Recruiter told not to hire WoW players

[rattran]

The f13 comment section? You all have a non comment section!?

That would be the frontpage, which, while it's not the place where stuff happens here, pretty much serves as the public front face of the site, especially to someone who's never been here before.

There's a frontpage?

[shiznitz]

Every time someone goes there an angel gets its wings.

[Venkman]

I think you're glossing over the fact that it's a really tiny minority of MMO players that aim to learn or even want to learn anything from playing. Most are there to *escape* challenge and responsibility. The better they do not learn anything particularly useful, the happier they'll be.

How many people going to a pancake house to learn valuable life skills?

[Tale]

How many people going to a pancake house to learn valuable life skills?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoKZhaigLQA

[NiX]

WoW? Project Management? If I were to go into recruiting, I wouldn't give a shit if you played WoW and think it makes you a good project manager. You still have no concept of basic project management principles and not to mention I'd rather have someone who is a certified Project Manager. Unless Blizzard starts charging customers to get an authentic Blizzard Certificate of Project Management Training.

[kildorn]

WoW? Project Management? If I were to go into recruiting, I wouldn't give a shit if you played WoW and think it makes you a good project manager. You still have no concept of basic project management principles and not to mention I'd rather have someone who is a certified Project Manager. Unless Blizzard starts charging customers to get an authentic Blizzard Certificate of Project Management Training.

It's the logical next step of the achievement system.

[Mrbloodworth]

WoW? Project Management? If I were to go into recruiting, I wouldn't give a shit if you played WoW and think it makes you a good project manager. You still have no concept of basic project management principles and not to mention I'd rather have someone who is a certified Project Manager. Unless Blizzard starts charging customers to get an authentic Blizzard Certificate of Project Management Training.

It's the logical next step of the achievement system.

Only available through RMT!

[Tarami]

I think you're glossing over the fact that it's a really tiny minority of MMO players that aim to learn or even want to learn anything from playing. Most are there to *escape* challenge and responsibility. The better they do not learn anything particularly useful, the happier they'll be.

How many people going to a pancake house to learn valuable life skills?

Nobody, but learning new skills is in your interest at a job (unless flipping burgers is just that delicious to you!), because it'll let you get a better job, which will offer new opportunities to learn and advance further. You don't have to learn anything in an MMO, because nothing in it really matters. Tired of drama? Let the guild collapse. It's not a big deal. You're possibly even doing a bunch of people a personal favour.

My point is, even if you're really really trying to learn something, you never really really have to learn anything in an MMO. People tend learn both better and faster when their floppy, physical ass is on the line. The kind of ass you have to bring into work everyday, for example. So, in my opinion, regardless of whether you *can* learn something, it's worth nothing because you haven't really learned to take the responsibility that comes with using that skill.

[Venkman]

Ok. I somewhat agree. The part I don't with you on though is the first "let the guild splinter" part. This shit be realz for lots of people. You can't spend 5 hours a day on it and have it not affect you in some way deep. I'm not talking "sign my guild charter for 20gp" nametag customizers though. More like the guilds that have traveled entire games together for six to ten years. These types of groups are why raids work (and what makes pickup raids something to be faired).

So while I agree JUST relying on MMOs as your school of hard knocks is stupid, it can help if you do take some of it serious when you're surrounded by people who may.

[Furiously]

Thanks Tale, and grats to the one german journalist who tried.

[Draegan]

I stopped reading this thread when I saw a similar one over on FOH.  Holy fuck I missed a lot of teh funny.

Oh and: Total time logged in: 16 days, 18 hours and 23 minutes.

Damn.

[UnSub]

IBM sez: "We'll hire you lifeless WoW gaming freaks"

... of course, the article doesn't say that explicitly, but I thought I'd keep with the theme of not really reading the article before posting it.

Of course, why would you want to work for IBM when their global executive in charge of games and interactive entertainment holds this view of employing someone:

"And I said well why not hire the janitor and fire him when you are done.

  Quoting out of context! 

[Tale]

IBM sez: "We'll hire you lifeless WoW gaming freaks"

... of course, the article doesn't say that explicitly, but I thought I'd keep with the theme of not really reading the article before posting it.

Thanks to the BBC for demonstrating journalism 101. They rang IBM, got some grabs and made an actual story out of it. Hopefully just on instinct, not because I bemoaned the lack of such a story above. Then again, they did take the opportunity to attribute the original lead to The New York Times' crappy blog and call it by the newspaper's name, as if to say "see, your blogs ARE part of your newspaper brand".

[heidaro]

I do agree that some MMO players are a bit too hooked on the game and not many other things get their attention whereas most aren't. I was like this myself once. After this phase however, I feel the skills that I earned are worth it and that I am a better individual after it.

On the other hand, I think that football fans are worse, people that never think about anyting else than football. They're like what I described above but more or less do not get any valuable skills. That's my opinion anyway.

