Surprising lack of information about the company, or the job.
Sounds cool, but they should really have limited it to people who realistically would re-locate to Israel and have experience. Otherwise, it's just a PR stunt.
Having worked at a high end ad agency for a bit a long time ago my first reaction to this is to feel really bad for their customers. If they're willing to squander this level of their own resources on something so random they're almost assured to be doing ten times worse to their client accounts.
<strike>CEO</strike> Intern getting to level 60 ~ 12 or so hours @ $0 / hr
1,000,000 Diablo III gold ~ $4
Cheap Chinese Sword ~ $96
Single / static webpage ~ $200
57 seconds Video using a)existing office, b) in game footage but with voice
over ~ $100
4 x evenings of <strike>CEO</strike> HR department online interviews: $included in their salary
Potential for the CEO to be exposed as totally incompetent at playing Diablo III, and a huge gaff as he's trolled by the fetid swamp of D3 players, thus generating vast swathes of "the internet is a bridge full of trolls" tutting from places such as metafilter.com: priceless.
I can think of many criticisms, but cost / level of resources is hardly massive, unless I'm missing something... could you expand?
Tech monoculture is going to persist so long as you have stuff like this be exalted, rather than condemned.
Of all the cultures for this industry to embrace, gaming -- where players exploit the veil of anonymity to be sexist, racist, homophobic, etc. -- is one of the poorest choices.
I like programming, a whole lot. I don't really like gaming . That shouldn't be a problem.
There's enough actual sexism/racism/etc in the industry to worry about that, rather than worrying about totally innocent things which enjoy massive support from a lot of people, including people of good will whose ears you will require the next time actually outrageous behavior happens.
If one were, hypothetically, of the mind that the cultural signifiers of geeky tech guys needed to be demonized to avoid scaring e.g. women out of the profession, one would be advised to tiptoe around that conclusion and avoid explicitly linking those cultural signifiers to evil behavior, because one will shortly be forced into making arguments like "Mentioning Diablo 3 in a job interview is spiritually akin to sexual harassment." One will lose those arguments, in a flamboyantly destructive fashion, and the next time one makes well-founded arguments such as "Corporate outings at a strip club are not appropriate", one will be remembered as some variant of an "implacable harpy who would be equally offended if the meeting had mentioned Dungeons and Dragons."
P.S. I am probably not the guy who you'd want as your #1 ally on this issue, but I know that guy, and he literally has Warhammer tattoos. If you're making an anti-Xism movement which can't accept him as an ally because he's culturally alien to you, your anti-Xism movement will have less success than you probably want it to have.
They are pre-screening - they aren't looking for you. So it's only a problem for people who don't like gaming.
If the entire tech world did this, then yes, it would be a problem.
I like gaming - but I really don't want to work for a place where gaming dictates the conversation. So in this case, I know I wouldn't want to work at this outfit... so for me it's not a problem, it's helpful information.
>Of all the cultures for this industry to embrace, the internet -- where users exploit the veil of anonymity to be sexist, racist, homophobic, etc. -- is one of the poorest choices.
FTFY
You're saying that just because other gamers are sexist, racist, and homophobic, the entire tech industry has to avoid any mention of it even if they genuinely find the games fun and entertaining? The advertisement itself isn't offensive, so your argument is just as absurd as berating tech companies for recruiting on online forums, or even the internet in general.
Companies have cultures that might not be all-inclusive. I heard of a company (I want to say Palantir, but don't quote me on that) where breaking the build required taking a shot. Non-drinkers wouldn't fit in very well, but while the company was still small it was worth it to have a strong culture and keep their existing employees in a close-knit group.
Like my sibling said, you wouldn't like working here anyway, and I'm sure there are places with a strong culture that you would fit into, and that I might not.
Some players also happen to be fun, helping and nice.
Some more players like to look tough but they're good people underneath.
If you're expecting everyone in the world to behave, like if they still were in a boring classroom, and is going to discriminate them otherwise - this is not good then.
