Recruiter told not to hire WoW players

[Signe]

You're drunk right now, aren't you?

[Tarami]

What? You can get Internet at home?

[Draegan]

You're drunk right now, aren't you?

No.    I have a breathalyzer attached to my computer.  The internet shuts off when I blow over the legal limit.

[Yegolev]

Eep, I (accidentally) got this thread BoingBoinged. 1070 guests viewing. Hi, guests.

With great power comes great responsibility.

There was a guy who got hired here when I did for the same job I was.  He had actual UNIX experience while I was a rank newb.  He was let go during a round of layoffs (either 2000 or 2002 I think) and the consensus is that it was because he would log into EQ as soon as his ass hit his chair, even when he was being directly observed by management.  One time he was being not-so-casually observed by one of the headchoppers.  Everyone in the room knew what was going on except this guy.  I might feel bad for introducing him to EQ except that he was largely a dumbass.

I don't necessarily agree with the principle behind denying WoW players from hiring consideration, but I do understand why it is a practice.  It gets the low-hanging-fruit: the guy who tells the recruiter that he plays WoW.  During a normal interview, your hobbies consist of reading and spending time with your family.  Also, you did not just have a baby and you "don't touch the stuff".

[MrHat]

  During a normal interview, your hobbies consist of reading and spending time with your family.  Also, you did not just have a baby and you "don't touch the stuff".

This is true.  Basically: "hanging out with friends, seeing my family when I can, I like to read.  Been trying to pick up golf and get back into [sport].  For some serious downtime I'll watch a bit of TV, maybe load up a video game, how about you?"

[chargerrich]

I can't say I disagree. I wouldn't have hired me in 2006.

Would you hire you now? I mean, has it made you less employable for life? Or did you go back to being as employable as before, or more so?

I would. I think I'm a more motivated worker post-WoW, mostly because it made me realize a few things about myself. Had me burned, if you like to put it that way. Every time when I think back at how I largely wasted two years and without really picking up any professional skill, it drives me to work harder. Every cloud has a silver lining.

But I still wouldn't have hired me back then.

I completely get your point. I know some people who have let the game become an addiction to the detement of their personal, home and work life.

That being said, some of us like myself imposed balance and self discipline. I could easily play 40 hours a week but I dont. I have played and loved the game since retail launch (sans my ill fated attempt to play WAR). I have also had a few "wasted wow weekends" where I look back Sunday evening and say WTF! That motivates me to not extend the weekend into a week, month or life.

In fact, for me personally the game has motivated me to go back and get my Masters. So I take night classes 4 nights a week and play on most weekends. And aside from some lunch time browsing, I do work at work... in fact my employer might reap the benefit of my Masters degree that may well be acquired in no small part BECAUSE of WoW!  

[Mrbloodworth]

[tazelbain]

So the pictures of the necrotopsy I did on a squirrel I "found" is out of the question?  These are some helpful hints!

Sadly, for many people they are helpful.

[Yegolev]

You don't want to mention the vidya games unless it's someplace you know it will get you points.  The "what are you hobbies?" question is one of those bits meant to cull the crazies, and personally I like to avoid offering any extraneous information.  If I say "Reading" and they say "No, really" then I might say "I watch some football on the weekend, work on that honey-do list".  If they ask again, I figure something is wrong.  However this all depends on where you are applying.  If I was sitting across a folding table in a ministorage office and applying for a job making flash games for a twentysomething, I'd probably say "You know, reading technical manuals" at first, followed by "well, I check out things on Kongregate, play some Peggle, a little Rock Band on the weekends" or some other bullshit.

On the other hand, saying you have a kid in school is good because that shit is hard.  If you are a successful father/husband, your WoW playing isn't going to be a factor since you obviously know how to manage your time.  I still wouldn't mention games, though, even if it was chess.

[Goreschach]

Sadly, for many people they are helpful.

This is really fucking annoying, and it needs to die.

[tazelbain]

o/\o

[Edenfall]

Intelligent people (ie. people who posess the ability to learn and profit from experience) will be more capable in general after such experience.
Guild Masters reflect long-term leaders. Raid Leaders reflect short-term leaders (ie. project leaders). Raiders reflect regular employees. PvPers reflect one-man-army people (ie. company founders, overpriced consultants)
They all learn a little or a lot about the world and their place in it. Playing WoW doesn't isolate you from the world - it's just like going on vacation to Thailand - you still live in the same world.

