June 04, 2014

Mod vs Dev vs Tester

Know The Difference

For a long time, everyone with a gold name has been called a Mod (short for Moderator) but there are actually 4 kinds of people walking around with gold names. Mods, Game Testers, Help Team, and Devs (short for Developer).

• Moderators: moderate the game, reading reports and keeping AQW safe and fun.
• Developers: developers make the game itself - artists, programmers, writers, designers.
• Testers/QA: testers take what the developers make and make sure it's not broken.
• Help Team: read your emails and fix issues with accounts

See a list of the AQW Devs here

See a list of the AQW Mod Team here

See a list of the QA Team here

See a list of the Help Team here

How to become a Mod/Tester/Dev

As we need help moderating, making, and testing AQW, we bring on more people to help. Moderators and Testers are usually loyal fans and supports of the game who are helpful and patient with new players, fun, friendly yet responsible with the other experienced players. Many Developers are also loyal fans who have the art or writing skill we need to make AQWorlds.

For the most part being a Mod or Tester or Dev is a volunteer position, although they do enjoy other rewards like free memberships, free ACs and access to pretty much any item they would like. Some volunteer dev positions may turn into full-time gigs on the AQW team. The Help Team does not use volunteer help because account information is sensitive, and we do EVERYTHING we can to protect your info.

Gold Names: What They Mean

If you see someone with a gold name inside AQWorlds, that means they work directly on the game in some capacity: devs, mods, game testers, or Player Support. Although we all have gold names, we have very different responsibilities, and the criteria we use to finds Mods is very different from what we look for in potential Devs or Testers.

There are three types of testers*: game, bug, and website. Game testers test releases, and have a gold name inside AQW. Bug and Web testers (and any other AE staff who do not work on AQW) do not have gold names; they focus on many games in our network, and our server hamsters would run away squealing if it weren't for them!

*Testers usually start out by being a mod or dev on another game. RARELY we will put out a call for new testing help. I think that's only ever happened once or twice before, though.