1.000.000 Gold is 2-3 USD/EUR, the sword is worth nothing.
Pretty cheap for a programmer lead.
Also being a developer, I have not once met another hacker. Not that devs don't play games but so do tons of other people as well. I think it's a false assumption that you are going to find more programmers ingame.
It has no localized version right and no native offering? Do you get served by eu.battle.net for euros? us.battle.net for $$$?
Is it popular? Do people play much in Israel?
BBR Saatchi Israel is on the hunt for a great programmer, and it's taking its recruiting to the place where most of them are hanging out: in the realms of 'Diablo 3.'
Actually, this is quite genius: PR company links itself to a market leader that's doing an awesome job of totally fucking up merging a P2P micro-payment model with a traditional single player game, snarkily hinting that some decent PR would smooth things over (especially with its history of nation re-branding, couldn't go amiss with said relations with the Korean and now German and French governments ~ http://saatchi.com/news/archive/mm_award_success_for_kosovo_...) thus pitching a meta-advertisement to Activision / Blizzard's huge marketing budget (roughly ~$550mm according to the last company papers).
Or it could be a move totally lacking in irony and just plain "Get down with the kids" painful.
Jury is out: however, I'd suspect that Tel Aviv's thought processes are somewhat more sophisticated... this the modern version of "a nice game of chess".
Within 7 minutes, a down-vote, while the comment "fredoliveira 25 minutes ago | link
This is quite sad. Signs of a company struggling to be relevant, and failing terribly."
that displays a lack of awareness of the company is left alone - although the company has had its problems, the Tel Aviv department won the 2012 Cannes Lions placement for "Blood Relations" (http://www.canneslions.com/work/2012/direct/entry.cfm?entryi...) which suggests that they're anything but creatively bankrupt.
But, go on... Downvote ALL the content, especially the stuff you don't like, that's what popularity contests are for!
[+] [-] jboggan|13 years ago|reply
http://imgur.com/gallery/RgqxZ
[+] [-] Alterlife|13 years ago|reply
I think that's a pretty smart and blindingly obvious approach. They'll probably be flooded with applicants hopefully some of them are actually coders.
I do think they'll end up with a majority non-coding turnout though. Is this the first time this kind of thing has been attempted?
[+] [-] txttran|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gfosco|13 years ago|reply
Sounds cool, but they should really have limited it to people who realistically would re-locate to Israel and have experience. Otherwise, it's just a PR stunt.
[+] [-] trotsky|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Useful_Idiot|13 years ago|reply
Retail Diablo III ~ $60
<strike>CEO</strike> Intern getting to level 60 ~ 12 or so hours @ $0 / hr
1,000,000 Diablo III gold ~ $4
Cheap Chinese Sword ~ $96
Single / static webpage ~ $200
57 seconds Video using a)existing office, b) in game footage but with voice over ~ $100
4 x evenings of <strike>CEO</strike> HR department online interviews: $included in their salary
Potential for the CEO to be exposed as totally incompetent at playing Diablo III, and a huge gaff as he's trolled by the fetid swamp of D3 players, thus generating vast swathes of "the internet is a bridge full of trolls" tutting from places such as metafilter.com: priceless.
I can think of many criticisms, but cost / level of resources is hardly massive, unless I'm missing something... could you expand?
[+] [-] jmduke|13 years ago|reply
Tech monoculture is going to persist so long as you have stuff like this be exalted, rather than condemned.
Of all the cultures for this industry to embrace, gaming -- where players exploit the veil of anonymity to be sexist, racist, homophobic, etc. -- is one of the poorest choices.
I like programming, a whole lot. I don't really like gaming . That shouldn't be a problem.