I'd like to elaborate on what I wrote here...

There are also those people who actually do not learn very well - which might be because they have a generally bad attitude towards learning, that may arise for different reasons, or they may just be less intelligent - maybe even retarded. I have seen people who just plain suck. Then I see them make an application a few months later, and they still just plain suck. As time passes I may have seen them again, and they still just plain suck. They keep failing, continuously, and do not improve. This is a general concern in the world though, not just with kids and games. However, when the world sees these people, they see them as representatives. That causes a negative effect, since the majority of people in this world lack the ability of cognitive thinking and/or prefer to go-with-the-flow rather than asking themselves: is there more to this world than just my own knowledge?

I have two rather interesting examples, of two people playing WoW, but not even trying to be good at it:

• The first one is a friend of mine. He played a Rogue. I came to his apartment one day, while he was playing. What I saw was intensive Sinister Strike spam - NOTHING ELSE. He used ONE ability. So I asked him: Dude, why are you just spamming that one ability? You have like tons of other stuff you can use, which also makes it more interesting to play. His response was somewhat like this: No. Why would I do that? I think this is fun, just the way it is. And naturally he grew bored of the game after a month or two.
• The second guy was my ex's little-brother; about 13 years-old or something. He talked a lot about WoW when I was around, and I made conversations with him about the subject. Then I saw him playing one day. He was also playing a Rogue, and was currently stealthing towards an enemy; He said, with excitement: Watch, just watch now *stealthing* and then he stealthed up to the enemy and started SMASHING EVERY KEYBOARD BUTTON FROM 1- TO -9 and, stunned as I was, I said: Dude, why... are you spamming random buttons? Why are you just facerolling the game? And he smiled and just said he didn't really care - he wanted to be good, but he didn't even read about what anything did. He just keybinded everything he had and practically facerolled his way through the game.

That is the world we live in, and it is of my belief, that these people are the reason for the expression known as facepalm.

[Vash]

That is the world we live in, and it is of my belief, that these people are the reason for the expression known as facepalm.

At least they weren't clickers used keybindings ..... 

[Montague]

Raph's post just made the WoW general forums. 

What hath God wrought??

[Tarami]

I completely get your point. I know some people who have let the game become an addiction to the detement of their personal, home and work life.

That being said, some of us like myself imposed balance and self discipline. I could easily play 40 hours a week but I dont. I have played and loved the game since retail launch (sans my ill fated attempt to play WAR). I have also had a few "wasted wow weekends" where I look back Sunday evening and say WTF! That motivates me to not extend the weekend into a week, month or life.

In fact, for me personally the game has motivated me to go back and get my Masters. So I take night classes 4 nights a week and play on most weekends. And aside from some lunch time browsing, I do work at work... in fact my employer might reap the benefit of my Masters degree that may well be acquired in no small part BECAUSE of WoW! 

You're pretty full of shit. You, like, can have a problem if you choose to, but you like, chose not to. You know what it is to be a heroinist, because you've been high on pot a couple of times. That's the pretty much the opposite of having a problem. Truth is that you don't understand the nature of the word problem at all, given your lecturing.

[schild]

Raph's post just made the WoW general forums. 

What hath God wrought??

Well, that thread will most certainly be a good argument FOR the case of not hiring WoW players.

[schild]

Also, what the hell.

Why did this story gain so much traction? Is the gaming world so surprised that recruiters would err away from WoW players? I mean, the addiction some folks have with WoW and other MMOGs is pretty easily comparable to degenerate gambling. Why does this shock everyone? COMEON PEOPLE, almost certainly more interesting things have happened in the gaming world than some recruiter deciding WoW players are functionally useless to society.

Edit: Word jumble.

[tazelbain]

Hmm, can we put any more gasoline on this fire?

I hear the CIA is looking to hire WoW players now that they are being trained to torture....

[schild]

Hmm, can we put any more gasoline on this fire?

I hear the CIA is looking to hire WoW players now that they are being trained to torture....

That doesn't even make sense.

[schild]

Also, someone should really compile all the links to the original story (not it!) just to have a listing of how many editors and writers can't either 1. Read, or 2. Link to the proper place. I can only assume most games-writers are currently WoW players given the quality of their work. 

[Trippy]

Hmm, can we put any more gasoline on this fire?

