I mentioned that I was a tester for THQ this summer, but I couldn’t tell what I was testing. Fortunately, the game I tested has been released. My name’s in the credits and it’s no longer a secret. I tested Avatar: The Burning Earth, mainly on Wii.

The best part about testing a kids game is that, no matter how tired I grew of the it, the game was still silly and fun. I tested in overtime for Conan and Stuntman: Ignition, both of which were somewhat traumatizing on a psychological level. Playing a game like Conan that rewards you for amputations and brutality can mess with your sense of normality. Stuntman: Ignition rewards you for crashing into things, which is not the best game to play until 10 at night before a long commute home. Avatar, on the other hand, encouraged me to use special powers to help save citizens from various cities.

While I was grateful to have been assigned to a game like Avatar, I didn’t think I would have much of a desire to play it once it was released. When I was given a copy for Christmas from a friend, I changed my mind. He wanted to play it with me and see what I had been doing all summer.

Avatar is designed as a co-op game but it can also be played alone. Even when I was testing, it was much more fun to play with someone else. After playing that game 40-70 hours a week, I established a pattern and would play it in a similar way. Adding in another person changes the experience so the game feels new again. They may do something differently than you due to their habits or simply to annoy you. Those variations made us better testers, as we’d discover things we never would have seen. After all, it’s a kids game so why not play like a kid once in a while?

It was a strange feeling to share the game I had worked on so intensely with someone else. I had spent countless hours picking out the flaws in the game, so I was well aware of its strengths and weaknesses. It was hard to resist saying all my favorite lines along with the game. I was surprised to find that I felt a sense of pride. This was the first published title that I had worked on and my first credit. I was officially a member of the game industry due to a half-decent children’s game.

Quality assurance testing is one of the most unique work experiences I’ve had. It gave me a community of gamers who shared inside jokes from a game we couldn't speak about at home. It allowed me to play games in a different way and gain a better understanding of the production process. I don’t plan on returning to QA, but it was a valuable experience and I’m glad to have been a part of Avatar.  

I spent the past summer testing games. I met a lot of interesting people there, including one guy who happily pointed out to me that I look constipated while concentrating on a game. Apparently I don’t look weird the whole time I play; it’s just when I have to think really hard.

This reminds me of a Kotaku post about Milla Jovovich. Blogger Brian Ashcraft wonders if even models can’t look good when they’re genuinely concentrating on a game.

Now, I have seen my fair share of funny faces in my time. Some people look incredibly sad when playing games and others look possessed. So is it games or just concentration in general?

I’d like to think that people look strange when they’re concentrating on other things. I have witnessed many band students scrunching up their faces to stare at tiny notes on a page, but these unattractive faces usually last for just a passing moment. Even other immersive forms of entertainment, such as books, film, and television, tend to give people a more serene expression. Facial reactions to these mediums are often very brief (such as a grimace at a gory sight). Games seem to be unique in their ability to get people to make faces.

What is it about games that changes faces? Games can be incredibly immersive and require more thought than more passive forms of entertainment, such as books and movies. The also allow players to remove themselves from their physical body, since, in the game, their identity is usually embodied in some form of avatar. Whether it’s a custom character or a well-known hero, games are interactive experiences designed to make players feel as if they are making choices. In essence, players become the character and are much more concerned with how their character looks while playing the game.

When players separate themselves from their physical form and become more concerned with the digital avatar on the screen, it seems that they lose a sense of themselves. While people in the surrounding environment would often make people self-conscious, many people play games alone. When people are not alone, they tend to become very immersed in games, as they are often very engaging and require most of a player’s attention. Even if someone is home alone, they may be so immersed in the game that they forget to be conscious of their appearance.

While people may continue to tease each other about the faces they make when gaming, I don’t see it as a real problem. It’s amusing to watch children in restaurants with DSs, as you can read their faces and get and idea of their experiences. I think this face-making issue will really only get worse in the future, as virtual reality will likely develop and take us completely out of our bodies. The only real reason to be concerned is if you choose to play games with a webcam, but why would anyone want to do that? It seems that it is more fun to escape into another world, because forgetting yourself for a while is half the fun.  

Summer is coming to an end. For me, this meant leaving the regular workforce and returning to school. I have never had a summer job like testing games and it is surely an experience that I will never forget.

“Was QA what you expected?” A coworker asked me this during my last week. I was speechless. After all, what did I expect? I vaguely remember thinking that the testers sat on beanbag chairs with clipboards, staring intently at huge, glowing screens in a darkened room. This was not quite the reality, and the work environment certainly surprised me.

