This reminds me of the premium-rate 1-900 numbers back in the day. I specifically remember seeing one of them which offered tips and strategies if you were stuck in a video game.
I would definitely love to try this out at least once. I could see it being helpful.
I recall seeing a video of the Nintendo support center, where people (kids) would call up for video game help. And these game wizards would help them step through the game.
I would’ve never thought that was a thing, much less a little career while it lasted. But it provided some jobs to people, whose purpose was to just play a bunch of Nintendo video games.
I don’t have the link, but maybe someone can find it on YouTube somewhere.
I worked at the Redmond WA Nintendo of America location. You'd get qualified to do the game support lines. The starting was on setup and installs. There was a 4 week onboarding program teaching you how to easily look up things inside of their custom help database. The database would have model numbers and give pointers on identifying the input select. Identifying the equipment usually involved the son/daughter since they could get behind the entertainment center.
Super Agents were the ones who answered both support lines and used a different part of the same db program. There was some AS400 looking terminal for subscriptions, ticketing, and creating shipping labels for say Pokemon game carts that died. People naturally abused this and would send wood blocks. The desks had TVs and game systems and tons of issues of Nintendo Power magazines.
The floor was huge, hundreds of people grouped in by "streets" named after characters. The cubes were in clusters of six. I recall the game testers, they were in a different area, playing and playing one part trying to replicate issues or discover them. Sounds soul crushing. The neat thing were the marketing displays, like the units that would be installed at stores or showing the old card games Nintendo started with. The employee store was neat, getting that gold controller or other games was a breeze. There was an indoor lounge full of arcade cabinets, usually the cheats listed on the sides and one of the corp guys would geek out on Robotron 2084 and get a score so high it would reboot. Good times.
The Deja Vu feeling was bothering me. Luckily found it pretty quickly..."High Score" Episode 2 on Netflix has the most footage of what you're talking about.
I would definitely love to try this out at least once. I could see it being helpful.