... cites a recruiter working in the online media industry as saying that employers think WOW players are too sleep-deprived and distracted to be effective in the workplace.

"Employers specifically instruct him not to send them World of Warcraft players," said the poster. "He said there is a belief that WOW players cannot give 100 per cent because their focus is elsewhere, their sleeping patterns are often not great, et cetera."

There is a counter-theory that playing WOW - specifically, leading an active guild, which can involve some tricky management of people and time - makes for great employment experience, but the recruiter was having none of it.

"I mentioned that some people have written about MMOG leadership experience as a career positive or a way to learn project management skills, and he shook his head. He has been specifically asked to avoid WOW players," the posted said.

Normally if I saw an article like this, I'd be up in arms on how it's discrimination - and that WoW is not nearly as bad as a criminal or drug addict etc... up until the last 6-7 months.

Seriously, I have hired close to 15 people over the last 6-7 months (I work in retail, so the turnover is pretty high - meaning regular hiring). Four of the people I hired played WoW. Out of those four, I have had to let go of each and every one of them. I'd find it difficult to make a broad generalization as to the effects of WoW on a person's work ethic and performance - but without a doubt, in my experience, WoW is like a drug.

All of them had shitty performance, social skills and little to no aspirations or goals. Worse yet, most of them had a severely flawed work ethic - often half assing 90% of their work load, arriving late without excuses, no self respect in terms of grooming and dress standards and they would turn up extremely tired at least half the time.

Of course, there were those who were better/worse at balancing their WoW/Family/Work time. One was doing quite well at University and had a steady girlfriend, and despite his WoW addiction - managed to turn up for each and every rostered day, never pulled sickie's or made excuses for poor performance. Another however, besides abandoning his grooming/dress standards a few days after being hired, would constantly bring every conversation back to WoW or gaming in general. Worst of all, a few weeks into his employment he revealed that he was a high school drop-out, who was working to save enough money to fly over to, and attend, BlizzCon. Things got laughably bad when he revealed that his goal in life (high school drop, over 25 years old, no tertiary education, and this was his first semi-serious job) was to make his own MMO that would be, and I quote, "Pawn WoW".

Now... I can admit to being a nerd at work. I can actively talk about gaming to those who are interested. However, revealing something like that in a store that employs 50+ people is fucking suicide. The bloke had to leave because there was literally no-one in the store who would talk to him, and those who did, solely did it to get a laugh (often talking shit about WoW, or doing impressions etc). By the end of it all, I truly felt sorry for him (he had some serious family issues, had to sleep in his car some nights etc)... and though very little of the above would be directly related to the negative effects of WoW - it has to make you think whether WoW is any different to a drug?

This used to be me with FFXI. Those are bittersweet memories. On the one hand I was enjoying the hell out of myself. On the other, I was a total flake at work, and antisocial during my off-time. My fiance would come over and we'd take care of business, and as soon as she was asleep, I'd be up and at the game again.

I'm glad I quit (almost two years ago) and moved past that stage of my life. That said, I just recently started WoW. I'm only playing a few hours at a time now, and so far I've kept myself from staying up too late on it. I think I can keep myself from getting too into it now, as I'm actually married (not living alone with my addiction), and into other games and hobbies as much as I am WoW.

But yeah, I was a miserable worker during my FFXI time....

In a shocking move this morning, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Australian retailers will no longer be allowed to sell any online game that has not been classified by the Australian Classification Board.

This move directly affects games such as World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan and Pirates of the Burning Seas – titles that don't contain a single-player experience, and therefore did not apply for classification.