7 ms·

How World of Warcraft led to Glassdoor

72 points by bmahmood 11y ago

david_shaw 11y ago
This is a pretty interesting story, and speaks to the oft-cited leadership and goal-pursuing qualities that playing a major MMO can foster. On the other hand, like many others, I've also seen brilliant developers seriously stagnate their careers thanks to video game obsessions. I got a kick out of this tidbit, too: > In fact, Glassdoor wouldn't even be around if it weren't for StarCraft's older, sister game, World of Warcraft, he tells us. I think the journalist is either confusing WoW and Starcraft 2, or was talking about the Warcraft vs. Starcraft series in general.
- personjerry 11y ago
  In that context, the word "StarCraft" referred to Starcraft 2, because the author had previously been talking about the playing of Starcraft 2.
- Aardwolf 11y ago
  I agree that this is bad quality. The order of games was: WarCraft I, WarCraft II, StarCraft, WarCraft III, World of WarCraft, (... much later ...), StarCraft II
- jmngomes 11y ago
  I think the "confusion" stems from the fact that this article is basically at the same level of quality as any other by Business Insider, i.e. void of content and filled with the traditional hype/BS on "how to be a phenomenal founder", "what entrepreneurs do during their 60hr work day", "how to learn to code", "how to build a startup without learning to code", etc...
  - thirsteh 11y ago
    Generally, there's a good chance that most of these kinds of "Wtf?" logic errors are on the part of the journalist, not the person being interviewed. In the U.S, journalists don't send drafts over for comments, and rarely change published material, so there's little opportunity to get misleading stuff corrected.
- kendallpark 11y ago
  Yeah. That line was like, WTF. I don't think anyone considers WoW the same game as Warcraft. I think the author meant Starcraft 2.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
Scoundreller 11y ago
>To this day he runs his 450-person startup... I guess reporting about non-startups just isn't cool anymore.
- hueving 11y ago
  I think that's just the word for any company that doesn't seem to be sustainable in it's current form. (e.g. VC funding expecting an exit)
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
teddythetwig 11y ago
It took him a whole year to hit max level?
- tomlock 11y ago
  This is exactly what I thought immediately! Seems a bit long...
- diminoten2 11y ago
  When he was playing, it was a lot harder to level. That being said, I doubt the reporter got it quite right, or simplified it intentionally, wistfully thinking non-nerds would be reading the article.
  - smtucker 11y ago
    On top of that in vanilla WoW people actually went through all the content in the game. People would complete most of the quests, go through the dungeons in your areas multiple times to get armor sets, and do PvP (open world and battlegrounds). It might take an hour or two to get together a group to do some of the less popular dungeons and Battlegrounds queue times could easily take upwards of 40 minutes. Open world PvP and ganking would almost always take a couple of hours as you had to sometimes infiltrate enemy territory to claim your victims. Nowadays WoW feels more like a virtual lobby system for the dungeon finder/PvP queue rather than an actual MMORPG. No one really bothers to play the game as you would expect a traditional RPG to be played.
    - ponyous 11y ago
      >Nowadays WoW feels more like a virtual lobby system for the dungeon finder/PvP queue rather than an actual MMORPG. No one really bothers to play the game as you would expect a traditional RPG to be played. Thanks, I will use this description in the future. It definitely describes how I feel about most of MMORPGs I checked out lately.
- RafiqM 11y ago
  I would guess that it was "max progression" rather than max level. So, maxing out your gear, completing all the available raid tiers or hitting top rank in PVP.
joopxiv 11y ago
I don't really get how WoW led to Glassdoor, just because he got a call the day after he hit 'max level'. Correlation does not imply causation.
smcl 11y ago
At 22, I went to work at Microsoft. When I tell young people that today, they look as if they are embarrassed for me. And I have to tell them, 'No, no — it was like getting hired at Google back then, or Facebook. This was 1993. Who on earth is reacting like this?
- personjerry 11y ago
  Precisely what it says: young people. Source: I'm majoring in CS in university right now, and most of my colleagues hold startups/Facebook/Google in high prestige, while older companies such as Amazon and Microsoft are often seen as second tier.
