When you were in school, you must have heard your parents saying that playing video games is a waste of time. Well what if you were told that playing games is actually a career? Interesting right? This field is called Games testing.
But like any other new concept there are a couple of misconceptions about game testing and Game Testing Career. That is what we will discuss in this article. But first we must ascertain what is game testing.
The primary function of game testing is to find out game defects and its proper documentation. To run a gaming program or application successfully, game testing is required as it helps to find game bugs, and makes sure that the game is fit to use.
So now that we understand the concept of game testing, let us check out a couple of misconceptions people have regarding this field:
1. Game Testing doesn’t Require Brains:
It’s a common assumption that a game tester doesn’t need to apply his brains, perhaps because a tester may have to run a game multiple times, making his job monotonous .
But that’s not true because for running a game successfully a game tester has to really apply his brains to find out the bugs in the game in hand. A tester can also find out a new approach for Game testing so that his job doesn’t get monotonous.
2. A Game Tester can Perform any Test:
This assumption is generally made from the developer’s side as he expects a tester to perform game testing in all scenarios, that is whether the game is an initial stage, or midstage, or in the finishing stage.
The truth is that the testers always make efforts to address game testing in all scenarios, provided that the developer supports the tester requirement at all stages of game development, otherwise it may be difficult for a tester to fulfill the expectations of the developer.
3. The Myth that Testing gives Accurate Results
This assumption is a hint that a developer expects a tester to deliver a hundred percent bug free game product. The truth is that a tester might fail to give accurate testing results due to lack of infrastructure or a limited time period to do the required testing.
Also Read : What Are The Requirements To Be A Game Tester?
Testers can find out bugs in game but they cannot ensure that the particular game will not have bugs in future. This can be explained by an example in context of life critical systems, which have an application in fields like medicines or planes.
Let’s take the example with reference to planes. Planes have to initially go through some testing procedures before they are put to actual use to ensure that the testing give effective results, despite this a tester may not give accurate results in terms of actual altitude the plane should be able to fly or the wind speed required on a particular day. As such the tester is not able to define what exactly the flight may have to endure once the plane is put to use.
4. A Tester’s Job is to Find Bugs Only
Again it is believed by some people that a tester is just required to find bugs in the game and to handover the report to the developer.
But this not true in reality as a testers job is just not limited to the extent of finding the bugs in a game, in addition to this profile a tester needs to study the architecture of the product, which enables them to fulfill the requirements for running a test and to give feedback to developer for improving a game and to make necessary amendments to make it user-friendly for the end user.
5. Testers did not Value to the Game
Giving importance to this assumption would be like degrading a tester’s value in an organization, maybe because of the assumption that a tester role is limited in an organization.
Let’s Have a Look at the Video Representation by SmashJT to get an Idea about How it actually Likes to be a Game Tester
But that’s not true again as a tester is well versed in his work, and has an overall knowledge of the product, as compared to the developer who only works on specific areas or components in the game. So obviously since a tester has the required skills to run app tests all stages of a game test, he naturally adds value to the game.
6. Test Automation Can Take Place of Human Testers
This assumption is moreover like a rumour, which is expected to be spread over by test automation experts to discourage game testers, that the testers don’t have a future, because one-day test automation will replace them.
This myth can be completely discarded due to the following fact, that long time back it was a belief that when computer-aided game will emerge, computers would start writing the codes which will make human programmers jobless, but this didn’t happen.
This fact provides evidence that test automation won’t be able to replace human testers. As a matter of fact, as humans are the end users of a game product, so obviously only human testers will be expected to run the game app.
Test automation tools which are used by automation experts, let us check whether the colors, layout, and fonts on a screen are per the requirements of the end user or not. But they don’t ensure that the tools would be user-friendly or not. So this may be another reason that automation testing cannot replace human testers.
7. Testers are Believed to Break the Developer’s Code
It is a belief that testers work in an organization to break the developer’s code and hence put them at fault, which again is not the truth in reality. whatever may be the stage of game development if the codes get broken the tester always make efforts to find out errors at any stage. The tester also helps the developer to find out if he may have missed any coding at any stage of the game development stage. So it’s not correct to hold a tester liable for breaking the code.
8. Testers and Developers Cannot be Friends
A friendly relation between the developer and tester is of utmost importance for a sound health of an organization.
So this is not true as even the organization cannot afford this, as both complement each other for the successful running of an app. The tester can always give innovative ideas to the developer and a developer can also give important clues to the tester for the testing process.
Must Read : Game Testing Tutorial: All The Information is Here!
9. Testers may be People with Weak Coding Skills
This is again not true, as testers do the coding in various ways. It may be
- In the form of SQL series
- Maybe for converting code from one database to another
- Or maybe required to write scripts in Java or other coding languages.
So a person with weak coding skills would not be to perform so many activities
10. Reporting to Developer’s Lead can be an Obstacle for a Tester
Generally it’s assumed that the developers have their own lead to follow for game development, and the testers have their own separate leads to follow for implementing game testing.
But sometimes the situation may be different. In other words a tester may have to follow the developers lead and is entirely dependent on the developers lead to run the game test, which might affect the performance of a tester in giving effective test results.
But in reality such a situation should not pose a problem for the tester because he is well versed with his work. A tester is capable enough to implement any changes in testing which are required as per the developers lead.
11. Testers Come into the Picture Only When the Product Test Enters the Post Development Stage
An organization needs to bring a tester in the picture right from the beginning stage of product life cycle, in order to ensure the delivery of product to the end user without any defects.
This fact is important as the tester requires a time frame to make necessary requirements for running a test, so the organization needs to keep the tester updated at every stage for obtaining effective test results.
12. Testing is Clicking at Random Places
It’s an assumption that a tester just clicks on the user interface randomly, but in reality the tester has the responsibility to explore the user interface in detail and check whether all the tools on the user interface are working properly to makes sure that the app runs on all user platforms effectively.
13. Tester does not have a Career on Management Side
Management side is a different field altogether and a tester has nothing do with management side, but a tester can still acquire the management skills for example cost management, or managing people.
Basically this assumption does not carry much weight age as far as management is concerned still if it’s required to manage, a tester can do so.
14. Testers Do not Get Much Fame
Testers should not assume that their work is not valued by the organization or may be the clients they are working for.
No doubt it’s true that if they get any appreciation for their work from the organization or clients they would definitely get motivated, so it’s better for the testers to let their work speak for them.
15. Are Growth Opportunities Similar For Testers and Developers
The growth opportunities for both may differ on the grounds of their individual abilities, and the amount of efforts they can put in? Developers have an opportunity to go for the post of manager or a business analyst which again depends upon their qualifications.
A tester on the other hand may go for test managers, test leads or even a business analyst.
So finally after going through the given misconceptions as mentioned above we are able to get a clear insight about game testing which is definitely valuable for an organization to give productive game testing results.
Also Read : A Guide on Game Testing Methodology