tomomi1922 Posted June 23, 2018 Share Posted June 23, 2018 Friend of mine is posting on job sites for some entry level game testers and such for her small game development company. I read the requirements and commented that these don't mean a lot.Instead, I suggested a more realistic requirement: Either all those standard requirements, or ... 2 years of modding Skyrim. Show us your mod setup, how to use SSEEdit, CK to fix things, merge esp, create bash patch, diagnose CTD, ... you are way over qualified as a game tester. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted3897072User Posted June 23, 2018 Share Posted June 23, 2018 There are two kinds of software testing - black box and white box. You need both. Black box testers are required to have zero knowledge of how the software works internally, and to operate as naive users to find cases where the software doesn't do what it says on the tin. In gaming terms, they are playtesters. White box testers need software expertise because their job is to take it apart and look for places where the coding is bad and doesn't meet the specs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niborino9409 Posted June 23, 2018 Share Posted June 23, 2018 I'm quite sure game testing needs more than being able to mod Skyrim. All games work differently and Skyrim isn't the only way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomomi1922 Posted June 23, 2018 Author Share Posted June 23, 2018 (edited) I'm quite sure game testing needs more than being able to mod Skyrim. All games work differently and Skyrim isn't the only way.Beside the sarcasm in the post, if you were ever a game tester you would know, it is impossible to know a company's system before working for the company. Even if you are very good in Unreal or Unity, you are going to have to learn it all over with other game engines, wherever you go. Same goes for all software development companies. But the thing here is not the knowledge of Skyrim, but the ability to learn. I have been using NMM for some good 5 years (I think). I never knew MO2, then I decided to switch and learned to use MO2 in 2 days. Or a more practical example: I have been using Canon cameras for years. You give me a Nikon camera, I do not need to sign up for a Photography beginner's class. Just tell me where to adjust aperture, shutter, and ISO, and I can shoot again in 10 minutes. If you are capable of understanding Skyrim system, it wouldn't take long for you to pick up other systems. If you move to Unreal engine, do I need to explain to you again what mesh and texture are, and how they work? What is a normal map? It's not the opposite of extraordinary map is it? Edited June 23, 2018 by tomomi1922 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niborino9409 Posted June 23, 2018 Share Posted June 23, 2018 In that case it might be me that's dense hehe :happy: But I think I need to agree, modded MGS V the Phantom Pain and that still uses textures and such like Skyrim. So that's completely valid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jones177 Posted June 25, 2018 Share Posted June 25, 2018 Hi The type of experience you are talking about is good for hiring a content creator, not a tester. Content creators interface with editors. Any feedback the company needs about the editors, they can get from their in-house content creators. CTDs are a symptom of bad management. Basically allowing content to go over spec. They are the realm of OldMansBeard's white box testers. Later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evangela Posted June 25, 2018 Share Posted June 25, 2018 (edited) If a professional gaming site is seriously looking for testers(or trying to build a QA team), it'd be some kind of a joke if all you can put on your resume is '2 years of modding Skyrim'. I don't think I'd be turning heads if I told someone at EA, "hey man I got 5,289 hours in BGS's Creation Kit, I can test stuff for ya!". I might know what I'm doing in their new modern up to date editors(BGS uses old tech dating back from Morrowind), but that alone wont get me through the door. Edited June 25, 2018 by Rasikko Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomomi1922 Posted July 5, 2018 Author Share Posted July 5, 2018 If a professional gaming site is seriously looking for testers(or trying to build a QA team), it'd be some kind of a joke if all you can put on your resume is '2 years of modding Skyrim'. I don't think I'd be turning heads if I told someone at EA, "hey man I got 5,289 hours in BGS's Creation Kit, I can test stuff for ya!". I might know what I'm doing in their new modern up to date editors(BGS uses old tech dating back from Morrowind), but that alone wont get me through the door.You need to take this with a grain of sarcasm. But at the same time, considering how much we all learned about game architecture before and after modding games. The closets I ever got to game design was my 2D scroller space invader like game I made in school, almost literately from scratch. Then I got into Sims 2, Sims 3, Dragon Age, and Skyrim, and FO4. It generally requires so much technical knowledge of the game to even maintain a smooth gameplay. Comparing myself now to my old self who never modded games, I would be much more capable at testing games. It is not to say that Skyrim is anything like any other game engine. Even Skyrim and FO4 carry certain differences. However, traditionally, game testers are not even supposed to fix problems. They are given certain scenarios and instructed to exhaust many possibilities and document the experience. "Finish this quest in all possible ways you can, find out any scenario you get stuck, or even scenario you get an intended outcome". That was what I went through in my early days working as intern for some local game companies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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