WoWing @ Work - Tips & Tricks!
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iTZKooPA on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - 34 Comments Tags: fired, playing at work, productivity, tbc, tips and tricks, wow, wow at work, wrath, you will get fired
iTZKooPA on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - 34 Comments Tags: fired, playing at work, productivity, tbc, tips and tricks, wow, wow at work, wrath, you will get fired 
Back when World of Warcraft launched in November 2004 I was a lowly Pre-Junior at Drexel University. Let me answer your first question. A Pre-Junior is a year later than a Sophomore but a year before being a Junior. It was a five year program. Really, I swear, five years. At the time I was an aspiring Computer Science and Mathematics major, which meant that I spent a bit of time on my computer(s). But I still had to pay the bills between my studies so I picked up an IT job for Drexel's computer department. That is where it all began, playing WoW while on the clock.
Jobs obviously, and rightfully so, frown upon the idea of playing video games while you are on the clock. Some bosses even frown upon playing the game during lunch which is unfair in my opinion. Why is it that I can read the newspaper, watch TV or bother other people at lunch but I can't play a video game? Don't give me the company resources crap, it doesn't hurt the computer and at max takes about 30 kb/s of bandwidth. My boss at Drexel was one of those bosses who hated gameplaying, in all forms, while at work. So I had to get crafty.
There are actually numerous things you can do to play WoW at work. The most difficult is probably to get the game installed and patched. Depending on how locked down your computer is, this can be quite a task. You may get lucky and have free reign over your machine. Sometimes imaging the CDs/DVDs and then mounting them with Daemon Tools, will do the trick. Worst case, you will simply have to figure out (or reset) the administrator password, which could get you in serious trouble.
As for actually playing the game, here are a few tips:
- Most important, play in Windowed mode. WoW is highly optimized for Windowed mode, allowing you to hide it behind other applications quickly and easily.
- Having your back to the door is a major problem and should be remedied immediately. Make up some excuse like you “need a change of scenery” or can “get more workspace” to get permission to move your office around.
- On the same track, your entire office/cubicle/desk should be set up in a fashion to provide cover for your addiction. Use a tall printer to block line-of-sight to the screen if possible. Put your in/out boxes in the way. Anything you can possibly think of to slow people down, or lower their visual range. (If you have one of those short cubicle walls, good luck.)
- Stack recent delivered items, files, books, etc by the entrance to slow people down. If asked why you do this say “So I don't forget about them before I leave.”
- Dual monitors can help immensely. Keep work on the screen that is most readily visible to intruders and WoW on the other screen.
- Set the task bar to auto hide so no one can see what is open down there.
- Alt + tab and windows key + D key combinations are your friends. If WoW, WoWHead, and ProjectLore are covering your monitor real estate at the moment then hit the windows key + D and everything will be minimized (hit them again to restore). Placing a work window behind WoW will allow you to alt + tab (switches the focused application) to it to hide just WoW.
- Set your desktop to an active desktop and place a work-related website as the background. This will allow you to use windows key + D and look somewhat active to a casual observer.
- I have been told that a messy desk makes you look more productive, so mess it up to hide your unproductive distraction.
- Play with no sound and no headphones.
- If you know the intruder is going to need your time or have to look at something on your machine then kill the process instead of minimizing. To do this hit control + shift + esc to get the task manager up fast. Select WoW.exe and hit end task.
- Setup some sort of code, distraction system or warning sign with other like minded people. A bird call, a whistle, a ball of rubber bands being thrown 40 feet into your face. Anything to save each other's asses is worth it.
Remember, if you get fired for playing you can only blame yourself. I'm just trying to give you some helpful pointers so you DON'T get fired. Do your job, then play WoW while you wait for your next assignment. You manager's job is to manage, not yours.
I know you guys have more tricks and tips for getting away with WoW at work. Let's hear them.
Reader Comments (34)
I must interject. How can ppl QQ about "games bad for kids" when MOST people who will be playing @ work aren't kids at all.
