So you're sick of flipping burgers, eh? You'd rather play video games all day, you say? Well, you know, most of us have to get jobs and live and stuff, so maybe game testing could be a nice happy middleground for you. Sony recently released a promotional video on the business of testing games. From some fairly extensive research, it's not the job for everyone, but perhaps it's the job for you (yeesh, I sound like a recruitment officer).

For the particularly cynical, the video isn't exactly corporate dribble: one of the testers outright says "I don't think a sane person would do this." So, now you know what to say in the interview!

The job essentially involves triggering every possible bit of programming contained within a game in its development cycle at that particular point in time and reporting all found bugs. So, Sony drops a game in the works in your lap, you play through every level, hitting all kinds of button combinations, doing every possible attack or move there is, getting every item, etc. and you report what doesn't work as it should. Maybe it doesn't sound too bad, but I've heard some real stories about the ardorous nature of the job; some find it to be not at all what they expected. In either case, the good news is a fairly high percentage of people in other parts of the industry (development and design, for example) start off as testers. So, if you're willing to stick it out awhile, you can make your way out of the trench of game testing and into something like tip writing (which involves actually game playing) or game design and/or production. Most of the testers in the video (who really come in all varities) say they love their job, though some note the level of challenge, but also the reward.

So, who's up for working for Sony? Nintendo? Microsoft? The second and third-party companies need people too, of course. Get crackin'!