[+] [-] patio11|13 years ago|reply
If one were, hypothetically, of the mind that the cultural signifiers of geeky tech guys needed to be demonized to avoid scaring e.g. women out of the profession, one would be advised to tiptoe around that conclusion and avoid explicitly linking those cultural signifiers to evil behavior, because one will shortly be forced into making arguments like "Mentioning Diablo 3 in a job interview is spiritually akin to sexual harassment." One will lose those arguments, in a flamboyantly destructive fashion, and the next time one makes well-founded arguments such as "Corporate outings at a strip club are not appropriate", one will be remembered as some variant of an "implacable harpy who would be equally offended if the meeting had mentioned Dungeons and Dragons."
P.S. I am probably not the guy who you'd want as your #1 ally on this issue, but I know that guy, and he literally has Warhammer tattoos. If you're making an anti-Xism movement which can't accept him as an ally because he's culturally alien to you, your anti-Xism movement will have less success than you probably want it to have.
[+] [-] blindhippo|13 years ago|reply
If the entire tech world did this, then yes, it would be a problem.
I like gaming - but I really don't want to work for a place where gaming dictates the conversation. So in this case, I know I wouldn't want to work at this outfit... so for me it's not a problem, it's helpful information.
[+] [-] praxulus|13 years ago|reply
FTFY
You're saying that just because other gamers are sexist, racist, and homophobic, the entire tech industry has to avoid any mention of it even if they genuinely find the games fun and entertaining? The advertisement itself isn't offensive, so your argument is just as absurd as berating tech companies for recruiting on online forums, or even the internet in general.
Companies have cultures that might not be all-inclusive. I heard of a company (I want to say Palantir, but don't quote me on that) where breaking the build required taking a shot. Non-drinkers wouldn't fit in very well, but while the company was still small it was worth it to have a strong culture and keep their existing employees in a close-knit group.
Like my sibling said, you wouldn't like working here anyway, and I'm sure there are places with a strong culture that you would fit into, and that I might not.
[+] [-] guard-of-terra|13 years ago|reply
Some more players like to look tough but they're good people underneath.
If you're expecting everyone in the world to behave, like if they still were in a boring classroom, and is going to discriminate them otherwise - this is not good then.
[+] [-] codesuela|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] guard-of-terra|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joshu|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fredoliveira|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] guard-of-terra|13 years ago|reply
It has no localized version right and no native offering? Do you get served by eu.battle.net for euros? us.battle.net for $$$? Is it popular? Do people play much in Israel?
[+] [-] guard-of-terra|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dsl|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Useful_Idiot|13 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_in_Israel
Note: this might be a little too meta for HN
[+] [-] grout|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] guard-of-terra|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Yarnage|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Useful_Idiot|13 years ago|reply
http://creativity-online.com/work/saatchi-saatchi-israel-job...
Actually, this is quite genius: PR company links itself to a market leader that's doing an awesome job of totally fucking up merging a P2P micro-payment model with a traditional single player game, snarkily hinting that some decent PR would smooth things over (especially with its history of nation re-branding, couldn't go amiss with said relations with the Korean and now German and French governments ~ http://saatchi.com/news/archive/mm_award_success_for_kosovo_...) thus pitching a meta-advertisement to Activision / Blizzard's huge marketing budget (roughly ~$550mm according to the last company papers).
Or it could be a move totally lacking in irony and just plain "Get down with the kids" painful.
Jury is out: however, I'd suspect that Tel Aviv's thought processes are somewhat more sophisticated... this the modern version of "a nice game of chess".
[+] [-] Useful_Idiot|13 years ago|reply
Within 7 minutes, a down-vote, while the comment "fredoliveira 25 minutes ago | link
This is quite sad. Signs of a company struggling to be relevant, and failing terribly."
that displays a lack of awareness of the company is left alone - although the company has had its problems, the Tel Aviv department won the 2012 Cannes Lions placement for "Blood Relations" (http://www.canneslions.com/work/2012/direct/entry.cfm?entryi...) which suggests that they're anything but creatively bankrupt.
But, go on... Downvote ALL the content, especially the stuff you don't like, that's what popularity contests are for!