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Facebook will help military veterans become AR and VR engineers
Facebook has launched a new resource hub to help veterans and serving members of the military improve their digital literacy and find new employment opportunities. As part of the venture -- undertaken in partnership with mentoring organization SCORE -- Facebook will be launching a 12-month career development program focused on AR and VR engineering, aimed at veterans with backgrounds in electrical and mechanical engineering, and computer science.
US says China is aggressively recruiting spies on LinkedIn
Forget trying to recruit spies in clandestine meetings -- apparently, you just have to go to a job website. US National Counterintelligence and Security Center chief William Evanina told Reuters that Chinese intelligence agencies were conducting a "super aggressive" spy recruiting campaign through LinkedIn. China has reportedly been using fake accounts to flood government and business workers with recruiting messages in hopes they'll divulge secrets. Germany and the UK have warned about similar practices before, but this is the first time the US government has talked about the problem in earnest.
AI can help you find a programming job
Artificial intelligence isn't just helping you work more effectively... it can help you find work, too. Source{d} is running a job service that matches programmers with employers by using a "deep neural network" to scan open source code for relevant qualities. And it's not just about understanding whether or not you can write well in a given language, either. The AI can even look for coding styles that match the methods of a given company, so you may land a position simply by fitting in more gracefully than anyone else.
Google's emoji for working women get thumbs up from Unicode
Back in May, Google proposed a set of emoji that would offer options that depict careers of professional women with a range of races and ethnicities. Today, the company announced that Unicode, the organization that (among other things) handles the decisions for all things emjoi, agreed to 11 new professional options that showcase a range of jobs for both men and women. And yes, they'll be available in all of the existing skin tones. This means that the group adds more than 100 new emoji to the existing Unicode library.
LinkedIn's latest acquisition will train you for your dream job
LinkedIn has always been helpful if you're seeking a job, but now it can train you for one too, thanks to a $1.5 billion deal to acquire Lynda.com. That site offers nearly 3,500 courses by subscription on subjects ranging from web design to leadership body language, all taught by industry experts. Citing the obvious synergy between the companies, LinkedIn said that the deal would help job-seekers "know what skills are need for available jobs in a desired city... and then be prompted to take the relevant and accredited courses to acquire this skill."
'Irrational Jobs' career outreach forms in the wake of BioShock dev layoffs
Immediately following todays' announcement that Irrational Games is winding down to just 15 employees, the hashtag "#IrrationalJobs" sprung up on Twitter to assist developers in finding new jobs. A similar, immediate outreach happened in the wake of 38 Studios' closure in May 2012. While the hashtag is currently in its infancy, it's accompanied by a link to a Google Doc full of opportunities for the studio's exiting developers. As Irrational Games Co-Founder Ken Levine noted in today's announcement, third-party developers and publishers should email chris.bigelow@2k.com directly with any interest in interviewing the departing employees. With any luck, the social media outreach, Irrational Games-hosted recruiting day and third-party developer interest will provide the BioShock developer's outgoing staff with enough opportunities to make their transitions seamless. [Image: Irrational Games]
Storyboard: Being who you aren't
There is, as I have discussed, a group of roleplayers for whom the game is the thing. If the game doesn't allow you to be a moisture farmer, then why would you want to pretend to be a moisture farmer? Similarly, if you're not actually a master of the marketplace or sitting on huge assets in the game, why would you want to pretend that you are? I am not one of those people. I'm playing a financial wizard partly because I am not a financial wizard. And it's not that I don't love games where that's a viable option, but that's a different discussion. However, this does raise the question of how you can pretend to portray something you aren't intimately familiar with. If I'm playing a doctor, I'm going to run into the simple problem that I'm not a doctor in real life (full-time writers rarely receive extensive medical training). All of roleplaying is some degree of pretending to be something you're not, but how do you do so when it's something that's a bit harder to fake?
Apple is the 16th best tech firm to work for, but here's how it could be number one
In this year's edition of the career community site Glassdoor's "50 Best Places to Work" list, Apple came in at number 35 overall and number 16 of tech companies, a one-position drop from last year's rankings. Like any large company, there are plenty of reasons why current employees and contractors downgraded Apple's overall rating, ranging from having too many meetings to long hours around product launches, but things like that aren't likely to change overnight. However, we've come up with a list of 10 things Tim Cook could implement to raise the company's ranking by the time next year's ratings are published. Let's get to it! Hold an employee lottery where the winner gets to have Jony Ive narrate their life for a day. Offer each new employee a lifetime supply of actual apples. Have Tim Cook follow every Apple employee on Twitter, because I'm pretty sure that makes you an instant celebrity. Install a go-kart track that spans the entire roof of Apple's new "spaceship" campus. Give all employees every new iPhone two weeks before the rest of us, and encourage them to rub it in. Let employees order useless products from Amazon Prime Air (if it ever actually launches) and set up a paintball shooting range where the drones land. Dig a bunch of Apple Bandai Pippins out of the storage room and give them away to new hires. Have ex-BlackBerry employees come in to give motivational speeches tell their horror stories. Put a live webcam feed on every desktop monitor showing the inside of a Foxconn factory, so Cupertino workers know how good they have it. Encourage employees to team up and teepee Google's headquarters every time a new Android device that doesn't support the latest version of Android is launched.* *This may lead to a statewide toilet paper shortage in California.
