Employers requesting username for Steam?

[Rxanadu]

The team lead for a game I'm working on just asked me for my Steam name out of the blue. We're not close, so I doubt it's for playing a match online. I think he's trying to find out if I'm slacking off (which I haven't been, for those wondering).

 

I'm not sure how I'm going to tell him to refrain from asking about it, but I don't intend to tell him. He's already looked me up on Linkedin to find out which state I reside in (for what reason, I don't know), so that's more proof this is some sort of way to snoop into my personal life.

 

What I'm really asking around for is whether anyone here has had any of their employers ask for their Steam username (or any other social/personal information) recently. I read this was illegal in some states, but I just wanted to know if I should bring this up in a meeting with him, or if I should be worrying at all. Hopefully, I'm just being paranoid.

[TychoCelchuuu]

This is why I have a shadow Steam profile.

[Reyturner]

I'd ask them. If they are weird about it, give them a fake one.

Is your project bound for Steam? Could they be looking to set up a dev key for you?

Also, LinkedIn is a professional social network so your boss(?) looking you up isn't necessarily that strange.

[Rxanadu]

I'll try asking him about the Steam thing. He's trying to enter into the Indie Mega Booth, so I think it may be.

[Thrik]

Setting you up with developer shit was the first thing that jumped to my mind. I don't see any harm in giving it to them, it's not like they're going to see anything dodgy. If you're a game developer than it's a bit like my employer (web software development) asking me for my Microsoft account.

I suspect you're being a little paranoid. This IS your employer, so them looking you up on LinkedIn and/or wanting some details about your residence, etc doesn't seem remotely weird to me. Getting uncooperative over it could be a lot worse for you than whatever scenario you're imagining could result from them having this information.

[James]

I like to imagine Rxanadu is the person in his or her avatar and is completely freaking out about this.

[syntheticgerbil]

I remember seeing a job listing for some game company years ago asking for your Xbox 360 Gamertag as part of the interview process. Your score had to be above some number and they needed to check.

[Bjorn]

  On 6/7/2014 at 6:40 PM, syntheticgerbil said:

I remember seeing a job listing for some game company years ago asking for your Xbox 360 Gamertag as part of the interview process. Your score had to be above some number and they needed to check.

 

So....PC/PS3 gamers need not apply?

[SuperBiasedMan]

I've heard that Riot games will only hire people who have over a certain (relatively low) rank in League of Legends because they want to make sure that everyone's played a decent amount of the game and is familiar with it, which does make sense really.

 

Also my girlfriend applied for a QA translation job recently where they asked for usernames on Steam, PSN and Xbox. We presumed they wanted to know that people had a certain level of familiarity with games rather than spamming out CVs everywhere.

[elmuerte]

  On 6/7/2014 at 7:39 PM, SuperBiasedMan said:

I've heard that Riot games will only hire people who have over a certain (relatively low) rank in League of Legends because they want to make sure that everyone's played a decent amount of the game and is familiar with it, which does make sense really.

 

Yes, because you don't want any fresh ideas flowing into the company

 

[edit] although having played the game doesn't mean you don't have new ideas. So, yeah it does make sense, if the company isn't going to do anything else but LoL.

[syntheticgerbil]

  On 6/7/2014 at 6:59 PM, Bjorn said:

So....PC/PS3 gamers need not apply?

Only real gamerz use Xbox.

[SuperBiasedMan]

  On 6/7/2014 at 8:44 PM, elmuerte said:

Yes, because you don't want any fresh ideas flowing into the company

 

[edit] although having played the game doesn't mean you don't have new ideas. So, yeah it does make sense, if the company isn't going to do anything else but LoL.

 

They wont need new ideas until LoL starts losing players, and you'll notice a sharp increase in their use of the word 'innovation' when you graph it out over time.

[elmuerte]

I think they do. It's unhealthy for a company not to work on its next thing. When they start losing players it's too late to start.

[SuperBiasedMan]

  On 6/8/2014 at 7:04 AM, elmuerte said:

I think they do. It's unhealthy for a company not to work on its next thing. When they start losing players it's too late to start.

 

I guess my sarcasm wasn't clear enough.

I meant they probably think they don't need new ideas because they're successful right now, and when the player count becomes a downturn they'll rethink the strategy. I think they'd be better getting in new people and ideas, definitely. Never hurts to add new ideas.

[tabacco]

  On 6/8/2014 at 7:04 AM, elmuerte said:

I think they do. It's unhealthy for a company not to work on its next thing. When they start losing players it's too late to start.

 

I don't think I've cyan any examples of that in the past.

[Twig]

  On 6/8/2014 at 7:04 AM, elmuerte said:

I think they do. It's unhealthy for a company not to work on its next thing. When they start losing players it's too late to start.

They had a "new thing" in the works a few years ago, because they were hiring for it (or so I heard from people who applied there).

 

But I'm pretty sure that's dead now. Riot's pretty much all-in on LoL and esports.