beta testers?

[.josh]

I just got accepted to a closed beta testing of another up and coming mmo -  http://www.carpediemgame.com/

it's got some interesting concepts in it, so hopefully that will be a cool experience.  I'm a game test whore ;D I slut myself out for game testing everywhere; you name the game and chances are, I've alpha or beta tested it.

Anybody out there alpha/beta tested some games? if so, what? doing anything right now?

[ober]

I've tested a few patches for things, but never the entire game.  How do you get contacted for stuff like that?

[.josh]

basically i just google "mmo beta testing" or some such similar phrase, or go to sites like www.onrpg.com that keeps lists of upcoming games, etc.. and then go the websites of the games.  They usually have a signup form and they ask you for things like your computer specs and stuff, and then from there it's more or less random luck of the draw, i suppose. 

It also doesn't hurt to sign up on their community forum if they have one, and make a few posts pretending you actually think the game is going to be the end-all-be-all of games (cuz flattery gets you everywhere).

Nothin' really mysterioso about it.

[ober]

I wonder if I can do the same for FPS games.  *evil grin*

[.josh]

idk.. i've never really looked into it.  I know that mmo's are heavy into broadcasting for beta testers, because of their nature.  They need to test server stress loads and stuff.  I think you'd be hard pressed to find a paid mmo beta tester out there, other than the programmers themselves...

I know several people who have gotten paid to be beta testers for more single player games (I count playing games with your buddies over a network, like halo for instance, single player, compared to mmo games).  It has been my general understanding that the "single player games" usually offer paid beta testing, but you also have to kind of be in the neighborhood of the company and actually go to their facility.  And companies will either hire beta testers themselves, or contract another company to beta test their product, which that company supplies the testers.  I haven't really looked a whole lot into that aspect though, because I live in the middle of nowhere, so it's not like i'd have a chance of making any kind of living off it. 

One of my friends did it for a living in Cali for a while.  He said that despite the initial warm fuzzy feelings he felt for getting paid to play games, after a while it became monotonous and boring, and he eventually quit because of that.