Escapist Podcast: 071: Jumping the Cougar-Shark

Airon

New member
Jan 8, 2012
107
0
0
The person being hired has to deal with it, and the hiring person will have to deal with the bad elements in the company.

As the person hiring that person, a very, very large weight falls on your shoulder, and here the weaklings and the strong stand out.

The weak will inevitably take the safest road, bowing to the lowest standard. The twitchiest person and those least capable of personal growth will set the agenda.

Can the leadership of the company deal with it ? That won't go unnoticed either, no matter how practical the argument.

Tough choices. The crappy company won't cope and not hire the person. A strong company will cope and grow.

It is a shame. Is that a US problem ? Not in Germany it would be. Great discussion.
 

Roxas1359

Burn, Burn it All!
Aug 8, 2009
33,758
1
0
I think that the Phantasy Star games also used the VMUs like how they were used in Sonic Adventure. Never played them though and I never had a VMU with my Dreamcast...I miss my Dreamcast so much. T.T

Edit: Just checked, you could use it in Jet Set Radio/Jet Grind Radio to transfer your custom tags.
 

StriderShinryu

New member
Dec 8, 2009
4,987
0
0
If I recall correctly, I remember hearing that you could also use the VMU screen for play selection in some sports games. It was basically (and by that I mean VERY basically) the same sort of thing you could do with the WiiU gamepad.

Personally, I don't really see the issue with the Dexter books as long as you take them for what they are, fun entertaining quick reads that don't require all that much brain power. I also think the "lizard brain" aspect was a little over played in the podcast. I've read all of the books so far and really that aspect is only heavily used in part of one book (out of, I believe, five or six). Also, I find that the books are actually generally more humourous than the television show. It's a more dark and twisted humour, but there's a lot less straight up drama than you find in the show. If you find Dexter's internal commentary in the show funny, Dexter does a lot more of that in the books.
 

Susan Arendt

Nerd Queen
Jan 9, 2007
7,222
0
0
StriderShinryu said:
If I recall correctly, I remember hearing that you could also use the VMU screen for play selection in some sports games. It was basically (and by that I mean VERY basically) the same sort of thing you could do with the WiiU gamepad.

Personally, I don't really see the issue with the Dexter books as long as you take them for what they are, fun entertaining quick reads that don't require all that much brain power. I also think the "lizard brain" aspect was a little over played in the podcast. I've read all of the books so far and really that aspect is only heavily used in part of one book (out of, I believe, five or six). Also, I find that the books are actually generally more humourous than the television show. It's a more dark and twisted humour, but there's a lot less straight up drama than you find in the show. If you find Dexter's internal commentary in the show funny, Dexter does a lot more of that in the books.
Yes, you could choose plays in Madden. I think, though, that Sonic Adenture was the only game that did something when the VMU was out of the controller. It's the only one I can remember, anyway.
 

blackrave

New member
Mar 7, 2012
2,020
0
0
Guys (and Susan), you can have all the snow from here
Seriously just come here and take it all
It is 3rd day of non-stop wind with often medium/heavy snowing
I'm pretty sure the Ice Age is returning to these parts
(and location in my profile info- Antarctica- now seems justified)
It's not even funny anymore
I hope at least this time we won't end up with regular displays of cannibalism :/
 

Susan Arendt

Nerd Queen
Jan 9, 2007
7,222
0
0
blackrave said:
Guys (and Susan), you can have all the snow from here
Seriously just come here and take it all
It is 3rd day of non-stop wind with often medium/heavy snowing
I'm pretty sure the Ice Age is returning to these parts
(and location in my profile info- Antarctica- now seems justified)
It's not even funny anymore
I hope at least this time we won't end up with regular displays of cannibalism :/
Where are you? :)
 

blackrave

New member
Mar 7, 2012
2,020
0
0
Susan Arendt said:
blackrave said:
Guys (and Susan), you can have all the snow from here
Seriously just come here and take it all
It is 3rd day of non-stop wind with often medium/heavy snowing
I'm pretty sure the Ice Age is returning to these parts
(and location in my profile info- Antarctica- now seems justified)
It's not even funny anymore
I hope at least this time we won't end up with regular displays of cannibalism :/
Where are you? :)
Well, my profile says it right there- Antarctica :)

Ok, North-Eastern Europe actually (Latvia to be more precise)
Now it is -8C, in couple of days -20C are being promised


P.S. And that's only indoors :)
(just, imagine what happens outside :D )
 

wakeup

New member
Aug 26, 2012
151
0
0
good podcast although i really don't agree with what you said about 24. its best season was one of the later ones, besides jacks daughter was only a main character in the earlier seasons. aside from me being a fan boy, i completely agree with Susan on the hiring issue.
 

ritchards

Non-gamer in a gaming world
Nov 20, 2009
641
0
0
Cougar-Shark, next on an all new SyFy Movie of the Week...

