We start a long, lingering look at job positions and careers at video game companies like Bungie. Today, we start with Test, one of the toughest, yet most rewarding jobs in the business. It's not as easy at sounds, as you'll read here.
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Game testing can be quite interesting. I have done it, not as a job, but voluntarily for a much smaller game team. Someone mentioned earlier that it can get quite boring. This is true, due to the fact that you are not just playing the game to have fun: you are trying to do absolutely everything that can possibly be done in the game in order to find bugs or problems with the game. For instance, you might try dual-wielding a plasma rifle in the right hand and a pistol in the left on Beaver Creek, and then a pistol in the right hand and a plasma rifle in the left on Beaver Creek, and then an SMG in the right hand and a pistol in the left on Beaver Creek, etc. It can get quite boring because you have to try literally everything, including dying in bizarre places, dying in bizarre ways, trying to fly banshees off maps, and really anything you can think of and more to find problems with the game. However, it has its rewards too. Firstly, you get to playtest new stuff and see how it works, which can be cool. Plus, I made playtesting sound a bit boring, but a lot of it is fun. Since I never did it as a [i]paid[/i] job, I don't know about the wages, but I've heard they're not fantastic. However, you also get to meet the Bungie team (which should be cool) and get to play Halo 2 just about all day (which is even cooler). I would apply for the job but I'm underage, and I live in Canada so I'd have to go a looong way to get to Bungie Studios :)