WoW Players Discriminated Against in Workplace

BoingBoing picked up a thread carried elsewhere and ran it as a piece the other day. The thread began with someone noting how he'd met a guy who explained that his superiors had told him not to hire World of Warcraft (WoW) players because of their dedication to the game and lack of a regular sleep pattern. What is unique about this discussion is that it did not devolve into the WoW players vs. everyone else; most of the comments actually debate the merits of the concept. Even more interesting is that the consensus seems to be that WoW can be detrimental to one's work.

As regular readers know, I believe this 100% and have expressed it numerous times. This is why I do not play video games - that and the fact that, no matter how "interactive" they are, they are false creative outlets. Like many drugs, video games give you a false sense of accomplishment; you may beat the game, but chores go undone, work gets missed, friends and family are pushed-aside. I also have personal experience in this regard, as I grew up with a host of people who were sucked into video games, and whether or not one could consider them "losers" before, they were definitely losers then.

Many of them traded-in damning role-playing game addictions for video game addictions. I don't know how prominent it is today, but growing-up, people my age all knew at least a few people who were constantly gaming (tabletop RPGs) in one form or another. They always had their character sheets with them, always carried dice, and whenever they had a free moment, they were either tweaking some in-game concept or actively gaming. When we were students, it was one thing; once in college or out of school, it was just ridiculous.

These people most certainly did lose jobs, girlfriends, and other opportunities due to their gaming habit. Once they discovered video games they were quickly consumed because they no longer had to coordinate schedules with other gamers; no longer requiring a GM or players, etc., they could instead devote their time to beating a game. Once they'd done that, they would go back through the same games over and over, and every time it was for some dumb "purpose" - "I was playing to beat it last time, now I'm playing to collect as many coins as I can, find the secret passages, get to the secret level, because I'm bored..."

I completely agree with not hiring WoW players, but no matter, I thought you guys would enjoy reading the discussion.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008