Job listings point to next-gen open world Star Wars game
Recent job listings posted by Electronic Arts indicate that an open-world Star Wars game is in development. One of the listings, seeking an animation director for EA Canada, is for "a major new next gen open world action game" in the beloved sci-fi property. The same description is listed for an executive producer position and a lead combat designer position at the studio, which was linked to the Star Wars property by a former recruiter for the publisher on Twitter. The concept of an open-world Star Wars game isn't new, as Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios nearly signed with LucasArts to develop one sometime between 2005 and 2009. Likewise, LucasArts' Star Wars 1313 was reportedly being developed as an open-world game before Disney closed the developer and halted the game's development in April. EA obtained the exclusive rights to develop and publish Star Wars games in May, later announcing a new DICE-developed Star Wars: Battlefront game at E3, expected to arrive in mid-2015. The publisher also recently claimed that it will not pursue any games based on the new movies in the series.
Blizzard removes Titan from careers page
Here are the facts: There is a career page for Blizzard Entertainment. The mysterious project known as Titan used to have job listings there. Now there is no mention of Titan on this page. Here is another fact: The man up there represented the beginning of Blizzard's cinematics department. This picture has nothing to do with Titan, but it amused us to include it. What does this mean for the project? There are many possibilities: Blizzard is abandoning it, Blizzard has enough people working on it already, or Blizzard is regrouping on it. Considering that the studio said back in May that it was scrapping its development on Titan to start over, we think that the latter could be quite likely.
NCsoft offices undergoing 'realignment'
The hits just keep on coming for NCsoft. In the wake of City of Heroes' closure, the publisher's Seattle offices are apparently undergoing "realignment." The company has denied that the Seattle office is closing but has noted that several positions in the office have been terminated as a result of recent events. No details were released regarding how many people have been let go or how this will affect titles under NCsoft's aegis. NCsoft made a similar round of layoffs last year in October, with several offices hit with large staff reductions. This round comes in the wake of continued losses for the company, including a 12% reduction in revenue in 2011, major losses already posted from earlier in 2012, and a stock price that is currently half of what it was earlier in the year. Our best wishes go out to all those affected by these layoffs.
Ask Massively: On mourning a netbook edition
Well, I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. My stalwart little netbook, River, finally developed a serious problem: Her screen developed a pair of nasty cracks. I've had her for only a couple of years, but she's been a great portable machine and a real help at getting work done. Now if only it weren't such an enormous pain finding someplace where I could get her repaired, as I'd really prefer not to replace her. But it might come to that. Even with an injured performer, however, the show must go on, and the show in question is Ask Massively. This week, we're fielding questions about ArcheAge and working in the gaming field, something that I'm sure is of interest to many of our readers. If you've got a question you'd like to see in a future installment of the column, mail it to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments below. Questions may be edited for brevity and/or clarity.
Microsoft job opening hints at forthcoming backup / restore features for Windows Phone
The current state of performing backups for Windows Phone is far from ideal, although a new job posting from Microsoft suggests that a better solution may be coming to the smartphone platform in its next major software release. According to a job posting from the monolith in Redmond, the company is seeking a talented employee to join its Windows Phone Backup, Migrate and Restore team. The listing goes on to state, "Our goal is to ensure that no matter if someone loses their phone, drops their phone in a lake ... a user can quickly and seamlessly get their phone back to a good state." Whether this involves backup to the cloud, or simply more robust features within the Zune software is never explicitly stated, although Microsoft does suggest it aims to leapfrog the competition in this arena. Not a moment too soon, either.
Microsoft job listing hints at annual Windows Phone updates
From the looks of it, a job posting on Microsoft's career site has informally confirmed that Windows Phone is on track to receive "major yearly releases." The idea of pushing a hefty Mango-sized package of features to its phones once a year shouldn't come as much of a surprise, as both iOS and Android aim for the same goal, but it's nice to see that the folks in Redmond have a good feel on exactly where the platform is headed. Now, update fans need not be worried about refreshes only coming once a year; the listing asks for someone to head up work on minor amendments in between these releases, which means we should look forward to NoDo-style maintenance updates on a regular basis. Or it could all amount to absolutely nothing. Your move, Ballmer. Your move. Head to the source link for the job listing.
Waging WAR: Patch 1.3.6 and the proverbial DPS-Healer
There aren't very many companies that open up planned patch changes to their players and fans for discussion; however, Mythic is one that does. This week, Waging WAR focuses on the suggested career balance changes for the Zealot and Runepriest coming in patch 1.3.6 for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. We'll cover the issue as well as the proposed solution for these careers. We'll also discuss the impact that these changes might have on the affected careers and on the community in general. There's also a part where Greg throws some drama at the fan and rants about "DPS-Healers." Let's start by clarifying the main issue and the proposed change. Currently, the other healing careers (Archmage, Shaman, Warrior Priest and Disciple of Khaine) have their mastery paths organized by the role which they might play (i.e. damage focus, healing focus, etc.); whereas, the Zealot and Runepriest don't. Their mastery paths are organized by the delivery method of their healing (i.e. over time, direct, or area). The problem is, after deciding whether to specialize offensively or defensively and gearing to that role (a freedom of choice that they should be given), the Zealot and Runepriest are left with only one-half of an effective skill-set -- the other half of their skills being rendered ineffective by role choice and gear itemization. To bring these careers in line with their archetypical cousins, a new mechanism is proposed which gives Zealots and Runepriests a chance to retain some effectiveness in skills that are outside their chosen role.
