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

[Shynobee]

Its definetly true that admitting you are a gamer in today's world is seen as a social stigma. I don't play WoW, but I when I mentioned off hand at my job that I played video games on a fairly regular basis, and immedietly got "looks" from my fellow co-workers, who I've been working with for over a year.

Playing video games associates you with being a "nerd," someone who is socially awkward. Even when you've known someone for a year, that stigma still exists and will continue exist for some time.

 

[Epitome]

First of all the whole "If they wouldnt hire you for a hobby, then its not the kind of place Id like to work" line is incomprehensible? I dont work for the fun of it, I do it because I need the cash to finish college. I cant screw all that up because my boss doesnt "get" gaming. I dont play wow, but I opposed the RealID System lest it spread.

I relax when I get home by playing BFBC2, I dont want my boss to know I have racked up over 5 days play in the last 6 weeks. I know you would love us all to rise up and combat the stigma, but its stigmatised for a reason, many people do not "get" it. They know nothing of games outside sensationalist media, How often do you see games stories in the media the last two I saw on BBC were Milos tech demo because he was grossly overhyped as some AI, and the Cod "YOUR CHILDREN ARE LEARNING TO BE TERRORISTS" warnings.

They blamed Columbine on Doom, they blame violence on gaming in general because our hobby got pidgeonholed as the go to reason for insane children rather than finding out what actually was wrong in that persons head. There is little point trying to explain to the masses of how deep the story of a well played game can be, they dont want to hear it. They want something to blame for the ills of the youth and you cant force us all to undergo that stigma. It wouldnt be some grand Disney ending where we all accept each other and hug, It would be exactly what we think it would. Bosses/Family/Friends could all check, Imagine Live did this? Id never be able to claim I wasnt home again, They could see for themselves. Right down to the last minute I logged off.

Serious even when vocalised it sounds odd. Whats your hobby? "Oh well to chill out in the evenings I assume the role of an American or Russian soldier and participate in an alternate timeline where the Cold War escalated." How does that sound to somebody who knows nothing of the hobby.

I dont want to have to explain to every person who may care to get involved why I do what I do, my bosses dont know because they dont need to know, nor does anybody else. Im quite happy in my gated community of people who actually care about the subject matter.

 

[ZehGeek]

Spoiler: Snip

Spoiler: snip

Hell if I played wow I wouldn't want employers being able to look that up, and for exactly the same reason why I wouldn't want them to be able to look up the fact that I drink on weekends. I may not be addicted but it is an activity were enough people are and that the risk of it is always there.

Don't forget certain companies won't hire you if your a known WoW player, and women/men/signifigant others are crazy on the BEST of days.

Which companies? I've never heard a single credible report to this matter, and have actually seen reports that employees attribute leadership to what they learned in WoW guilds, like the Starbucks guy.

I've honestly heard more stories of people bonding wuith the interviewer over the fact that they both play wow than I have of companies rejecting potential hires on the grounds that they play.

-m

I know we have one employer in town who will not hire you if they find out you play WoW. It cuts into the workers productivity and they aren't focused on their jobs like they should be, or at least that's what they said(in their defense they have had quite a few people with WoW problems make life hard on everyone else there).

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

It's the big college employer in town, and they pay rather good for a small town like this. And as I have said when Iw as working there we had a few to many people decide WoW was more important then work, hell a few of them tried to install it on their computers and played that instead of taking calls(it's a call center and a busy one at that, 1 person not taking calls tend to back up the rest of the calls and that means the customers on the other end are pissed off when they get to someone). The only person I ever heard of not getting a job because of it mentioned it on his resume(he put raid leader as management experience, not a smart move) so it's not like they would fire you after yous tarted working because of it.

If they're going to reject my application based not on my qualifications, but on what I like to do for fun, then I didn't want to work there anyhow.

-m

/agree
Though I think there kinda trying to cover all the "probable issues". Like they want you being productive and not trying to sneak online to check on the AH. That's understandable, but only tackle that problem if it shows up. Don't judge for something that, I do in my own time, that isn't harmful to the company's productivity.

Anyway,
The privacy is nice, and nobody should be ashamed of being a gamer. Everyone's got there own opinions, let em have em. Though it would be nice if Blizzard asked for some sort of non-forgiable identification means for all accounts that only Blizzard sees. That way, if they ban a troll or bot, it stays banned. In theory atleast. Cause I'm pretty sure the RealID was partly to help clean up the community from /b/ tards and douches n stuff.

 

[duchaked]

honestly...seeing people get all angry at the realID thing, well, it was pretty sad
okay maybe asking for your full name might be understandably unwanted, but just your first name shouldn't be too harsh

 

[jp201]

honestly...seeing people get all angry at the realID thing, well, it was pretty sad
okay maybe asking for your full name might be understandably unwanted, but just your first name shouldn't be too harsh

Yeah i agree.

They could just make you go by one nickname of some kind and that's what you have to go as or something along those lines.

 

[Jaded Scribe]

As much as I love RealID in it's current form (and I think a good chunk of the WoW population needs to take off the tinfoil hats they've been wearing since it was released), I was happy to see this feature changed.

I don't mind so much about people finding out that I play. Most people I know are already aware. If they aren't, it's because it hasn't come up, not that I'm hiding it.

But I don't want people knowing how much time I spend on the forums. Namely, my mother-in-law who just loves to criticize me and tell me how to live my life. It just wasn't a necessary change.

 

[LewsTherin]

B-but John, your witty tagline is what gets me through the week.

