Geeknews

If the main qualification for this job is a love of games, there will never be a shortage of readily available workers. Last year, the Seattle Weekly did a lengthy ‘behind the scenes’ for games testing at Microsoft, Nintendo and other companies in the Pacific NW.

Some choice quotes:

“The end of my first full day of testing is also the end of the first time I’ve played video games for eight straight hours, by far my longest-ever stretch. The last two hours, I feel nauseous. Severely so. When I get up to leave, I nearly fall over from dizziness and a massive headache.”

“24 hour shifts at Nintendo.”

“The cool part of the job—the ability to test and see things before anyone else does—is the one thing you’re not supposed to talk about.”

“Sometimes you won’t be playing a game at all; you’ll just be—brace yourself—turning a machine off and on. We’re to turn the console on six different ways—by the main power button, by the remote control, by the controller (wireless and wired), and by pressing the eject button on the remote and the console—10 times each.”