View From the Road: It's Time to Grow Up

[McShizzle]

Well maybe in some happy technicolour future will I mention to people my love of gaming but that's sure as heck not today. I don't know you'd get anyone to understand it. My parents think it's strange that I mostly choose gaming and books as opposed to television plus they think it's past time I "grew up". I have exactly one friend of the people I know who plays games. I'm 100% positive that were I to mention my pastime at work or in social situations it would be met with snorts, derision, and the old "cough, nerd, cough cough". And I don't know if any of you have hit the dating scene much but if the "what do you like/do?" question comes up and you say video gaming, well that's pretty much it right there. Maybe things are different for younger people. I got in near the ground floor and you sure as heck didn't mention it back then, so maybe I've bought in to the stigma. I guess it's just not another hassle I need, so a closeted gamer I'll remain.

OT: Does the Escapist need a shipping/customs expert? I'd like to work at this mythical Shangri-la.

 

[JIst00]

Your boss would have to be playing wow, AND have your friend contact for this to be a relevent point.

-m

Yeah he'd have to log on, though if the guy knew your toons name(s) he could just /who you without being on your friends list.

And yeah RealID on the forums, as far as I was aware, was not linked to a toon unless you wanted it to be.

 

[Matt_LRR]

Your boss would have to be playing wow, AND have your friend contact for this to be a relevent point.

-m

Yeah he'd have to log on, though if the guy knew your toons name(s) he could just /who you without being on your friends list.

And yeah RealID on the forums, as far as I was aware, was not linked to a toon unless you wanted it to be.

But he could do the /who without realID in place, right now - and no, you didn't have to link your toon.

I didn't know that. I think with how big of a deal this whole situation turned out to be, it seems a lot of people didn't know that either.

That's because most people losing their shit over RealID bandwagon jumped, and didn't ever bother to actually find out what the details of the service they were protesting actually were.

-m

 

[Rhino of Steel]

I actually have my experience leading WoW raids on my resume. For the five co-op jobs I've had, I think at least four of them brought up that part in the interview and I must have managed to make it sound good since I was hired. It makes sense when you think about it, no low level management position can compare to the herding of cats through a tinsel factory that is leading raids, especially back in the 40 man days.

That said, I can see people not wanting to mention it. I'm sure there are plenty of workplaces and/or industries that are prejudiced against gaming. I've had co-op advisors tell me that I should remove the WoW reference from my resume. And to counter Matt, while I wouldn't want a career in a place that looked down on such an important aspect of my life, when the economy is so screwed up, any job is better than none. I sent out over a hundred applications just looking for a summer job and managed to get only one interview. If the interviewer has a negative view of WoW or games in general it could definitely be a problem.

 

[Low Key]

That's because most people losing their shit over RealID bandwagon jumped, and didn't ever bother to actually find out what the details of the service they were protesting actually were.

-m

I'm a rather private individual, so I like to keep my name off as much stuff on the internet as possible. Aside from that though, I wasn't totally against the plan to begin with. The implications of less people bad mouthing each other seemed like it would have helped online gameplay immensely. [sub]Plus, I haven't logged onto battle.net in over 5 years, so it would affect me at all.[/sub]

I think one day it'll happen though. We already do it for things like Facebook.

 

[The Philistine]

That doesn't sound very much like a place that I, as a gamer, would be partiularly interested in working at.

I work at what is essentially a government administrative office. Management doesn't care about what you do in your off hours, and the operating assumption on the part of older employees is that young male employees play games, including warcraft.

I chat with the other sub-30 male employees about gem configs, and raiding technique, and the older employees ask, "are you talking about that warcraft, thingy? My son plays that" while feigning interest.

This suits me just fine.

I don't understand why you would want to work at a place that actively rejects a passtime that is in many ways fundamental to your identity. That's just asking for a career of misery.


-m

That's easy to say when you're employed. When you're stuck without a job, you don't want to give a potential employer any possible doubts or reasons to drop your resume.

 

[Jfswift]

I agree with what you're saying. I am guilty of this too, I keep my interests such as furry and gaming hidden from my coworkers because I don't wish to be harassed but really I should just be open about my interests and not care. I, however, don't agree with Blizzard making that decision for me. My account is private information and I do find that very obnoxious to present my personal information to the world without my consent. In short, it's my choice, not theirs.

 

[JIst00]

snip
But he could do the /who without realID in place, right now - and no, you didn't have to link your toon.

Yeah but he wouldnt even know I played WoW unless he googled me and come up with RealID... lol it doesnt matter now anyway.

For the record I wasnt against RealID because of what my boss might think, or a potential employer and the like.

My problem with RealID was the arrogance of Blizz saying, in effect, "If you dont like it, dont post or post elsewhere.", taking away the choices that stand now. Yeah it may have got rid of some trolls, but most dont care anyway. There was a lot of OTT scare-mongering I'll agree with that, but there was a lot of valid reasons for being against it. Personally, I think RealID as it stands is great, although I cant hide on lowbie alts anymore from people Ive got as RealFriends and I dont post on the forums often anyway, but with it in place on the forums, I wouldnt have posted at all because of the stance Blizz took with it.

As for the guy who was on about the dating scene thing, if the girl is gonna hold gaming against me then she aint for me. I like gamer girls, like my fiancee, it means I dont have to explain why I spend so much time gaming.

 

[Timbydude]

I'm against the concept of RealID, but I do wholeheartedly agree with this article. When I meet new friends, the fact that I'm a hardcore gamer is one of the first things they'll know about me. I don't really look like a stereotypical nerd, but I don't care about stereotypes.

Do I absolutely love video games? Yes. I have, I do, and I always will. If someone thinks less of me for that, then that's their problem, not mine. I used to hide my gaming habits, but since I became open about them, my social life has only gotten better.

