Are you looking for a way to turn your favorite hobby, playing video games, into a way of making money? If so, you may want a job as a video game reviewer. But is it really possible to make money reviewing games, or is that just a myth? After all, it seems like no one really knows a video game reviewer. They are out there, though, and you can break into the industry if you know how to go about it. Here are some tips for making money in the video game review world.

Read a Lot of Reviews

If you want to get a job reviewing games, you need to have a good idea of what reviewers are looking for. Writing a review for a video game magazine, website, or other publication can be difficult if you don't know how most video game reviews Read more »

You hear about people wanting to be video game testers all the time, but what exactly is meant by that? What does a video game tester actually do? That's a very good question, and if you don't know exactly what a game tester does, you may not want to start applying to become one. You always want to know what you're getting in to before you apply for a job, after all.

The Game Tester Job Description

Being a game tester means more than just playing video games all day. In fact, it's actually a good amount of work. To be a good game tester, you've got to be very detail-oriented. You've got to be able to take notes on everything in Read more »

There are many different video game companies out there that need game testers. If you're interested in a career as a video game tester, it's a good idea to start with these companies. One of them is EA Games. EA Games is one of the largest game companies in the US and is perhaps the top sports game company. While EA Games does need a good number of testers, these positions are highly competitive. So what does it take to get a job with EA Games as a video game tester?

EA Games was founded in 1982. EA, or Electric Arts, originally created computer games, but by the late 80s, they had moved on to creating games for consoles. What began as one small game company has today spread into a number of labels. Read more »

Are you looking to enter into the world of video game testing? If so, then you want to look for companies that are actively looking for testers. However, often these companies don't exactly advertise for video game testers — they have a group of testers on hand already. Breaking into the industry can be difficult, but once you're in, you will find that it's fairly easy to get video game testing work from other companies. But how do you break in to this highly competitive industry?

Finding video game companies that are looking for testers Read more »

Figuring out what qualifications you need to be a video game tester can be somewhat difficult. Often, video game companies don't actually post job openings for testers, so it can be hard to find a list of qualification or skills that they're looking for. However, all video game testing jobs have some qualifications in common. If you're looking to become a game tester, here are some skills and experiences you need to have on your resume.

The first qualification that is a must-have is, of course, a desire to play video games. If you don't like gaming or are only a casual gamer, you may not really enjoy being a game tester. If you are Read more »

One of the key things in any industry is to establish contacts. These industry contacts can keep you informed of shake-ups and new developments, tip you off to new job openings, and generally help you get ahead in your chosen industry. This is especially true in the video game tester world. In this industry, who you know is often the key to finding out about new game testing opportunities and beating out other game testers for jobs.

You may think that the most important people you need to know are the game programmers and developers. Knowing them can be very important in hearing about new games that are in development. If one of your programmer contacts can tell you Read more »

Becoming a video game tester is easier said than done. There are many people out there who would love to do the same job. If you know a specific company you want to test games for, you may have a slight advantage over the competition. This is because you can specifically target the various ways that company hires game testers. One company you may want to test games for is Konami.

Being a Konami game tester puts you right in the middle of many action games. Konami has been around in Japan since 1969, although they were actually Read more »

Working as a video game tester requires a number of different skills, and you may be surprised to learn that game programming and graphic design are not among those skills. Since you won't actually be programming the games, you really don't need to know anything about how video games are made. Instead, it's your job to pay close attention to the final product and report back on how playable the game is.

The first important skill, then, is attention to detail. You have to be able to view the game in several ways at once: you've got to be very attentive to what's happening in the level or area you're Read more »

There are many different qualifications for being a video game tester, and by showing how you meet these various qualifications on your resume or application, you'll be able to beat out the many other potential game testers for jobs. Here are some of the main qualifications and ways you can meet them.

The first major qualification for being a game tester is being able to write well. Programmers will most often rely on your written reports to discover what is wrong with their games. If you can't present them with a well-written, detailed report, they won't be able to reproduce the exact circumstances that led to the bug you discovered, and if they can't do that, they may not Read more »

You might think that there are no disadvantages to being a video game tester. It's the dream job for those who love video games, isn't it? Well, yes and no. There are some disadvantages to working as a video game tester, and some of them may be things you never considered.

Play to work – serious stuff

First, you have to play video games all the time. While this may sound great, it is possible to become burnt out on them. There's a reason why we have the mentality of work verses play - work is "supposed" to be serious stuff that involves doing something that is not always exciting or fun. However, when your fun hobby, video game Read more »

There are many different companies that hire video game testers. No matter which company you work for, you'll get to do what you've always wanted to do: play video games for a living! Depending on which company you work for, your duties may vary a bit, but mostly, you'll find yourself taking notes while playing various video games. Here are some ideas about joining the top video game tester companies.

Before you can look into actual companies, though, you need to decide which part of the video game testing industry you want to get into. You can work directly for a video game company, work for a testing company, work for a magazine that reviews games, or work for a website that focuses Read more »

When working for a video game company as a game tester, it's very important that you avoid making some of the common errors.

If you make too many of these errors, in fact, the game company may decide you are not the best tester and will let you go. However, while the game company may tell you what they want in your reviews, they may not give you any examples of what NOT to do. Here are some of the most common errors video game testers make and how you can avoid them.

» Error #1: being too vague. Read more »

PC Gamer is one of the most well-known and authoritative voice in the gaming world. The magazine was founded in Britain in 1993 by Future Publishing. While the UK version is the original, the magazine soon realized it could expand its readership by creating a US version of the magazine.

Both editions became one of the, if not the, top selling PC games magazines. A typical edition of PC Gamer will feature reviews, previews of new games, what's going on in the video game industry, and much more. A related website has also been launched that expands on the reviews and Read more »

Being a game tester sounds easy enough. After all, all you really need to do is know how to play video games, right? Well, not exactly. Video game tester training requirements vary from company to company, but there are some things they all agree on. Get these basics down, and you'll have a great chance of landing a job as a game tester.

Know your genre

First and foremost, you must know your video games. You need to know the different genres, the main series in each genre, and have an idea of what's going on in the video game industry. This doesn't mean Read more »