dsreaper
says:
like a BA of Arts in writing or journalism etc is pretty close.
Ok Jon so first off pre requisites. Attention to detail is a must, an analytical mind is essential and excellent written and oral english skills. You need to explain to programmers, artists etc what is wrong, document it, check no other debugger has mentioned it then create a routine to replicate it, then test again after it's fixed.
You don't sit there playing games you sit there running routines like hold left till you hit a wall, did that work. Now right till a wall, that work etc.
They are paid pretty low usually between 25 - 30ish a year. Long hours are common when it's close to release and can work a good 10 - 14 hour day AND that's when you have other team members from like art etc pitching in because it's such a large task. It's large cause when you find a bug and they fix it...you test it once more.
Because of the nature of the job most people use it as a stepping stone to get into the company then typically move into game design or possibly another art area.
Qualifications are a great help like the ones I mentioned above. Writing skills are a must and usually they turn away people with no exp so you'd have to be a bit lucky to get in the first place, but it's possible.
Hope that answered your questions, if there's any else try me I'll see what I can do/know.
2 days ago
Gold Coast, Queensland