Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Are children welcome in your guild?
by Martha Widra 
Sep 15th 2010 at 8:00AM
Children are so much fun and a joy to have around, right? Maybe that's true in real life (at least for a lot of people), but in a guild setting in World of Warcraft, children present some difficult situations. I've been the "guild mom" for two guilds with child members (one who is between the ages of 8 and 15), so I've had a lot of experience.
We all have seen children in a guild. Many beg or ask for gold. They want to be run through instances or helped to level. They ask silly questions. And their reading levels may not be high enough for them to follow the quest text. Guild chat may be filled with: "Can someone help me level?" "Can I have some gold?" "Are we there yet?" And everyone has to watch what is said in guild chat.
Helping children to become strong guild members requires a commitment of time from other members. Some guilds do not want to give that time, so they say "adults only." Other guilds welcome children and work through the problems. All this requires some planning, some commitment of time and lots of patience. The good news is that as time goes on, children mature, and they may become a core of solid members for the future who know how to pass on the lessons they learned to the next generation.
Are children welcomed and helped in your guild? Does your guild restrict membership to adults only? Are children allowed, but everyone hates it when they are online?
Filed under: Guilds, Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 9)
bui Sep 15th 2010 8:42AM
Kid plenty of people can say that, I have a full time job and a wife, 0 kids of course cause I do not enjoy the company of anyone under the age of 15, and I've got 200k gold and 11/12hm crap done, and there are plenty of people on my server who're even richer than I am and are 12/12hm
Shade Sep 15th 2010 8:52AM
said the guy shoving his epeen into the face of a minor. Sounds like Armerad would be much more pleasant to have in a raid than bui.
Fat Pete Sep 15th 2010 9:28AM
Retire? LOL your an Idiot Kid! Trust me..PLENTY of kids can say that! Anyway, I cant stand kids so NO KIDS in Guild For ME! PERIOD!
Alexa Sep 15th 2010 9:33AM
I honestly downranked this comment and I honestly rarely do...
Having completed an encounter on hard mode or having the time to play the AH and acquire a lot of gold doesn't automatically qualify you as someone I'd want in my guild - child or not.
You're saying, "I'm special, look how awesome I am... and I'm only 15!" To be honest, the type of person who would brag about this accomplishment and think that it is an overwhelming reason why I should want to play with you is exactly the type of attitude that I'm looking to avoid.
Uxjwetr Sep 15th 2010 9:54PM
I'm afraid that success does not always constitute maturity. While I disagree with the replies stating that the very statement you are attempting to make defines you as immature, I do believe that the tone with which it was written does. As a fellow fifteen year old, I would like to politley suggest that you read to yourself what you have just written and decide if you would be offended should you see a similar statement. I have done this for quite a while and saw a great reduction in complaints about my maturity level, in spite of the fact that in real life, I have the maturity of a six year old on a caffeine drip.
Schadenfreude Sep 15th 2010 8:16AM
I've actually become very ageist in WoW; my group of friends all skew to the 20-25 range and we raid with another guild where most of the members are in their thirties. Nearly all of our "problem" members have been younger siblings and teenagers, so I'm now pretty leery when I hear that someone is 15 or the like.
Jay Sep 15th 2010 10:46AM
I concur, bad experience from being in a guild with children and teens really make me shrug every time my current guild considers someone under 20 to join.
It was not so much the children but the teens that where completely obnoxious. The acctual children where quite okey, the didn't have the skills to raid or anything but they weren't as annoying as the teens, which asked for boosts, gold and oh the loot drama.
That being said, our current guild has only one person below 20 that has proven mature enough, but we've also had our good share of people ABOVE 20 which have been obnoxious and unable to cooperate.
It all comes down to if you're a team player or not, teens are a bit more egotistical than the averege wow population, but sure enough not by much.
Meg Sep 18th 2010 10:58AM
Me too. I was very happy to learn that my current guild has a strict 18+ only rule. It makes us more picky about applications but it eliminates the need for censorship, possible bad legal situations, and makes our adult members (20-50 year range) more comfortable about chatting and being silly/rude/whatever. Gross obscenity is not allowed in chat, but generally people police themselves and as long as I've been here there haven't been any problems.
We turn away applicants under 18, even if they are close to adulthood. All of our guild advertisements mention our age limit. I've quested and gamed with younger folks before and love to see and help kids and teens out, because I was helped a lot when I was a young gamer. I just do not invite them to guild, and I think that's okay. We're not ageist, and there are many other 11/12 HM guilds out there who accept teenagers. It's a contributing factor to our guild atmosphere and I wouldn't have it any other way.
oconn Sep 15th 2010 8:21AM
My guild says 18+ but not because of childish behaviour.
guild chat is a place to talk with friends and lots of "children" just wont have the same experience or want to or possible even understand what some of us talk about.
can you imagine a 12 year old having a conversation with a bunch of 20 somethings talking about what they got up to over the weekend?