OT: You pose a good argument, however games such as World of Warcraft, and even gaming in general tend to attract a certain character of folk who favour anonymity for more malignant purposes, to paraphrase one John Gabriel. I've been on Barrens chat, the stereotype isn't without some basis. Unfortunately it is stuck to everyone equally.

 

[SandroTheMaster]

It's easy to ask for sacrifice when you're not on the list.

I've never tried to hide the fact I'm a gamer to anyone. In fact, I'm very picky about my friends, and if they don't like gaming I don't see much topic in our conversations. I only date gamer girls too.

But that has in fact made me be looked down upon. Maybe in the USA and Europe gaming is now cool enough that everybody can get to understand, but in my country it is still saw as this monstrous beast that kills Koreans on the other side of the world (no matter how many times I try to explain that the number of Korean deaths this way is probably lower than the number of Koreans that died working out).

I've lost at least a few job opportunities because of gaming. You may argue that I can't know it for sure, but everything was going fine until I made it clear I was a gamer in some way or another. But if that isn't enough, well, once I was actually asked if I could stop playing WoW from the employer, and I answered: "WoW I might, it's no biggie, but I wouldn't stop playing other games." The man looked at me with a face that spoke "There are OTHER games? Madness!" Yeah, I lost that one almost instantaneously. I don't care with these predicaments, if they can't have me being a gamer, so I don't want to be working with them, but there are a lot people who CAN'T have this luxury.

It's a good sentiment, but the reaction of these people are more of the "he seemed like such a nice guy..." other than "it isn't that weird and horrific after all!"

 

[schroing]

AOL didn't earn much ire here, did they?

 

[Polock]

My girlfriend used to love me watch playing TF2, and I love my TF2 tee-shirts. Gaming is my hobby. I let it be known. I also party and have fun at my college. Oh man.

 

[Enigmers]

I wouldn't mind releasing my name to a forum I know is populated by normal people. The battle.net forums are the farthest I can imagine from a forum full of "normal" people.

That should be a conscious choice. If I don't want people to know what my name is, who the fuck is Blizzard to say "well we've had some trolls recently so now you rationally-thinking, responsible people are going to have to put your full names on the internet."

People are afraid of change if they can't see any positive benefit from the change. I see no benefit from RealID's real-name-forum-post-o-matic. If you're planning to troll on a forum, you'd just sign up with a fake name and troll away. If they really wanted less trolling on their boards, they'd hire moderators or moderator volunteers.

 

[b1r2u]

Well said. But still it's true that sometimes social and work constraints might stop us from openly declaring it. I think the best way would be to just not go about telling the whole world about it while just not hiding it if asked.

 

[schroing]

Well said. But still it's true that sometimes social and work constraints might stop us from openly declaring it. I think the best way would be to just not go about telling the whole world about it while just not hiding it if asked.

Obviously, this. If you want to start some kind of a cultural change, do it on your own terms; don't push a potential major security risk onto several million people in the hopes something good will come of it.

 

[Verbal Samurai]

Whether you like it or not, the vast majority of people over 40 frown upon games. It can cost you a job with a potential employer or cause you to lose credibility with an existing employer or colleague.

In 30 years, the vast majority of people in the business world will have grown up playing games and the stigma will disappear. Pardon me for not wanting to martyr myself, professionally speaking, in the hopes that that day will come early.

 

[Thick]

I've yet to hear a good reason that I should be ashamed of my WoW habit, but that doesn't change the mountainous heap of shame I do feel about it.

 

[LadyRhian]

Speaking of games as addiction, i think that two things in particular don't help. Number one being that games may not be seen as a big addiction here, but there are stories coming out of places like Southeast Asia where people are, indeed, going nuts over MMOs. Not even necessarily Warcraft, but people killing each other over stuff that happens in a game. I don't necessarily think that it is the game in particular that causes this kind of behavior, but one has to admit that people who hear about these things and don't know what online games are like, find it incredibly prejudicial when they read such stories.

Now, admittedly Southeast Asia plays games much more than we in America and the West do. But I do think that if we did have the same percentage of people gaming here the way that people game there, it would be seen as just as much of a problem, because the ratio of people who will get and/or go batshit crazy over something that happens in a game is pretty much the same the world over.

Second, even in jest, gamers do tend to call games an addiction. I mean, did you see the advertisements for Civilization IV? People in a twelve-step meeting for playing Civilization? Chanting "No More Turns"? Yeah, it's a joke, but do you think those who are not into it get the joke?

 

[Thurmer]

i think playing WoW definitely has its own stigma attached to it. I've got friends who would bag the shit out of me, like at every opportunity they could, who play bc2 and l4d passionately.

That said i've got a similar friend who bagged me back when I played wow and now hes one of the top mages in the world (hes a freak).

 

[Killerbunny001]

There is something that must be kept in mind when talking about WoW players - Not all of them are actually gamers. I think that somewhere around 40% of all subscribers didn`t actually play much before WoW.

With the above in mind it`s easy to understand why WoW players may not understand and wear the emblem with proud.

I on the other hand would have loved real ID in the sense it would have made the forum and very possibly the online experience as a whole much more friendly.

 

[sneakypenguin]

I understand the point of the article. However I like many others just don't want the orc shamman I camped for 20 min to have access to me outside of the game environment. Anything that requires a real name to be displayed is a no for me. Nothing to do with our shame of gaming or whatnot. We are private people, hence why I am "brian or sneakypenguin or falcon kidding or scaliav" online. Granted you didn't have to use realid but I just don't like the idea or easier access to my real public life.

I also think it can be somewhat valid to keep gaming habits under wraps around certain people. Notably those who don't have any connection to gaming. Nothing about gaming shame, just something that works out better.