Outsourcing Digital Game Production: The Case of Polish Testers

Abstract

This article investigates the experiences of digital game testers working in external quality assurance departments in Poland. As compared with video game developers, testers have received relatively little attention in game labor studies, and there is a particular gap in the scholarship with respect to testers within firms that perform work that is outsourced from game developers and publishers. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Polish game testers, my research reveals that outsourced game testing is characterized by sharp tensions between self-realization and self-exploitation. The article explores three aspects of testers’ response to these tensions, including enduring precarious working conditions, seeking better career prospects, and engaging in resistance in the workplace. I examine testers’ work through the conceptual lens of hope labor, which designates undercompensated work carried out in the hope of gaining more stable and rewarding employment opportunities in future.