QA is typically a low-level, temporary job, so it attracts a wide variety of people. What I didn’t expect was finding so many smart people. It takes a certain kind of person to play games all day, and there were definitely a lot of passionate gamers. Questions like “Alliance or Horde?” are never out of place. People tended to have similar hobbies, like reading comics. News of free comics in the break room created a crowd that would rival that of a once-a-year designer bargain sale. I once had a conversation with a friend about how he used to hide his nerdiness from his friends, but when he became a tester, he suddenly felt like he was the least nerdy of us all.

I am certainly going to miss some things about my testing job. I had a lot of fun being one of the only girls. I would overhear guys talking about how their girlfriends did the most puzzling things or sharing dirty jokes. I was treated like one of the guys most of the time and it was a lot of fun. I kept thinking how ironic it is that I once wanted to be a journalist for womens’ magazines – I could’ve gathered great source material for an article about what men really think about when they’re not around their girlfriends.

The sense of camaraderie will probably be what I miss most. There’s an unmistakable bond that grows between people who spend nearly all day together (especially during overtime). By the end of my few months, I knew what my coworkers liked to eat and drink; I also knew many of their hobbies and most of their girlfriends’ names. It was fun to have inside jokes about our game and repeat the silliest lines at opportune moments. It’s weird to think that I left that entire world behind and I will never see most of those people again.

I’m really glad that I was able to spend a summer doing QA. It feels great to actually be a face behind a game – I ended the summer with my name in the credits of two games. I am proud to have been a part of my testing team and have a small piece in the production of a few games. I hope this is only one of many steps into my career in the video game industry.  

The DS has quickly become my favorite console these days, as it bears little resemblance to the larger systems (like the Wii) that I use at work. On the recommendation of a friend, I picked up Final Fantasy III (FFIII) in the hope that it would provide the same rewarding experiences as the RPGs I had played on larger screens. When Puzzle Quest wasn’t satisfying my need for a deep storyline, I finally decided to check out FFIII.

FFIII immediately reminded me of Chocobo Tales. The touch-screen controls and the character designs were very similar to that other game I enjoyed so much. However, the combat system and extensive menus were as advanced as any other Final Fantasy. I felt at home right away; the blue and white dialogue boxes and menus were a pleasantly familiar sight.

FFIII seemed fairly straightforward, but the winding dungeons and caverns soon drove me to the internet to search for a map. Since this was a DS game, I had thought that I wouldn’t need a strategy guide (unlike every other RPG I had played thus far). My friend had warned me that the game could be difficult, so I was definitely afraid of making a mistake. The random battles occur very often, and being lost for just a few moments can mean the difference between life and death.

I doubt that I will purchase a strategy guide for this game, but it has definitely changed the way that I play it. I tried really hard to take the turns that would lead me to treasure chests, but sometimes I would accidentally advance the game and lose access to those items forever. Strategy guides have so often served as my mentors in those games, allowing me to progress efficiently and remain one step ahead of the enemy. In some ways, it was almost a form of companionship.

In my job, there are no strategy guides. You play the game so many times that you probably learn it better than the author of the guide. However, on a first play-through of the game you may miss some things. Just like the platform I missed week after week, certain secrets may remain hidden from even the most competent testers. When I have played new games, especially on overtime shifts, I have found my fellow testers to be incredible resources. If I get stuck in a certain area for more than five minutes, I’m not afraid to ask for help.

Despite my lack of a strategy guide, I have been having fun with FFIII. It seems to be a strong game with nice graphics and a cohesive storyline. It would be nice if the game were a little more forgiving to those of us who have never played it before, but I can always find help online if I get stuck.  

I’ve heard horror stories about the crazy hours of the entertainment industry. Whether it’s for a film or for a video game, many people sacrifice their free time for the jobs they love. I understand the cost of following my passion by joinging the game industry, but I had never been tested as I was recently on my QA job.

My QA team was told that we would be working overtime on evenings and weekends. This meant working 9-6 on my normal game and 7-10 on a different game during the week. Then we would also work on the weekends from 9-6. This was not optional. We had to work overtime until further notice.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to work on the same game all day during those long weeks. I could work on a different game in the evenings and sometimes on the weekends, helping to reduce the monotony. In the evenings, we worked right alongside those who were not as fortunate as us – those who worked on the same game over 70 hours a week. After a few weeks of overtime, you could see the signs that these people were going crazy without a break. One of my co-workers kept a tally of how many days he worked in a row. He worked 22 days straight before Human Resources told him he had to take a couple of days off.

I try to do my best in any job I do, and my QA job has been no exception. I put a lot of effort into my work and it wears me out. I worked 11 days in a row before I had to take a day off. While I knew that I could continue coming to work, I became physically sick from the lack of sleep. I was spending nearly two hours in the car each day for my commute, but I would often be too buzzed from staring at a screen all day to fall asleep as soon as I got home.

