Breakfast Topic: Do you know where your children are?
by Robin Torres 
Aug 1st 2009 at 8:00AM
Lately, I've been writing a series of articles on playing with your children. First, I talked about playing with preschoolers, like my own daughter, and then about reading age children. Though both articles are about playing with young children and I recommend not letting them play WoW by themselves, many readers complained in the comments that I was encouraging children to run amok in Azeroth. I certainly understand their concerns, because encountering rude and/or needy young ones while playing can really reduce your enjoyment.
The other night, I started a gnome mage and came across a couple of other gnomes while entering the noobie troll cave. We grouped up to get to Grik'nir the Cold and the leader of the group, we'll call him Goodkid asked our ages. I said my ancient age, Goodkid said he was 11 and the other kid, we'll call him Juvie, said "U R GAY UR 44". Now, I'm not completely hip on the cool talk of today, but I think that translates into English as: "Excuse me, but I think you are lying about your age." Juvie then stated he was 10.
The other night, I started a gnome mage and came across a couple of other gnomes while entering the noobie troll cave. We grouped up to get to Grik'nir the Cold and the leader of the group, we'll call him Goodkid asked our ages. I said my ancient age, Goodkid said he was 11 and the other kid, we'll call him Juvie, said "U R GAY UR 44". Now, I'm not completely hip on the cool talk of today, but I think that translates into English as: "Excuse me, but I think you are lying about your age." Juvie then stated he was 10.
By the way, it was around 11:30pm Pacific Time, which doesn't seem like a good time for kids this age to be awake anywhere here in the States, though I suppose they could have been early risers elsewhere in the world. While we completed our quest, Goodkid continued to be polite and Juvie continued to be barely literate and a bit clueless about what he was doing.
I would love to be able to ask the parents of these kids if they know what they are doing in WoW and if they care. Does Juvie's mom know he talks like that and does she approve? What if I was some foulmouthed jerk, or worse, and decided to belittle Goodkid? And what about the innocent little ones who spam duels or ask for quest help or beg for money, because they don't know any better, and get lambasted by perfectly nice players who don't know they are talking to children instead of grown funsuckers?
I am usually very polite when I turn down the requests of players whom I suspect to be very young and make liberal use of my ignore list as necessary. I try not to worry about the fates of these youngsters -- I just don't have room in my monkeysphere.
How do you deal with kids you encounter in Azeroth? Do you take into consideration the age of the player you are dealing with when confronted with obnoxious in-game behavior? And if you let your young children play unsupervised, unskilled and ill-mannered, could you please explain to the rest of us your reasoning for that? Objection! Inflammatory question! Sustained. Please disregard that question.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
sayling Aug 1st 2009 8:11AM
Hmmm
How does one get an invite to your blog, Ferarro? My wife plays a Retadin, and I'm always looking out for guides, hints and tips for her...
eatmysword Aug 1st 2009 9:42AM
I am a 12 year old 80 dwarf warrior. Most people disregard me straight away as a childish trouble maker with no skills.This is not true though :P . Over time I managed to find a guild that didnt disregard me straight away and they let me join in on their raids to see if I was skilled . They were pleasantly surprised and im now currently raiding uld 25 and more .
But unfortunately you do get childish kids who beg and ninja stuff :P
Marolas Aug 1st 2009 11:00AM
http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=3177906
usagizero Aug 1st 2009 12:19PM
"I am a 12 year old 80 dwarf warrior."
I'll say for how you write it wouldn't bother me in the least. I have no idea how old some people online are, but when i see text-speek i get pissy, and they are the same ones tossing around stupid insults.
Gamer am I Aug 1st 2009 1:44PM
@ Marolas
You, sir, win one internet.
sayling Aug 1st 2009 8:17AM
bah - my apologies for the above... seems I have something that has recorded a previous reply and automatically thrown it in here.
Sorry, and ignore me...
Fizzler Aug 1st 2009 12:47PM
Are you using RoboForm? Mine saved a comment I posted once. I had to go in there and manually clean it out.
Gamer am I Aug 1st 2009 8:18AM
I once played with a kid who refused to replace his common robe with better upgrades because he liked how it looks. I didn't try to lecture him, because who am I to tell him how to play the game? I just took note of it and didn't play with him again. He also named his character Diaper because apparently his father was in adult diapers and it was a tribute to him. That's not the kind of thing I would share with people, so I told him for his own sake he probably wouldn't want to share that with people.
