June 2024 PC Gamer Article Discussion

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Couldn't find the AI thread I made a long time ago and forgot...

So a company I used to work in management for, First Horizon, is using AI to be able to tell when their call center employees are at the breaking point. Then they show them a selection of the employees photos along with a song the employee picked. Apparently it's working. Both employees and customers are happier.

If you work at a call center, you're automatically at a breaking point.

I'm not sure how those people do it. I had a 4 hour "interview" once at one and it was just utter hell. Although maybe the above is different, but this one was Cold Calling people. Ugh.
 
If you work at a call center, you're automatically at a breaking point.

I'm not sure how those people do it. I had a 4 hour "interview" once at one and it was just utter hell. Although maybe the above is different, but this one was Cold Calling people. Ugh.
The department I was over, Quality Systems, had a small team of outbound call employees who conducted surveys, and it was miserable for them. Every call center I've ever been around has been terrible just because people are terrible over the phone. It's kind of like Internet anonymity.
 
I forgot--I once worked a second job at a call center for a hotel chain making reservations for people. That job would have actually been okay except that we were required to cross sell things that no one wanted. They just wanted to make a reservation, not hear a sales pitch for something else. I didn't work there for long. Two jobs are two too many for me :ROFLMAO:
 
I forgot--I once worked a second job at a call center for a hotel chain making reservations for people. That job would have actually been okay except that we were required to cross sell things that no one wanted. They just wanted to make a reservation, not hear a sales pitch for something else. I didn't work there for long. Two jobs are two too many for me :ROFLMAO:
I was just kidding about the jobs thing. The real reason I quit the second job was I got promoted to manage the Quality Systems department, which was a job that reported to the CEO. The CEO liked me because as a lowly analyst my manager had invited me to go with her to a board meeting, and I was bold enough to tell the board members that they were wrong. That customers don't, in fact, like having to go into a bank and that we needed to concentrate on alternatives like ATM's and Internet banking (which they were questioning the need for). This was either '95 or '96, and the old men wanted to get out of the Internet :ROFLMAO:
 
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If you work at a call center, you're automatically at a breaking point.

I'm not sure how those people do it. I had a 4 hour "interview" once at one and it was just utter hell. Although maybe the above is different, but this one was Cold Calling people. Ugh.

The department I was over, Quality Systems, had a small team of outbound call employees who conducted surveys, and it was miserable for them. Every call center I've ever been around has been terrible just because people are terrible over the phone. It's kind of like Internet anonymity.
Ah call centre, i worked in several and all of them were high stress environments. it felt like i was a battery hen as soon as i put the phone down, it would ring before i even closed off the ticket.

Admittedly, when i first started out i enjoyed it as i was actually learning IT and also using the qualifications that had trained for. So it felt like progression. But still high stress environment, the office was a warehouse in the middle of no where and i was only there for 6 months as the company lost their contract and was letting everyone go.

My last one i was a contractor and management ruled using fear; "hit your target or you're out" Cue people logging absolute garbage to reach those KPIs rather then addressing the issue. in fact they say they're so busy, how was anyone supposed to develop experience/skills with no training ? Unsurprisingly new people lasted maybe a month or 2 people being turfed out. management were just out for themselves trying to make sure they looked good as opposed to, you know helping the team succeed. They were on some power trip, my manager forced me and my colleague (who sat opposite me) to switch seats. When we asked why and what was the point (it was a waste of bloody time as we're busy as it was), he just said to the words "i don't need to explain myself, i expect you to do it". unsurprisingly I lost a lot of respect with that prick.


other tales of woes:

We were tasked with reducing the call queue to x number to get back to training. When we did it, management reneged and we got nothing.

Being a contractor, i discovered that my employment company was screwing me over when it came to daily wages. i was being paid 20% less then other staff and i apparently was one of their top performers. When my employer tried to reason with the employment company they just said: "you want to pay johnway more money? pay US more money!" Which was stupid, other companies were paid the same amount and paid out the same amount. When they asked their reason? "Oh we operate in a high rent area and therefore we need more money". Couldn't switch my contract due to legal clauses so i was stuck with a wage that was less then everyone else till i resigned from that role. I figured it was a life lesson where i didn't negotiate hard enough. When that employment agency rang asking if i was looking for job opportunities and whether i could help, i promptly ignored them.
 
