Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, News items

William Dobson over at our sister site Massively.com picked up this story earlier today. A poster on the f13 forums revealed that a corporate recruiter claimed they’d been given specific instructions to not consider World of Warcraft players for jobs. And we’re not talking here about people actively playing WoW at work — just whether the person plays the MMO at all. The theory behind using WoW play as a disqualifier is that WoW players are somehow unable to focus 100% on their day job.

There’s part of me here that wants to say “screenshots or it didn’t happen,” since I can’t imagine many corporations spending time and effort weeding out WoW players. I could see one or two HR folks preaching “Addiction!” and otherwise chewing on bitter apples. But several companies independently telling that to their recruiting folks, of their own volition and without prompt? I’m not so sure. If this recruiter is being honest with the forum goer, then I’d guess the recruiter her/himself is responsible for the WoW player ban.

Of course, that being said, I’ll acknowledge this comes after the FCC commissioner claimed WoW can cause college drop outs. Maybe this recruiter happened to be talking to someone who had just heard her speech. But, still, I’m not convinced there’s need to be worried about corporate conspiracies looking to pit WoW players into joblessness.

Do WoW players make bad employees? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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