Yes, the guy seems a little too bitter, but he's not incorrect. I'm not talking about Rockstar in particular, but the entire industry.

I originally got into the industry via temp tester position at Sega, and what the guy said of his experiences at Rockstar has always been the case at any established, big name company...Sega, EA, Nintendo, etc. Starting from Q/A, you've got tons of people all trying to stay on long enough to maybe get one of the few permanent positions that might open up, and it's obviously ultra-competitive. People will try for any edge they can, which means that there's a lot of trying to kiss up and make the right "friends". That was an effective strategy a lot of times. There were testers who did stand out as excellent testers; back in the 16-bit days a lot of this had to do with the prevalence of games that required good timing and great hand-eye coordination (Chakan stands out in my mind), and those people being amazing in those areas, but also some testers who were freakish in thinking of the most circumvent ways of crashing a game, violating the game environment, or doing things out of sequence such that the level or game could not be completed; this mainly came through reaching a zen state of boredom with the game such that you'll try anything. Permanent testers weren't too thrill with those types, but the producers loved them and they were the one's getting those types of testers into permanent positions. Unlike the exit-Rockstar employee related, back then testers were taken seriously by the producers and the developers would work directly with a tester to try to nail down what exact steps were necessary to reproduce really complicated and confusing bugs so as to determine what was happening and why. Also, tester feedback was sought in order to determine which particular game elements sucked. I don't know if anyone here has ever heard of the "God Squad". They were a group of testers at EA who were called such because their opinions about a game's overall quality, how good the overall game experience, could kill a game if that opinion was negative. From what I've seen these days as opposed to what I experienced back then regarding the relationship between permanent testers and temp testers is that permanent testers will go to lengths to prevent the temp testers from having any direct contact with the producers or the designers.

Overtime was insanely encouraged for a while; I was in the 90 hrs.-worked-in-a-single-week club but my motivation being double time pay since I was saving up money for backpacking through Europe and I had no intention in seeking a permanent position in that zoo-like environment. A bunch of companies reigned in the overtime once they realized the ridiculous amounts of money it was costing them; keep in mind that, even for best selling games, profits weren't near what they are today.

Now, something that was much better back then than how it is today is that there were a shitload more smaller publishers and developers, and the video game industry was still growing and evolving in many different directions. This was good because it meant new positions continually opening up all over the place as new companies entered the arena or existing companies who had up to that point only developed games for one platform decided to get into making games for other platforms. Also, a lot of companies grew since it wasn't as hard today as it was back to have a game be considered a success even if it wasn't a AAA title. It also didn't hurt that it was insanely cheaper to make a game than it is today. My personal story was that when I got back from Europe, without a job, I decided to give testing another shot. Sega wasn't hiring for the next few months so I got a temp tester job at another game company, where I got recruited by another temp agency, who also had personel working there, for a temp - perm position at a publisher/developer company who made PC games but was expanding into the console market. I got hired for my Sega experience. That environment doesn't exist today.

Finally, From tester, I got a senior tester position at Sony, and then got an assistant producer position through a fellow senior tester who had been approached by a VP, whom he knew through previous association, for a company in a different line of business that was just entering the video game market, and so were opening up new offices. That, too, does seem a rarity these days. From there, associate producer, producer, etc. The career path with upward mobility was a lot more realistically possible to attain, and today the competition to climb that career ladder is a lot more cutthroat. The video game industry used to be less corporate-oriented and overtly pure profit-driven environment, and more fun and creative; as a tester, I was pitching game ideas to the VPs and producers, and being listened to and taken seriously. Testing used to be a dream job, and I couldn't honestly say that I would pursue the same career path in the current state of the industry.