Would you consider your MMO-gaming habits to be detrimental to your performance as an employee? Lucky for us, we here at Massively are kind of expected to be invested in the MMO world, but it seems that it may be best to keep your playing a secret when looking for other lines of work. Raph Koster picked up on a thread at the f13 forums in which we learn that a recruiter in the online media industry has been told by employers numerous times to straight-up avoid World of Warcraft players. The original poster, who was chatting with the recruiter in question, mentioned some of the positives that can come from playing MMOs, but the recruiter said that none of that mattered to the employers he dealt with and WoW players would not even get a second look.
Some of the reasons cited for the rejections include bad sleeping habits, and an inability to give 100% due to a wandering mind -- presumably wandering to the next Azerothian adventure. Poor WoW has been taking all the heat lately, but it's doubtful that the fans (nor Blizzard) care too much about the bad rap. When it comes to your next job-hunt though ... we're not going to tell you to lie or anything like that, but just be a little wary of the chatty interviewer when they ask if you've checked out the latest WoW expansion, kay guys?
Reader Comments (32)
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 2:02PM Brendan Drain said
The isreali army doesn't hate D&D players, they hate what they call "Real D&D" players. It's a big LARPing fad over there and perfectly understandable that they'd want to avoid it. I'm told actual D&D is actually quite popular among the isreali army (by someone in it that plays D&D).
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Posted: Dec 16th 2008 1:08PM (Unverified) said
It amazes me.. the amount of fussing over a simple question. Seems as though you'd have a few things you could do: 1) Avoid the question by lying; 2)Throw a hissy-fit like some have suggested; 3) Justify why you play. Something along the lines of, "Yes, I do play. Its funny you ask, I just read an article about companies who refused to hire WoW players. It struck me as odd... personally I enjoy it and have set limits for myself. I'm always to bed at a reasonable hour and I don't have to worry about wasting excessive amounts of cash to do something else."
I would assume that if you could reasonably justify why while playing it off it wouldn't effect you negatively.
I would assume that if you could reasonably justify why while playing it off it wouldn't effect you negatively.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 1:15PM GRT said
Reminds me of the early G4TV commercial where the dude is in the interview and the interviewee is peering at his resume, talking through the points "Excel, good, attention to detail, good..." then he looks up and asks "But it says here you're a level 38 beastmaster...?" and the interviewee kind of slumps down in his chair, grinning.
I always laughed at that commercial.
I always laughed at that commercial.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 1:40PM bmj0nes said
That's pretty crazy. Me and the other 3 "young" (under 60) guys at my office all play wow. We talk about it around the water cooler, or at each others desks. It doesn't bother my boss because he knows if something needs to get done it will get done. If an emergency comes up and something must be done ASAP he knows he can rely on me. A good employee is a good employee regardless of their after work activities. I've been playing wow for 4 years, I stay up too late, get too little sleep, probably drink a little more than I should. But I'm always at work when they need me, and I always get my job done.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 1:48PM Mr Angry said
I would recruit an MMO player for a job, most of them are over-opinionated fucktards and I feel that they would struggle to integrate socially into the workplace.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 2:26PM AnthonyHJ said
That does seem a little... narrow-minded. MMOs teach us teamwork and problem-solving, they teach us to strive, they teach us how to save up our money for epic loot. Of course, I am a games-designer, so I am likely to be biased against such Luddite thinking.
Our company is possibly a little off mid-demographic, but I think one in three employees plays WoW during lunch and our player-list includes one of the three top-ranking managers. To really drive the point home; it is not just 'not an issue', an MMO subscription is considered a 'job-related expense' and is therefore tax-exempt.
Our company is possibly a little off mid-demographic, but I think one in three employees plays WoW during lunch and our player-list includes one of the three top-ranking managers. To really drive the point home; it is not just 'not an issue', an MMO subscription is considered a 'job-related expense' and is therefore tax-exempt.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:21PM Mr Angry said
Work is work, games are entertainment. While it's nice to be a David Brent type character, this whole 'let's play a PC game together' stunt is a whole load of crap.
Why aren't employees out of the office at lunch with co-workers, or reading a newspaper, or expanding their horizons, rather than staring at a monitor for yet another hour? Sounds to me that a healthy dose of fresh air is called for in some cases.
