Dora life

The life of Dora the Explorer

Will your next job interview be a video game?

Will your next job interview be a video game?

Videogames are becoming a more popular feature of job interviews. Could they start to replace the face-to-face job interview — and should they?

Companies like Google once became famous for their now shelved interview brainteasters, ranging from figuring out how many piano tuners were in the world to the (oddly threatening) question of what someone shrunk to the size of a nickel should do to escape from a blender.

Videogames may be the next trend in the hiring process, with companies like Shell and Xerox already experimenting with adding them into their hiring process. Catherine Rampell in theNew York Times magazine looks at some of the perks, and some of the perils, of the process:

The very act of quantifying certain characteristics may also give a false sense of precision that leads to overweighting the things quantified. "You are what you measure," warned Dan Ariely, an economist at Duke. Ariely thinks the hiring process should become more data-driven, but acknowledges that applying sabermetrics, or the sort of empiricism that helped turn Billy Beane's Oakland A's into a winner, to the recruiting process can still create distortions. Online dating sites, for instance, often overemphasize measurable and sortable attributes (like height and income) at the expense of other ineffable ones that might be more useful or relevant. "If I want to hire people for my basketball team, it's easy to tell who's seven feet tall and who can shoot the ball really well," explained Alvin Roth, a Stanford economist who shared a Nobel Prize for his work on market design and recently joined Knack's board. "The hard thing is figuring out when they're on the court, how will the rest of the team do?"

Have you ever had a job interview with a videogame? Do you think videogames will replace, augment, or fade away from the job interview? And would you want to interview via videogame? Tell us in the comments now.

Image: włodi.

Power Rangers

The new and improved Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

What will happened after we find a cure for zombies

What happens after medicine finds a way to fight the zombie outbreak

In the midst of a zombie epidemic, a woman wakes in a medical facility that seems to have found a way to control the outbreak. But the epidemic may have left behind deeper scars than her physicians are ready to treat.

David Freyne's The First Wave is meant to be a prequel to a feature film, being developed with support from the Irish Film Board. The premise has shades of the BBC drama In the Flesh, but with a chillier tone. Here we see a world that is trying to rebuild in the wake of a cataclysm, but is so eager to move forward that it neglects the profound traumas that still mark the lives of its denizens.

[via Twitch]

Unlock boyfriend

Sorry but you havent unlocked yoir boyfriend yet to be played

Avengers aged

 Capt America now just known as Murica

 Tony Stark Iron Man now retired with pacemaker

 Hulk finally lost his mind, so spends his days eating ice cream and riding yellow busses

 Spider-Man just took too many hits, now cant control his bowel movements, and shoot out on there own

 Wolverine at the ripe old age of....who know lost his mind and forgot how to put his claws away

The Almighty Thor no longer feels to wield his hammer, now it is just one pint after another

The Daily Five: Reasons Nintendo Should Develop for PlayStation

Nintendo’s woes have been well-documented in recent weeks: both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One managed to outdo the first-year sales of the Wii U in a matter of weeks, sales projections for the Wii U were severely lowered by 70%, stock prices have begun to bottom out, and investors have called for president Satoru Iwata’s resignation. No one wants to see the company that made gaming what it is today fall, so we have a humble suggestion: What if Nintendo became a PlayStation developer?

Don’t get us wrong. We don’t think this is even remotely likely to happen. However, that doesn’t change the fact that we believe Nintendo would be a perfect fit for the PlayStation family. Today, we will discuss five reasons why the House that Mario Built would thrive as a Sony-centric developer.

Games, Games, and More Games

As interesting as the Wii U and its gamepad are, no one buys a Nintendo console for the hardware. People buy a Nintendo system because they want to play Mario, Zelda, Smash Bros., Donkey Kong, and more. Developing for another company’s console instead of creating and marketing their own system frees Nintendo to do what they do best. Imagine a slim, trim Nintendo focused solely on developing a truly next-gen The Legend of Zelda title or making a Metroid title that would make everyone forget about Other M. This could even let Nintendo have the chance to breathe and create new, original IPs again.

