The family that plays together...
by Mike Schramm 
Oct 19th 2007 at 6:06PM
Dshpls tells the story of his friend's girlfriend's family over on the forums-- mother, father, sons and daughter all play World of Warcraft together. As a lot of players say on the forums, it's not really all that weird anymore-- WoW is showing up on commercials and even grandmothers play the game-- but it does still seem like a rare occurrence. My parents just aren't the videogame type, and my brother and sister were never that interested, either, so I always think of WoW as a more social activity than a family one.But then again, whenever I abandon this bachelor life of "gaming blogger" and settle down in a house with a few more bedrooms than I need, I'll probably be inclined to do a little family gaming myself. As our own Robin Torres can tell you, gaming with family is just as fun as gaming to get away from family, and probably more fulfilling, too.
When you sit down to grind EOTS marks for the Season 1 Arena awards this weekend, will your family be sitting next to you yelling to get to the Blood Elf tower? Or are you glad they're on their own, playing Sudoku and golf, rather than the videogames you love so much?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Odds and ends
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JMCampbell Oct 19th 2007 6:32PM
With something this time consuming, for me it's almost mandatory that I include my wife. (Our daughter is only 6 months old so she's not playing but loves to help us jump and watch hippogryph flights.) My wife has a Horde priest. I don't care for Horde and my schedule keeps me at work a lot, so we don't play together a bunch. But if either of us needs help the other will and we have a couple characters we play together.
As with everything it all comes down to balance. Our next issue is getting both of us away from the computer more and being a little bit healthier.
iloria Oct 19th 2007 6:33PM
My father got me started on WoW. After he heard about it from my brother, he started accounts for me and my sister. We still play together around once a week, joined by either my bf or my sister's bf, and it's great fun. My main is on another server from the family, but my dad and brother also raid together. It's wonderful to play together, because it keeps us all in touch (we live in different states and only see each other on holidays, if that). But it does drive the non-WoWing family members to distraction when all we want to talk about over Thanksgiving dinner is raid strats!
prudychick Oct 19th 2007 6:52PM
My side of the family would thing WoW was a strange, waste of time. My husbands though knows we play and my husband and his brother and I play together from time to time, most only the two of them though.
I work with someone though who she and her husband and their son and grandson all play together. Even started a family guild for all of their toons.
Patecatl Oct 19th 2007 7:28PM
The people who introduced me to WoW are a married couple. Their oldest son is also in our guild. In fact, this ten-year-old pwned me in a duel (his Draenei 39 (at the time) Shaman vs. my Human 40 (at the time) Shadow Priest).
kunukia Oct 19th 2007 7:41PM
My son and my daughter play, as do her husband, his brother and father. We also have four RL friends who play. We are all in the same guild, except one of the friends, who used to be guild leader, left for a more hard-core raiding guild.
MonkeyBrains Oct 20th 2007 12:42AM
My mom plays and she's 53 this year, she had never really played anything else besides super mario bros.
ladyshiva Oct 20th 2007 1:26AM
Me, my father, my brother, my brother's wife, and my boyfriend all play wow :) I got my dad into wow, and he plays way more than me now!
Travis Green Oct 20th 2007 3:27AM
My older brother and younger sister also play. However, the game was "too stupid" for my girlfriend to get into.
Chiroptera Oct 20th 2007 8:09AM
Myself and my partner play
We have several couples in the guild - husbands and wives etc and numerous complete families - the largest "group" in mother, father, daughter, son in law, their other son - and the sons Mother-in-law.
We hace numerous brothers and such as well
Youngest guildie is around 8 (their parents play) oldest is around 65+
starbane Oct 22nd 2007 1:55PM
My father occasionally gets annoyed when he doesn't get a raid spot. My wife tries to give me her raid spot. My daughter prefers to languish in the pre-60s (she just got her mount a few weeks ago) and my brother only started playing his warlock.