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Amazon's 'Mentor' tracking software has been screwing drivers for years
As it turns out, Amazon’s push to add AI-powered cameras to its fleet of delivery vehicles was just the latest in a long line of efforts to monitor employees on the road. Consider this: according to a new deep dive from CNBC, Amazon has for years used an app called Mentor to monitor how its contracted delivery drivers behave behind the wheel. As you might expect, though, this service -- which Amazon says is a means of ensuring the safety and efficiency of those drivers -- isn’t without its faults.
Howard University and Amazon want to diversify the entertainment industry
Howard University and Amazon Studios are working together to diversify the entertainment industry. Today, they announced Howard Entertainment, a program that will give African American, Latinx and Native American students a chance to study and train alongside entertainment executives.
Facebook's new Groups tool connects members to mentors
If you thought that Facebook's mentor program would be a good fit for group members looking for a helping hand, you'll be glad to hear that Facebook agrees. The social network is bringing its Mentorship feature to Groups, letting you coach others in your running club or support network. Group administrators have to create the programs and choose the people they believe are best-qualified. After that, everyone else in the group can sign up for a chance to be paired up with mentors. Each program is guided and promotes weekly check-ins.
LinkedIn's Career Advice is ready to find you a mentor
Finding someone to help you advance your career can be tricky. After a limited trial in August, LinkedIn is rolling out its Career Advice feature to all its members in the US, UK, India and Australia. According to the company, more than 80 percent of professionals on the site have indicated a willingness to be a mentor or have one.
LinkedIn built a Tinder for business advice
The ability to swipe left and right to determine if you want to do business with someone is Tinder's signature feature. It's been copied by hundreds of imitators, but few would have expected the staid LinkedIn to be one of them. The Microsoft-owned professional network is rolling out a swipey-choosey feature that will enable hungry entrants to the world of work to choose a mentor.
The Daily Grind: Should all MMOs have a sidekick system?
One of the best features of RIFT's recent Nightmare Tide expansion is, in my opinion, the sidekicking system. For a while now, the game's allowed you to artifically "mentor" down to a level, but with the expansion you can now artificially sidekick up to quest, run dungeons, or fight rifts with friends. After trying this out to my delight the other night and remembering how much I liked it in City of Heroes, I have to really wonder why more level-based MMOs don't include such a system. Do you think this should be a standard feature? To me, it seems to solve so many problems when it comes to level-heavy games that separate friends from each other. Instead, sidekicking allows for people to play together whenever they want while still preserving the progression that comes with leveling and XP. What do you think? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Samsung's first 14nm FinFET chip promises substantial power savings
After confirming plans to expand its chip-making plant in Austin, Texas, Samsung's also taped out its first 14nm FinFET test chip. The new design (which is being compared with Intel's 'Tri-Gate' found on its Ivy Bridge hardware) promises to offer substantial power and performance improvements compared to existing designs, with low-leakage often mentioned in the same breath as the new silicon. Samsung's new test chip also involved ARM and Synopsis, and is a good sign that we'll be seeing its next-gen chips sooner rather than later.
Enter at Your Own Rift: The joy of mentoring
One of the reasons I like RIFT so much is that it has similar features to my other favorite MMO, EverQuest II. That's not really surprising, since RIFT's Executive Producer is Scott Hartsman, who was formerly EQII's Senior Producer and Creative Director. Since mentoring is one of the cornerstones of Norrath, it's something I was hoping would make its way into the world of Telara. But mentoring in RIFT is a little different what's in EQII, and it's worth taking a closer look at those changes because they've broken the major hurdle to allowing high- and low-level players to do things together. In fact, I think mentoring is something that every level-based MMO should add as a standard feature.
Allods Online previews patch 3.0.4, spills new server details
Allods Online is constantly on the move, and as such, the team recently announced that the next update will be coming soon to the game. In addition to a brand-new North American server, patch 3.0.4 will witness significant changes to the mentoring and questing systems. Mentoring came with the previous update and is still being fine-tuned. With 3.0.4, mentors will be limited to 10 apprentices per character. Apprentices can be dismissed if a player is over the 10 limit and wants to add a new one. The dev team also announced a mentor/apprentice quest line that will give rewards to both. These quests can be accessed starting at level 10 and completed once per five levels beyond that. Patch 3.0.4 will also include more improvements to questing. The quest tracker and find quest feature are slated to become more intuitive, and the automove ability has been expanded to allow the system to run players through multiple zones in one go. The devs examined the quest flow as well and adjusted it to make it smoother in certain areas. The new server announced yesterday will be called Avilon and was created in response to a larger-than-expected influx of players onto the single North American shard. Players will not be able to transfer existing characters to Avilon, as the devs want to keep the server fresh and fair for those who roll there.
