Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii? - Kotaku Comments

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

francoamerica — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:49:46 MST

I pass this building everyday on my way to school on the keihan line! But then too bad I have school!!!

francoamerica

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

nintendude — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:26:04 MST

Omg get paid to go to Japan and play video games!

nintendude

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

jynxycat — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:21:06 MST

@Phibius: There are so many more horrible titles one could be subject to testing. I'd LOVE to play 12 hours a day of Mario Kart, versus something stupid like Petz Xtreme or whatever.

jynxycat

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

jynxycat — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:17:54 MST

30 hours a week ? LOL.

QA Testing is nuts when nearing the finish date. I did something like 12 hour days, for about 3 months straight. I think I had 1 or 2 days off total, which were spent sleeping.

Granted, it wasn't for an amazing developer like Nintendo, but I can't imagine their standards are any less.

$8-9 an hour doesn't seem like much, but when you put in 150 hour paychecks, it adds up.

QA Testing is fun, in the fact that it's not really hard, so long as you're good at sysmetically figuring out bugs/glitches, and don't mind sitting on your ass all day. It's fairly stress free. There just isn't much room for advancement, as being a QA tester in the first place, probably means you don't have any other sort of degree.

jynxycat

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

UltimatePancakeSensation — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 12:11:10 MST

If I didn't have a great job for an awesome company right now, I would be doing this RIGHT NOW.

UltimatePancakeSensation

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

BloodStainedVendetta — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:40:50 MST

The pay is awful, but the job is quite an experience and it's a way to get your foot in the door, which is well worth putting up with the weak pay and hectic work schedule.

BloodStainedVendetta

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Prophane33 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:43:52 MST

@Lezard: That's exactly how it worked at EA too. Sometimes you can go 2-3 weeks without a day off. Working from 10-Midnight.

Prophane33

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Witzbold — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:36:58 MST

@Random J: Are you asking to be hammered? If not cut the shit out.

Witzbold

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

JP_Neptune — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:45:01 MST

I wonder if they'd let me in on their testing teams...I guess not, paying travel expenses from Portugal to Japan and also the need for an interpreter - since apparently, very few people from the Nintendo staff in Japan speak decent English - are probably a disadvantage.

JP_Neptune

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Vidunder — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:44:12 MST

$ 8,40 per hour? pff.
With travel AND lodging AND maybe some food, that can be interesting.

Vidunder

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Foxstar Sixtail — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:41:23 MST

@Random J: Drop that Gunpei Yokoi shit please.

Foxstar Sixtail

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Waka in Japan — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:38:22 MST

trael from okazaki?
from nagoya?
that would be nice :D

Waka in Japan

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Random J — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:28:33 MST

That travel expense and health insurance didn't do shit for Gunpei Yokoi.

Random J

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Phibius — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:20:30 MST

@bigman88zz:
Welcome in, sign here, you start monday XD

Phibius

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

bigman88zz — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:10:23 MST

@Phibius: sound like fun! i have a fetish for self punishment :D

bigman88zz

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Phibius — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 05:31:15 MST

are you sure you'd like to play this game 8 hours i a row? the same track, same characters, licking the walls to check the collisions and such?
Really people, I'm a tester, and I'd like to say, don't forget that it is STILL a job, it's a cool one, but it's still a job. Even the greatest developpers make the worst games to test. in this case, you'd probably get tired after one week. Difference with when your at home, is that you can't stop whenever you want. :(

Phibius

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Soldrak — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 05:16:00 MST

Lol, bathroom tile buildings, very typical of Asia =P

Soldrak

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Irenicus-the one and only — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 05:12:04 MST

@fragdurarsh: t... r... o...l...l, sing after me, T.R.O.L.L, T.R.O.L.L, T.R.O.L.L, you sir are a "troll" :P

Irenicus-the one and only

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

fragdurarsh — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 05:09:19 MST

10 to 5? Couldnt pay me to play the wii that long

fragdurarsh

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Irenicus-the one and only — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 04:46:23 MST

These are times I wish I lived in Japan. I would sooo want this job.

Irenicus-the one and only

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

karasu47 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 04:21:19 MST

Ah, thank you feitclub.

karasu47

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

feitclub — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:57:05 MST

@karasu47: "Arbeit" (a-baito in the local syllabary) is the Japanese word for "part-time job." They borrowed it from German.

feitclub

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

karasu47 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:46:00 MST

Does "arbeit" mean anything in Japanese? It's the German word for work.

karasu47

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

juliopalio — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:45:05 MST

@Darkest Daze: I think a pokemon snap 2 would pretty cool.

juliopalio

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Darkest Daze — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:11:55 MST

My luck, I'll be testing "Pokemon Snap 2" or "Donkey Kong Does His Taxes".

Darkest Daze

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

mentally_unstable — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:02:30 MST

the building... is oddly reminiscent of brick castles prominent in super mario... except gray.

like a hellish orwellian-esque prison of torture... that paradoxically vomits from it's bowels colorful adventures like super mario galaxy....

or perhaps this building is just for the test monkeys?

mentally_unstable

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

new_pornographer — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:52:03 MST

I used to work at a QA company that mainly tested DVDs from big clients like Universal, Buena Vista etc, testing the audio/visual quality and dvd menus of titles across different players. Once on the night shift I was asked to go over to the games testing department. I thought I was in for a treat, boy was I wrong.

