Some lucky people get paid to play video games all day long.
They also get free copies of all the latest games before they are generally released.
How can this be so? The production of modern video games is extremely complex.
Starting from the spark of an idea, the producers have to create characters, games scenarios, action strategies and much more to make up a fast-moving game.
The graphics design alone can take many people many months to craft the perfect visual experience.
Add to that the design and programming of the endless variants of scenes and the user interface and you have a recipe for things to go wrong.
We have all witnessed the frozen screen, the dead response and the complete inactivity of the game.
How can this happen? When you stop to think about what has gone into the production of the game, you quickly realise that there are thousands, if not millions, of combinations of events and circumstances within the average game.
The designers and programmers try very hard to minimise the unknown and unexpected combinations of user response.
The games are tested in-house by the programming staff.
Some companies have dedicated testing teams and many have automated testing tools.
Together these catch the vast majority of the bugs and unexpected combinations in the underlying software.
Almost by definition, they cannot be 100% foolproof.
Enter the real world of video game testing.
There is nothing like playing the game to identify the hidden bugs that slip through the in-house testing regime.
However, all games producers do not want to release a bug-ridden version of their game to the general public.
This will instantly ruin their reputation and a slump in sales will follow.
In extreme circumstances, games can fail badly at this hurdle and be completely withdrawn from the market before they ever get going.
So what they need is an army of testers who come at the games without any detailed knowledge of the underlying software design.
Testers will exercise options within the software that the designers never thought of and consequently will quickly identify problems that have slipped through the net.
A wide variety of such people is a great way for the producers to build confidence in the resilience of the game before it is put on general release.
It's a win-win situation all round.
Producers get an army of testers without having to put them on the payroll and testers get paid to do what they like doing - playing games.
The consumer also wins by having the confidence in the product he buys.