Help a newbie with RIFT's upcoming mentoring system
RIFT fans are surely excited about the game's upcoming patch 1.9, which will bring a number of new features, such as the three-way conquest PvP mode, to the popular fantasy title. The mentoring system allows players to scale their levels down so they can play with lower-level teammates while still receiving XP and rewards comparable to their true levels. Trion Worlds has designed the system to be easy to use: If you want to drop your level to match someone else's, simply invite that player to a party, right-click on his character's portrait, and voila. In addition, if you join a random instant adventure group, you will automatically be lowered to the appropriate level. And remember, you do continue to gain level-appropriate rewards and XP even when your level has been lowered by the mentor system. For instance, if your character is level 45 but you're mentored down to say, level 30 to play with a friend, you'll continue to gain XP suitable for a level 45 character, and you'll always be rewarded with the appropriate variety of sourcestone. For the full details on the game's upcoming mentoring system, head on over to the RIFT official site.
Allods Online releases Astral Storm update
Wakey wakey, Allods Online players -- the Astral Storm update is here! Patch 3.0.2 was released to North American and European servers today hosting a wide variety of anticipated additions and changes to the game. These include a mentor system, pets that can loot for you, more PvP content, and an overhaul of alchemy. GPotato also nerfed its own free-to-play penalties in the update, as it removed Tep's Curse and Holy Charms from the game in order to protect players' gear. Dying will no longer cause player items to be cursed, which means that the charms are no longer needed as well. To celebrate the release of Astral Storm, gPotato brought back the tropical Atoll for three weeks. Catch up on all of the 3.0.2 goodness on Allods' special minisite devoted to the patch. [Source: gPotato press release]
Allods Online prepares players for patch 3.0.2 with a new mini-site
Allods Online's mascots are back for another humorous video, as Troll and Crab try their hands (claws) at making potions. It doesn't quite go as expected, but it's hard to blame Crab for what happens (he's just an earnest little guy). This is all to promote the game's newest update, patch 3.0.2, which promises to be a savory concoction for players to quaff. Over the weekend, gPotato opened up a new mini-site to promote the update and has since posted several new articles highlighting the changes. Some of patch 3.0.2's big selling points include a revamp of the Alchemy profession, the ability for pets to do the looting, a neat-sounding mentor system, a new skirmish called The Deserted Farm, a free-for-all treasure hunting space, a new raid boss, and better questing. Before you head over to see all of the patch changes, make sure to catch up on the latest episode of Troll and Crab after the break! [Thanks to Alex for the tip!]
Allods Online's patch 3.0.2 bringing mentor system, new Astral space
Allods Online's astral space is about to get just a little bit bigger thanks to the game's recently announced patch 3.0.2. The title's publisher, gPotato, announced today that the game's May content update will be bringing "a host of fixes and tweaks alongside some significant new features, including a new mentoring system and a new sector of astral space dedicated to free-for-all treasure hunting." The game's mentoring system allows experienced, high-level players to impart their wisdom and knowledge upon new characters of the same faction and archetype. The system is managed entirely through the game's mentor interface, which also helps to match prospective apprentices with a mentor. Mentors can receive a number of rewards, including gold and marks of diligence, depending on the amount of time the mentor spends with his apprentice. The update is also unveiling a new area of astral space wherein players will compete in a free-for-all battle for randomly spawning treasure, but be warned: The more players are in the zone, the higher the chance that a demon will show up to try to wreck your day. Players will have a limited amount of time to contend with opposing players and marauding demons and to gather the most loot possible before time's up. To get a sneak peek at these shiny new features, just head on past the cut and have a look at the update's official trailer. [Source: gPotato press release]
The Daily Grind: Who was your MMO mentor -- and whom did you mentor?
No matter how many years we have played MMOs, we shouldn't forget that we all had to start somewhere. Yes, we were all noobies once, floundering through our first days in an online game and aggroing everything in sight without understanding what "aggro" meant. We all needed help and guidance, and some of us got it in the form of a friendly mentor. This mentor showed us the ropes, taught us the slang, gave us resources so we weren't as vulnerable, and helped us get our game footing. Maybe it was a guild leader, a real-life friend or family member, or even a now-forgotten Gnome who took time out of her day to take pity on a greenhorn such as yourself. Later on as you gained more experience in the ways of the MMO, you had opportunities to mentor others in return. You heard the pleas from the advice channel, roped in a buddy to play the game, or taught a significant other about your hobby. The student became the teacher, and you found yourself explaining that mass-aggroing 20 mobs at once was not beneficial. So tell us: Who was your MMO mentor -- and whom did you mentor? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Editorial examines MMO mentoring, community dynamics
A wise man once described current-gen MMOs as "playing alone together." OK, truthfully I don't know who said that, nor do I know if he is particularly wise, but it resonated (and it's also applicable to a new editorial at Gamasutra that focuses on improving the community aspects of our favorite genre). The piece looks at several current games -- including Final Fantasy XIV, RIFT, and Dungeons and Dragons Online -- and analyzes how they both succeed and fail at bringing players together. Particular attention is paid to mentoring systems, though EverQuest II's is omitted. What ultimately emerges from the lengthy read is a portrait of a challenging issue that has its roots in both operational and design considerations, and while the piece doesn't offer any particular solution, it does provide quite a lot of food for thought.
