Do you want to be a video game tester? Gaming Jobs Online says you can earn good money by playing video games from your own home. This might even seem like a dream job to many, but beware they make some very outrageous promises.
They indicate that their average member makes $39,000 per year. The earnings, in this case, seem quite reasonable. And for doing something you enjoy, it sounds good. However, they make it seem too easy, which makes me think there must be a catch. Let’s see if I’m right and what’s really involved if you become a video game tester.
Product: Gaming Jobs Online
Overall Ranking: 0 out of 100 or 0/5 stars
Price: $1 for a 7-day trial, then $27 per month
Owner: Glen Anderson??
Website: http://www.gamingjobsonline.com/
What is Gaming Jobs Online?
This is a company that has been online since 2008 and apparently has a database of companies looking for:
- video game testers
- people to take surveys
Yeah, it’s a bit of a surprise when you see the title of the company, but they also promote surveys as being a way to make money.
Who is this for?
This will ideally be for people who enjoy video games, nevertheless, testing video games is in no way comparable to playing video games. Therefore, you shouldn’t join a company as a video game tester and imagine you will pass your day playing games.
This is work, you will need good writing skills to communicate any problems you may find and you will probably spend hours going over the same scene dozens of times.
What you get
They provide you with a database of companies that are supposedly looking for game testers. The thing with databases like this is that they are rarely kept up to date, as in this case, and it’s possible to find better, more recent opportunities if you do your own research. In addition, do the work yourself and it’s free!
A strange thing, when I came to this site, I thought it was to test video games, but they try to entice you to join other pretty useless money-making schemes, such as online surveys and they give you some quite outrageous earnings figures. I mean when have you been given a chance to complete a survey for $5, let alone $75!
I wonder if Gaming Jobs Online are really interested in helping people find work or just eager to earn affiliate commissions from people who sign up with the survey sites via their links.
They even state in the small print at the bottom of their sales page, “that the typical purchaser doesn’t make money using their system“. While I appreciate their honesty in saying this, why do they say elsewhere “you can easily make an average of $39,000 per year” as a video game tester.
Shame they don’t make the honest earnings statement a little more prominent. This would save many people time and money.
How it works
As with all these programs that promise a lot, they make it seem too easy. This is really misleading, as testing games doesn’t work like this.
They tell you that you only have to complete the 3 steps above to start earning money. The only step that is easy, is creating your account and that is something I would not advise. Remember, you will be paying for information you can find free online.
After signing up, you take a look at their job database where you may be lucky to find one or two current jobs, other jobs that no longer exist and links that don’t work. If you are lucky enough to get a real job, you will soon understand being a video game tester is not a question of playing and getting paid. There is much more involved as you can see below.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Jobs as video game testers do exist
Cons
- Make it look easy to get a job
- Misleading description of what’s involved
- Hype – unrealistic earnings
- Provide information you can find free online
- You have to give your credit card details when you take the 7-day trial, which means they will start debiting the $27 if you don’t cancel
- Payments by PayPal not accepted
- Complaints about refunds from the affiliate network that handles sales
- Offer other worthless online work
- They state most people won’t make money with their system
Red Flags
As with many other online scams they have some of the common warning signs.
- The false “as seen on” trademarks, just to give you more confidence in the product.
- Recommendation from a gaming magazine, Shoot Em’ Up, however, the only reference I can find for this magazine is on the Gaming Jobs Online site.
- The calculator to get an estimate of how much you will earn
- False partnerships with the leading video game manufacturers
- If you click to leave, you are offered a couple of bonuses (400 Microsoft points + $60 in cash from their partners) but you have 2 minutes to take up the offer – pressure tactics
Support
Gaming Jobs Online doesn’t seem to offer much in the way of support. They have a FAQ with all of 6 questions and what is meant to be live support. The live support turns out to be email support.
How much does this cost?
The program offers a 7 day trial for $1 and then $27 per month. Although the $1 trial sounds good, you have to give your credit card details.
The affiliate network they deal through, ClickBetter, are the subject of many complaints on bbb.org mainly from people having trouble getting refunds. Another reason not to trust this program.
What’s really involved being a video game tester
Not having any experience with this sort of work I was interested to find out what was really involved in a job as video game quality assurance tester.
Where will you work and what is involved
Most jobs are in house, which means you won’t be working from the comfort of your own home. As a game tester, you should take your job seriously and be ready to meet high standards.
In fact, a lot of the work will resemble office work, attending meetings, writing reports and sending emails. Good communication skills are essential because every day you will be telling programmers and designers that something is broken. If they don’t understand what the problem is, you will be wasting everyone’s time.
Having said that a large part of your time, will, of course, be spent testing games.
Testing the video games
When you do get to play video games, you won’t be playing the same way as if you were playing for enjoyment. You will be looking to see what doesn’t work, what errors there are in the programming. This may involve going over the same scene over, over and over again. If it’s a car race you will drive into the walls, the other cars, go in the wrong direction, in short, do anything that’s not expected normally. Or if there’s a combat scene you will have to test every fighter against all the other fighters in every configuration possible and try doing silly things you wouldn’t expect someone to do. You will probably have to test games you hate as well, spending hours looking for errors.
So just because you are good at playing video games doesn’t mean you will be a good tester and you can see that this job may not be as enjoyable as you first thought.
Finding a job
Most work seems to be contract work, with the jobs lasting up to 6 months, after that if you have performed well you may be given a permanent post. Most employers are looking for experienced testers, this makes it quite hard to find your first job.
