
How World of Warcraft led to Glassdoor - bmahmood
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-world-of-warcraft-led-to-glassdoor-2015-5
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sklivvz1971
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.

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gbrhaz
I imagine it was to reach Rank 14 in PvP rather than to hit the level cap.
Even at the very start of the game, it took only 11-15 days in-game time to
reach level 60.

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jlees
I agree that it's likely the PvP rank. I could definitely see that taking a
year or longer. Although plain old level 60 is still plausible - while it only
took 11-15 days to level 60 if you knew what you were doing, a lot of us took
longer than that because we took a roundabout route, whether out of fun or
ignorance -- or leveled multiple characters before picking one, or maximized
our tradeskills while leveling as seemed logical initially, etc.

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david_shaw
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.

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jmngomes
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...

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thirsteh
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.

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

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hueving
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)

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smcl

        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?

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personjerry
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.

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lorenzfx
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.

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personjerry
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).

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joopxiv
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.

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lorenzfx
> 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.

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TorKlingberg
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.

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DanielBMarkham
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.

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teddythetwig
It took him a whole year to hit max level?

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Luyt
I started WoW in december 2005, and hit 60 in februari.

Also, when you reach max level, doesn't mean you finished the game. There is
tons of instances to do, special loot to earn, and other stuff; even in 2006.

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globuous
I actually hear many many times that the game _starts_ when you reach the top
level ^^ I've unfortunately never played the game enough to confirm though

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Squarel
It depends on what you do, and what you want from the game.

For me, I like levelling, so, once I have levelled, and got geared up (which
is incredibly fast these days), it is onto the next alt.

