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4 min 58 sec
Marc Mencher's Adventures in the Game Industry and BEYOND!
Monday, January 19, 2015
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Some Amazing Animal Friendships
After spending a lot of time alone in the same room of the owner‘s house, they grew fond of each other The crow is almost always on the dog's back, the dog even barks when people try to touch his pal. The owner built a custom harness for more comfortable rides.
A duck and house cat raised together by a family. Supposedly the duck hates water and hasn't
A black swan feeding fish at a public park.
After a devastating forest fire, fire rescue ran out of crates for the animals saved from the blazes.
This fawn and baby bobcat were placed together in the office. Hours later, firemen noticed
they'd taken a liking to one another and cuddled for the duration they were kept together.
A duck and house cat raised together by a family. Supposedly the duck hates water and hasn't
figured out yet that it can fly.
A wild life park in China adopted two tiger cubs, which were soon adopted by a worker's dog
that happened to be in the pen frequently.
The Fernandez family adopted a tiger cub after he lost his family. He's been raised with the family
dog since youth and they are inseparable.
A five week old boar plays with Candy, the jack Russell terrier in Ehringhausen , Germany .
Humphrey was a house pet that became too large and was moved to the Rhino and Lion Nature
Reserve in South Africa , where he was safe but lonely. Cameroon Pygmy Mountain Goat climbed
Humphrey's enclosure fence and befriended him.
Sobe the iguana and Johann the cat were both rescued by a woman in Brooklyn , NY . Every day
when the iguana is let out of her cage, she seeks out Johann for play time, along with a rabbit also
kept as a pet.
A baby hippo was swept away by a tsunami and rescued by a wild life reservation. A 130 year
old tortoise immediately befriended him.
Everyone knows who Koko the gorilla that speaks sign language is. For her birthday one year,
she signed to her teacher that she wanted a kitten. Koko's teacher wasn't surprised, as Koko's two
favorite books were about cats. They adopted one from an abandoned litter and Koko showed it
tender care and gentleness.
A lioness abandoned by her pack decides to adopted a baby impala after killing its mother. Several
times, she tried to leave the baby in the company of other impalas, but ended up having to take the
baby back under her wing after the adult impalas were frightened away by her
A giraffe and ostrich form an odd friendship at Busch Garden 's in Florida ..
A baby impala was left behind after the rest of its group ran away from the cheetahs. Instead of
preying on the impala, they played gently with it a bit before simply getting bored and leaving it.
Owls that hatched at a hawk conservatory were adopted by the park keeper and became friends
with his pet dog.
After a family took in this stray cat, she grew fond of their elderly dog. Realizing the dog was blind,
the cat took on the responsibility of leading the dog to his water, food, shade, and toys. She would
follow closely under his chin to guide him.
A stray cat wandered into this Asiatic bear's enclosure at the Berlin Zoo. It's been coming back
frequently for 10 years to visit its friend.
This pair have been seen together for over a year in Lake Van , Turkey . They were first spotted by local
fisherman who witnessed them sharing a fish and playing together.
At the TIGERS institute in South Carolina , a chimp raises tiger cubs after they were separated from
their mother.
A photographer witnessed a wild polar bear coming upon tethered sled dogs in the wilderness of
Canada 's Hudson Bay .. Instead of devouring the dogs, they played and cuddled. The polar bear returned
every night that week.
Other examples of strange and improbable animal friendships:
Hope
you enjoyed these photos as much as I did as they are priceless. I try
to figure out why adults and countries cannot get along like
animals! I AM SURE THAT YOU WONDERED ABOUT THIS ALSO !
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Why Testing in the Game Industry is Not Really a Great Idea
True Life Anecdote This Week:
It's the last quarter of the year and everyone is in crunch mode right now to get their game shipped in time for Christmas.
My already employed super groovy, totally knowledgeable candidate who HAS LAUNCHED ONE MILLION GAMES, is interested in exploring a new spot.
He looks at an opportunity, but, before he knows the company's name or speaks with a representative of that company on the telephone. . .
He is put off by the fact that he'll have to prequalify for an interview by taking a test.
Solution:
Get on the telephone and get the candidate excited about your company? They are working right now 24/7 till the game is released - you need to hire also - yet your making them take tests?
The smarter companies in our space are just deleting the pre-testing and immediately doing interviews and I am talking major players in our space. They seem to get they need to be aggressive to obtain killer talent yet the bulk of the industry is still requiring testing - still in denial we are in a hiring war and as a result jobs are open for MONTHS.
The smarter companies in our space are just deleting the pre-testing and immediately doing interviews and I am talking major players in our space. They seem to get they need to be aggressive to obtain killer talent yet the bulk of the industry is still requiring testing - still in denial we are in a hiring war and as a result jobs are open for MONTHS.