How much will you be paid
The average pay is from $14- $18 per hour for people with some experience, you may be required to work overtime and weekends when necessary. If you’re new to this business, you should be prepared to earn less.
Where to find jobs
This is where Gaming Jobs Online is charging you for information that you can find free online. I searched in Google and found several companies that have a few opportunities listed and you could easily find more.
- http://www.indeed.com
- http://jobs.monster.com
- https://www.upwork.com – some freelance jobs
- Go directly to the manufacturers’ sites and see if they are searching for game testers
- LinkedIn – may be the best place to start your search
My conclusion
If you are interested in becoming a video game tester don’t join Gaming Jobs Online. They will take your money and you will receive very little in return and judging from the complaints online you might have trouble getting a refund.
For someone just starting as a quality control tester for video games, it might be difficult to find a job, unless you know someone who works for one of the video game developers. Although, there are a few temporary opportunities, which is a good way of getting experience.
This company doesn’t care about its members, like so many others, they are just out to get your money and they even admit most people don’t earn anything from their program.
Verdict: Scam
An alternative
If you really enjoy video games and would like to earn money from your passion, it’s possible. Not by becoming a tester, but by setting up your own business and earning money from a website you create.
Although your site would be about video games you would need to narrow it down to something more specific. For example: action games, MMORPGs, car racing games or games for specific systems Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Xbox One, etc.
To make money you would include affiliate links, when people click on your link and go on to make a purchase you will earn a commission. To be successful you will have to work hard and it will take time, but building a website around your passion, sharing your experience and knowledge is a nice way to earn some money. In addition, you can work from home and you work when you have the time.
It may sound a little daunting when suggested like that, but it’s not that hard. To create this site, I found a training platform that explained everything with step by step training. Very easy and enjoyable to follow, even setting up the website was easy. If you think this might be for you, they have a free 7-day trial, you don’t even have to give your credit card details to sign up.
If you have any experience testing video games, have any questions or comments, please let me know below.
Thanks,
Peter
Hi Peter,
Great review of Gaming Jobs Online. I know this is an interesting topic and when you hear of people making money testing video games, it does sound like a lot of fun.
But you paint a realistic picture about what this job is really like. And I like your alternative for those that want to make money online. Niche websites that cater to a niche audience is a great way to create your own online business.
I know a guy who worked with your top recommended program that was making over $4,200/mo after working on his site for 11 months. Maybe that doesn’t seem like a lot to most people, but as a 21 year old that pretty good. Plus his business will just continue to grow as he continues to build it.
I think most 20 year old’s would be pretty excited about creating this kind of business at such a young age. After 1 year in college, you wouldn’t make a dime but be in debt by 25K dollars.
Thanks for the review,
Todd
Hi Todd,
This is something that sounds like a fun way of making money online, but it is a job that is hard work and not just about having fun playing video games. Finding a job through this company will be difficult to say the least, you have a much better chance by doing your own research online.
For someone who enjoys video games building their own niche site is something that would be much more appealing and it could be more lucrative. Having your own site would also be much more enjoyable, you would work from home, review and recommend games based on your experience. Your example of someone earning more than $4000 per month just shows what is possible and as you say this will continue to grow.
I know I would have been excited if I could have created a business like this at 20 and it makes you wonder about the wisdom of getting into debt by going to college. Thanks for your insights.
All the best,
Peter
Hi there,Thanks for warning me about these scams I was also wondering about this before because it looks so nice. Play a game from home and make money. It probably goes as the saying if it is to go to be through it probably is. Do you know of any other scams out there? Thanks.
Hey Cees,
Yes, it sounds great, but as very often, these programs are very misleading. There is much more to being a game tester than you are told here. They promise: jobs that don’t exist, working from your own home, which is very rare and getting paid amounts which are much more than the average. And to cap it all you have to pay!
Anyone who is interested in work like this should do their own research and find the jobs available online for free. I know of plenty of other scams, they are very easy to find. What’s more of a challenge is to find legitimate programs, they are much rarer. I have been a member of an awesome internet marketing training program for a while now and I’m not changing.
All the best,
Peter
Hi Peter,
Thanks for this review of Gaming Jobs Online it looks like a program to avoid. Shame you can’t really earn money just playing video games, too good to be true I suppose.
Your site is looking great, how to avoid others scams, it is very useful job, you categorized all aspects of online business. But about the resources, you merge the resources with useful tools, I thought you will mention resource of information you got. Finaly I can say it is very good, go ahead and more success.
Hi Ali,
As you say this sounds too good to be true, there’s much more involved than you are led to believe with this program.
The resources page is to suggest useful tools to my visitors. If I obtained information for an article from another site, I would include that information at the bottom of the post. Thanks for your comment,
Peter
I am a gamer and i’ve been a gamer all my b life. I really want to be able to enter the gaming industry someday, hopefully as an animator, but not a part time testerr. It really is a stressful job that won’t fulfill your expectations. And many people think that they will be in a wonderland where they will be playing games and doing nothing else. Wrong. Gaming industry is a very complex industry where engineering meets art. But it’s a good thing for casual gamers if there’s an oppurtunity to earn online by playing games.
Hi Tyler,
I can see you understand that there is more to testing games than just playing. It is a job like any other and on most occasions you won’t be working from your own home. A lot of the work will be office tasks and when you are testing games you are likely to watch the same scene time after time. This program gives the wrong impression and there are no real jobs. As so often, another misleading site that charges you for information you can find yourself for free.
Good luck with your job in the gaming industry,
Peter