While it’s true that Microsoft could provide Nintendo the same level of freedom, what sets Sony apart is the company’s…

Dedication to New Tech

Sony pushed the advent of CD-ROM gaming for home consoles. They made the move to DVD with the PlayStation 2, only to follow up with helping design Blu-ray for the sole purpose of using the new optical media format for the PlayStation 3. Sony was the first to attempt motion gaming on the PS2 with the EyeToy, and then continued their foray into the field with the Move and the PS Eye. Most recently, Sony has implemented touch screens and touch pads on the Vita and the DualShock 4. In other words, Sony has never shied away from testing new technology.

Nintendo is the company that revolutionized motion controls with the Wii Remote, made the idea of a handheld with two screens seem cool, and started streaming gameplay to a handheld device before Remote Play was announced. The ability to be “different” is important to the company. Sony’s willingness to try new things would help Nintendo remain unique in an era where game developers continue to become more and more homogenized.

Sony’s Funds

While Microsoft has a huge pocketbook, Sony has proven their willingness to shell out a lot of cash for quality titles. In fact, it is being suggested that Sony’s funding of third party developers is one of the reasons Nintendo is in its current predicament. If Sony is willing to open its wallet for Activision and EA, why wouldn’t they be more than willing to help fund the next HD Mario adventure? If Sony’s financing of projects is partially responsible for Nintendo’s struggles, maybe it is time Nintendo turned that weapon to their advantage.

Crossover Possibilities

Between Nintendo and Sony, the two companies host the biggest collection of iconic characters from the last thirty years of gaming. While PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale was… fine, imagine a Super Smash Bros. game featuring match-ups like Mario versus Jak & Daxter, Samus versus Col. Radec, or Link versus Cole McGrath. How about a Mario Kart with weapons and tracks straight out of Ratchet & Clank? These crossovers and more would be possible if Nintendo became a PlayStation developer. It would be a wonderful marriage between two companies that could allow all of their “children” to play together as one family. The mere idea of such a relationship is enough to make any gamer smile with delight.

Nintendo Offers A Lot to Sony

We’ve discussed how a partnership with Sony and PlayStation benefits Nintendo, but Sony would also gain much from such a deal. Beyond access to Nintendo’s vast library of IPs and characters, Sony would have the name Nintendo forever associated with the PlayStation brand. While that may not seem like a lot to some, think about how many people still refer to video game consoles as “Nintendos” even today.

In the (extremely unlikely) situation where Nintendo fully came under the Sony Worldwide Studios umbrella, the “Big N” could also lend their expertise to Sony’s handheld division. While the Vita is certainly an impressive piece of hardware, its sales and legacy are far overshadowed by Nintendo and the 3DS. The handheld market is one area of the video game hardware business that Nintendo has simply dominated over the decades. Sony would be foolish if they did not want that level of history and expertise working on the next iteration of PlayStation portables.

Finally, consider the PlayStation Now service, set to launch later this year. We already know that PS3 games will be available for streaming, with PS One and PS2 games sure to follow. Now imagine if Sony were able to bring in Nintendo and add their massive history of titles to the service. Imagine streaming Metroid Prime on your Vita. How about playing a game of Mario Kart: Double Dash on PSN? The possibilities would be endless. A partnership with Nintendo could potentially make PlayStation Now the single most “must have” product in the history of gaming.

Pokemon Revenge

Sonic You are a Pokemon, Come to the Dardside, and Join me as PokeyMasters, we can rule as brothers.

wanna play a dirty game of wii??

lol has something likes ever happened to you, where you just get soo turned on my an gamer that it makes you want to leave the room for a min?..........ya me either. lol

Hadouken, KameHameHa...Laser Eyes

Ryu: Hadouken

Goku: KameHameHa

Superman: Laser eyes

Ryu, Goku: WTF thats not the same

Fox Cans Gotham for Batman High

Fox's Gotham TV series is going to be Batman: The High School Years

Were you hoping that Fox's Batman prequel TV series Gotham would be a tough crime procedural set on the mean streets of Gotham City? Or were you hoping it would be about teenaged Batman, The Joker, Catwoman, Riddler, and the Penguin all hanging out together? Because it's the latter.

