Half-Life Alyx

[Radu]

31 minutes ago, blackdog said:

Found that bit interesting as well, but I took it as a more general guesstimation, as in: it takes about that time for devs to transition between (big) projects.

It’s nonetheless a very great way and place to work, rarely you can find companies with such a breadth of branches/projects. And even then, big corp that might, don’t encourage moving around, once you’re in your pigeon hole, they want you there.

With this structure,

1. people have the opportunity to tick completion on many projects or features

2. Retention: people that thrive in this sort of environment will stay. I recently watch some talk mentioning people tend to look for a new job every 2 years (although I’d like to see where the data comes from, if works only when you’re in the big tech league)

It is appealing to imagine a place where you can start your own project and then pitch it to people with the potential to develop it into a full fledged thing. 

1. From what I've been hearing on the internet from multiple sources, their bonus system does force people to stick on projects until their completion. If they leave early, they don't get the bonus. So people might limit themselves to short term projects or features instead of pursuing longer term options, which might not be ideal.

2. It's called job hopping and it's fucked up. Basically, people will apply to another company and negotiate for 10-20% increase of their previous salary. The reason why they do that is because companies have fixed salary ranges, so if you get close to the top of your range, you're not gonna get too much of a raise going into the future. Of course, it depends on the company, but there are situations where someone who's been with the company for X years in Y position is at a point where their salary is the same as someone who just joined their company. And they're not gonna be too happy to learn that.

[Buddy]

I'd wager a guess that you need to be in a cool guy club to have any say as to what project goes forward in the end. These open concepts only look great on paper

[blackdog]

3 hours ago, Radu said:

It is appealing to imagine a place where you can start your own project and then pitch it to people with the potential to develop it into a full fledged thing. 

1. From what I've been hearing on the internet from multiple sources, their bonus system does force people to stick on projects until their completion. If they leave early, they don't get the bonus. So people might limit themselves to short term projects or features instead of pursuing longer term options, which might not be ideal.

2. It's called job hopping and it's fucked up. Basically, people will apply to another company and negotiate for 10-20% increase of their previous salary. The reason why they do that is because companies have fixed salary ranges, so if you get close to the top of your range, you're not gonna get too much of a raise going into the future. Of course, it depends on the company, but there are situations where someone who's been with the company for X years in Y position is at a point where their salary is the same as someone who just joined their company. And they're not gonna be too happy to learn that.

The prospect of pitching something must be indeed liberating.

1. Well that makes sense, a bonus is a reward for a successful project, if I have a great idea, start it and leave, then the project has underwhelming results, it would be unfair I got the bonus for the idea and the rest suck up the failure. The system need to be progressive and proportional to the project, if is a long project bonuses should be fractioned and depending on successful milestones.

2. I imagine you mean it’s fucked up that you’re forced into doing that because of the ceiling. I’m almost already in that situation where I have been for 6 months lol; was talking with my manager about progression and was saying the company has bad options, so unless we become managers we wouldn’t get interesting bumps.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m so at the bottom end of the IT salary scale that for me it would be a great reward just to be able to work on projects I put forward/choose, eventually with bonuses depending on success of those. Pushing the concept to an extreme one could treat the company as an incubator and even give a revenue share on projects (for a limited time?), but then nobody would want to work on maintaining the releases and just work on a new thing that monetise.

 

[Radu]

30 minutes ago, blackdog said:

I imagine you mean it’s fucked up that you’re forced into doing that because of the ceiling

As far as I’m concerned, I’m so at the bottom end of the IT salary scale that for me it would be a great reward just to be able to work on projects I put forward/choose, eventually with bonuses depending on success of those. Pushing the concept to an extreme one could treat the company as an incubator and even give a revenue share on projects (for a limited time?), but then nobody would want to work on maintaining the releases and just work on a new thing that monetise.

Yeah, that's what I mean. It's even worse if the company is lagging behind industry standards. In that situation, you should notice a consistent turnover rate, less seniors and more juniors.

But yeah, back on topic, anyone played this yet?

 

 

Edited August 11, 2021 by Radu

[blackdog]

Very nice short created with film maker and Alyx assets

 

[Radu]

Every now and then I'm reminded that a half-life game came out last year. Cool story.

[-HP-]

I had such a great time with this game, going to wait a little while, maybe until the next gen of VR kits to come out to play it again. 

[Bunglo]

I bought it through the steam sale, did't realize it comes with an index. I still don't want to drop money on a headset just to play this game, as much as I want to experience it.

[-HP-]

2 hours ago, Bunglo said:

I bought it through the steam sale, did't realize it comes with an index. I still don't want to drop money on a headset just to play this game, as much as I want to experience it.

I'm sure you might have a friend or family member that has bought a RiftS or whatever, and it's now just in a corner pilling up dust? I just loaned my headset to a friend of mine.

[blackdog]

5 hours ago, Bunglo said:

I bought it through the steam sale, did't realize it comes with an index. I still don't want to drop money on a headset just to play this game, as much as I want to experience it.

wait what? Did you buy an index without realising or you then realised you can’t play it?

There’s an arcade in my town that has VR sets, I wonder if one can log in their steam account and say play Alyx that way. I would have inquired but with pandemic always been shut poor bastards.

[Bunglo]

7 hours ago, -HP- said:

I'm sure you might have a friend or family member that has bought a RiftS or whatever, and it's now just in a corner pilling up dust? I just loaned my headset to a friend of mine.

Nah I don't know anyone personally who has a headset. A few of my friends talk about buying one but none of us have pulled the trigger yet.

5 hours ago, blackdog said:

wait what? Did you buy an index without realising or you then realised you can’t play it?

No I didn't buy an index but I'm of the current thinking that if I do buy a headset, it will be an index and if that ends up being the case, I will have spent $30 on Alyx for nothing. Not the end of the world.

[Buddy]

1 hour ago, ThunderKeil said:

I'm in a similar position - I really want to get in on it, but I'm pretty sensitive to motion sickness & I don't know anyone with a headset to try it out

You'll probably get the option to receive it as a gift code though, so if any of your friends does end up buying a not-index it doesn't have to go to waste

Then I think the Index is the headset for you, tracking is basically perfect.

[Dabu]

 

[blackdog]

6 hours ago, Bunglo said:

Nah I don't know anyone personally who has a headset. A few of my friends talk about buying one but none of us have pulled the trigger yet.

No I didn't buy an index but I'm of the current thinking that if I do buy a headset, it will be an index and if that ends up being the case, I will have spent $30 on Alyx for nothing. Not the end of the world.

How about buying together and sharing?

I remember HP(?) had released a basically rebranded Index but slightly cheaper… worth a look.

[FMPONE]

the index is expensive but worth it if you want to really see what VR is all about