I've been interviewing candidates for a position that's been vacant for a month. The person who left, reported to me, but she had been in the department since before I was born - so I let her do her thing, she'd forgotten more than I'd likely ever learn and she did stellar work. Lots of really good candidates. I have a very informal interview style, I want to see them, not the interview version of them. So we talk, let things happen organically. I learn about them, answer anything they want to know about the role. After about 40 minutes, we're done and they're excited to talk more. I discuss with the team, then make an offer the same week. Four people so far, all had offers, all have said "Sorry, that's actually a pay cut for me. Can we negotiate the salary?" Unfortunately, I already did. I negotiated with my bosses to put the offer at the top of the range, and it's still a paycut. I have no other method, nothing else to offer them. We just simply don't pay well enough. The plus side of having the salary ranges publicly available is that I get to be very honest when talking about it with my team. They know what I'm on, they know what they're on. They know what a promotion would entail and they know what they could get elsewhere. Honestly I'm surprised we're only down like 6 staff given there are many opportunities floating about at the moment. The most recent candidate moved here from Scotland, interviewed amazingly and when I made an offer, she asked for a week to see some other offers. Of course I was happy to wait. She got another offer, from my old boss no less. More money, same organization. She asked very politely if I could match that offer, as she'd like to work with me, but the other role is offering a fair bit more. I told her I couldn't and that she should take that role - it's a good one and she's a good fit and that's a really good boss. Ugh. It's all true. She went with it and I'm sure she's happy, but back to the drawing board for me. Anyway - my own interview in a fairly entry-level IT role is up tomorrow. Just desktop support/technician. They normally want people with a degree in the field, so I'm pleased they're interviewing me. I'm not entirely sure what kind of questions I'll get asked. When I interview, it's about behavioural things. Prioritizing, difficult conversations and situations. I've never interviewed for nor interviewed someone for a more hands-on, technical role. I'm confident it'll go well. I interview well, it's just a matter of whether or not I'm worth taking a punt on. I'm wondering if me applying for a role that is a noticeable step down in pay and responsibility would be seen as a negative to them. Maybe? Maybe not? Ah well. Oh shit my gaming pals almost completed a raid in Destiny 2 last night. I went in almost refusing to be involved because I was not in the mood for mechanics and people getting angry at each other, but it turned into just a barrel of laughs as we fumbled our way through everything. Got a couply hours of footage, gonna edit it down to highlight how we share one braincell when we get together. And we'll, hopefully, finish the damn thing this weekend.
The Lightfall expansion has many issues (narrative being a major one) but it is still a wonderful feeling shooter to enjoy with friends. If it weren't for the, presumably, terrible ping issues we'd encounter I'd invite you along for a blast. That and the expansions are hilariously expensive. It's dumb, but you can switch off the brain for a bit and watch numbers go up.
Yeah coordinating my life around a raid in NZ time is even dumber than it sounds. Appreciate the offer, though. I appear to not have Lightfall. I have Shadowkeep. I can't recall if I even made it through it. Black Armory pissed me off - you couldn't use your content unless you could find five friends who all had two hours to kill at the same time. That's when I realized that it is first and foremost a tryhard game and Bungie likes it that way.
Lawd - It's telling that I talked about ping, and didn't even think of the horrid time difference. 2pm Thursday right now, must be evening Wednesday for you? Somehow we made it work, I'm the only Kiwi so I work around their reasonable Aussie schedule, but most of them have kids, partners and.. Lives. So last night was a veritable miracle and I doubt we'll see it again, despite our plans. I hop in and out of the game, I can not play it for a year or two then the group has the urge like we do now. As you say, it's very try-hard and we're old, slow dudes now.
Once upon a time I was in the Old Man Clan. They had a discord and everything. Got to know some of the guys. Then I was unceremoniously kicked. I was offended. Then I used Bungie's API and some of the tools to look up the guys who were running that thing. Guy who booted me? Fifteen thousand hours into Destiny 2. Who knows how many into Destiny. It made everything okay - yeah, you're right. If your baseline is "our players put fifteen thousand hours into a video game" I will never be a contributing member ever ever ever. I have like 250 hours into No Man's Sky across three saves and that's a lot. I had this discussion with the guy who ran the local GameStop. I expected his eyes to bug out. "Nah, man, Destiny is unreal," he said. "People who play Destiny are a breed apart. It's all they do. There are games with intensive fandoms? And then there's Destiny." You know what I just beat? Immortals: Fenyx Rising. You know why? Because it's Skyward Sword without having to spend every fifth evening cooking potions. Your weapons don't break when you use them too much. There are three or four equally-valid play styles, there's a steady but limited power progression, there's an easy-to-fill skills tree and there's four kinds of puzzles that are easy-to-clever which can be explained in a single breath. So apparently I'm not the only truly casual gamer on the planet? But I wonder sometimes. I played like 150 hours of Surviving Mars: "Congratulations it's Sim City with the Andy Weir skin!" Based on that I tried Cities Skylines thinking Sim City was fun, surely Cities Skylines would be similar. Nope. You're LARPing as the damn zoning board.
That does make me feel better about my ~1000 hours into Battlefield V. There was a moment where my teammates and myself were recognized in a lobby and I went from "Heh nice" to "Ah fuck" in about three seconds, as I realized it meant we were the basement dwelling sweatlords. I probably took all my shame out on this poor dude just trying to take the point - https://streamable.com/ijmh91 switch to sidearm for max flex, slide-by, one shot, sorry m8 I'm feeling antsy and you happened to be nearby. Destiny though - you've reminded me of something. Last year, at work, I was a part of making a video documenting the work that goes on in our area. It was a fun side project my boss cooked up. Anyway, the guy brought in to do the video work had a nice jacket on. A jacket with a symbol that looked familiar. The Destiny raid symbol. Turns out he was in a clan that completed a global first raid and got the jacket as a prize (I suspect still cost a pretty penny), and I was keen to talk briefly about Destiny cause I casually enjoyed it. I said "I've finished one raid, with the baths? and the race? That was cool" and you could see the sneer barely hidden from his face. Oh. Oh that's the real Destiny player. Not me popping in once or twice a year to shoot stuff. The guys that breathe it. The guys that have the right weapon for every stage of a raid. Not me, who uses Riskrunner cause I like it and the idea of taking damage to deal more damage tickles me pink.
Yeah Bungie's local around here. So you see a lot of Destiny shirts and swag - I would say every other time I go to the grocery store, I see someone else wearing Destiny shit. Never the same people, never the same shirt twice. So on the one hand - they might be getting paid for it. On the other hand - there be a lot of XBox tryhards up here. Friend of mine's dad actually codes Destiny. So I can bitch and say "why is it that you have made this game unplayable for people who aren't doing it like a side hustle" and she'll say "preachin' to the choir, dude, I don't even log in anymore." They know? But it's like a casino. 80% of your revenue is from 20% of your peepz and the folx showing up with two fingers of scotch on a Thursday evening that bought the expansion 'cuz it was 80% off on the Playstation store? They ain't a profit center. Riskrunner tho. There's a way to stack stormcaller armor where that thing basically ends up with unlimited ammo. Or there was. They probably nerfed it. But yeah it was great you'd do one of those timed events or whatever and you'd load up riskrunner and you'd basically just firehose the shit out of everyone without ever letting up the trigger. I miss Sleeper Simulant.