I hear the CIA is looking to hire WoW players now that they are being trained to torture....

That doesn't even make sense.

There's a quest in WoW now where you torture somebody to extract information:

http://games.slashdot.org/games/08/12/16/0610204.shtml

[JWIV]

Also, what the hell.

Why did this story gain so much traction? Is the gaming world so surprised that recruiters would err away from WoW players? I mean, the addiction some folks have with WoW and other MMOGs is pretty easily comparable to degenerate gambling. Why does this shock everyone? COMEON PEOPLE, almost certainly more interesting things have happened in the gaming world than some recruiter deciding WoW players are functionally useless to society.

Edit: Word jumble.

Because 90% of the WoW playerbase can't fucking fathom that poopsocking is not a marketable skill (unless you're doing it for the good of The Company).  Or that they are somehow so god damn entitled to a job that spending 7hrs board trolling and TALKING ABOUT YOUR GOD DAMN CHARACTER could ever possibly be held against you.

[Yegolev]

stuff

elaboration

You should have put that in the "WoW/Wii is making gamers stupider" thread.  I don't recall which one that is, but I'm sure you can find it.

[Fraeg]

To be fair, some WoW guilds won't accept anyone with a full time job so I guess it's just some quid pro quo...

I guess I should not be surprised but that just blows me away.  I can see it now:

"Uber guild XYZ  is looking for IRL underachievers who want to overachieve online."


As for the original post, I can certainly see how, without knowing too much about MMO's how companies kneejerk reaction would be to avoid the WoW. Not a shocker really. Obviousely the real issue is: Employees with an addiction are not a good thing to have.

The thing that tickles me at work (as others have mentioned) is the fantasy league stuff.   At my work any nearly all gaming related sites are blocked. Quarter-to-three, IGN, VN, Wow forums, penny arcade, corpnews, massively, etc.  you name it, it is blocked (f13 and brokentoys are really about the only things i can visit from work).  However, sports illustrated, espn, and fantasy league sites, like fantasyleaguelive.com are left unblocked.

I can't even read a review of a video game on my lunch break, after hours whatever.  But if i wanted to do fantasy league related things until the cows came home I could.

[Riggswolfe]

It's been great fun watching f13 spreading to these other sites because of Raph and Tale's tale. I think I missed the major guest invasion.

Err...on topic? I can see the logic behind what the recruiter is being told as I myself have been known to stay up too late and end up half asleep at work the next day due to MMOs.

[schild]

Hmm, can we put any more gasoline on this fire?

I hear the CIA is looking to hire WoW players now that they are being trained to torture....

That doesn't even make sense.

There's a quest in WoW now where you torture somebody to extract information:

http://games.slashdot.org/games/08/12/16/0610204.shtml

Oh, I thought it was some other kind of joke and he meant "trained to be tortured." Like, playing the same 4 year old game every day doing the same activities with the same people. Monotony is torture.

[voodoolily]

Everything I learned about basic html I learned from f13. Sad, but true.

Also, the last computer-y guy we hired (GIS) was indignant when I asked him "so, whaddya play?" Indignant! Perhaps a bit of an assumption on my part, true, but I didn't not expect his verbal shitstorm about what losers gamers are. It smacked of diversionary tactics, methinks.

[Slyfeind]

Everything I learned about basic html I learned from f13. Sad, but true.

Also, the last computer-y guy we hired (GIS) was indignant when I asked him "so, whaddya play?" Indignant! Perhaps a bit of an assumption on my part, true, but I didn't not expect his verbal shitstorm about what losers gamers are. It smacked of diversionary tactics, methinks.

That, or denial.

[schild]

Everything I learned about basic html I learned from f13. Sad, but true.

Also, the last computer-y guy we hired (GIS) was indignant when I asked him "so, whaddya play?" Indignant! Perhaps a bit of an assumption on my part, true, but I didn't not expect his verbal shitstorm about what losers gamers are. It smacked of diversionary tactics, methinks.

A girl asked a guy about games - think about it - you turned his brain into a toilet of awe and stupor. He didn't know what to do. So he did what everyone did to him in middle school and made fun of games.

[Mrbloodworth]

Losers.


I have an out, i am a graphic designer. So of course i tell them i "study" video gaming and user interfaces in modern real time applications. The sad part is, i do study them.... its not always about playing. Am i strange?

