how could i become a part time video game tester?

Answer 1

You would have to live in or near a city that has developer sites there. All game testing jobs are on-site so you're good as gold if you live in L.A. or S.F. bay area.

After that, simply apply when they are hiring. You can check their websites for more information on that. They will ask for what type of testing or game playing background you have. Most will also ask what bugs you have found in games and how you found them/if you can duplicate them.

You may want to do some non-paying beta tests of games before applying to build some testing experience. These sites are a great resource for which games are accepting beta applications:
www.betawatcher.com/
www.gamespp.com/betatestinggames
www.internetgames.about.com/od/beta/

Game testing is not as fun as it sounds though. It is highly regulated and you will be doing the same thing over and over and over again. Any bugs you find will need to be documented and duplicated multiple times. Good luck getting into the industry.

Answer 2

Netherworldly entities- er I mean companies like Activision & EA sometimes advertise for testers (often before a major product release). Just sign on the dotted line, one immortal soul in exhange for a controller and beta software...