  - lorenzfx 11y ago
    Amazon was founded in 1994, Google in 1998. Do those four years really make the difference? I believe the reason for Google being hold in high prestige must lie somewhere else than being a 'young' company.
    - personjerry 11y ago
      I think Amazon and Microsoft are also known as being bureaucratic-heavy companies, another big factor against being a good place to work as a software engineer (at least this is the impression we have been given).
    - lmartel 11y ago
      You're right, it's about more abstract prestige. I'm also a current CS student, and among my peers working for Google is "cooler" than working for Twitter, even though the latter is much younger.
  - UmDieWelt 11y ago
    I guess CS students can't be bothered to know anything about companies, because there's no rational way to rank companies the way you described.
- hueving 11y ago
sklivvz1971 11y ago
It takes about 3-6 months to level up to top level in WoW playing occasionally. I am very skeptical he "played for a year nonstop and then I hit the maximum level in WoW." He goes on to say that "I was maniacal in chasing this goal and literally the next day I started a company, Glassdoor." This are ridiculous statements for any WoW player. Leveling up is considered almost a "tutorial" to the "real" game that starts at top level, which is where everyone is at. I can't see someone that was serious abot WoW making this statement, and it seems that he's either badly misquoted or he is not sincere.
- yarou 11y ago
  I think you're missing the point entirely. His one year experience of playing WoW was a learning experience that ended up shifting his worldview enough that he was able to start Glassdoor. Whether or not he was a hardcore player is an entirely different matter, and frankly, quite irrelevant.
  - lmartel 11y ago
    No, it's important as a source of credibility. Imagine an article about how a career in software inspired a CEO to start his company, and it quoted him as saying "I got tired of writing all those PHPs for Googer." It's so far from what an actual domain expert would say that it's impossible to ignore.
  - sklivvz1971 11y ago
    I am not missing the point. It doesn't take one to be a hardcore player to level up to max level. I am simply skeptical that he did that in a year. Hardcore players do it in days. http://www.quora.com/How-many-hours-did-it-take-to-get-a-level-80-character-in-WoW-pre-Cata http://www.quora.com/How-many-hours-did-it-take-to-get-a-lev...
    - morganvachon 11y ago
      Keep in mind this was in 2006, before the first expansion pack, when it was a more balanced game from level 1 to level 60. I started playing in 2005, and it took me the better part of a year to hit 60 with my main. There are other factors to consider as well; as someone else said, it could be about server ranking. It could also be about "completing" the end game by defeating all of the instances and dominating the arenas on his server. Considering there is no way to truly "beat" WoW, as the end game changes with every new expansion, I'd say he set a goal for himself and accomplished that goal, and was ready to move on to the next (real world) challenge. I certainly grew bored with the game after spending my second year playing the same instances over and over.
lorenzfx 11y ago
> StarCraft's older, sister game, World of Warcraft That's not the way I remember it (unless you make that StarCraft II). Small errors like this always make me wonder how thorough the writer was with the rest of the article.
- TorKlingberg 11y ago
  Of course it meant StarCraft II. Just the sentence before he says he is currently playing StarCraft with his sons, so it's unlikely to be the original.
DanielBMarkham 11y ago
This is a nice PR piece for a company that looks like its innovating in a business space where a lot of dollars change hands. I'm not going to pile on with the worrying over WoW details. I thought the reporter did a good job. Well done. Having said that, from a startup business analysis point of view, is it just me or is everybody and their brother trying to get into the technology jobs sector? Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of room for innovation and somebody is going to make a killing here. Godspeed, guys. But geesh. With so many players and so many moving pieces, sure looks like a tough row to hoe.
stealthlogic 11y ago
Wow is not older than Starcraft. Get your facts straight Business Insider!