[Nija]

Everybody is different. Storytime.

1999, Arkansas. I'm working on a huge project, rolling out about 8,000 PCs as well as network/WAN gear to 20 locations, working on a team of about a dozen people. Two of them are roommates.

One of them starts playing EQ. He's got a necromancer, and he talks about this as we carpool. I didn't think much of it, other than me poking some fun at him playing a lesser game than UO (keep in mind this is IT work in Arkansas in 1999. You obviously played video games at that point in space and time.) but I let him keep rolling with it. A couple weeks later, he misses a day, and then the next day, and the following day he shows up looking like total dogshit. Greasy. He was a skinny guy, so it wasn't a complete sensory overload. Unshaven, bedhead, red eyed -- the works. "Finally got it man, fuck!" is the first thing out of his mouth. "Got what, a VD?"  "Jboots man! It's awesome! I'm KING now! I had to camp the spawn for like 39 hours!"

He was fired before the end of the week. The story doesn't end there, as I did mention roommates above.

In the course of rolling out that many PCs, you lose some of them. It just happens.
At the end of summertime I get an invite from the one still working for an afternoon BBQ. I show up and everything is in the back yard, there's a bunch of people around hanging out. Nothing out of the ordinary. Then I'm invited to "check out their high tech setup" inside. In this nerd coven I spot about 8 machines that distinctly look like the ones we were rolling out. Sitting on another desk was a HP 4k series laser printer (1999!) that also looks distinctly familiar. Yep. One of them yanked all of that shit. Those two guys were multi-boxing EQ, taking turns running a total of 12 accounts I think. I never really got into EQ, so I don't know what the exact group size was, but they were running two groups. I never found out which guy stole the stuff. I didn't really ask.

The project came to a halt a few weeks after that BBQ, and the dozen people who had started it was down to just 3 remaining. The non-jboot-wearing roommate was one guy, there was myself, and there was another guy who isn't really relevant to this story. Only one of us walked away with a full time position, but it wasn't really a competition between 3 people. It was just between the 3rd guy and myself. Non-jboot guy ended up moving back in with his parents, at age 28, as the .com bubble was bursting and tech places were downsizing. I landed the full time job. The 3rd guy got hired on at a place as a Mac specialist and ended up in a very good place at a very good time. I've since lost contact with both of them. The end.

[Modern Angel]

This is weird. Honestly when I'm being interviewed, I want to talk about my Crohn's disease. I want to tell people that my immune system occasionally fucks with my intestines. But...I honestly can't find a way to bring it up without grossing people out. It just doesn't seem appropriate to me. So I wait till after I get hired, and after it acts up, if it does indeed act up while I'm on the job.

This is a chronic disorder that is incurable, and typically makes me miss a couple weeks a year. Sure, people call in sick, but I guarantee I will be sick at least ten days per year because of crazy gut activity. That's not counting the occasional unrelated sniffles, or a bad reaction to my yearly flu shot. And also bear in mind that Crohn's disease is not specifically recognized as a disability to anybody but the people who live with it.

And the reaction? "Oh it's okay, I know someone with Crohn's, do what you gotta do, blah blah blah, we all get sick from time to time, etc etc etc."

So, like, okay, tons and tons of diarrhea is more acceptable than playing a video game. Really? How about I crap in a bowl and make you smell it, then make you smell my WoW CDs, and see which one you like better?!?!?!

I don't know what my point is. Maybe I just like to talk about bowls full of poop. ^-^

Hi! You, too? Except I actually do tell my employers because I got fucked prior to bottoming out, being on disability and subsequently getting back on my feet. I'd rather employers know up front than go through the hassle afterward of dealing with it.

[Ratman_tf]

By the way, how many people here a posting from work? 

[voodoolily]

It's a common courtesy to let your employer know of any medical conditions you have that may affect how often you're out. I include pregnancy in this camp. We just hired someone who, surprise! is just starting her second trimester. She wasn't showing when we interviewed (and didn't mention it), but now it's illegal to fire her, even though she'll only work for a few months before she milks our insurance on maternity leave.

I'm "working from home." Snow day ftw.

[schild]

It's true. I've now worked at 2 places where women very obviously did not inform the employer they were pregnant. But since you're an evil fuckbag if you bag on a woman for anything involving pregnancy, no one cared to point out the problem with it.