Breakfast Topic: Do your kids play WoW with you?
by Amelia Ramstead 
Apr 23rd 2011 at 8:00AM
My 10-year-old son is quickly becoming a World of Warcraft junkie (can't imagine where he gets that from ...). He has two characters, a gnome mage and a tauren warrior. He hasn't managed to level either of them past 13, but that doesn't bother him in the least. He runs from capital to capital, fishing, riding the zeppelin or Deeprun Tram, hooking up with whichever relative is "lucky" enough to be on at that moment and even occasionally completing a quest. My brother, brave fellow that he is, actually took my son for a run through Ragefire Chasm. I still haven't heard the end of that. I confess to sometimes using his WoW obsession for nefarious purposes -- it makes a great reward for chores or homework well done!
If you have kids, do you let them play WoW? What types of characters do they play? Do you find it necessary to take any precautions? What limits do you set? Whether you do or you don't, what is your reasoning behind it? Are you concerned that they might fall in with a "rough crowd?" Do you love the idea of teaming up with your kiddo to take on Erudax? Are your kids in your guild? Chime in, all you WoW parents out there!
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Senya Higurashi Apr 23rd 2011 8:07AM
im a 11 year old and my dad lets me play wow i raid im a level 85 tauren warrior we are not in the same guild though we used to be until it fell apart
Gendou Apr 23rd 2011 8:27AM
My guildmates have a son (and a daughter) who play WOW. Their kids aren't in our guild, but I've run instances with them in the past, and they're pretty good. Their son has tanked instances for us, and I admit, I was surprised at how well he held aggro and managed adds.
Definitely awesome when you see a family that plays WOW together.
Greg Apr 23rd 2011 8:09AM
Back in Wrath-Ulduar days, we had a guild leader who played alongside his son- our guild's main tank. He grounded him once, requiring him to raid for 4 hours three times a week.
No joke.
Arkonn Apr 23rd 2011 8:17AM
What a terrible punishment! XD
Aticus Apr 23rd 2011 3:30PM
Talk about child labor... XD.
Andre Apr 23rd 2011 8:16AM
A good friend of mine got his dad into the game. They raided all the way to ICC together in Wrath.
Murdertime Apr 23rd 2011 8:18AM
By my children do you mean these children that I bought?
Because no. They're making these fashionable belts.
I suppose they could play WoW during their rest period but most them prefer to use it to sleep. Or cry. Or sleep-cry.
Eregos ftw! Apr 23rd 2011 11:25AM
Thats absolutely sick, and nothing to be joked about. I sincerely hope you get a ban.
Allison-knight Apr 23rd 2011 12:44PM
I lol'd. And I upvoted you.
Gendou Apr 23rd 2011 8:23AM
Married, no kids. I would definitely allow (encourage, even) my kids to play WOW if that's what they were interested in. I'd definitely try to play with my nephew, but he's not really all that interested in fantasy or RPG games.
ekfxc Apr 23rd 2011 8:45AM
I hope parents also push their children toward more physical activities and interactions than playing WoW. Not that I wouldn't let my kids play WoW, but I'd limit them to 5 to 7 hours a week.
parakletos Apr 23rd 2011 8:28AM
My son has played since he was 7. Started off running around just having fun, following the kids in Stormwind picking up the lore and getting a warning for exploitation of a game mechanic - getting inside a fire place in Goldshire.
His attention, as a 13 yo, is now often elsewhere, but he raided in ICC and has just joined a roleplaying guild.
Miri Apr 23rd 2011 8:28AM
Another married, no kids player. My husband and I play and several of our friends who have kids let them play.
My guild currently has a friend's son in it (and wife, and cousin!), but he doesn't play all that often because he shares his account with his mom, who's busy leveling a priest :)
Hmmm...maybe I should start advertising my guild as family-ish--we're not really "family friendly" when the adults are on--though we try to keep most of that in vent when we're all on...
whycantiplaymusic Apr 23rd 2011 8:28AM
I use WoW to keep in touch with my dad. He started up before me, but when my mum and him split up a few years ago I signed up to keep in touch whilst he worked away a lot. Now I'm 18, moved out, and I still play alongside him. Whenever I'm away on tour I always bring my laptop out so we keep in touch and can raid and father and son!
Telrik Apr 23rd 2011 8:44AM
My 16 year old son is actually the one that got me started in WoW. I had a toon on his account, and pretty soon we were fighting over who got to play when. That's when I realized it was time for two separate accounts. We used to play together, but he's on another server now, and I've become more dedicated to raiding and progression. But it certainly gives us something to talk about when he's at that age that its difficult to find common ground between teen and parents.
Tricia Apr 23rd 2011 8:59AM
My 11 yr old earns WoW playtime when he's done wll in school and such. He managed to lvl a Blood Elf hunter to 24 before he got hooked on a Death Knight because Mommy has many toons above the 55 lvl requirement.
We set him up on an alt server where my husband and I have a few toons and he can have more slots to play around with and I turn on filters but mostly, he just likes to run around checking things out, occasionally doing a quest or a BG and in general feeling like he's part of the fun. He's not allowed to chat with anyone and since he's using our computer in the living room, that's monitored. I don't want him becoming that rude troll in general chat or have some wierdo spouting off at him.
He doesn't play a lot, but the times he has have spawned WoW themed backyard games with his friends where they make up their own quests and hunt elites and whatnot. It's all very cute. :)
Rai Apr 23rd 2011 9:01AM
There's a father/son combo in our guild who were an active part of the raid team. The son got a girlfriend a few months back and hasn't played, but the dad still tags along for raids.
Wait, what?
Samdabutcher Apr 23rd 2011 9:17AM
My 6 year old started sitting on my lap and watching when he was 5. He now has a toon of his own, druid - he likes to shape shift. He really just wanders around changing form and climbing up things. He's not able to do anything other than walk and jump so if he happens to pull aggro he just dies unless I'm there to take care of it. He also plays the PS3, mostly the Lego series. He's very good at it. It's tough to say he can't play when I sit there for hours on end. Could be worse I suppose.
Bloodstopper Apr 24th 2011 10:07PM
LoL. Sounds just like what my son did/does. He's 6 as well and started wanting to play at the tender age of 4. He loved mashing the space bar as I ran around Shattrath. He's since taken on the creation, and sorta care, of 6 hunters (none over lvl 10) and 4 druids across 6 realms. I just found out that he had figured out how to use the switch realm feature. The only issue I've had...I logged into my main (shadow priest) and found 20 of the same shirts, 6 fishing poles, 8 fish, and no gold left. Yeah, we had a talk about spending dad's "money" after that. But it makes for a great way to reward good behavior and punish bad. Especially there isn't much that works for him at this point in time. The real kicker was when I was making dinner one night, came to check on him and found out that he was in a group with 3 people running around the human starting area. He was real proud that he was "helping" other people. Of course he wasn't anywhere near them and just as I walked up, one whispered him to ask what he was doing. It was great.
Heather Apr 23rd 2011 9:31AM
When my four month old son just feels like relaxing, he loves to watch Mommy and Daddy play WoW, and he really loves "helping" us (aka banging on the keyboard while babbling away.) Haha, he has talked to guildies, gotten us killed, and even managed to queue Daddy for a BG. I hope when he is older, if WoW is still around, he will enjoy playing then, too.