So in leaving my IM running overnight, Ophelea sent me a link to the site Ten Ton Hammer. She knows I don't typically read a lot of gaming sites other than GamersInfo.net, especially given the week I had last week and the weekend I had.

EA/Mythic (is it still right to call them that? I forget) is PAYING people to test Warhammer: Age of Reckoning.

Four hours a night, five days a week, 6 months, $10 an hour! Of course, you have to be local to their offices. As I have a full-time job, and live in Arlington, and they're out in BFE (i.e. outside the Beltway), I won't be applying.

But it makes me happy to see! Too often lately crappy games have been released with promises of later patches, and MMOs often have the balance/re-balance/buff&nerf cycle almost built into them from the start.

In fact, I remember a lot of the nerfs that Midgard got from the beginning of DAoC until when I left it.

So the fact that they're actively hiring people to play and test a game like WAR fills me up with joy. This is a game that's going to be heavily PvP, and spending the time and money to do a more thorough testing job means that it should be a more exciting, balanced experience from the beginning.

I'd love to see more companies do that! Of course, that's approximately $4800 a tester, but you know what - it's a bargain at twice that price if it makes the game that much smoother at launch.