The game was Crazy Frog Racing on the PS2, and it was the worst 7 hour shift of my life. The company thought it was shippable which was a joke, as the characters flew off the track for no reason, and the game crashed when selecting certain characters, and played only the first track without crashing. I was being paid £8 an hour ( something like $16 ) but still, it was hell. I was so glad to be testing Barbie DVDS the next day, no joke.

new_pornographer

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Akanubon — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:50:20 MST

I got excited until I read "for Japan residents".

That'd work perfectly with the job I have right now at Albertsons. But it'd probably kill my love for video games. I've heard play-testing is just horrible. This for example will probably consist of playing one game for 6 hours a day, (excluding the lunch break) 5 days a week for 2 weeks. Ugh.

Akanubon

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

DocMave — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:48:06 MST

If you manage to sneak in a recording device, you can easily double your money by selling gameplay footage! Or find a gamebreaking glitch but don't report it and thus begin your unstoppable rise to the top of the leaderboards when it releases...

DocMave

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

kefkakrazy — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:45:44 MST

Being a Nintendo beta tester would be an awesome job, until one got sick of videogames entirely. Still, not fun enough to move to Japan, and I highly doubt that it would be a steady enough line of work to go into permanently.

Still, BETA TEST MARIO KART!

kefkakrazy

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

DoucheMcBag — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:37:17 MST

Worst job evar.

DoucheMcBag

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

dowingba — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:25:10 MST

I'm reminded of that episode of Pure Pwnage where it shows a flashback of the_ownerer at a playtesting job and he's playing some horse grooming/riding game or something and he just starts screaming uncontrollably. And none of the other playtesters in the room even notice.

dowingba

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Jesse in Japan — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:17:54 MST

@Iceman B.: I would assume so, because they're pretty strict about illegal aliens here.

Jesse in Japan

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

LunchViking — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:08:57 MST

I live in Kyoto. On the subway line that connects to the Nintendo HQ (though not directly, of course) to boot. I thought about giving up everything I'm currently involved in and pursuing this idea for about 2.9seconds... then realized no... no... no. Something else for Nintendo but not this. No.

LunchViking

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Krellie — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:05:01 MST

Lol, just crossed my mind. Would be hilarious if a few people went abroad _just_ to be able to playtest new Kart. And when they get there they find out its a new WiiFit title..or worse.

Krellie

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Krellie — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:01:53 MST

@Kinketsu: Its not impossible thou. Im paying around 45k / month in rent, and I try to put the limit for food expenses at 1500¥ / day.
(Ive got a bike so my transportation costs are close to zero.)

It would be rather tough thou, especially if your used to live "large", and party alot.

I would never in my life want to be a tester. Those jobs are fun for 2 weeks, maximum. Might go there to catch a glimps of THE GAME, thou :o

Krellie

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

gamadaya — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:57:46 MST

@Lezard:
Haha, actaully, that's not that different than what I do now. I know what play testing is, and it's a lot like competitive time trials. Fact is, I've spend 10 hours on the same course in MKDS, just to get into the top 200.

gamadaya

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

negnin — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:34:53 MST

I love the picture of Mario as sarariman at the Nintendo arbeit page :) Will this be a new power-up?

negnin

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Nullzero — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:24:57 MST

Awesome. It's tempting. My Japanese is terrible though. Well, not enough to function in a work environment anyway.

Still, I have plenty of vacation time at my current job. It'd be fun to take 2 weeks off from working my real job, just to go to Nintendo and play video games, adn get paid for it.

Nullzero

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Grumblebum — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:22:51 MST

@argh:
What he said. You do not want to get into game testing if you want to enjoy the games you might be testing. Its tedious, the hours can be killing, the pay is low, and it is generally very strictly controlled.
I don't know about Nintendo, but I do know some other companies and while they try to make their testers reasonably comfortable, the fact is that they are a minimum wage resource and turnover is pretty high.

Grumblebum

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

DarkTetsuya — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:16:32 MST

@Lezard: And that's when they actually get to the game... I heard there's quite a bit of time spent on just menu/option-related things, too so... you probably won't be spending all your time actually playing.

DarkTetsuya

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Morberis — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:15:34 MST

Travel Expenses? Hot dam, does that cover weekly flights to Japan?

Morberis

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

argh — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:07:20 MST

Testing games blows. Worst job I've ever had. Repetitive as hell, you end up hating every game you play after a couple weeks, and you get paid the same as a kid at Starbucks.

argh

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Tokoyama — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:03:47 MST

Damn it! Why now? Why not one year ago while i lived in Tenri near Kyoto! :(

Tokoyama

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Lezard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:00:57 MST

@gamadaya: The thing is, you wouldn't actually be playing. You might be asked to play a specific track or set of tracks for the majority of the testing phase, and/or use only one particular character.

Does using Peach on the easiest courses in the game eight hours a day for a few weeks sound fun to you?

