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Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
Kids on the internet is (or at least should be) a pretty scary thing for parents. There are predators, perverts or people with questionable ideas that you just don't want to expose your children to. I find it odd, therefore, that so many parents let their elementary school age children play WoW unsupervised. They must see it as an electronic babysitter like television or single player video games rather than what it really is: having your child be babysat by 9 million potential weirdos. These children attempt to get much needed guidance and attention from whatever stranger happens to be nearby. But players don't know how old unknown, needy players are -- they just see them as a nuisance and verbally abuse them accordingly.
More than just exposing children to negative influences, these parents are missing out on a great opportunity to teach their children some very important life lessons. Children go to school to get educated, but they are supposed to learn their values at home. I believe that playing WoW with your children can be a great way to instill them with some very basic yet important values. My daughter is not even preschool age yet, but when she is ready, I plan to play WoW with her -- probably after playing Toontown and maybe CoH first(there's no death, just defeat). I will play MMOs with her because I've seen the result of parents actively playing MMOs with their children. For example, there was Bigmo.
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
Omigawd! I sound like such a twinkie on our WoW Insider Podcast. I'd like to blame playing dozens of levels as a female Night Elf with all that bouncing or blame my move to The Valley this year, but a good friend assures me I have always sounded like a twinkie, even though I'm not one, so it's ok. Regardless of my twinkie status, I had a great time with Mike and Turpster and we got to discuss all sorts of interesting stuff. And, when it comes right down to it, it's all about fun.
That's the reason why we play video games in general and WoW specifically: fun. Otherwise, why spend so much time immersing ourselves in Azeroth and Outland, if we aren't enjoying ourselves? I get the idea from the comments, forums, general chat, guild chat, etc. that there are a lot of people playing the game who are currently not having fun, however. I'm not talking about the restlessness most of us are feeling in the extra long gap between content patches. There are many vocal people who seem to be very unhappy, even with all of these fun changes coming up in the next few weeks -- or because of some of the changes. So, if you aren't having fun, why are you still playing WoW?
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
I've noticed that there are a lot of commenters each week whose solution to every problem is "ZOMG! Get your priorities straight! Stop playing WoW!", particularly when I answer Reader Mail.
At the same time, the general public (including non-gamer significant others and parents) may not buy into the media hype that video games are the root of all evil, but the best they believe about gaming is that it is a juvenile waste of time.
So the non-gaming majority and some sympathizing WoW Insider readers (who presumably play WoW themselves) are working together to try to make us feel guilty about any time we spend playing our current favorite MMO.
Who really cares what strangers think about our leisure time? The problem comes when the people we know get in on the act.
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
This week I'm answering an email from Guilty Gamer:
Dear Robin,
My problem's not too much school or work, but a girlfriend who'd rather have me in bed (we live together) than leveling in the wee hours. As it is, I sneak WoW into my life. If she's got a one-hour class, I've got time for five quests. But my play is ruined by the fact that I have to hide. I'm not looking at porn for crying out loud. I just want to enjoy my game.
I want to sit down for a whole evening and sink in to an instance, but it seems impossible considering we always plan so much. Her hobbies/interests can be accomplished in an hour or less while mine eat a whole evening. She's not geeky like me. I tried to get her to into WoW and it made no sense to her (fair enough). I usually get an evening a week but even then she's mad or distant if I'm not talking and paying attention to her while I play.
At points, I wish I could play so much more or just give up the game entirely. I really enjoy WoW and love my girlfriend. I don't know how to find harmony between them. I'm always either deprived of my time-consuming hobbies or guilty for enjoying them.
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
This week, I am answering an email from Gabe in Venezuela:
Dear Robin,
I'm Gabe, and I come to you with a question about balance. I'm 17, live in Venezuela, study in an international school (that follows the format of an American High School) and am doing something called the International Baccalaureate Diploma. Needless to say, this Diploma is one of the most challenging high school diplomas in the world, taking up countless hours of homework a week, and not letting me enjoy my game. Don't get me wrong, I have my priorities straight, I know school comes first. All my fooling around is recreational, and strictly on weekends, so you could say I'm a fairly responsible person (at least in that aspect). What I don't want to happen is for my homework and school work to be my whole day. I enter school at 8:30 am, and leave at 3:30. After all this time of work and class, I come home to a pile of paper that I need to work on that lasts until 8:00 pm. Of course, as you can imagine, I'm exhausted by the time I'm done.