CCP reaching out to potential EVE players with "Get a Clone"
EVE Online creators CCP Games are taking a different approach to promoting the game with a new website. All players in EVE's setting of New Eden are "capsuleers" -- starship pilots who have attained immortality through cloning technology. CCP's "Get a Clone" site invites you to "Clone yourself. Not the way you are, but the way you want to be." The site belongs to Duvolle Laboratories, one of EVE Online's NPC corporations, and provides an in-character introduction to some of the basic career paths a pilot can explore in the game. But first, Duvolle Labs asks you five questions that pin down how morally flexible you are (as a game character). Would you rather build or tear down? Would you risk your life for money or glory? Is success is measured by profits or progress? Your responses to five questions Duvolle Laboratories asks places you in one of four broad career paths - military, exploration, business, or industry.
EVE Online devs seek your input on improving the New Player Experience
EVE Online can be a daunting game to get a handle on. Still, the New Player Experience (NPE) that greets rookies today is far better than the early tutorials that some of us at Massively, and no doubt a number of our readers, experienced 'back in the day'. There are many careers and mini-professions a player can choose to pursue in EVE, but conveying this in the NPE -- and guiding these new players towards these playstyles -- remains a challenge for CCP Games. This is the focus of the latest dev blog by EVE Online developer CCP Soundwave. He explains how player feedback has made those first weeks of gameplay a much smoother learning experience for the game's rookies. However, he notes that they're continuing to improve the NPE for the next expansion. To that end, CCP is seeking input from the players on these questions:
The lowdown on EVE Online's New Player Experience
Among all the massively multiplayer online games out there, with their respective learning curves, EVE Online perhaps has the deserved reputation for being the hardest MMO to get a grasp of. Much of that confusion is because the game itself is such a departure from your standard fantasy MMO, in almost every respect: open world/single server, PvP can happen everywhere, a harsh setting, and a UI that's a far cry from anything a player has seen in World of Warcraft.The EVE in-game tutorial has been revamped a few times in order to make it easier for new players to get a handle on things. What is currently offered is a noticeable improvement over the tutorial of a few years ago, but CCP Games is in the process of completely reworking a player's first steps into the game's setting of New Eden. EVE Online developer CCP Fear's latest blog is, in his words, required reading for anyone interested in the game, new player or not. He says, "I want to get one misconception out of the way. This blog *will* concern you and everyone else. If you have played for a year, 6 years, 3 months or a week, you will want to read further than this. Chances are there will be changes that will affect you!"
Warhammer Online opens public test server
Massively multiplayer online games are continually changing, from the time a game launches to the day the servers shut down. Sure, patch notes spell out most of those changes, but it's always good when an MMO developer opens up a test server for the players. It allows you to check out new game mechanics firsthand, risk-free, and see what works for you and what doesn't. More importantly, it lets the developer know what they need to improve. This is what Mythic Entertainment is doing for Warhammer Online players as of today (Tuesday, February 17th), letting them preview the changes coming to Realm vs. Realm combat as well as Career balance changes on the public test server. Mythic will be conducting a large scale Tier 4 Open Field Realm vs. Realm test on Wednesday, February 18th at 8pm EST. The dev announcement states: "Bring your friends to the PTS and be amongst the first to experience the new Zone Domination system in a focused player test. Be sure to log on early to join the premade guilds (points of contact for invites will be announced in game) for the night." Detailed info on how to access the public test server is found in the Warhammer Herald announcement as are the patch notes for the public test of Game Update 1.2. Mythic has announced the first expansion to Warhammer Online! Check out the announcement itself, the two brand-new classes coming to the game, and the enormous new dungeon/zone slated for a few months away! Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
Mythic prank hints at Orc Choppa career coming to WAR next week
The folks at Mythic Entertainment recently gave a pretty big hint about a new Warhammer Online career to be introduced, through a creative gag. They sent hair dye and a trimmer to WAR bloggers Keen and Graev, a nod to the upcoming Dwarf Slayer career. Lightning has struck twice now though, with what The Greenskin posted yesterday. Mythic Entertainment sent The Greenskin a DVD of Predator, with instructions to go to the meme Schwarzenegger shouts at 1:16:06... "Get to da choppa!" With this hint, it seems a given that the Orc Choppa career is coming to Warhammer Online. The DVD also came with the hint that there would be "more to come" on January 29th. [Thanks Brooke] WAR has gone 1.1! Check out our full coverage of the 1.1a patch, along with our interviews exploring upcoming content and the open RvR changes. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
