Forbes -- one of the last places I would expect to see information like this -- has a very helpful article for those who want to learn how to play games for a living. Be careful what you wish for, however: Working for a studio is work, make no mistake. Long hours at crunch time, playing one section tens or hundreds of times looking for a bug, and (initially) low pay mean you really have to want it. And be flexible in where you live, because "Staff gets laid off... You will jump around from studio to studio."

Well, given the fact I'm currently unemployed, I wouldn't mind about such conditions to work with games. Too bad I live in Brazil, though...

Work for a company making games in Brazil, like....never mind.

I know that the FIFA Manager team is looking out for testers, paying 8 eurobucks for each hour. If the distance between Cologne and Porto wasn't over 1000 miles, I'd apply. I've always been an expert at crashing managing games (UEFA Manager doesn't count)

The article doesn't really give any insight into the 'how' part. The advice it gives; apply for internship (in other words, start out working for free in the hopes that one day you can do it for a living), make a mod (this just creates some level of credential for your application, and isn't the article about playing games for a living, or is it about designing games for a living), and the last bit is my favorite; "start from the bottom and work your way up". Gee, I couldn't have figured out any of that for myself.

I've applied for video game testing in the past, with Origin and Iguana. I can tell you I was more than qualified for the positions. After three interviews with Iguana (yes three) and two with Origin, knowing more about gaming than the people I met doing the interviews, I was passed on for someone better qualified. When I asked Iguana how someone could be better qualified, I was told, "Honestly we couldn't narrow the pool down any further. After opting for only the most viable employees for the position, there were still over 1,500 applicants left for the two positions we were hiring for."

G4 has these crappy commercials luring young people into trying out in the games industry.

The most obvious lines are "Wow, can you believe we get paid to play video games." Well, yes, I can. But the commercial fails to even mention that the work is horrendous, the hours suck, and you do have to play one section one hundred times over just to do your job.

Then a favorite of mine is one where they tell the boss that the graphics need to be improved in level three. Wow, I just love how these commercials try to appeal to every casual gamers dream, to tell the boss what to do like they're running the show. If they did that in real life, the boss would just ignore them. Graphic engines take months to make, and the designers aren't going to redo a level when the deadline is right around the corner just because you don't think the graphics look good enough.

The obvious target audience is the young adults who are just out of college or just going in who think they "know video games." Maybe thats why we're getting such recycled material this day and age. We get these casual gamers who don;t have any direction in their life, see a commercial on G4, think that they're good enough at Halo to give game making a try.

well why would you have a commercial publizing the crappy part of the job? no one is ever going to show you that

That particular commercial is somewhat infamous (NSFW) (Another one). I feel sorry for anyone who took their perception of working in the videogame industry from that.

Because of these commercials, and many many other reasons, I am now convinced G4 is actually trying to kill gaming.

Anyone who thinks G4 is a gaming network is obviously retarded.

G4 used to be decent, but the merge between them and TechTV was the common ruin of both channels. At least they still have X-Play...

I imagined since either channel didn't have enough content which resulted in too many re-runs, that the new G4/TechTV would be all of the shows for each channel put together on one, but that isn't the case. They merged, and then mostly got all new shows. Disappointing.

G4 really turned into another incarnation of Spike TV. The only video game shows they have are X-Play and maybe cheat. And for both, the hosts have sold out majorly. I'm pretty sure they don't even play video games anymore.

X-Play is horrible. They use the same formula every time. First a bad opener, then a bad celebrity impersonation with cut-paste heads, crappy skit with interns, more bad jokes, another bad celebrity impersonation with cut-paste heads, X-play gives this a 3 out of 5.

My favorite show used to be Icons but they don't even have video game icons anymore. Now its sub-culture icons like King-King, Marc Ecko, and Family Guy. WTF is that! They should just slap "sell out" on their foreheads and get it over with.

That channel makes me infuriated that it even tries to claim its for gamers.

OMFG that is so on the mark!

They still play games; my favorite section left is where the answer viewer mail because it is then that they FINALLY DROP THE ACT and talk like real people and give decent answers and advice. Unfortunately, this is a rare occurrence.

Well, X-Play isn't your style, so be it.

Funny thing is, there is quite a bit of anti-corporate mainstream on the show. Not to mention they bash critics harder than the critics bash them.

I also like the fact that if a game is bad, they tear it to shreds, and without regard to sponsors or other financial influence. Their reviews tend to be spot on and honest, which is more than I can say for almost any other sell out review sources out there.

As for Icons, they quite simply didn't have enough shows. Well, I guess it was better to watch the Activision episode for the 10th time rather than Cops.

X-Play is the ONLY show to have survived all three networks (cnet tv->tech tv->g4) and, not surprisingly, it is the only show truly worth watching on the channel. I could lose the terrible celebrity impressions and "jokes", but at least once every two shows there is a really well-written and well-delivered review that makes putting up with the crap worthwhile.