True, it is better than doing nothing to help call center employees at all.

I also saw this article recently:

This makes me so happy. To think AI is taking furious idiots and making them sound reasonable and calm cracks me up. I just wish there were some notification so that the customer knew it was happening. They'd get even more angry and couldn't do anything about it.
 
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that sounds terribly depressing

On the contrary, it's great to hear something positive about AI usage—I know negative coverage is all the rage for headlines and coolness, but the constant drip-drip gets tiresome. Anything which helps with a dead-end job is a good and joyful thing in my book.

If you work at a call center, you're automatically at a breaking point.

It's not that bad, relative to the worst jobs—I've never seen it listed among the top stressful jobs, which tend to be those with a lot of face-to-face interaction.
 
It's not that bad, relative to the worst jobs—I've never seen it listed among the top stressful jobs, which tend to be those with a lot of face-to-face interaction.
I have no idea what's listed as the top stressful jobs, but I know that people are nicer in person than they are over the phone.

Except for my wife. She'll grab you by the hair and drag you around.


Headline coming soon: Third-party hosting service goes bankrupt.
 

What happens with stuff like this is that a person/company sees something that is really popular that they at least tangentially created and says, "THINK OF ALL THE MONEY!"

They then manage to get copyrights and start going after the users of whatever it is, and that's the end of it. People don't pay to use it. They just stop using it.
 
People don't pay to use it. They just stop using it

Yep, and without doubt there'd be a big backlash against Carcassonne, which would be a shame for such an iconic game. Since he's decided to apologize, maybe he got wind of same and decided on discretion.

I wonder what Klaus-Jürgen Wrede thinks—I thought the dev would hold the copyright rather than the pub.
 
ARM opens up other doors such as new viruses that can't be traced by current AV programs...

I wonder how good defender is on ARM

its easy to ignore ARM on desktop since both AMD and Intel are choices there and almost all games work on them now.

Try harder. I don't care if laptops can't play all the games, I don't want one.

now combine an ARM CPU with a Intel GPU and play Russian roulette as to whether game will work.
 
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ARM opens up other doors such as new viruses that can't be traced by current AV programs...

I wonder how good defender is on ARM

its easy to ignore ARM on desktop since both AMD and Intel are choices there and almost all games work on them now.

Try harder. I don't care if laptops can't play all the games, I don't want one.

now combine an ARM CPU with a Intel GPU and play Russian roulette as to whether game will work.
AMD and Intel are still going to be in gaming laptops for a long time, I suspect, but I'm getting ready to build a new desktop, so it won't impact me as much anyway. Still want a good laptop for gaming in bed, though.
 
Though the pair aren't able to talk in specifics yet about the game, they give me a sense of their vision, and it seems to be a more cinematic experience, but without skimping on strategy.

"I think Hector and I have a little bit of an axe to grind in general with the genre. There's this idea that depth costs you elegance," says Foertsch. "Like, oh, if it looks prettier, if it's immersive, if it's got a good story, well, something else got compromised. I say no, not really. I think that you can have both.

"I don't think that complexity equals depth. And I think that that's really what we're focused on. Differentiating that nuance between those two things."

The other key element is accessibility—making sure this is strategy that can appeal outside of the already committed audience, again without diminishing the tactical depth.

"There's tons that we want to do with the game that are like building on things that we've been able to do in the past," says Antunez. "When we're talking about growing the genre and expanding it, a big thing for me is going to be getting it in more people's hands. It bums me out that more people don't play these types of games, and when we dig into that, we get into hearing these preconceived notions.

"So every time we've made a game, we've focused on, what are going to be inviting things, for others that know nothing about this?" Because everybody that does play [this genre] does end up finding something new, something fresh, right? They may be used to more standard fare, shooters, all these games that are awesome… but I'm just like, 'You have no idea what you're missing!' There's this genre with this very specific type of gameplay, with new ways to experience stories and characters."