Lezard

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:57:27 MST

@djgeki:
Yah, travel is from your house (in Japan) to NCL (in Japan), NOT from out of the country to Kyoto.

Brian Ashcraft

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

gamadaya — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:52:36 MST

ARRRRGG. Dammit. I hate going to school. But shit, this is the kind of thing that I would take a semester off for. Mario Kart is probably one of the few games I could play for 6 months and not get tired of. Thing is, I know absolutely no Japanese.

gamadaya

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

dowingba — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:48:35 MST

The Beta testers for that sitting-minigame in Wii Fit had a pretty sweet gig.

dowingba

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

TheIrishNinja — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:46:30 MST

@jive238: we uh, get megacon. i think play is coming down here to perform in orlando. i know what you mean, though.

boy, here's one of those jobs that sounds so badass as a kid, until you actually learn what they do. good luck to all of youse applying, though.

TheIrishNinja

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

djgeki — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:41:32 MST

Are we sure the "travel expenses" aren't the ones from your place of residence (in Japan) to work everyday? I'm not sure they'd put an ad up in Japanese for which the rest of the world was meant to apply.

djgeki

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Parsifal — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:39:14 MST

@jive238: Thats not true. Plenty of things happen there. Thats why www.fark.com has a special tag just for your state;p

Parsifal

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

bluesquareapple — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:36:44 MST

Will they pay relocation costs? :P

bluesquareapple

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

jive238 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:33:18 MST

Why does nothing cool happen where I live. Florida sucks :(

jive238

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Iceman B. — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:28:00 MST

Damn, I wish I could give this a try, if only to have a taste in game testing.
I assume this is open only to Japanese residents?

Iceman B.

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Stormrider — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:24:38 MST

@Brian Ashcraft: Now now, be nice, Bash.

Stormrider

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Stormrider — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:23:59 MST

@FFMUSICDJ: Yeah, I hear from people who have tried it that QA testing in the US is pretty brutal. I have not gotten many recommendations from former beta testers.

Stormrider

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:23:46 MST

@MoogPaul:
From the post: Working hours are Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm.

Reading, it's so hard.

Brian Ashcraft

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

DARK DVNT; DARKDVNT [Xfire/Yahoo/Aim] ;Plz visit my website, k, thx. — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:22:29 MST

Quite an opportunity. Wish I was in the area and wish I didn't have other responsiblities too. Someone will be a lucky son of a.....

DARK DVNT; DARKDVNT [Xfire/Yahoo/Aim] ;Plz visit my website, k, thx.

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Lezard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:20:25 MST

Doesn't sound too different from NOA's normal policy of contract testing. I'd did it for a while. Their base hours are 8:00-5:00 at $10.00 plus overtime, though if the project you're on goes overtime, you might not leave until as late as 10:00 or 11:00 PM. Possibly even midnight, given extremely rare circumstances.

Now imagine pulling 12-14 hour days for weeks on end without a day off. That's how some of those projects tend to go. Not every project sees overtime, but a good chunk of them do, and there's not much that can be done about that. Deadline is looming, the game is still crashing, you're social life is fucked.

However, despite the stress that the job can produce, it's still the best temp job I ever held by far. Heaven help the fools that go into it thinking that game testing is just like playing a video game, though. Oh, those pitiable fools.

Lezard

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

FP Shindokie — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:19:53 MST

@MoogPaul: They don't go by hours they go by days. They have no soul

FP Shindokie

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

ffmusicdj — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:18:01 MST

A warning for all.

I don't know how it is in Japan but in the US, once you become a tester, you're gonna regret it a lot.

I don't know how different things are in Japan...

ffmusicdj

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Kinketsu — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:18:00 MST

It would be pretty hard to live in Kyoto on about 100,000 yen a month, guys.

Kinketsu

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Legion329 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:16:57 MST

@MoogPaul: Mon-Fri, 10AM to 5PM. With an hour lunch a day.

So 30 hours a week paid.

Legion329

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Legion329 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:16:43 MST

@MoogPaul: Mon-Fri, 10AM to 5PM. With an hour lunch a day.

So 30 hours a week.

Legion329

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

deathsyth8888 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:15:54 MST

Yes, in a heart beat!! Although that language barrier would be kinda difficult for me but the chance to play games is tempting.

deathsyth8888

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

AceLosesKing — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:15:38 MST

Travel expenses covered? That's not bad.

I expect whoever does go to take a video camera with them for me. To, you know, capture the moment.

AceLosesKing

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

MoogPaul — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:14:24 MST

how many hours a week though?

MoogPaul

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

amost — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:10:42 MST

...although being in the non-gaming software industry, the wages are alot better than that :P

amost

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

Legion329 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:10:34 MST

Hot damn. Travel expenses included? I'm so in.

Legion329

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

NitrousO — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:10:23 MST

A research center? Seems a like they have been taking the Brain Training thing a little to seriously and forgot they make videogames. :P

NitrousO

Be Nintendo Beta Tester. Maybe Test Mario Kart Wii?

amost — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:08:42 MST

Sweet deal! I have a software QA background too!

amost