Becoming a Beta Tester

Hello, my name is Jezzah, it's obviously not my real name but whateves. What I'm trying to do is become a beta tester but right now I have no way of doing it as I am homeless, I just wanted to hear the stories of other beta testers out there and what the job has in store.

Do companies still pay for things like that? I know they have internal QA people to find bugs and such but as far as just beta tests they outsource that to the general player populace for free bug finding and feedback. Also a practice that is becoming ever more prevalent is people BUYING their way into a game's Alpha to test it out. Way back when the company would pay you but now you pay them, the times are changing.

Actually, I know a guy in Trinidad that gets paid to beta test. I'm just seeing who else does it. I know it's a lagit career path still.

Like I said you must be thinking of QA. The term "beta tester" is pretty outdated since the creation of open beta's. There are plenty of articles from people detailing the troubles of QA, just have to google it.

It really depends on what avenue of games you would like to go down, and what company you'd like to test for. For instance, if you worked for Sony you would ultimately be subject to test any game they ask you to, this includes Thomas the Train, Barbie Fashion Fun, Sesame Street etc. You'd be testing wherever they have the testing at and you'd find yourself there a while. I never did so myself but, I have a friend who has. Have you gone to any place that assists with employment or getting a place to stay? I don't know if Sony has a location near you, but I'll post their job listings so you can get an idea of the video game job market. I hope your situation gets better, I think finding a job will help you a lot. https://playstation.taleo.net/careersection/sceaexternal1/jobsearch.ftl?lang=en

It really isn't a career path, the pay is sad and you get seriously overworked, it's not the way you imagine it. you need communication skills and programming/design knowledge to pass forward to the developers. Don't want to be rude but try to find a real job, unless you want to do this as a hobby, in which case just join an indie company.