Duulket Sep 15th 2010 8:21AM
We have a few teenagers in my guild and they do very well. We have also had some younger kids but their dad was in the guild also. We knew they were kids and who they belonged to so everyone was ok with it. Yes they asked to be run through dungeons and for help with leveling and we helped if we were not in the middle of something at the time.
On the flip side, we would probably not accept young kids in the guild by themselves. we probably require a parent in the guild with them but I can't say for sure because we have not had that situation happen yet.
lolikitty Sep 15th 2010 8:22AM
One of our most competent officer is 16, nuff said.
Little children though ? There are a few parents also in our guild, and i don't think they let their kids anywhere near our guild-chat, if you catch my drift.
Sadly i don't think i would have half the patience required to deal with a small child in game, although i once let my little niece fly around Crystalsong Forest. She also almost died laughing while riding the sea-turtle :)
Merkavar Sep 15th 2010 8:23AM
Kids can be good guild members but in my expirence they are normally rude, over sensitive and selfish. they want all the guild to help them at all times.
and yes you can put the time and effort in to help them become good guild members but most of the time as soon as they become a good guildie they will jump ship for a more hardcore guild or to a guild their friend started or there parents wont by them another game card and the effort is lost. they are just to irradict, unpredictable and have no sense of loyalty.
they live in the present.
Edeese Sep 15th 2010 8:23AM
I started playing WoW when I was just about to turn 13, and I spent the next year leveling up to 60 right before BC launched. I played through BC from the ages of 15-16, then played through Wrath from the ages of 16-18. I was the subject to a lot of back talk, and people making fun of me, and that I was essentially a kid.
However, I managed to poke myself through the prejudice, and became the top tank in my guild, then when Wrath came out, I joined plenty of other guilds. Although most guilds were shaky at best about recruiting a kid, once they accepted me, they saw my skills, and all the jests stopped.
So basically, if kids have the skills to pay the bills, then there's no reason not to have them! Just look at their experience, and maybe consider them a little more than the other adults that may show up to your raids wasted as anything.
Jaq Sep 15th 2010 8:25AM
My guild has no age policy, and it's really hurt us this year. Last year our low end age was around 16, so when September hit, we only lost a few people during the week for any raiding. Since then, though, we've recruited a stunning number of 12-13 year olds, and we're hard pressed, especially with the disinterest caused with Cata on the horizon, to put together a heroic group. A guild that has younger members in it generally isn't going to raid during the week.
Moreover, you're really rolling the dice on whether or not those kids (and sorry, to me 12 is a kid) are going to be mature. My guild had a rather terrible period where the 12 year olds all became dreadfully competitive about every aspect of the game, and it actually drove some people away from the guild. In hindsight, back when the guild I was in was fairly small, I wish someone had insisted on some guidelines where age was concerned.
Hih Sep 15th 2010 8:26AM
My guild has a fairly strict 18+ age requirement with almost no exceptions.
The guild name is so you should be able to understand why we don't allow minors.
Fletcher Sep 15th 2010 8:55AM
I'm guessing you put your guild name in angle brackets there and it got snipped by WoW.com's comment system as HTML. Stupid comment system.
Shade Sep 15th 2010 8:27AM
I hate to reinforce the stereotype, but I've only had bad experiences with children in WoW... not for the reasons you mentioned, but just because of a gap in maturity level when it comes to stress.
For example, a kid in my old guild went out and leveled fishing from 0 to 450 with me. He didn't complain about how long it was taking or about having to run across the world to find the best areas at the right levels. In fact, he managed to make it fun by introducing little mini-goals and games. In this regard, he was actually a lot more 'adult' about something tedious and grindy than a lot of actual adults who play the game.
On the other hand, he got into a huge flame war in guild chat because a fellow rogue with higher dps refused to redo his spec, gems, rotation, and enchants for him. Yes the other rogue should have helped his guildmate (iirc he was late high school, so also still a bit kiddy) but there was no need for the flame war on the youngun's part.
Kids also have a tendency of bringing their real life issues into the game - when a guildmaster asks "What's wrong?" it's not taken as a token comment the way it was probably meant. You tend to get the full story. Those stories are generally pretty shallow to older guild members with more perspective, and from a legal(?) standpoint I really don't want to be witness to that information.
I'd say GMs should manage kid-centric guilds on each server, but a) they don't have the time and b) between the blame game, loot wars, and infighting, that isn't really a good alternative.
Shade Sep 15th 2010 8:32AM
After reading the other comments, let me add that just because a lot (most?) of kids tend to have issues doesn't mean I'm going to automatically rule out all of them. If someone makes a good impression in a heroic, a pug, or even trade chat and I later find out they're a kid, why should that matter?
AudreyR Sep 15th 2010 10:48AM
I don't really think actually sharing problems when asked "What's wrong?" is an immature thing. Some people just need to get stuff off their chest.
Shade Sep 15th 2010 12:16PM
Audrey, I agree that it's ok to have a discussion about life difficulties, as long as appropriate boundaries are observed, given the venue, subject material, and audience. Children have a harder time discerning these boundaries, hence the media storm over online predators - adults know better when to stop giving information.