Microsoft has started recruiting play testers for its forthcoming Xbox games, and has posted a notice to that effect on its Web site. Successful applicants will get to play unreleased PC and Xbox games, will be able to make their opinions heard (we have our doubts about that one), and will get unspecified "free stuff."

The disadvantages? You have to be over 13, although given the target market you probably don't have to be much over 13, you don't get paid, and you need to live in the Seattle area.

And as Microsoft has been known to decide (say, when it comes to pricing operating systems) what the answer should be and then get the focus groups in to produce supporting data, your opinions might not get acted upon, even if they are heard.

But what the hell - if you're local, at a loose end, and can make a convincing stab at conforming to one of the classic gamer-type profiles Microsoft is looking for, there are worse things in life than getting free munchies while knocking seven bells out of the next generation of games. And they probably won't experiment on you while you're there. Probably. ®

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