And by the way, Robin, "U R GAY UR 44" approximately translates to, "I think that you are too old to be playing this game," as well as, "I have the maturity of an eight year old."
robsolo Aug 1st 2009 10:16AM
"I have the maturity of an eight year old."
Or as seems to often be the case nowadays, an 18 year old.
Robin Torres Aug 1st 2009 11:47AM
Ah, thank you. That does seem like a better translation. :)
whiteshark Aug 1st 2009 2:05PM
what level was he? i bugged one of my mates at school (13, not every child and teenager is addicted to 1337 5p33k :P) to make me a red linen robe on my first char, i stuck with it till lvl 20ish as i wanted to look cool as opposed to stats. same with fiery weapon i put on all of my stuff now, most awesome weapon enchant ever!
seeing the comments below me, its a shame i have to keep my age hidden, if i said i was 13 (14 soon) then ill be locked out of high end stuff due to a small fraction of players.
Melvyl Aug 1st 2009 3:15PM
I was starting a new alt a couple of weeks ago and got into a discussion with someone else in the starting area. He told me he was 18 and when I told him I was 43, he told me to get a life. Then he declared it "awkward" that I didn't immediately start an argument. Back when I was leveling my main, I grouped with a dwarf who I eventually discovered was 13. He was much more mature.
bomyne Aug 1st 2009 8:24AM
Personally, I can't tollerate kids ingame. The ones I've dealt with are spoilt brats who want everything their way and if they can't have it their way, they f-bomb you.
Fortunately the future of humanity isn't so dim. I have dealt with some players who I was surprised to learn they were young (10-15) because of the way they conduct themselves ingame, acting like mature players.
Groth Aug 1st 2009 8:44AM
so you can deal with kids in game, just not the spoilt brats which are far too common.
Jack Aug 1st 2009 8:54AM
i was 14 when i first started playing wow (15 now) and my age has never been a problem, i've had a couple fights with people over it because they kept referring to me by derogatory names, relating to my age.
i think the people you are referring to are a very small majority of 13-15 year old players, or the ones who are so socially starved they feel the need to big themselves up in a game.
so please try not to be so general, because quite frankly it's offensive.
HunterFromTheStart Aug 1st 2009 9:13AM
That's where you are wrong, it's not that you can't stand kids, or that all kids are all those things. Chances are you have been playing with some already, you probably respect them alot, and don't even know it. Years ago, on another game, (yes, i'm 33, and I was 26 at the time.) I was working with a guy I respected quite a bit. A few months down the road, we're sitting in his grove talking, and I found out that he was 14 IRL. I was so surprised, but he mentioned that not many people knew it, and we left it that way. I never told anyone. And within the year, he was highly respected in the guild.
Gothia Aug 1st 2009 9:48AM
The facts are either their parents have paid for an account or given them access to an account or they have a trial account, but they are here. There is nothig hard about the games mechanics that any 7-10 year old could probably master in less time than it took most of us older folks. They are here among us and how they treat you may be a reflection of how we treat them. To tell the truth I have been waiting for a game like this my whole life and wish it was offered to me when I was younger. Today's kids are lucky?
Kemikalkadet Aug 1st 2009 10:51AM
@Hunterfromthestart
A very similar thing happened to me in another game. I'd been friends with a guy for quite a few months before i knew his age and we often talked about pretty in-depth stuff; politics, morality and stuff as well as goofing around in game and he was clearly mature and very intelligent. I always figured he was older than me (i was 21 at the time) and i was shocked to find out he was 14. Made me respect him even more and we've been mates for 5+ years now despite both moving on from teh game and us living on opposite sides of the world.
The Hammer Aug 1st 2009 8:25AM
Yay, kudos for the monkeysphere reference. That's one article that influenced the way I see communities.
winterhawk Aug 1st 2009 10:38AM
Ditto on the Monkeysphere. I read that article a year or so ago and it's had an influence on my outlook, too.
As for kids--I tend to respond to everyone as if they were their toon (that is to say, an adult) until they give me cause not to. If the first thing out of their mouth is "U R gay" or something similar (or even excessive l33tspeak) I tend to get out of their way, because I don't play this game to interact with mental midgets of any age. I've encountered plenty of adults who express themselves like this too. I'm not a big fan of small children, but if a kid can hide his or her age by being able to express themselves well and by acting reasonably mature, I'd just rather not know that they're 12.