A Game Tester And His Day

I am a game tester. To most of you, that would mean I am virtually unemployed. Indeed, in a way I am. I am my own boss. I don't work for anyone in particular. I relish my so called work. I am playing games all the time on my personal computer and my other consoles, and I am earning my living out of it. And good living that too. How many office going people have you met who own an Xbox, both the PlayStations and also a GameCube? And that's only in addition to my projection TV and all those various electronic gizmos I have lying around my pad. But let me complete this article fast. I have to board a flying for my Azores holiday in an hour.

So, what were we saying? Yes, about my unemployment. But I was not always unemployed. I had a cool desk job in a debt consolidation company once, where I used to browse their Internet more than their client files. That's when I found out about being a game tester. Guys sitting at home playing games and the checks falling in their mailbox all two weeks! That was the life I wanted. That was the last month I worked there. Next month, I became unemployed. I became a game tester.

My morning begins with a slothful walk around the house mercifully, I live alone yet. Then, still in my boxers, I park myself on one of my consoles. There are some envelopes on my desk which have come in the mail through the week. I extract the contents of one and see the title of the game I have to test. I insert their CD and idly check it out. All the time, I am joyful. Happy because this is the title I had learn about in the Games Weekly and I understand how eagerly the globe is awaiting its release. I have an unreleased title in my console. I begin playing, and play like anyone would. I mean, I don't do anything special considering I am testing the game. The only thing I have to do is be myself and observe the game as I play.

Then when I am through with the first level of the game, I put in my reviews of it. Easy job, I just have to say what I felt. I have almost written 'your game stinks' for some of them, and got paid for it too. And this is what I do till afternoon, when the hunger pangs strike and I have to get something to eat.

In the evenings, when I meet my friends at the pub, I cannot but resist telling them how I actually played the game they are awaiting so much. As they roll their eyes at me, I order cocktails for all of them.

Being a game tester has changed my life completely. I have more funds than I could have imagined with my desk job (even after six years of promotions) and I have less work than anyone around me. The world does think I am a kind of a freak, but they won't tell me that; I am a rich freak after all.