There's this tension in modern game design, isn't there: is it okay if a genre isn't for everyone? Are there types of games that the masses, the lower reaches of the IQ spectrum, are simply incapable of enjoying, and if so is that okay (not everyone has to like the same things) or is it a moral abomination that must be rectified by dumbing down that genre relentlessly until everything that made it interesting and special has been purged in the righteous flames of equity and inclusion? Turn-based tactics and immersive sims are the genres where I've seen this the most, but I'm sure there are others too. Oh well, hopefully this will be good despite their desire to make it “accessible”.
 

Just pre-ordered for the first time in my life.

Family are dragging me away from home to the in-laws for the weekend. They know not what they do.

Steam Deck?

Steam Deck.



No thanks. Either every game works or none of them work, as far as I'm concerned. I don't want to have to "hope" that a game will work.

Definitely a little disappointing. Was hoping for an integrated graphics revolution, but was cautiously optimistic, given how prerelease stuff is often reported on and it seems that it is over hyped right now.


AMD and Intel are still going to be in gaming laptops for a long time, I suspect, but I'm getting ready to build a new desktop, so it won't impact me as much anyway. Still want a good laptop for gaming in bed, though.

Steam Deck?

Steam Deck.



There's this tension in modern game design, isn't there: is it okay if a genre isn't for everyone? Are there types of games that the masses, the lower reaches of the IQ spectrum, are simply incapable of enjoying, and if so is that okay (not everyone has to like the same things) or is it a moral abomination that must be rectified by dumbing down that genre relentlessly until everything that made it interesting and special has been purged in the righteous flames of equity and inclusion? Turn-based tactics and immersive sims are the genres where I've seen this the most, but I'm sure there are others too. Oh well, hopefully this will be good despite their desire to make it “accessible”.

I do agree with them that complexity doesn't equal depth, however. I've played plenty of complex, deep strategy games and they often end up feeling less satisfying to play, because there are so many numbers and esoteric rules to account for.

The older I get, the more I prefer stuff that just gets out of my way and let's me play, rather than being bogged down in the aforementioned.

That said, I do also think you're correct. The dumbing down and homogenization of everything today is pretty tedious and ends up just making everything bland and samey; everything is so expensive to create that it needs to appeal to the widest audience to be profitable.
 
gets de ja vu reading above post

I think Kaamos might get complaints from family if he used a steam deck entire time he is away. especially to the in laws.

There's this tension in modern game design, isn't there: is it okay if a genre isn't for everyone? Are there types of games that the masses, the lower reaches of the IQ spectrum, are simply incapable of enjoying, and if so is that okay (not everyone has to like the same things) or is it a moral abomination that must be rectified by dumbing down that genre relentlessly until everything that made it interesting and special has been purged in the righteous flames of equity and inclusion? Turn-based tactics and immersive sims are the genres where I've seen this the most, but I'm sure there are others too. Oh well, hopefully this will be good despite their desire to make it “accessible”.
we all have to be equally miserable. No having fun, some people out there don't know what fun is (mostly Publishers) and so no one is allowed to have any, as it wouldn't be fair.

I don't think everything has to be playable by everyone mainly as people have different tastes. What is point in making a game open to someone if they don't want to play it anyway - you can't force people to like things. I see it pointless driving away your current audience to appeal to people who won't buy your product anyway. It isn't a zero sum game, you can keep old audience and attract new players.

Some games are so complicated you take one look at the set up screen and it should require an IQ test to just start a character.

Puzzle games don't have to be dumbed down to play them. Some things are meant to be challenges
 
Steam Deck?

Steam Deck.
I'm concerned that I won't be able to read the screen. I have a hard enough time on laptops. I've heard it has a "zoom" feature, though, but I really wish I could try one out before buying.

Right now I'm trying to figure out if the Lenovo Legion Go also has a zoom feature, as I'd prefer it over the Deck.
 
Need (new) glasses?
I can't read my phone now without them... my 32 inch monitor is a blur without mine
eye sight main reason I bought a larger Digital Audio Player, to see screen.
I can read your post without them but would get a headache if i tried doing it like that all day

mount a tv to wall across from bed and use it? Guess it depends if you only person in room or not.
 

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