Month: June 2016

(credit: Hayes Davidson / Sebastian Anthony)

Ars Technica is looking for an Engagement Coordinator to join its London-based team. As the job title implies, this position does not involve writing on the site, though it does report directly to the editor (me). This is a role that will be mostly focused with social media, investigating new platforms and technologies, SEO, analytics and statistics, and other stuff that helps increase the impact and reach of Ars Technica UK's superb and sometimes dauntingly awesome editorial output.

Ars Technica UK had a very successful first year: we were profitable (I'm told this is very rare for a new publication), and we tripled both our headcount and readership. Editorial-wise, we are doing well. But there is another challenge that we need to crack: think about those millions of science, tech, policy, and car nerds out there who aren't currently reading Ars Technica... but should be. I want to hire someone who can reel those new readers in.

The ideal candidate would be based in London. You will have to be present at our swanky new office on Hanover Square, just off Oxford Circus most of the time (but you can work from home occasionally). Ideally you would be proficient with traffic analysis and reporting tools such as Google Analytics and Hitwise, and be able to process that data in such a way so as to help me make decisions. Ideally you would have professional experience as an SEO specialist, social media guru, marketing bod, or some other similarly nu-digital-mediaesque role.

Pro Evolution Soccer is at a crossroads. PES 2016 was a stark improvement over anything the series had delivered since its PlayStation 2 heyday, with critics widely declaring that it outperformed FIFA 16—at least in raw action, if not shiny extras. Konami's challenge with PES 2017 is to continue the upward trend, and give FIFA diehards a truly compelling reason to switch.

Smartly, the advances and tweaks seen in PES 2017 do not revolve around what the competition is doing. PES 2016 took the series away from the showy theatrics and power fantasies of FIFA 16, edging it ever closer to realism. PES 2017 continues that approach. This is a game that knows exactly what digital football should look and feel like. As in real life, you might witness the occasional 30-yard bullet here and there, but the long-term rewards revolve around how diligent you are in understanding and practising the core strategies that underpin the world's most successful and respected teams.

Mechanics as simple as how players pass and caress the ball have been perceptibly altered. Even the shortest of passes feels important thanks to the authority with which players execute them. Almost completely gone is the pinball sensation that has plagued football games of the past, replaced by clever physics that make the ball its own individual entity. It no longer feels as though the ball has some form of magnetic attraction to a player's body—get a pass wrong, through poor timing or power, and you pay for it.

Remember when the word Atari used to mean something? When it meant a wasted youth spent flipping quarters in front of a haggard Pac Man arcade cabinet while mouthing "don't you want me baby?" to the girls gathered by the change stand? Or jostling joysticks in front of a ropy CRT TV and a battered copy of Space Invaders while your parents, disgruntled with your failing schoolwork, mutter something about square eyes before retreating to the kitchen for a well deserved glass of pinot?

Actually, come to think about it, I'm neither American enough nor old enough to actually remember any of that. But dammit, I remember enough to know that Atari, the once great voice of video games, shouldn't be making IoT devices and smart home products with French wireless networking company Sigfox. It's just not cricket.

According to Sigfox, the company will licence the Atari branding and slap it in on a range of connected home, pet, lifestyle, and safety products, all of which will connect directly to Sigfox's wireless network, rather than to the Internet directly. Sigfox's network, which currently only works in Europe with a US launch planned, is typically used for relaying small chunks of information infrequently, such as data from an electricity meter. This, the company says, means that its IoT devices will have much better battery life and won't require any complex pairing or setup.