How to become a game tester and reviewer?

[Brandon]

I'm a huge gamer and it would be a dream to test and write reviews but not as a career, more as a hobby,(unless a 16 year old can legally have a job writing reviews.) My question, ( and or questions,) 1st) Do I need to have an official college education to write reviews? 2nd) Is there an age requirement? 3rd) How do you even get started with something like this? All advice appreciated! In case you're thinking negative of my age here, yes, I can write, that won't be a problem. It's just one of those things that comes natural, ya know? Never made below a 90 on an English essay! Two things I love to do, write and game. What's better than doing both? Thanks all!

[Jonathen]

This area is highly sought after and very competitive when companies choose who to decide who will be their testers.

I myself wanted this and even signed up at age 16. Due to legal limits, a company wont employ you to be a game tester and reviewer until you are at least 18 on top of the fact that they will check your background to see if you are credible enough to be involved. Its a more tedious and nerve-racking process to get accepted than you think. Do some research from major developer sites as many have a section for game testers, i.e. Sony, Microsoft, Bethesda, Valve and so on...

I have yet to get accepted, so in the past 2 years, I have been working on reputation to get me by. If you make a name for yourself by providing reviews to the public, your chances for being chosen to test a game for a company is greatly increased. Examples of such people are: Tobuscus, the Game Grumps, theangryjoeshow, and others....

~Torrent King

[Afdsf]

1.) I am sure a college education would help, but since you only want this as a hobby do you really want to spend so much money for it?

2.) Most companies wont hire you untill you are 18 but you will want experience if you want to get a job there, other wise no

3.) Honestly you could start a youtube channel and do a commentary about the game over you playing the game, there arn't many good reviewers who show the game and what you think about it

hope this helps

[Kobe]

Speaking from experience as a game tester, and as someone who knows several people that write reviews for major gaming sites, here's what I can tell you.

Game Testing:
You need to be at least 18 years old. Most console game testing positions don't require much education or skills. All you really need to be able to do is find bugs and write bug reports. Knowing some programming will probably help you get noticed, thus hired more quickly. So once you're 18, apply at for a QA position with any of the major publishers. They are usually always looking for people, especially during the spring/summer when most game development is ramped up to reach the holidays goal.

Game Reviewer:
Start a blog and start writing reviews. Post them on Facebook, twitter, anywhere that will get them noticed. Submit them to n4g.com. Of course you won't get paid for these reviews, but nobody starts off getting paid. You need to put in your time basically. After having a healthy amount of reviews under your belt, start emailing gaming sites about writing reviews for them. You probably will have to do that for free as well. After a while, you'll make a name for yourself, and then you can actually start making some money. After gaining experience, check out major gaming sites and find out whether they are hiring reviewers. I think this is a tougher part of the industry to break into since there is a lot of competition out there willing to do it for free.

Good Luck!

[john]

I search the web and this is supposed to have all the answers

http://e56487xdx-ygrl6chkgqr7x39g.hop.clickbank.net/