Susan, if you happen to read this, as you are a Doctor Who fangirl, have you ever encountered Sapphire and Steel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphire_%26_Steel]? (Late 70s early 80s, extreme WTF? series, but if it clicks, it clicks amazingly!)
 

Susan Arendt

Nerd Queen
Jan 9, 2007
7,222
0
0
blackrave said:
Susan Arendt said:
blackrave said:
Guys (and Susan), you can have all the snow from here
Seriously just come here and take it all
It is 3rd day of non-stop wind with often medium/heavy snowing
I'm pretty sure the Ice Age is returning to these parts
(and location in my profile info- Antarctica- now seems justified)
It's not even funny anymore
I hope at least this time we won't end up with regular displays of cannibalism :/
Where are you? :)
Well, my profile says it right there- Antarctica :)

Ok, North-Eastern Europe actually (Latvia to be more precise)
Now it is -8C, in couple of days -20C are being promised


P.S. And that's only indoors :)
(just, imagine what happens outside :D )
Oh! I'm not sure why, but the way you phrased it, I thought you meant that as a joke. Well, now I just feel silly.

ritchards said:
Cougar-Shark, next on an all new SyFy Movie of the Week...

Susan, if you happen to read this, as you are a Doctor Who fangirl, have you ever encountered Sapphire and Steel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphire_%26_Steel]? (Late 70s early 80s, extreme WTF? series, but if it clicks, it clicks amazingly!)
I knew it existed, but I've never actually seen it. Reminds me, though, I should bring up Blake's 7 at some point. :)
 

yunabomb

New member
Nov 29, 2011
133
0
0
When you discussed all the work that goes into game testing and debugging, the first thing I thought about was the game breaking glitch in Street Fighter X Tekken. Capcom really messed up by not testing out that situation.

If you don't know, after a patch was released for the game, If Rolento's knife-projectile collided with an opponent's projectile, the game would freeze. It was fixed in the next patch.
 

blackrave

New member
Mar 7, 2012
2,020
0
0
Susan Arendt said:
blackrave said:
Susan Arendt said:
Where are you? :)
Well, my profile says it right there- Antarctica :)

Ok, North-Eastern Europe actually (Latvia to be more precise)
Now it is -8C, in couple of days -20C are being promised


P.S. And that's only indoors :)
(just, imagine what happens outside :D )
Oh! I'm not sure why, but the way you phrased it, I thought you meant that as a joke. Well, now I just feel silly.
Guilty as charged, at least last part about inside/outside :)
Not about weather though
There is expected huge temperature drop in a few days (like I said -8C to -20C)
But at least snowing stopped today :)
Although it may be only in the city, I can bet that in country side (were my parents live and where I've been visiting for a couple of days) it is still windy with occasional snowing
 

Mumorpuger

This is a...!
Apr 8, 2009
606
0
0
Something I wanted to add in regards to the hypothetical hiring of someone who posed in Playboy-

Another thing to keep in mind is that your employees represent the the company they work for when they don their uniform, or appear in public if they are on the clock. With that in mind, there are certain actions that (if I were a CEO, etc) I would not like to be used to judge my company. I'm not certain it would apply to something like a writer or artist at a video game company, but it does with regards to the police officers who posed in the magazine, as they can be seen as representing their cities or even state.

Also, The Contender sounds like a really good movie, and you guys made me look it up. Wikipedia says it was The Dude who played the president though, which made me want to watch it even more. Also, after thinking about the movie Mr. Brooks, I can totally see how William Hurt and Jeff Bridges could be confused. They should start in a movie where they're brothers. Maybe Beau Bridges can join.
 

thewanderer41

New member
Jun 20, 2012
56
0
0
Hey, so I know I'm late to the discussion table and I'm still in the middle of the episode, but I did work at the Saftey Critical Avionics Systems Branch at NASA so I think I can provide some comment on the topic of Aircraft safety.

The hardware that are generally employed in aircraft are more lightweight and less complex due to weight restraints. As such, they're more prone to error due to noise resulting from electronics, this is usually accounted for with redundancy (3 cards instead of 1, but still less weight than a graphics card). When you said interference from battery or radio and in truth it's both, there's just different wavelengths, so one's more likely than the other. Anyways, the main point is that the wrong person, with the wrong device, in the wrong place, at the wrong time can, in fact, break through the redundancy and crash the systems. That being said, the probability of that is really low so what usually goes through is static. That also being said, considering the number of flights going across the globe in a given day, if we said it was okay to use electronic devices on the plane, the actual chance of this happening over time skyrockets.

