MMOG play as a barrier to getting a job: My Thoughts

Greetings Moonkin Musers:

I've been working on a thesis piece that will sum up my thoughts of leveling & end game events in WOTLK. This is why there hasn't been a blog post in a couple weeks. So I do apologize for my lack of updates during this Holiday Season. BTW I hope your Winter Veil Achievement progress is going well. I hope to have them all accomplished by next week (knock on wood!)

I saw this page via Massivly. I was writting a reply to add to the thread but I decided to post my reply on my Blog page not because it would be seen by more people; but because it would allow me to develop my thoughts more fully than what the forum posting would.

While they're is some validity to the recruiters concerns about MMO players, The Scorched Earth policy that the above recruiter is following is in MMO terms an Epic Fail.

In my own office the people who I know play WOW consist of the following:

1 Unix Admin \ SAP Admin

2 Factory IT Admin's for our entire business

1 Manager of Factory Customer Service

1 Mobile Sytems Admin (my position)

1 Network Admin

But as I said previously, the recruiter does have some valid concerns about MMO Players. Two former employee's allowed their gameplay to affect their work. One was involved in early mmo's\wow beta & fit the worst stereotypes of mmo players. The 2nd was hired this year & his work performance decreased as his guild progressed furthur into raid content. So if we look at the pool of wow players 1/4 of the workforce was ineffective due to their desire to play wow.

So what does this say. Well I know the sample pool is very small but it indicates a vast chasm between WOW Usuage & Work Productivity. Either your going to be hyper-productive or your going to be slothful. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground here. You either get a employee who is an shining example, or you get one that you can't even trust with your staple.

This would explain why the headhunter has clients that say no MMO Players. If they're experiences have been negative then yeah they're going to tell their recruiters do not send MMO players to HR.

However at the same time this does also point out a cultural hypocrisy.

MMO's are still socially unacceptable distractions in the workplace. If the people that I know in upper management came out and said "Yes I play WOW" they would be ridiculed. WOW talk in the office is in a hushed tone, in secret moments and is then ended with Work talk that cover's the discussion about Naxx boss gripes.

At the same time there are other what I would call OOW (Out of Work) distractions that affect far more employee's than the small percent that play MMO's

Employees who takes a 10min smoke break & has several smoke buddies who come along with him every two hours.

Employee's who spends 10-20% of his work day on his lust for sports, or it's bastard offspring fantasy leagues.

Employees who's schedule is dicated by their obligations to church, bowling league, or family.

As you read those examples who may have encountered a pain inside your skull. That was Cognative Dissonance. The examples I presented as acceptable OOW distractions have for the most part by rationalized by our society. Johnny Go-Getter smokes every 90 min is fine etc. etc.

However when they're presented next to the non-approved OOW hobby MMO gaming it caused your brain to re-rationlize them. You maybe thinking "He has a point, but sports are different, or Yes he's right but my church choir isn't something imaginary etc." Eventually your brain will either move MMO games to the same rationalized set as the others or your mind will find something else to think about.

My hope is that MMO's will reach a critcal mass sometime in the next 5 years. This will occur with two events

1.) Mass Adoption: At some point MMO's will become very user friendly. WOW is getting there with WOTLK, ("Raiding for all" as I like to say.) when the user base of MMO's reaches a point where it's easy enough for Mom, Dad, & the grandparents to play it may become OOW acceptable in the officeplace.

2.) PPO (Popular Person Effect): Sidekicks took off due to Paris Hilton etc. It's one thing for Mr T to have a night elf mohawk, it would be enterly different if a major rock star or celebrity, or a politician played MMO's. Esp a CEO, if a non-tech CEO said at a leadership meeting. "Hi I don't play golf, I raid instead, & here's what it gives me to lead my organization etc." It would start the process.

Until another day

The Musing Moonkin