January 27, 2009

Warcraft .vs. Employees.


A little while ago I stumbled across this artical about filtering out wow players from the employment pool.  Among the reasons, bad sleeping habits, and an inability to give 100% due to a wandering mind.   My gut reaction tells me this was rather short sighted and biggotted.  You cold apply the same reasons to someone with a newborn or anyone at any given time.

Now if they are looking for those addictive personalities that will not be at work, even when "at work" why single out WOW?  I happen to play with a static group, all of us hold jobs of various levels of responsibility without a game being an issue.  

So before this becomes a rant (too late?)  I open my browser to this little ditty from Business Week, which has a suprising analysis of how the game can teach motivation.

"Training programs are effective only at transferring what we already know to others. How do we create powerful platforms jointly to innovate and develop new knowledge that no one had before? For an answer to this question, executives would be well advised to look at World of Warcraft"

Now, I have no illusions that a game is a game.  Far from being addicted to World of Warcrack,  I find myself playing an hour here or there with a chunk at times.  It is more a replacement for television then anything.  Still, I can see that the fine folks at Blizzard do have motivation down to an art.  If you have had to layoff some employees due to the economy, motivation of those left behind might have importents.




4 comments:

Stella by Starlight said...

peace offering

Unknown said...

Allow me to apologize then, It was never my intent to cause you any negative emotions.

Stella by Starlight said...

No apology necessary. I caused myself negative emotions, so there's a lesson for me here. The post is gone.

8^)

flyingvan said...

If I needed to hire someone to troubleshoot computers, I'd hire a gamer. Gamers understand the workings and limitations of systems better than anyone, as well as being in-the-know for cutting edge technologies in the field. If I were hiring an air traffic controller, I'd hire a sport pilot.