia II. I probably also played that much PokeMon at some point back in the day, but I can't remember for sure. I also played so much Super Mario Land 2 on the plane when we went on vacation to Hawaii, that I heard the music playing i my head for several hours later.

[FatCobra]

Congrats on the job 8 1/2, you're a braver man than I am (playtesting nothing but sports games would probably cause me to go nuts).

I was wondering about playtesters, do you guys get a free copy of the final product when it's all over?

[iatneH]

Yeh, I've an interview soon with *gasp* EA for playtesting, so I really need to do some homework. I rented one of them NHL games for the GameCube so I'll have to spend this weekend playing it. It won't sound good when I say the last EA sports game I played was NHL '93 on the SNES, and I played it on a copier too :p

[FatCobra]

Yeh, I've an interview soon with *gasp* EA for playtesting, so I really need to do some homework. I rented one of them NHL games for the GameCube so I'll have to spend this weekend playing it. It won't sound good when I say the last EA sports game I played was NHL '93 on the SNES, and I played it on a copier too :p

Good luck working for the Borg....er...EA.

[Specineff]

8 1/2, that's great. I heard some developers and designers started as play testers. you'll gain a lot valuable knowledge there. Who knows, maybe tomorrow you can apply your mad writer's skills to a game as script writer.

[TVG]

bastard, i hate you. die commie.

(in case you haven't noticed, im very envious, not as envious as if you were a professional reviewer tho)

[8 1/2]

That kicks ass. You know Dave, from the mid/late 90s classic Saturn page, Dave's Sega Saturn Page works there as a producer, right?

He's THE Dave? He's actually the lead tester in the room I'm working in. I just hadn't made the association. I'll have to make a point to talk some Saturn with him.

As for free copies of the game... I got a big laugh and big NO when I asked another tester about that. I would assume I'll get a copy of a pre-release version out of it, but seriously, I don't think I'm going to actually want to play much of any of these games when they do finally come out. They tell me that by the end of a project you can have logged 500 hours on a single game.

Oh, one word of warning about the next gen systems that I've been hearing. $60 is the new price point for all Xbox 360 games. I know that's pretty much been confirmed elsewhere, but hearing people on the inside talking about it sort of game me chills. A return to SNES pricing?

[8 1/2]

Ooh, never mind about Dave. I just checked out that porn link and that's not the guy I was thinking about. What's up with all that "I'd hit it" bullshit under the girl's pics anyway?

[Diabollokus]

anyone any info on xbox 360 price yet?

[captain ahar]

anyone seen those commercials on G4 (i slum it occasionally) about the exciting career of game testing? those commercials make me want to scream real loud.