Job as Beta tester

Originally posted by kingofmazanderan Hi all i am a video gamer who wants to get into the video game industry.  I do not have a back ground in programing and was wondering if anyone knows how to become a Beta tester for big name companies.  I have tried looking online but have not found any real jobs.  If anyone has any idea how i can break into the game industry i would like to hear it.

Hmmm.   I don't know about other gaming companies, but for Paradox Interactive, maker of the Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron series's, all of the beta testers are unpaid volunteers from within the online community.  And there are plenty of volunteers willing to work on their own time so Paradox never has to pay betas.  I wouldn't be surprised if some similar situations existed at other companies.

Thanks both very much

--If you enjoy gaming, you really don't want to become a beta tester. I did it for several years in the 90's, for companies like SSI, building on my old hobby of board wargaming.
--By the time the finished product comes out, you will almost certainly be sick of the dam game. This will remove from the thing the most of the fun you now get from playing a new game.
--But if you really WANT to be a beta tester, you need to be prepared to spend a lot of hours abusing the game, over and over--you WANT it to screw up and you try everything you can to make it screw up. And then you document each glitch, bug, weirdness, etc, in detail, so the coders can find and fix the problems. AND you offer suggestions as to ways to improve the thing, or as to why something sucks, or why something is wrong. And you do this on version after version. You'll need dedication.
--By the time the thing is released, that can be a lot of hours you've given from your life, in return for a credit and a free copy of the production version, hours you could have been partying and cavorting with luscious maidens--or playing the final version of the latest Total War series offering.