ZOMG THEY ARE BAD FOR EVERYONE!
iTZKooPA
you know people they allways find a reason, you are fucked up as an adult becaurse you not the perfect employe or nabough you played games as a child. so that why.
im not saying that i agree with them. FAR FROM IT.
but take a guy like Jack Thompson. that guy againt games who sued (yes i know i have spelled a lot of things wrong) just about everyone who had anything to do with games.
im just saying that it fuels the fire for those people and the mayors that try to ban games in some form of another.
they allso said that games couses violent, school shootings, drug abuse, its damages you brain and mutch more. dont know how drugs and videogames are connected but they said it.
so basicly yearh you know.
was not trying to turn this in to a politik debate or you "shoot" down you post not at all
its just theres a time for playing wow and a time to live in the real world
I would love to play WoW at work, hell i've even tried. Only bad thing is i can't log on....."Unable to locate server". I guess its built into the firewall or restricted stuff on the work computer. Yet i have have no problem trolling Project Lore and other forums all day!!
Great tips btw.
what does the key + D mean
Become sales manager.
Say to your boss you go to a potential client.
Drive to your home (hide your car in the garage, not in front of the house) and go play wow.
As long as they don't bust you it works great.
If mobile goes and it is someone from work be sure to turn of sound and tell your kids to shut up.
Have a good story ready. We had a nice conversation, but he didn't want to buy it, or something like that.
Sorry for my bad English.
"how would you feel you you paid me what ever you earn to oh i dont know build you a new house and all i did was play wow ½ the time"
If you were efficient enough to build the house in a reasonable amount of time, at decent quality, and for a reasonable price, *and* play WoW for hours then I wouldn't care. Much respect to you.
Your boss pays you to do a job and if you can get that job done in half the time then why the hell shouldn't you play games afterwards? The whole "I pay you by the hour and you better do *something* for every hour you're here" approach discourages efficiency. Why bother using your brain and finish a task quickly if your boss is just going to make you do filing for the rest of the day?
People should be encouraged to play video games on their downtime. Pay people for the quality of their work, and reward them for being efficient. Much better than the dumb-ass way most offices work...
Hi Folks
Well I quite agree with you all.
If your at work you should get your work done.
If your at your work, and you have done all the work, then you should go ask for more work, then ask for more and more.
Which is why we have the lazy mans attitude to work,
Why work hard when they will just give you more work ??
Better to work at the same tempo as the rest, they aint gonna pay you more, for working hard,
But if you are in my position, where i do the work for 2 different positions in our company, and for some reason I manage to complete both and still have about 5 hours left to kill.
So should I go and help the poeple doing the "physical work" or should i sit drudging through blogs,
Well I know for a fact, if i wasent here, they would need to bring in 2 people to take over what i do.
And then they struggle at it.
So no, dont work hard, just work smart, and get everything done, make sure no-one comes asking you why something was not finished, or ready for the next shipment.
Then again, i work in planning, and I know what comes in and I know what preperations i need to make.
So its easy for me to be a slacker :)
Oh this made me giggle, I think it's great. For those that don't condone the behavior, I have to ask why does everyone feel the need to express non-solicited opinions? As others said, read the topic...if you don't approve and really don't have anything to offer, just move on. Anyway, I have a question...I work at a university and have WoW on my laptop. The university has wifi, but we have to log in to access it (they do have guest access, but the you are limited to just browsing the web mostly). We have over 20k students, is there anything suspicious about running WoW on the network that would make it stand out? Ie. bandwith, the name stating blatantly that I'm going to WorldofWarcraft, etc. I guess I'm wondering are there any systems administrators out there that could tell us what it is they look for in finding "abuses" to the network, or do you think I'm pretty safe? I am not even talking about trying to run raids or anything, I'm just talking about something simple like putting things on the AH or gathering herbs when I have a few minutes at work...so I'm not so concerned with constantly trying to hide what I'm doing as much as just worried it will somehow send a flag up to someone (I work in IT - so I guess that makes me more paranoid). lol. HELPFUL comments are welcome.
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