Become A Pro Games Tester - Beta Testing Hints

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What You Are Expected To Do

When you are a beta tester, you are expected to play the game just as you would if it were released to the public. But, here is my philosophy on being a beta tester, and one that will score you a “pro gamer” stamp quicker than anything – I try to break things. I try to do the things that those odd players will do just to see what the game will do and how it will do when you manage to do something that it was not designed to do. This includes going to the very edge of the game where players aren’t really designed to go, and jump off. Or, take that new weapons they just put in game and see just how you can really use it. Try to kill off the NPC’s that are on your side, and so on. The more weird things that you can think of to try – the better! When you do this and get an error – make sure that you copy exactly what error you get and then send that to the gaming company. (Usually, you will have a set email to send error messages to, or a place on the gaming company’s web site where the error reports go.)

When you send in an error report, you want to be as detailed as possible. You want to have the exact error code that you got, but you also want to be able to tell the game programmers in detail exactly what you did – step by step – and what you were trying to do when the error happened. You also want to be able to tell them if this error happened every time you tried to do this certain action or not, and what you changed when you did not get the error to occur. By being as detailed as possible, the programmers and the gaming company can better determine the area of code that they need to look at.

But, even if you do not get the opportunity to get in the closed beta testing phase of a game, there is always an open beta test phase before the game is released that you should be able to get in on. Open betas will allow everyone who signs up to play and get a feel for the game so that the gaming company can see how the servers will hold up if there are thousands of players in the game instead of hundreds. If you do a really good, thorough job in the closed beta testing phase, then occasionally gaming companies may ask those players to become administrators, game masters, or other in-game helpers after the game is released. It also opens up the door for you to become a paid game tester on other projects that the company has in the works.

Ok, you now know how to get into a beta test and how to, well, break stuff in one, so the next step in this series will cover how to begin establishing yourself as a “gaming expert”.

This post is part of the series: How to Become a Pro Gamer

Want to know how to become a professional gamer? This series will take you through the many steps that it takes to get you there faster.

  1. How To Become A Pro Gamer Part 1
  2. How To Become A Pro Gamer Part 2
  3. How To Become A Pro Gamer Part 3 - Beta Testing
  4. How To Become A Pro Gamer Part 4