More solutions:
- HIRE ME TO MATCH YOU UP WITH THE BEST TALENT
- Get more involved in the hiring process by training your staff to vet an employee by interviewing them first on the telephone before you offer for them to take an exam.
- Romance the candidate a little bit. Maybe have someone from your company take them out for a drink.
- The game industry is having a problem meeting competition from monster companies such as Google and Amazon were offering better deals to fresh out of college computer programmers.
In the last two weeks alone I have had over 10 A+ level (currently employed) candidates.
As soon as these highly desirable candidates heard that they would have to take a test, they told me,
"This is a crunch time."
and they withdrew themselves from the interview process.
Here are some ways that you can succeed and hire the best quality people for your company.
Hire older employees.
Believe it or not, older employees know how to manage their time better and have to spend less time at work completing tasks. Older employees also have a lot more experience in problem solving and younger people who have to work it out and don't have real life experience. I've had a lot of reports that the older an employee is the better at their job they are.
Stop thinking you get quality people from posting ads.
If you are looking for quality don't look for the unemployed. People who are already employed and are top-quality (not always the same thing) don't spend any time looking at want ads. They don't need you you need them.
(Yes I am aware that some people been downsized and they are good quality people even though there unemployed, however, most companies were downsizing only layoff the A+ talent last.)
While it might seem counterproductive for a recruiter to work with people who already have jobs,
I do not work with the un-employed or desperate.
(Except of course I will if I already know a candidate and they have a proven track record or a really cool billboard.)
My belief is why job hunt when you in crisis mode? - under this situation your freaked out about paying the bills so will accept most any job, thus most likely not make the best decisions for your long term career. If you pro-actively explore when you're happy and love your current job then you will make a solid career decision when exploring other opportunities as you have no emotional attachment to the outcome.
Suggestion number two, stop testing employees and substitute more direct conversations in person and on the telephone.
If you have to test, wait until you've spent time getting to know the candidate.
Tests were annoying and school their annoying now and did they really measure what you know were they relevant to you? Wouldn't you rather have proved yourself by designing a game?
Most top candidates are annoyed by having to take a test why start a relationship by annoying your possible partner?
Employed people don't have time to look at want ads nor do they have time to go to your place sit down and take a test that they find demeaning because they already can do the job. You're taking a shortcut around having to spend time with the candidate and actually speak with them by giving them a test. This might give them the impression that their time is not valuable to you.
The candidates I present are happily employed thus do not have time nor the desire to test.
How about getting on the telephone and get the candidate excited about your company before throwing a test?
Here are a couple of reasons why testing sucks.
Many of the questions on these tests focus on trivia about computer science.
Here's a question answer it fast,
"What is the Singleton Theory or how do you reverse a string?"
This is stuff a programmer learns in computer school 101 and is absolutely worth less as a way of evaluating a person who has worked in the industry for a few years and obviously coming from a known game entity with products sold on the market.
You don't want to know what the person was able to memorize. . . you want to know how a programmer thinks and goes about solving a problem.
You don't want to know what the person was able to memorize. . . you want to know how a programmer thinks and goes about solving a problem.
If you have to test someone develop a better one.
Artists - most companies give them an art test despite many years of prior experience with products on the market. Again this is foolish! The art tests are very time consuming and again a happily employed A+ Artist does not want to take a test - it's almost insulting.
I certainly get testing folks transitioning into games from another industry. I certainly get testing new graduates with little work history. But to insist that every candidate who is explored gets tested despite several years already working in the industry is a practice that must stop.
We are in a hiring war for most all talent sought by our industry and to ask a person with several years of experience already under their belt is an annoyance and will not get you the best talent.
Monday, September 29, 2014
The Gaming Careers Podcast TGC: 001 Marc Mencher- Game Recruiter Intro
TGC: 001 Marc Mencher- Game Recruiter Intro
Introduction
Industry expert and CEO of http://www.gamerecruiter.com/, Marc Mencher, speaks with me about the changing gaming landscape and gives advice to people looking to get into the industry.
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Thursday, September 25, 2014
#Gamergate Controversy Fuels Debate On Women And Video Games
#Gamergate Controversy Fuels Debate On Women And Video Games
iStockphoto
For the past several weeks, the video game industry has been embroiled in a heated, sometimes ugly, debate, under the hashtag #Gamergate.
It's a debate about a lot of things and it involves a lot of people, but at its heart, #Gamergate is about two key things: ethics in video game journalism, and the role and treatment of women in the video game industry — an industry that has long been dominated by men.
Many in the industry believe that those two things need to be talked about, as the video game industry moves more toward the mainstream than ever before. But it's the way that they're being talked about that has drawn international attention.
