He replied that employers specifically instruct him not to send them World of Warcraft players. He said there is a belief that WoW players cannot give 100% because their focus is elsewhere, their sleeping patterns are often not great, etc. I mentioned that some people have written about MMOG leadership experience as a career positive or a way to learn project management skills, and he shook his head. He has been specifically asked to avoid WoW players. (source)

I totally understand the expectation that avid WoW players have poor sleeping habits or lack focus. After all, there are other compelling games like Civilization or SimCity (in my opinion).

But World of Warcraft—and other, similar online games—are different. Many serious players commit to a constant and often busy schedule, as they sign-up for guilds, go on quests with party mates, etc. This means they have to sacrifice some of their individuality for the sake of the group, which more often than not eats into their personal time as they try to find a balance between their day job (or school) and their virtual passion (of course, you can always play 36 characters by yourself).

Still, I can’t imagine why an online media company (the supposed employer according to the forum post) would look down on WoW. Wouldn’t someone used to interacting within online communities prove to be a valuable asset to them?

Not necessarily. Perhaps the company had a bad experience with a previous employee, who showed promise as a seasoned navigator of the online world, but turned out to be a management nightmare full of focus issues. Maybe the online company has learned its “lesson” and implemented a policy of indiscriminately screening out addicted online gamers.

But in an environment where results matter more than the traditional corporate structure—where getting the job done and interacting well within a team is more crucial than old concepts like seniority, applying such a filter to the recruitment process may be dangerous. Again, because it automatically disqualifies a significant number of people who may have the experience, skill set, and work ethic beneficial to the company.

My point is that an arbitrary criterion like a passion for WoW shouldn’t be part of any valid recruitment process. After all, an employee’s likes or dislikes shouldn’t weigh so heavily on their chances at finding a job. Rather, what should be done, and this is a bit ironic, since it’s a tried-and-tested principle, is to concentrate on finding smart people who get the job done. And these kind of personalities may or may not be avid WoW gamers.

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To think that the crazy dude considers this a hobby. Wow.

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Althaea has lost almost 100 pounds playing WoW from a treadmill, shrugging off a diagnosis of sleep apnea and creating an exercise routine that has definitely stuck.

The creator encountered some problems, the most obvious being how to deal with the sweat generated by the literal exercise in gaming—moisture and electronics simply don’t mix. But that problem was solved quickly, by moving the laptop far away and relying on connected peripherals to do the job (monitor, USB keyboard and mouse, etc.).

Such a great combo, this fun plus exercise thing. (wowinsider.com)

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Toavs, for one, believes that spies will have to spend more time in virtual worlds like WoW, if they want to have a hope of keeping tabs on what goes on inside ‘em. Which means, some day soon, we might find secret agents in World of Warcraft, along with the druids and orcs and night elves.

All the attention stems from the “nervousness” the Pentagon and other government agents are feeling about the popular MMORPG. There’s even a fictional scenario meant to prove how easy it is to plan attacks on key targets, by using places in the virtual WoW world to represent real ones. The fictional terrorists, all decked out as players, practice their attack within the game world.

Sounds plausible. Not! As any self-respecting net-savvy citizen knows, the possibility for terrorists to plan their badness within WoW is possible. But a little imagination will realize that there are easier ways to do this, other than resorting to pretend farming with like-minded colleagues online. That’s why this report smacks so much of an underhanded effort to paint WoW as a potential terrorist haven, perhaps leading to legislation that will give the good guys more authority to invade the game world.

Waste of tax money, anyone?

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