 

[SaintWaldo]

If we, the ones who should know better, act like our hobby is something to be ashamed of, then how can we expect anyone else to think differently? If we're not going to act proud of what we love, who will?

Gaming is for adults, too. It's time to start acting like it.

It's just as adult to not wish to wear your interests on your sleeve. It's also adult to not pretend that you know the single motive for another persons actions. Shame is NOT the only reason to want privacy, and it borders on arrogance for anyone to assert such a notion.

In fact, implying that someone who doesn't hold your world view is childish seems to me to be...childish. Privacy advocates don't need to be filled with shame in order to do things they don't want others to know they do. They just want the right to choose what activitiesthey make public.

I play WoW in my bedroom. I think you agree that almost everything else I do in my bedroom is and ought to be private unless I explicitly share it. I'm pretty certain most folks would agree with that. Even if I'm on the net, I should only be sharing that which I choose to share, not what some corporation or recent college grad bait and switches me into sharing.

 

[SaintWaldo]

Wait, so if your name was released to the public on a WoW forum, how would anyone who doesn't frequent these forums find out?

The first step in many hiring processes is a rough background check via Google.

 

[The Random One]

I think non-gamers are more likely to disregard if the 'optimum employee' also plays WoW but correlate it if a bad employee plays it. At any rate, some people just don't want to be stereotyped. Not everyone who plays WoW considers themselves a gamer, and that's their choice.

I'm always upfront with it and if someone thinks gaming is childish I just put on my metaphorical beret of +1 hipsterness and start talking about the unlocked potential of the media. If they look down on me after that it won't be because of the gaming.

 

[Negatempest]

If we, the ones who should know better, act like our hobby is something to be ashamed of, then how can we expect anyone else to think differently? If we're not going to act proud of what we love, who will?

Gaming is for adults, too. It's time to start acting like it.

It's just as adult to not wish to wear your interests on your sleeve. It's also adult to not pretend that you know the single motive for another persons actions. Shame is NOT the only reason to want privacy, and it borders on arrogance for anyone to assert such a notion.

In fact, implying that someone who doesn't hold your world view is childish seems to me to be...childish. Privacy advocates don't need to be filled with shame in order to do things they don't want others to know they do. They just want the right to choose what activitiesthey make public.

I play WoW in my bedroom. I think you agree that almost everything else I do in my bedroom is and ought to be private unless I explicitly share it. I'm pretty certain most folks would agree with that. Even if I'm on the net, I should only be sharing that which I choose to share, not what some corporation or recent college grad bait and switches me into sharing.

I can understand where you are coming from. But there is a huge difference between broadcasting your hobby to the public of the World vs your hobby being broadcast-ed to others who share the same exact hobby. Though we all are individuals, quite of few of us would share the same exact name and maybe last name. Its one thing to have our names made public to those that play the same game versus our height, weight, credit card #, social security #, ethnicity, race, and favorite foods being broadcast-ed to the same people.

Sorry, but no most of us would NOT be harassed by others because we would know who is harassing us and can VERY EASILY file a complaint if it continues since the name is exposed. And no, most of us are NOT special enough to take the time to be harassed at. Just maybe about 1% of us playing the game, that's still stretching it.

P.S. If some of you think your going to get more harassed than a porn star, than that is one hell of an ego some of ya have there.

 

[tlozoot]

I get the impression that this sort of lingering shame is more prevelent across the pond than it is in the UK. Personally I've never been ashamed to discuss being a lover of video games - hell, whenever I do a review, I throw in up on my facebook notes just in case someone would like to check it out.

 

[Formica Archonis]

I don't use my real name for anything on the internet. Chances are anything I say now I will look at in 10 years and think "god I was an idiot" back then. But it seems to make sense now dammit!

I'm you from the future. That's the dumbest thing we've ever said. Also, we have to finish our time machine before the Angels of Destruction find the portal.

Nah, I'm just messing with you.

(I'm really David Bowie.)

 

[Keava]

Sorry, but no most of us would NOT be harassed by others because we would know who is harassing us and can VERY EASILY file a complaint if it continues since the name is exposed. And no, most of us are NOT special enough to take the time to be harassed at. Just maybe about 1% of us playing the game, that's still stretching it.

P.S. If some of you think your going to get more harassed than a porn star, than that is one hell of an ego some of ya have there.

If any solution would lead to even 1 person being harassed because of it, it is a bad solution. The risk is always too high. Too many people look at things like this through their very own eyes as well as majorities eyes. Problem is majority is not 100%, so put your pride away and try to look at the problem from other side.

Humanity came up with the whole idea of privacy for a reason. Respect others view point, or well, just be some ignorant jerk. The choice is yours.

I'd love to live in a perfect world where prejudice doesn't exist, but sadly reality is far far away from it. The fact that you, or all your relatives/friends are lucky to not be discriminated in anyway does not, in any way, imply that someone, somewhere doesn't have issues because of who they are, how they look or what they like.

 

[V8 Ninja]

While I do regularly say that I play games to my friends and relatives, I do fall prey to the "I don't want people to know that I'm a level 76 mage!" state-of-mind. I agree that we need to grow up and stop being such seclusive people when it comes to gaming.

 

[Dora]

Are you fer serious? My stance has always been that if you're too ashamed to tell anyone you do something, you probably shouldn't be doing it. Frankly, playing video games is my JOB, and I still get the occasional "isn't that for kids/a silly hobby/etc" comments. But they're just comments.

I would hope that your friends/family/significant other/boss/minions know and respect you well enough that the revelation that you enjoy electronic entertainment doesn't forever shatter their opinion of you.