Life Imitating Art, Imitating Life

Had to chuckle over this one... The HR department at the company I work for just announced a revamped promotion plan. The previous promotion plan had only six levels for employees to progress through. This was described as too flat. So... The logical thing to do was to increase the level cap and now there are seventeen levels for us to grind through on our way to unlocking the CIO achievement =). Yay! Have to wonder when they are going to offer bonus XP week next.

In all seriousness, most of my colleagues seemed to like the fact that they had a clearer career path progression; even if those promotions were tied to smaller pay/title increases. In the end I think it really speaks to the need for people to feel like they have a goal to work towards, whether in game or in their careers.

Somewhat connected to the topic of games and work... I came across this post at the Are We New At This Blog.

The Guild Leaders Handbook

An excerpt from the Amazon listing:

• Plan successful raids, player vs. player battles, roleplaying sessions, and contests
• Deal with problem players and keep a lid on guild-fracturing drama
• Solve loot issues and choose the best loot system for your guild
• Boost your guild’s morale, reputation, and server presence
• Promote and motivate an effective officer corps
• Organize fun and safe real-world guild meetings and events

Run this through the corporate speak blender for a quality mash-up:

• Plan successful hostile takeovers, employee vs. employee conflict resolution, dealing with weirdos in the workplace, and how to run an NCAA pool from you cubicle
• Deal with problem employees and keep a lid on team breaking drama
• Solve pay issues and choose the best compensation system for your corporation
• Boost your teams morale, e-peen, and breaking into the S&P 500
• Promote and motivate an effective leadership
• Out of office socializing best avoided for most workplaces. See any episode of 'The Office'

I think it fits. With a quick find-and-replace, and some very minor editing, this book could be the next 'One Minute Manager' for the up and coming generation of gamers about to launch into careers.

So yeah... I do see a lot of Life Imitating Art, Imitating Life here. Lots of the same topics, some silly, some serious. All connected by the people who drive them.

Jose

Java is Down...

My wife and I both work in IT oriented fields... We tend to field many 'help' calls from our customers and co-workers. It amazes me how much people have come to rely on internet technology and how much we have learned as a culture about IT tech and lingo.

Case in point: My wife calls and asks for some help drafting an email response to a question she has received from someone. The person asking for help claims that they can't connect to 'Java' and wants to know if 'Java' is down?

At first we both chuckled at this.. But the more I thought of it, the more it occurred to me that the person asking the question was pretty savvy for a non-techie. They knew their browser was looking for a 'Java' resource but couldn't find/load it. Since everything tends to be 'connected' to the internet these days, their first step in diagnosing their problem was to determine if the resource on the internet was down...

Humorous, yes. But at least they were tryin'. That's not too bad in my opinion.