72 points by bmahmood 11y ago

This is a pretty interesting story, and speaks to the oft-cited leadership and goal-pursuing qualities that playing a major MMO can foster. On the other hand, like many others, I've also seen brilliant developers seriously stagnate their careers thanks to video game obsessions. I got a kick out of this tidbit, too: > In fact, Glassdoor wouldn't even be around if it weren't for StarCraft's older, sister game, World of Warcraft, he tells us. I think the journalist is either confusing WoW and Starcraft 2, or was talking about the Warcraft vs. Starcraft series in general.

personjerry 11y ago
In that context, the word "StarCraft" referred to Starcraft 2, because the author had previously been talking about the playing of Starcraft 2.
Aardwolf 11y ago
I agree that this is bad quality. The order of games was: WarCraft I, WarCraft II, StarCraft, WarCraft III, World of WarCraft, (... much later ...), StarCraft II
jmngomes 11y ago
I think the "confusion" stems from the fact that this article is basically at the same level of quality as any other by Business Insider, i.e. void of content and filled with the traditional hype/BS on "how to be a phenomenal founder", "what entrepreneurs do during their 60hr work day", "how to learn to code", "how to build a startup without learning to code", etc...
- thirsteh 11y ago
  Generally, there's a good chance that most of these kinds of "Wtf?" logic errors are on the part of the journalist, not the person being interviewed. In the U.S, journalists don't send drafts over for comments, and rarely change published material, so there's little opportunity to get misleading stuff corrected.
kendallpark 11y ago
Yeah. That line was like, WTF. I don't think anyone considers WoW the same game as Warcraft. I think the author meant Starcraft 2.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

Scoundreller 11y ago

>To this day he runs his 450-person startup... I guess reporting about non-startups just isn't cool anymore.

hueving 11y ago
I think that's just the word for any company that doesn't seem to be sustainable in it's current form. (e.g. VC funding expecting an exit)

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

teddythetwig 11y ago

It took him a whole year to hit max level?

tomlock 11y ago
This is exactly what I thought immediately! Seems a bit long...
diminoten2 11y ago
When he was playing, it was a lot harder to level. That being said, I doubt the reporter got it quite right, or simplified it intentionally, wistfully thinking non-nerds would be reading the article.
- smtucker 11y ago
  On top of that in vanilla WoW people actually went through all the content in the game. People would complete most of the quests, go through the dungeons in your areas multiple times to get armor sets, and do PvP (open world and battlegrounds). It might take an hour or two to get together a group to do some of the less popular dungeons and Battlegrounds queue times could easily take upwards of 40 minutes. Open world PvP and ganking would almost always take a couple of hours as you had to sometimes infiltrate enemy territory to claim your victims. Nowadays WoW feels more like a virtual lobby system for the dungeon finder/PvP queue rather than an actual MMORPG. No one really bothers to play the game as you would expect a traditional RPG to be played.
  - ponyous 11y ago
    >Nowadays WoW feels more like a virtual lobby system for the dungeon finder/PvP queue rather than an actual MMORPG. No one really bothers to play the game as you would expect a traditional RPG to be played. Thanks, I will use this description in the future. It definitely describes how I feel about most of MMORPGs I checked out lately.
RafiqM 11y ago
I would guess that it was "max progression" rather than max level. So, maxing out your gear, completing all the available raid tiers or hitting top rank in PVP.

joopxiv 11y ago

I don't really get how WoW led to Glassdoor, just because he got a call the day after he hit 'max level'. Correlation does not imply causation.

smcl 11y ago

At 22, I went to work at Microsoft. When I tell young people that today, they look as if they are embarrassed for me. And I have to tell them, 'No, no — it was like getting hired at Google back then, or Facebook. This was 1993. Who on earth is reacting like this?