Sorry, I threw up in my mouth a little there. Fox chairman Kevin Reilly crushed the dreams of many a Bat-fan at Fox's panel during the network's Television Critics Association press tour earlier today. "This is all of the classic Batman characters," Reilly continued. "It follows the arc of how they all became what they were. I've read the script its really good. It's going to be this operatic soap that has a slightly larger-than-life quality."

Apparently, the plan is exactly like Smallville, in that the show will show how each character, good and bad, become the hero or villain we all know today, and Reilly says the show will end when Batman puts on the cape for the first time.

A few thoughts.

• The art above is from the Gotham High "concept" art by Jeff and Celeste. Which looks like a much, much more fun way to do the concept of teenage Bat-characters.

• I'm having a hard time articulating why I have such a problem with a show that imagines all of the Batman characters together as teens, when I really didn't have a problem with Smallville.But I do.

• Fox didn't say all the characters will belong to the same high school, but I can feel it in my bones. I don't know how all the teens are going to be running into each other all the time unless they have a central location in common.

• Why do all these network execs have hard-ons for superheroes outside of their costumes? It's so annoying.

Please leave a comment on what you think about this, 

[Via EW]

Top 5 childhood crushes

Talking to a friend yesterday about Pokemon, I somewhat regrettably revealed that in my child hood I had a crush on the character Misty from the TV showPokemon. While he laughed and laughed and laughed, I realized I could actually pull 5 names from geek cartoons that I swooned over in my youth (do guys swoon? Maybe fawned...that sounds worse.). In no particular order, my top 5 childhood cartoon romances:

Misty (Pokemon) 

I sense I'm not alone in this one, as Google showed me ample rule 34 all across my results...but maybe it was the tomboy attitude, or the fact that she was an accomplished gym leader at such a young age that revved my 11-year-old engine. There's a lot of water-related innuendo I could make, but this isn't some racy fan fiction involving her. This is.

Harley Quinn (Batman: TAS) 

Yeah I know, I picked the one that looks like a jester. Childhood me likely would've gotten that nervous feeling in my gut gazing upon the new Harley, but old school Quinn was cute and non-sexual, I guess. I just remember having a lot of weird dreams where she threw pie in my face and laughed. Does that mean anything? 

Faye (Cowboy Bebop) 

I hit puberty right around the time Adult Swim took off, and the original lineup had comedy early on, anime at night. It was during a fateful night whilst recording Home Movies (and not knowing how to program it to stop) that I first witnessed Cowboy Bebop . This was the first anime I had seen outside of Toonami, so it was like a, "Whoa, didn't know they could dress like that," kind of deal. Anyway anyone who's seen Faye knows how any young newly adolescent boy could see the allure of her...charms. 

Bulma (Dragon Ball Z) 

Or Dragon Ball, she looked great in both really. It could've been the blue hair, the over the top anger, or the stone cold leaving of Yamcha for Vegeta. I was into it. Actually now that I think of it, I think I was more into the concept of wanting to be Vegeta (my cousin always picked Goku, so I learned to appreciate him). My attraction also could have stemmed from the fact that I hated Chi-Chi so much...sooooo much.

Cheetara (Thundercats) 

 She was before my time, but what can I say? I have an appreciation for the vintage women. This is the one I felt the weirdest about posting because I figured it would lead to furry accusations and self-denial and what not, but it's totally not like that guys. I'm just saying if there was a humanoid woman who had the likeness of a cheetah I'd probably be into it. If that's weird, then sword of omens give me hindsight beyond hindsight.

So there you go...my awkward geek confession!