Thus on behalf of the SCASB, I would greatly enjoy traveling by air if you would turn off your electronic devices during take-off and landing because if the pilots can't hear ground control due to static or if one of the control surfaces decides to go up instead of down or the instruments are off or a multitude of other little things that could make my landing significantly less fiery goes a bit wonky doesn't actually break, I'd be significantly happier.

tl;dr: right person, right place, right time = crashed systems; prob/person = low, prob/person/time = uncomfortable
 

marr

New member
Dec 18, 2012
4
0
0
Susan Arendt said:
As for your comment about disqualifying people based on such characteristics being arbitrary...you're right. But when you have one open position and literally hundreds of qualified applicants, you will look for any reason to thin the herd.

I was also making the point that it's utterly naive to think that certain life choices will have no impact on your hireability - or, perhaps more accurately, advertising those choices.
Naive perhaps, but I cannot fault the lady in question for being indignant. Anger is the correct emotional response to injustice, it fueled the sixties, punk & rock and roll, and drives each new generation to drag their elders kicking and screaming along the ratchet of progress. You go, girl.

This case is somewhat unique in that posing in a magazine is a public thing to do, unlike many of the other personal preferences we're talking about.
Since the internet generally, and facebook in particular, a lot of personal details have become effectively public. This crop of twentysomethings don't really have an expectation of privacy, or any practical way to step back into the closet if they wanted to.

I don't see a qualitative difference between being publicly sexual and/or being publicly gay.

But people are people, biased and predjudiced. As an employer, it makes sense to try and minimize friction inasmuch as possible and practical.
Which depending on the company, could be best achieved by not employing people of certain religions, enacting don't-ask-don't-tell, or exclusively employing faithful Fox News disciples. I doubt you'd defend those solutions. As you say, any company will inevitably employ people who find each other personally offensive, it's the employees' duty to keep their prejudices out of the office, and management's job to knock heads together when they don't.

To deny someone employment opportunities because their personal background could be controversial is injustice, as a manager you'd be doing this purely to make your own job easier. Should the goal not be to minimize friction inasmuch as *ethical* and practical? We tried making people hide who they were to fit into polite society back in the fifties, it was shit.

An addendum in closing: Tasha Yar - Never Forget. <3
 

thewanderer41

New member
Jun 20, 2012
56
0
0
Susan Arendt said:
Again, let's be clear - this isn't about should you hire this particular person, it's should you hire this particular person when you can hire someone else who will do it just as well?

As for your comment about disqualifying people based on such characteristics being arbitrary...you're right. But when you have one open position and literally hundreds of qualified applicants, you will look for any reason to thin the herd.
So my particular take on this is that the opposite of this might also be true, no? Instead of looking for a reason to thin the herd, you're looking for a distinguishing feature to take interest in. A woman who is able to pose nude in Playboy and then be willing to apply for a job in a different field, knowing full well the virality of the internet, seems to indicate a confidence in herself. If you're considering other team members, perhaps the ability to not be easily cowed would be rather important.

In terms of the way that other people are interpreting your question, let us take for a example a team of people who are mostly Jewish. Would you then limit the "herd" by removing all Muslim applicants because you predict that there will be friction? What if the current team is all male? Would you remove all female applicants and gay applicants because it could cause discomfort and problems?

In the end, I would say, no, an applicant shouldn't be removed due to something like this. If you're still considering in the numbers that you're posing, then another arbitrary measure would be better in culling down to numbers that you deem are manageable. Removing a single brick from a wall still won't get you into the keep.
If, however, she is at the level where only small cuts can only be made, then her work is good enough to be more important than something like this.
 

marr

New member
Dec 18, 2012
4
0
0
One of my better employers used to thin the herd by shuffling the applications and binning half the stack unseen, on the basis that he didn't employ unlucky people. That seemed bizarrely fair.
 

Jakale

New member
Feb 16, 2010
45
0
0
So I know I'm coming to this a week late, but I only just got to the episode and had to see if anyone drew the cougar-shark. Since it looked like no one had I wanted to see if it had ever popped up. Lo and behold, one image search later, an entry to a photo editing contest mixing land and sea animals produced this gem, remarkably tailored to the topic at hand.


Granted, it's a different use of jumping than the source, but I can't find it in me to fault the picture for that.
 

Endocrom

New member
Apr 6, 2009
1,242
0
0
To me, "Little from colum A little from colum B" is a Simpsons reference, when Grampa was distracting the feds.