Far from being narrow minded, I can see a million reasons why someone who doesn't invest time heavily in MMO's would be a superior hire in nearly every case. MMO players seem to over-estimate how effective the 'team building' aspects of these games are, and even if there is, it rarely translates into the workplace in an effective manner.
There are much better ways of learning 'teamwork' and 'problem solving', all that's happening here is that the demographic of management is now leaning towards MMO players, and these managers are indulging their hobby in company time.
Why aren't employees out of the office at lunch with co-workers, or reading a newspaper, or expanding their horizons, rather than staring at a monitor for yet another hour? Sounds to me that a healthy dose of fresh air is called for in some cases.
Far from being narrow minded, I can see a million reasons why someone who doesn't invest time heavily in MMO's would be a superior hire in nearly every case. MMO players seem to over-estimate how effective the 'team building' aspects of these games are, and even if there is, it rarely translates into the workplace in an effective manner.
There are much better ways of learning 'teamwork' and 'problem solving', all that's happening here is that the demographic of management is now leaning towards MMO players, and these managers are indulging their hobby in company time.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:55PM (Unverified) said
Well of course you don't want to hire someone who dumps tons of hours into MMO's but the exact same can be said of pretty much every hobby. There's a guy at my company that is a complete football fanatic, talks about it constantly, requests the Super Bowl day off, calls out on Mondays after the Cowboys play, that kind of thing. Behavior like that is just as detrimental.
I think it's unfair to put MMO players in a different light just because it's not mainstream enough yet. I do, however, agree on the whole "get out of the office for lunch" thing, I can't stand being in my place of business when I'm off. That, and MMO's don't really help teamwork building unless you're brain leans towards that kind of thinking already.
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I think it's unfair to put MMO players in a different light just because it's not mainstream enough yet. I do, however, agree on the whole "get out of the office for lunch" thing, I can't stand being in my place of business when I'm off. That, and MMO's don't really help teamwork building unless you're brain leans towards that kind of thinking already.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 7:09PM (Unverified) said
Besides. Right now, its probably only the slow wow-players who admit to actually playing WoW at all.
Thats why it has such a bad reputation now.
So that if you admit to playing wow, you also tell the recruiter that you are one of the slow wow players. Stupid enough to admit it.
There is a flaw in this logic. Try to spot it. But its probably how the essence of it works... sad but true.
Thats why it has such a bad reputation now.
So that if you admit to playing wow, you also tell the recruiter that you are one of the slow wow players. Stupid enough to admit it.
There is a flaw in this logic. Try to spot it. But its probably how the essence of it works... sad but true.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 7:15PM (Unverified) said
Are WoW players less productive in the workplace. Look, I’ll be honest, in the case of myself and my two WoW-playing workmates, yes, we are. We spend a heap of time talking about WoW rather than working. We spend a heap of time on forums, Wowhead, looking up loot, twiddling with talent builds etc.
But that’s no excuse to discriminate against a potential employee because of his gaming habits. It just means that our manager needs to be more aware of what’s happening in his department and needs to curb our egregious slackness a little better.
But that’s no excuse to discriminate against a potential employee because of his gaming habits. It just means that our manager needs to be more aware of what’s happening in his department and needs to curb our egregious slackness a little better.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 8:55PM Durinthal said
Just when I thought it wasn't possible, I'm now even more glad that I don't play WoW. (I'm joking, so don't hang me yet.)
Is it fair? Nope. If they also discriminate based on other activities/hobbies/addictions that encourage similar behaviors, I'd be surprised (and wonder what kind of people they *do* hire). Gaming's been the newfangled scapegoat for the last couple of decades. I wonder what's going to take its place.
Is it fair? Nope. If they also discriminate based on other activities/hobbies/addictions that encourage similar behaviors, I'd be surprised (and wonder what kind of people they *do* hire). Gaming's been the newfangled scapegoat for the last couple of decades. I wonder what's going to take its place.
Posted: Jan 27th 2009 10:28AM (Unverified) said
This is just like not hiring a some because he has a baby at home. He's going to be distracted, his sleep patterns and going to be irregular. However if he wasn't hired because he had a baby everyone and their brother would be up in arms.
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