personjerry 11y ago
Precisely what it says: young people. Source: I'm majoring in CS in university right now, and most of my colleagues hold startups/Facebook/Google in high prestige, while older companies such as Amazon and Microsoft are often seen as second tier.
- lorenzfx 11y ago
  Amazon was founded in 1994, Google in 1998. Do those four years really make the difference? I believe the reason for Google being hold in high prestige must lie somewhere else than being a 'young' company.
  - personjerry 11y ago
    I think Amazon and Microsoft are also known as being bureaucratic-heavy companies, another big factor against being a good place to work as a software engineer (at least this is the impression we have been given).
  - lmartel 11y ago
    You're right, it's about more abstract prestige. I'm also a current CS student, and among my peers working for Google is "cooler" than working for Twitter, even though the latter is much younger.
- UmDieWelt 11y ago
  I guess CS students can't be bothered to know anything about companies, because there's no rational way to rank companies the way you described.
hueving 11y ago

sklivvz1971 11y ago

It takes about 3-6 months to level up to top level in WoW playing occasionally. I am very skeptical he "played for a year nonstop and then I hit the maximum level in WoW." He goes on to say that "I was maniacal in chasing this goal and literally the next day I started a company, Glassdoor." This are ridiculous statements for any WoW player. Leveling up is considered almost a "tutorial" to the "real" game that starts at top level, which is where everyone is at. I can't see someone that was serious abot WoW making this statement, and it seems that he's either badly misquoted or he is not sincere.

yarou 11y ago
I think you're missing the point entirely. His one year experience of playing WoW was a learning experience that ended up shifting his worldview enough that he was able to start Glassdoor. Whether or not he was a hardcore player is an entirely different matter, and frankly, quite irrelevant.
- lmartel 11y ago
  No, it's important as a source of credibility. Imagine an article about how a career in software inspired a CEO to start his company, and it quoted him as saying "I got tired of writing all those PHPs for Googer." It's so far from what an actual domain expert would say that it's impossible to ignore.
- sklivvz1971 11y ago
  I am not missing the point. It doesn't take one to be a hardcore player to level up to max level. I am simply skeptical that he did that in a year. Hardcore players do it in days. http://www.quora.com/How-many-hours-did-it-take-to-get-a-level-80-character-in-WoW-pre-Cata http://www.quora.com/How-many-hours-did-it-take-to-get-a-lev...
  - morganvachon 11y ago
    Keep in mind this was in 2006, before the first expansion pack, when it was a more balanced game from level 1 to level 60. I started playing in 2005, and it took me the better part of a year to hit 60 with my main. There are other factors to consider as well; as someone else said, it could be about server ranking. It could also be about "completing" the end game by defeating all of the instances and dominating the arenas on his server. Considering there is no way to truly "beat" WoW, as the end game changes with every new expansion, I'd say he set a goal for himself and accomplished that goal, and was ready to move on to the next (real world) challenge. I certainly grew bored with the game after spending my second year playing the same instances over and over.

lorenzfx 11y ago

> StarCraft's older, sister game, World of Warcraft That's not the way I remember it (unless you make that StarCraft II). Small errors like this always make me wonder how thorough the writer was with the rest of the article.

TorKlingberg 11y ago
Of course it meant StarCraft II. Just the sentence before he says he is currently playing StarCraft with his sons, so it's unlikely to be the original.

DanielBMarkham 11y ago

This is a nice PR piece for a company that looks like its innovating in a business space where a lot of dollars change hands. I'm not going to pile on with the worrying over WoW details. I thought the reporter did a good job. Well done. Having said that, from a startup business analysis point of view, is it just me or is everybody and their brother trying to get into the technology jobs sector? Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of room for innovation and somebody is going to make a killing here. Godspeed, guys. But geesh. With so many players and so many moving pieces, sure looks like a tough row to hoe.

stealthlogic 11y ago

Wow is not older than Starcraft. Get your facts straight Business Insider!