Online trolls have long attacked women in the video game industry. But during #Gamergate, it's gotten so bad that two women left their homes because they feared for their own safety, and the FBI has said that it will look into the harassment of game developers.
The first of those two women is Zoe Quinn. Quinn is an independent game developer and a community organizer who's been actively involved in the video game industry for most of her life, both as a consumer of video games and as a developer.
"I basically make weird little games that are about feelings, so not the traditional sort of game [that] people usually think of when you say video game," she says.
Quinn's most notable game is called Depression Quest, which simulates the experience of having depression through multiple-choice text.
For a while Quinn dated a programmer named Eron Gjoni. Gjoni sparked the #Gamergate debate when he wrote online that Quinn had cheated on him, one time with a journalist for the games website Kotaku. The implication was that she had done so to get better reviews for Depression Quest. Quinn and Kotaku have denied those claims, but what followed was #Gamergate.
The claims instigated a huge backlash on Twitter and online forums like Reddit and 4chan. Some people used the allegations against Quinn as proof that there's corruption in video game journalism — that game developers and game journalists have grown too cozy. Others attacked Quinn based on her gender, calling her a "social justice warrior" — an insulting term for people who are deemed to be uninterested in games themselves, just in using those games as a platform to promote themselves or their ideals.
That's where things got ugly — horribly ugly.
Quinn was soon flooded with death threats and rape threats. Her personal information, even photos, were hacked and posted online, forcing her to leave her home.
"It's like the Internet is eager and waiting for a reason to be a total scumbag to you — at least if you're a woman and you're a loud, outspoken woman," she says.
Quinn says she's seen a lot of sexism in the video game industry, for as long as she's been involved.
"It's absolutely there. I don't think I've ever released a game without getting some sort of rape threat," she says. "And that includes stupid little stuff, like one time I made a game called Jeff Goldblum Staring Contest, which is exactly what it sounds like. And I still got people being like: Girls can't make games. Who made this for you?"
She's also seen that sexism and harassment lobbed at other women in the industry, like Anita Sarkeesian, who Quinn says has been basically living #Gamergate for two years.
Sarkeesian is a video game critic who looks at the way video games portray women, in an online blog called Feminist Frequency. In her video critiques, she takes clips of games and talks about the roles female characters often play. In one, she talks about how women are often relegated to the role of damsel in distress — a prize to be won or a goal to be achieved — using Princess Peach from the Super Mario series as an example.
In other blogs, Sarkeesian talks about some of the darker, secondary roles women play.
In other blogs, Sarkeesian talks about some of the darker, secondary roles women play.
"How sexualized female bodies often occupy a dual role as both sexual playthings and the perpetual victims of male violence," she says, in a video that cuts to a scene from the Assassin's Creed game series where a man asks about a prostitute.
Sarkeesian has been getting angry backlash for her critiques since she's been doing them, but during #Gamergate, that backlash got so bad that she tweeted she had left her home too, after calling the authorities.
"It can turn your stomach pretty quick," says Adam Saltsman, a small games developer based in Austin, Texas. Saltsman, his wife and many in the industry watched as the backlash spread from Sarkeesian and Quinn to other men and women in the industry who spoke up in their defense.
Andreas Zecher, an independent games designer in Germany, wrote in an email: "For a short moment that strategy of the harassers seemed to work. There was a brief, but unbearable silence. People were afraid to become the next target, if they would speak up and show solidarity."
To address that, Zecher wrote an open letter to the gaming community that read, in part:
The letter quickly gained about 2,500 signatures that included names from people at major studios like Rockstar North, Naughty Dog, Bungie and Ubisoft.
Many in the industry, including Saltsman, point to those signatures as proof that the people sending vicious attacks at Quinn and Sarkeesian weren't representative of the video game industry overall.
"The people doing the most harm are absolutely a vocal minority," Saltsman says.
United Kingdom-based games journalist Leigh Alexander agreed with that sentiment but was more leery of disregarding the attackers as just a vocal minority.
"The sexism stuff and the harassment and the gatekeeping is definitely a thing," she says. "I've had way too many experiences with people working in this field to not believe that it is a thing."
Alexander believes that the reason those things became so vitriolic in the past several weeks is the changing nature of the video game industry itself.
"What I think is going on is that there's a cultural spasm happening that nobody expected that accompanies this mainstreaming of video games and the diversification of video games," she says.
Alexander is referring to games like Candy Crush and Words With Friends — games that are now on smartphones and tablets, accessible to a far wider range of people than ever before.
Alexander thinks that the conventional audience — which she calls a "boys club" — is shaken up by that change.
"In part because they're used to being explicitly catered to as a precious special market demographic and they feel like they might get left behind," she says.
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