The Daily Grind: Should more MMOs implement sidekicking?
Back when Ultima Online was young, gamers didn't have to think about things like levels or content walls. Regardless of our skills or how long we'd been playing, we just joined up with our guildmates and went dungeoning. Throw enough people at a lich lord or a demon and that sucker's going down! But with the rise of level-based themepark games, the gap between time-rich and time-poor players has widened -- you aren't going to accomplish much if you're level 15 and your friends are all 50 and knee-deep in the endgame. To help alleviate that problem, games like City of Heroes and EverQuest II pioneered "sidekicking" and "mentoring" systems, which allow highbies to partner up with lowbies, effectively boosting the noobies' levels and enabling their access to high-end content. Other games shun such systems, perhaps because they're difficult to balance and allow players to (at least temporarily) skip grindy level-based content that's meant to slow them down and keep them paying. What do you think -- should more MMOs implement sidekicking systems? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Game Archaeologist spins A Tale in the Desert: The highlights
Readers of the ever-so-humble Game Archaeologist will recall that earlier this year I had the opportunity to exchange informative words with Dr. Richard Bartle, the creator of MUD. Since he was -- and is -- a highly opinionated designer, I asked him what he thought was the most innovative MMO from the last decade. The answer was short and succinct. "A Tale in the Desert, he replied, then added: "Note that 'innovative' doesn't necessarily mean 'successful.'" Right there is the crux of ATITD's unique position in the MMO industry. Instead of storming down a path well-traveled, it took a machete and made its own trail -- a trail down which few have followed. As Jef recently noted in Some Assembly Required, it is an "odd duck" of a game, skewing as far away from combat as possible to focus on two often-neglected aspects of MMOs: crafting and politics. Even though its population has pegged it as an eternally niche game, it's proven that constant fighting isn't the only thing that can draw an online community together. This week we're going to look at some of the more unique features of this innovative yet diminutive MMO, which began telling its tale back in 2003.
Gates of Andaron update to feature mentoring, three faction PvP
What's been going on with Gates of Andaron lately? Quite a lot, actually. A new press release from Gameforge has the details, and they include a third warring faction, a new mentoring system, and browser-based gameplay. The new Rise of Gor update will debut in October, and the patch introduces the Gor faction to challenge the existing Valorian and Derion forces. Starting at level 80, Gor players may enter "large PvP battles, tipping the balance of power for or against the underdogs in a given battle." The update isn't all endgame, though, as the newbie town of Tebekut is being recreated and will include "the most impressive graphics yet." The mentoring system will also ease new players into the game (and mentors even receive a payout when their charges reach level 90). Gates of Andaron is free-to-play, and you'll want to head to the official site to learn more and grab the client. %Gallery-78310%
Wings Over Atreia: Mentors, schmentors
Ahhh, the unadulterated bliss of traipsing about the promised land of milk and honey -- otherwise known as Atreia post 2.5. The siren call of the Empyrean Crucible, the plink of new tokens in the cube, the sounds of laughter as Daevas play with their newest cuddly little companions... what's that, you say? It is not all fluffy kittens and rainbows and sparkle ponies? *Gasp* How can that be?! Last week, we touched on a number of the additions and improvements brought to Aion with the latest patch, Empyrean Calling. However, after the novelty of the the new features had worn off a bit, the negative impact of some of these improvements became apparent; no matter how much is put into a system, there will always be pros and cons. Such can be said of the new mentoring system. Even while adding more to the gameplay of some, this system is taking away from it for others. Some were heard to be cursing mentoring from day one. Additionally, I venture to raise some concerns about long-term consequences that may not be considered in the rush to take advantage of the short-term gains. Sure, there are the benefits, but nothing comes without a cost. Nothing. So what could be so bad about mentoring in Aion? Slip past the cut and I'll fill you in.
Wings Over Atreia: First impressions of Empyrean Calling
IT'S HERE!!11! OMZG *cue altered cheer emote* The wait is over. Yes folks, Aion 2.5 Empyrean Calling has finally arrived on the North American servers. And just as they did when 2.0 (Assault on Balaurea) launched, Daevas have been flocking back to check out a shiny new Atreia. My friends list is lighting up with names I haven't seen in... well, longer than I can actually recall! Only the second Aion update to warrant an actual name, this patch certainly brings some new goodies to the table. While not as extensive as its predecessor, it still offers substance enough for Daevas to really sink their teeth into. But after so much anticipation, did it live up to expectations? Does the fact that I have lost track of my week since last Wednesday say anything? From the new instances to the mentoring system, there is certainly more to do in-game, especially for those who have made it to level cap and endgame. But don't just take my word for it! In honor of the release, NCsoft is offering another reactivation celebration: For 10 days (beginning at 11:00 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 3rd and running until the same time on Monday, June 13th) any player with an Aion account can log in and experience the changes for herself. Can't wait until the 3rd for a taste? Barrel roll past the cut to check out my first impressions of Empyrean Calling.%Gallery-123657%
