QFT: The ins and outs of the MMO world.

QFT is an opinionated blog about the IG and RL happenings of MMOs. From Leeroy to Legalities, this blog will give you direct LOS to the info that you need to know. Come with your Tank gear, We're covering topics from Jack Thompson to Funcom Layoffs. GGHF!

Author: otomage

So what if it's discriminatory.  That law has been twisted to mean anything for anyone that didn't ever get a job.  I would not want to hire WoW addicts either.  Your just being blind and saying they are discriminating against you because your a WoW fanboi when the truth is a large majority of people that do play WoW become crackheads.  It's safer and cheaper for employers to just deny WoW players and hire other people. 

If there was not law saying otherwise you might wake up and say gee, I'm a WoW crackhead and if I want to get ahead in life I better stop playing and not tell anyone that I ever did. 

Well, that wouldnt be true even if i played WoW =) You're discriminating against a population of 11.5 million people, much like these people are doing. I actually played untill level 27 and decided that it was more fun just AHing for the rest of my subscription time, instead of grinding.

WoW players have an intense knowledge of economics. They

A. remember prices (as not to get scammed)

B.they buy low, sell high (Merching)

C. Strategically flood the Market and Monopolize (buy all the cloth, controll the price).

And they do that on a regular basis, while mainiting a human intereaction element, providing ample scamming oppertunities (competitve takeover).

Also, most of the 70+'s have an intuitive, highly applicable mathmatical skill, used to calculate how much certain atributes can effect their DPS/Crit/Defensive numbers and make them able to stack numbers so strategically that some other person won't crack their armor. These skills belong to a mathmatical branch called Applied Statistics and Descrete Math.

All in all, id say they're a "Safer" bet for employers.

What you do in your free time has nothing to do with your job or employer, as long as you work as expected this is all bs

Oh! So now they are actually safer rather than riskier for employers to hire?? If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black.. Uhhh most people, from my expierence, use pre-made calculators.... So much for "highly applicable mathematical skill."

Is it discrimination?  Yes.  Is it illegal?  Probably not.  Firing employees for chronic abseenteeism is discrimination against the lazy, but it's hardly illegal.  Or at least that's not illegal in places with sane labor laws.

Do WoW players have a solid knowledge of economics?  Most don't.  A few do, but that was learned before picking up WoW.  EVE players, on the other hand, are a lot more likely to pick up some economics in the course of playing the game.

As for math skills, you're not going to pick up much of that from WoW.  The handful of people who reverse-engineer stuff already have solid math skills, and WoW is fairly light on that even compared to some other games.  For most players, it's basically, this weapon does 50 DPS and that one does 40 DPS, and 50 is higher than 40, so I'll use the 50.

I like how you threw in the little EvE propaganda. You people gotta stop looking at what MMO it is, the fact is that a GAMER was discriminated agianst for playing games in his free time. MMO's require massive amounts of common sense as well as social, leadership, mathmatical, and economical skill. People who dont play games look at them and dont see any of this, those who do are so used to it that they dont even notice using all this in their daily gaming. If companys or anyone really turn you down for playing "WoW" then soon it'll move on to all MMO's and then else where, and really SCREW that.

P.S. An MMO is an MMO, the only reason they would have specifically said WoW is because its the most popular and public MMO spread around that NonGamers have any idea about.

WOW also has the stigma that EQ used to - it's made the news for ruining lives.

And to respond to an earlier post: What you do in your free time does matter to a company. Because, whether you like it or not, you are are a representative of the people you work for. Even after hours. At my job, I've had people tell me that they won't patronage my store when certain employees are in because of a personal event in their lives - which means we lose business on account of something non-work related.

First off --

Why would anyone in their right mind put anything related to gaming on a resume for a job that has nothing to do w/ gaming?   See, that is where you people are sadly mistaken.  Employers are looking for REAL WORLD skills, not how well you can grind honor or xp in hour, or how to manage a raid through game content.  Employers do NOT CARE about your expertise in a game.  It's a game, not life. 

Secondly --

If you are actually QUALIFIED to do the job based on your real life skills, then you should have no reason to even mention your gaming skills.  Therefore, this whole discussion is moot to begin with.  If all you have up your sleeve as experience towards the job you are applying for is being a raid/clan leader in a game, you can pretty much guarantee that employer is going to just laugh and give you the boot.  It is guaranteed, bottom line.

So what is the soluition?  Don't even mention it in the hiring process.  It is that simple. 

If you put guild leadership as a positive on your resume, you must be a whole another level of stupid. Should I start putting high reflexes cause I play alot of twitch based games? Or imaginative mind cause I play alot of crpgs?

Bollocks to that. I sure as hell won't hire some idiot with gaming experience on his resume. Gaming is a hobby, like collecting stamps.

Well, what if you collected stamps and had one of the best around.  You meticuoisly collected and cultivated your collection and had all the rare books and imperfections.  Your collection was valued higher then anyones around.  Would that not set you apart from the rest. 

I can see how some guild leaders thought it might be a good idea, perhaps like Death & Taxes guild leadership.  But those are a select few people that actually made a difference.  On average the rest of the WoW base is dumber than a box of rocks compared to some of the guild leaders out there. 

Employers are just playing the number game and don't want the hassle.  If you think your guild leadership or gaming skills would be helpful to a real company, you better be able to talk the talk while doing your walk. 

Take a look at the quote. "I happened to mention I’d spent way too much time in the early 2000s playing online game…" And then the recruter said they basically blanket ban a substantial portion of the population because they belond to a certain steryotype.

Illigal? Yes.

I just saw a few weeks back on the news how gammers where one of the ppl high on the list cuz of there ability to muit-Task and there good hand/eye.... so on

Talking about gaming in an interview? Bad puppy, no job for you! How stupid do you have to be to think that gaming is appropriate conversation when trying to land a job (unless its in the gaming industry)?

otomage: Online games teach you economics? You are a complete idiot. What f*cking planet do you live on? No wonder this country is in a financial crisis.