I have no problems putting in long hours. I am prepared for that reality when I enter the field full-time after college. Before working overtime in QA, I had never experienced first-hand what it’s like to come back to work on Monday and have completely worked through the weekend, confused becuase my work week had never ended. I am not afraid to experience that again, as I know that it is what people do in order to work in a career they love. If anything, my experience of overtime had given me a greater respect for the long hours that many people put in each and every day. After all, if I come home and can only complain about playing video games all day, my life really can’t be that bad.  

It was a lovely night in here in LA. I was about to go to bed, as I had to wake up early to get to my QA job the next day. I walked out to say goodnight to my roommates, who just happened to be having a lot of fun playing the incredibly popular Guitar Hero II.

"You want to play?" one of my roommates asked. I refused at first, but he persisted.

"Maybe just one song," I said.

I slung the small plastic guitar around my shoulders and instantly felt cooler. I selected a moderately easy song and began to play. I could probably count the number of times I’d played that game on one hand, but something about this night was different. I quickly got the hang of the controls and the song began to sound like it should. My roommates cheered me on. The percentage of notes I hit was consistently improving as one song turned into two, then three, then more. I finally pulled myself away and I went to bed, excited from newfound ability to 'play guitar'.

I had never been strongly attracted to Guitar Hero before. My sister had it and would play it in our house, so I had complete access to the game. I like rhythm games, but this one was pretty loud and hurt my fingers. However, that night made me realize that Guitar Hero can be addicting. You can have literally no knowledge of music and suddenly you can "play" a song. The game is structured so that you feel like you can play just as well as the real rock stars without actually doing all the work.

In a way, Guitar Hero feeds off your ego. Simply by having the word 'hero' in the title, it implies that you have done something great and possibly extraordinary. Within a few hours, you can develop the necessary skills to play harder and harder songs in the game, catapulting you to star status in an incredibly small amount of time.

I spent seven years of my life as a dedicated classical musician. I practiced one to two hours almost every day. Practicing is not at all glamorous. Music requires some of the most intense dedication of any career. With an instrument like the flute, taking just one day off can mean a huge difference in tone for the next one or two days. In some ways, Guitar Hero is almost a cheaters’ method of playing music; it feeds off nearly instant gratification and the satisfaction of playing beloved tunes. In real music, you can play songs you know and love, but it takes a lot of hard work to get there.

While I hesitate to say that I disapprove of Guitar Hero II, I find it hard to love a game that ignores the dedication it takes to become a great musician. I think this game can be a lot of fun, as long as people remember the difference between pressing buttons on a controller and genuinely playing music.  

Playing games all day and getting paid for it seems like a dream come true. Working in video game quality assurance, however, is a different matter. While my QA summer job means that I am testing games all day on the Wii, Xbox 360, or PS2, it is not the dream many would imagine. I play one game almost exclusively during my 40-hour week.

While I am not allowed to reveal details about the title I test, I can admit that it can be beaten almost twice in one day. I do enjoy this game, but continually beating it can take some of the fun out of it. Fortunately, I was placed on this title earlier in the testing process so I have been able to watch it improve. One of the most rewarding parts of my job is reporting a bug and seeing it get fixed. In a small way, I can have a direct impact on making the game better.

One of the strangest things about testing is how you can literally do the same thing every day. When I come home, I can list the same accomplishments (beating the game, collecting all the special items, etc.). What separates the days from each other are the experiences that are generated from gameplay, most prominent in multiplayer testing. Even if I find a seemingly fantastic bug one day, I find that nothing compares to the human element in multiplayer testing.

The addition of only one person can make all the difference. The other player can reveal a new play style, making me more aware of the ingrained habits that limit my ability to test the game for the many different types of players who will play the game. It took me over a month before I was shown a small area that I had never known existed. What was common to the other player was a new discovery to me in the game I thought I knew like the back of my own hand.

After being hired as a tester, I began to fear that this job would forever take the fun away from games for me. I once heard an experienced tester explaining how he had crashed nearly every commercial game he had ever played, including Guitar Hero. While my experience as a tester would only last three months, I still feared that I would become bitter toward games, which are inevitably flawed. Like humans, games are never perfect, and the constant pressure of budgets means that many games are released before they are fully ready.

Now that I have spent a few weeks as a tester, I am happy to find that I still love games. Unfortunately, my desire to play console games has diminished greatly, due to my desire to save the strain on my hands and avoid the monotony of doing something that might feel like my job. I get paid to play parts over and over even if they’re frustrating, and I have no desire to experience similar frustrations at home with other games without getting compensated. Fortunately, my DS still feels like an entirely different experience (as it is a portable console) and I have found that I am still excited to play it once in a while. I only hope that I will still feel that way after several more weeks of testing.