Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Video games beat interviews to recruit the very best

newscientist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 125 posts

Re: Video games beat interviews to recruit the very best

#41

Post by tptacek »

gohrt wrote: post #33
tptacek wrote: post #5

Patrick gave an interview to The New Scientist when we announced last week. We're a little worried about Starfighter Fatigue and are definitely trying not to get too much onto the front page (Erin's diligently writing the game details post, which we want to be the next thing people see from us). In the meantime though, if any of you have questions, we're watching and will answer.

I'm not impressed that your submarine PR effort lead with a marketing line / hope, presented as established fact. That's crossing the line from self-promotion to skeeziness, especially in a publication that calls itself "Scientist", and attracts readers who don't know it doesn't respect the culture of scienctific communication.

You probably ought to direct that concern to The New Scientist, who reached out to Patrick out of the blue. We're not soliciting press coverage. It's just a slow news week, I guess.

Re: Video games beat interviews to recruit the very best

#42

Post by pmiller2 »

westoncb wrote: post #28

My sci-fi scale projection/evolution of this concept: because the things we do at work aren't intrinsically unenjoyable to begin with, but the way we think about them has the potential to make them feel that way—slow fusion of games that resemble work and work itself produces games that do work, and the distinction between the two is forgotten, a relic from a cruder era. Seems possible since the activity in games (fo…

>My sci-fi scale projection/evolution of this concept: because the things we do at work aren't intrinsically unenjoyable to begin with, but the way we think about them has the potential to make them feel that way—slow fusion of games that resemble work and work itself produces games that do work, and the distinction between the two is forgotten, a relic from a cruder era.

There was an episode of Black Mirror that hinted at this.

Re: Video games beat interviews to recruit the very best

#43

Post by autoreleasepool »

krstck wrote: post #26

Such a cool idea, and I enjoyed Microcorruption, but ended up getting stuck in the second or third level and couldn't even figure out the right questions to ask to get help. (I stepped into the irc channel at some point and asked some simple question, but got an answer that I couldn't even parse. So I realized I was out of my league and needed to learn more basics first.) My one concern is about something that was me…

I'm with you. There's no way I'd play a game where my every move was fair game for employers to scrutinize. That's too much stress and it would suck the fun out of everything. The thought of a game like that irritates me to no end.

This is one reason I pay for a private github. I hate that if I'm learning a new technology, have "too many" commits on something simple, or am generally messing around it looks "bad" to employers.

Re: Video games beat interviews to recruit the very best

#44

Post by patio11 »

autoreleasepool wrote: post #35
tptacek wrote: post #5

Patrick gave an interview to The New Scientist when we announced last week. We're a little worried about Starfighter Fatigue and are definitely trying not to get too much onto the front page (Erin's diligently writing the game details post, which we want to be the next thing people see from us). In the meantime though, if any of you have questions, we're watching and will answer.

What will be the official policy for sharing game footage on websites such as Twitch and YouTube? Will you officially support content creators who might want to make something like a Let's Play of Starfighter? I'm only asking because if it's actually a fun standalone game (independent from the job hunt aspect) this is going happen.

Will you officially support content creators who might want to make something like a Let's Play of Starfighter?

Heck yes. Existence of many Let's Plays is necessary (but not sufficient) to prove we're actually doing our job.

I'm peripherally aware of the mechanics of what I have to do to get Big Daddy G to be OK with this, and it's on my checklist. (Not asked, but the answer to "Are you OK with people monetizing those videos?" is "We have no objection to it but if you are both capable of programming and motivated by Youtube CPMs please let Patrick buy you dinner and explain how many astoundingly better options there are in life.")

Re: Video games beat interviews to recruit the very best

#46

Post by andars »

tptacek wrote: post #24
patio11 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Geek to geek and parent to parent: honestly, no. Can I recommend Besiege? It doesn't require literacy. It has the same sort of freeform expressiveness you're allowed to do in Minecraft. "Syntax" errors are inherently fun rather than demotivating. There's fun, rewarding visual feedback for success. It doesn't teach programming qua programming, but it is almost perfect for a gateway drug into engineering. (You get to b…

Teenagers, though: I wish I had excellent CTFs when I was growing up.

As a teenager: yes. I am working through microcorruption right now and loving it. Starfighter is vey exciting. Thank you

Re: Video games beat interviews to recruit the very best

#47

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

Having worked on an applicant testing and tracking system in the past, it was a decent business case to operate because a single company has a job type with 100's of openings and high attrition so it helped screen people. In that case it is self-serving and you know if someone is applying twice (SS Number or other identifier) to try and ace the test.

If Starfighter is open, there are people out there that will try to game the system ("game the game" doesn't sound right.) If someone wants to be a level 50 app_coder, they could have a pre-made sequence to follow to do that. Much like in a MMORPG where you have helpers level up a character or a "mule" for hand-me-downs.

Interviewing candidates last year showed no hesitation on their part to share info with each other or their recruiters. How will Starfighter prevent player "cheating" or knowing the route to leveling? How will content be updated or dynamic?

This is a promising thing for software geeks in general, can't wait to try it out. I started playing Microcorruption and if this is similar to that, it will be fun.

Re: Video games beat interviews to recruit the very best

#48

Post by autoreleasepool »

patio11 wrote: post #44
autoreleasepool wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What will be the official policy for sharing game footage on websites such as Twitch and YouTube? Will you officially support content creators who might want to make something like a Let's Play of Starfighter? I'm only asking because if it's actually a fun standalone game (independent from the job hunt aspect) this is going happen.

Will you officially support content creators who might want to make something like a Let's Play of Starfighter? Heck yes. Existence of many Let's Plays is necessary (but not sufficient) to prove we're actually doing our job. I'm peripherally aware of the mechanics of what I have to do to get Big Daddy G to be OK with this, and it's on my checklist. (Not asked, but the answer to "Are you OK with people monetizing thos…

Thanks for the reply. The unasked part is exactly where I was going with my question. I should have just stated it explicitly.

> if you are both capable of programming and motivated by Youtube CPMs please let Patrick buy you dinner and explain how many astoundingly better options there are in life.

Ha. I understand your sentiment, but what you've said is pretty condescending. I would agree that creating content for the sole purpose of making "YouTube money" is silly. I would argue that, to the vast majority of YouTubers, it's simply an enjoyable hobby with RPMs as a potential bonus. The RPMs are intrinsically motivating. There is nothing wrong with being honest with yourself and admitting that they play a factor in the motivation needed to create vs. do something else.

Anyways, my point is, if a capable programmer enjoys making monetized videos on the side, the fact that there are "astoundingly better options in life" is irrelevant.

Re: Video games beat interviews to recruit the very best

#49

Post by pyrocat »

tptacek wrote: post #5

Patrick gave an interview to The New Scientist when we announced last week. We're a little worried about Starfighter Fatigue and are definitely trying not to get too much onto the front page (Erin's diligently writing the game details post, which we want to be the next thing people see from us). In the meantime though, if any of you have questions, we're watching and will answer.

What percent of your team is women?

Re: Video games beat interviews to recruit the very best

#50

Post by tptacek »

andars wrote: post #46
tptacek wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teenagers, though: I wish I had excellent CTFs when I was growing up.

As a teenager: yes. I am working through microcorruption right now and loving it. Starfighter is vey exciting. Thank you

\o/
Post reply on HN