Video Game Testing

Video Game Testing - Levels Of Employment

In the vedio game testing industry, there are different levels of employment. The producer or developer of the game is, of course, the major player in the industry—they have to worry about the completion of product so they ultimately set the company’s standard for testing. They look at everything form a wide point of view—a marketing point of view.

Next in line is the manager at a vedio game testing business. The manager doesn’t usually play the game himself to test it. He delegates the task and oversees the project. The manager actually hires and fires the actual testers. His word or okay on the tested product is over the word of an employee on a lower level. Of course, the producer can cancel out the manager’s decision.

The supervisor is directly below the manager. Now, these are the people on the floor who actually have the most interaction with the vedio game tester. They generally need a great deal of experience and are the one’s who take the complaints to the higher level management. The supervisor is key in relating the testing problems to the quality assurance managers.

There are lead testers for each video game. The lead is in a position to speak with the producer without going through the manager or supervisor. These employees do the reports and make plans concerning the outcome of game testing and concerning what was wrong with the tested game. Lead testers don’t have a say so when it comes down to the decision to release a game for the market, but they do have to sign off on a video testing assignment. These lead testers also put together game samples for the PEGI and ESRB to view and examine. There is also an assistant to the lead tester. These are the vedio game testing employees who will handle tasks like new employees training. He generally has more actual knowledge of how the game should play to achieve sufficient ratings, he possesses the potential for becoming a lead tester.

The lowest position, but, as usual, the back bone of the company, is the actual video game tester. These employees are called video analysis workers. They are basically given a game to test and they test it—no matter how tedious the testing is. Vedio game testing can be grueling for a worker at this level. They can be moved around from testing one game to testing another. Of course, their pay can be as low as $8 per hour or as high as $15 per hour. These lower level employees take their game testing concerns to their immediate supervisor—the lead or assistant tester.