NAVY regular Paul Chan leads what some may call a double life: he is a responsible professional by day and a hardcore gamer by night.

The 25-year-old has a standing appointment three times a week to go home after work to play World of Warcraft (WoW), the massively popular online multiplayer computer game.

Mr Chan and at least nine other members of his 'guild' - WoW-speak for a team of players who band together to socialise and tackle the more advanced hurdles of the game - meet online at 10pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays to raid dungeons and kill monsters.

These coordinated raids end at 2am on weekdays and can stretch up to 4am or 5am on weekends, yet he is back at work bright and early in the morning.

But Mr Chan, a seasoned gamer keenly awaiting the release of StarCraft 2, is adamant that his gaming habits do not affect his productivity at work.

'I meet all my deadlines,' he said. 'I do my work at work, play at home, and catch up on sleep during the weekends.'

He added: 'I'm used to little sleep.'

Mr Chan is among a growing number of working professionals juggling the daily grind as well as a nightly one. (Grinding, in gamer terminology, means completing a seemingly endless string of quests in order to level up.)

There are reportedly more than 30,000 WoW players in Singapore, with thousands more playing other games

that can be just as addictive, such as MapleStory and Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning.

But gamers' jobs may well be in danger, if recent news is anything to go by.

Games such as WoW hit headlines last month after a blogger reported that a recruiter had told him that employers shun WoW players.

'I happened to mention I'd spent way too much time in the early 2000s playing online games...He replied that employers specifically instruct him not to send them World of Warcraft players.

'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, etc,' the blogger said.

While gamers acknowledge that playing a game like World of Warcraft can take up a lot of time, they are quick to dismiss the notion that this makes them bad employees.

'To me, WoW is just one of a number of leisure activities I use to unwind after work,' said Mr W.X. Huang, 30, who works in a bank. He has played World of Warcraft for about three years now and has attained the highest level possible.

'If I wasn't playing WoW, I would be watching TV or reading until 1am anyway, so I wouldn't say the game has impacted my sleeping patterns.'

Like anything else that is carried to excess, WoW can be a detrimental habit, acknowledged Mr Huang.

'But if it's well-managed, I don't think it impacts productivity at work in any way,' he added.

The key is knowing where to draw the line between work and fun, said a director of a listed firm here, who used to play WoW until 2am and then wake up before 7am the next day.

'Gaming is a great way to relieve stress, but as in all pastimes, it becomes a problem when it mutates into an addiction,' he said.

'When I'm at work I do not think about gaming and vice versa. By nature I sleep very little so it's not a problem keeping awake at work after having gamed until 2am.'

Around the world, gamers have also spoken out on online forums against the discrimination they feel from employers.

'So long as one's responsibilities are not compromised by one's extra-curricular activities, the said activities are of absolutely zero relevance to one's employers,' said an anonymous gamer.

'Employers need to be disowned of the idea that their employees continue to be answerable to them beyond billable hours.'

A manager of a games studio also professed not to discriminate against WoW players as employees.

'I play WoW, and so does half my team of 18 people, which makes for great lunchtime conversations,' he said.

'So there is the occasional late morning related to all-night WoW raids - so what, I miss the bus occasionally (and if it's because I stayed up all night raiding, I won't tell).'

Still, some ex-players agreed that WoW addiction is a real problem.

A former gamer named Jessica H said: 'I still play Warcraft occasionally, but I would have been a terrible employee during the height of my 'addiction' phase.

'Warcraft can be as addictive as any drug; when people become hardcore players, they often prioritise Warcraft above anything else in their life.'

Some gamers here, however, are frank about putting their hobbies before their work.

'I play console games until 1am or 2am every night even though I know I have to go to work the next day,' said a civil servant in his 20s who asked not to be named.

'I don't enjoy my work very much, so if being tired in the daytime means more time to play games at night, I would rather spend my time playing games.'

For those keen on keeping their jobs, however, Mr Chan has some sage advice.

'Play with a group of working people in the same time zone, so that you will log off when the rest of them do,' he recommended.

'And remember that without a job, you can't pay for your US$15 (S$22) a month WoW subscription.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on January 12, 2009.