[Venkman]

They do have a much easier time finding random conversation at work and family events though

[Slyfeind]

IBM had this to say about their upcoming MMO and how they chose their lead designer:

"And I said well why not hire the janitor and fire him when you are done.

BBC1 hire me now, I can journalize.

[DraconianOne]

When asked if they'd consider banning employees from playing WoW at work, Mr Laux said

If I do that then employee morale will go down and productivity will go down and it may cost more in the long run

[Slyfeind]

The NYT editor in chief, when asked whether he enjoys sex with tarantulas, has been quoted to say:

...yes...

[schild]

Tumeroks - People are STILL fucking it up after the edit of the first post. Unfreakingreal.

[Ratman_tf]

Tumeroks - People are STILL fucking it up after the edit of the first post. Unfreakingreal.

He did quote the actual thread instead of just linking to it.

And then made up a bunch of shit. 

[Righ]

They do have a much easier time finding random conversation at work and family events though

That's networking. Their valuable connections will make them boardroom material.

[Venkman]

Right. Unless you're in the video game business, you'll have an easier time striking up conversation about mainstream sports than about even mainstream video games, much less WoW. And heck, even if you're in the industry, you don't want to come across all frothing lunatic 10+hr/day fanboi or you'll be considered merely a hobbiest with a title 

[Fabricated]

Tumeroks - People are STILL fucking it up after the edit of the first post. Unfreakingreal.

That article was on digg's second page when I looked a bit ago. It was probably on page 1 not too long before that.

[IainC]

And the fail train keeps a-rolling.

This time courtesy of TTH who are referencing an AsiaOne story that was itself first published in the Straits Times (subscription required). None of these latest iterations referenced F13 in any way (Tale is referred to as 'a blogger' and there is no link to any source).

[Soln]

we should have a new thread on just games journalism

[Dallasjmoore]

I own a company and I play wow quite often myself. I strongly encourage my employees to play WOW for at least a few hours a week. When my employees and I play WOW in groups it teaches them teamwork and it also gets them comfortable working with each other.  It can help them learn leadership skills as well as some good social skills. Sometimes I will joke by calling certain tasks at work "quests." Just by observing them you can see who will help others, who will take charge, etc.  Its a good method to better understand their personalities. 

Now don't get me wrong,  if it effects ones work performance and becomes a distraction, then there is an issue.  But that is the case with anything...addictions, depression, irresponsibility, etc.  Personally I don't care what any of my employees do on their own time as long as the work gets done efficiently when they are here.

[Cheddar]

I own a company and I play wow quite often myself. I strongly encourage my employees to play WOW for at least a few hours a week. When my employees and I play WOW in groups it teaches them teamwork and it also gets them comfortable working with each other.  It can help them learn leadership skills as well as some good social skills. Sometimes I will joke by calling certain tasks at work "quests." Just by observing them you can see who will help others, who will take charge, etc.  Its a good method to better understand their personalities. 

Now don't get me wrong,  if it effects ones work performance and becomes a distraction, then there is an issue.  But that is the case with anything...addictions, depression, irresponsibility, etc.  Personally I don't care what any of my employees do on their own time as long as the work gets done efficiently when they are here.

Wow.  Nice hello thread, welcome to NECROMANCY.

[schild]

Only a year late. Jesus.

[NiX]

I sometimes wonder how people even come across such old threads.

[schild]

External links Nix.

Mystery solved.

[Ratman_tf]

[palmer_eldritch]

I own a company and I play wow quite often myself. I strongly encourage my employees to play WOW for at least a few hours a week. When my employees and I play WOW in groups it teaches them teamwork and it also gets them comfortable working with each other.  It can help them learn leadership skills as well as some good social skills. Sometimes I will joke by calling certain tasks at work "quests." Just by observing them you can see who will help others, who will take charge, etc.  Its a good method to better understand their personalities. 

Now don't get me wrong,  if it effects ones work performance and becomes a distraction, then there is an issue.  But that is the case with anything...addictions, depression, irresponsibility, etc.  Personally I don't care what any of my employees do on their own time as long as the work gets done efficiently when they are here.

Would you sack someone who was suffering from depression?

[waffel]

I own a company and I play wow quite often myself. I strongly encourage my employees to play WOW for at least a few hours a week. When my employees and I play WOW in groups it teaches them teamwork and it also gets them comfortable working with each other.  It can help them learn leadership skills as well as some good social skills. Sometimes I will joke by calling certain tasks at work "quests." Just by observing them you can see who will help others, who will take charge, etc.  Its a good method to better understand their personalities. 

Now don't get me wrong,  if it effects ones work performance and becomes a distraction, then there is an issue.  But that is the case with anything...addictions, depression, irresponsibility, etc.  Personally I don't care what any of my employees do on their own time as long as the work gets done efficiently when they are here.

[NiX]

Would you sack someone who was suffering from depression?

Is that illegal in the states? I'm not up on your labour laws.

[Merusk]

Depends on the state, IIRC. We all have our own different labor & hiring/ firing laws.