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
This week, I am answering an email from Bonechiller:
Dear Robin,
I am a 15 year old that enjoys playing WoW in my free time. School starts for me in 6 days and my mom informed me today that I won't allowed to play WoW during the week. I play in a raiding guild and would like to raid Sunday-Tuesday (3 nights a week). I don't understand how. It is not fair, I have a 4.1 GPA and do not do drugs or drink. I also play in the marching band and on the school tennis team. She won't listen to anything that I have to say about this game, I mean, it is so much more productive than sitting there watching T.V. or starting at a wall. All she does is read the threads of the people whose lives have been ruined because of this game, about 1% of the game population. Is there anyway that I can convince her that it should not be a problem that I can play 15 hours a week? She just doesn't understand what this game has done for me socially, and it reduces my stress SO much. I just don't know anyway to make her understand or let me play, do you have any suggestions?( You are a mother, but you do play the game =))
~Bonechiller- 70 mage, Eitrigg US~
P.S.- I want her to read what you have to say, since you are a mother and can relate to her, in motherly ways)
Dear Bonechiller,
First of all, you're not going to want to hear this, but I applaud your mother for being an active parent and I can see her concerns about your active school/extracurricular schedule possibly being compromised by school night gaming. With patience and constructive communication, however, I think the two of you can come to a compromise that will make both of you happy.
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
Last week, I talked about how raiders can be successful both in-game and out by applying professional skills such as time management to their gameplay hours. I had no idea it would be a more controversial topic than when I tackled religion in game. One of the big complaints in the sea of comments was that I was making my categories too narrow. I don't think that everyone falls neatly under the labels of casual or raider, but they are convenient, commonly defined categories to use when describing 2 opposing groups of players. Last week's topic was directed toward the people who believe that all "hardcore" raiders must neglect the rest of their lives in order to see so much of the endgame content. This week I want to talk to the "serious" raiders who think all casuals stink as players. Some do, certainly, but just as there are successful raiders vs. wannabe raiders, there are also a very large percentage of casual players who are skilled at playing their class in a variety of situations. For this discussion, I will refer to them as "Skilled Casuals".
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
At BlizzCon, Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan (Tigole) said a lot of interesting things. He called Arena gear "Welfare Epics" -- that raiders earn their gear. He censored himself after describing fun times when world bosses popped in EQ and the phone calls at 4:00AM to his buddies that resulted -- he didn't want to influence any kids in the audience. And he also said people who do the endgame raids have lives too.
There is a big rivalry between the casual player and the raider. Raiders don't want casuals in their guilds, raids and often groups because of their lack of experience. And casuals are contemptuous of the time raiders seem to spend in order to get as far as they've gone. The two biggest accusations made by casuals toward raiders:
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
Well, I'm back home from BlizzCon and am reunited with my family. I feel that aside from the WoW info I absorbed there, that I have also learned some valuable Real Life lessons -- and I hope that other attendees learned some, too.
Family First: Ok, I knew this one already, but BlizzCon reinforced it. Because I knew my daughter was well taken care of by her other parent, I was able to relax and enjoy myself. But also, Blizzard made their convention very family friendly. There was plenty to do for the whole family, including jousting. I saw babies strapped happily to parents and children enjoying a kind of Halloween in August, like this young Tauren pictured here. Unfortunately, my daughter is too old to be carried all day and too young to sit still for too long, but it is good to see that there will be plenty for her to do if we go as a family when she's older -- perhaps at BlizzCon 2010.
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
This past week, I was browsing the WoW European forums and came across a post about the Evil Children of Goldshire. For those of you who don't know, there are some children that sometimes appear on the second floor of the house outside of Goldshire. They are arranged in a pentagram and there is a 666 on the fireplace. Also, some eerie music plays when you are in the room with them. Someone complained about this kind of content being unnecessary to the game and the rest of the posts devolved into flaming him for his religious beliefs.
Coincidentally, a similar incident happened this past week in a knit-along that I am participating in. A brief explanation for muggle readers: a knit-along is a list group or other online communication tool where people follow a pattern at the same time and discuss their progress, etc. It is kind of like MMO knitting. This particular knit-along is the Mystery Stole 3, where we don't know what the item is going to look like until we finish it and we don't know what the theme is -- this designer always has a theme or backstory behind her designs. But, of course, people like to guess ahead of time and one of the guesses was that it was demonic in nature. So someone in the list group of 7000+ people complained that if that were the case, she didn't want to continue on something that was against her religion and then a similar flamestorm to the WoW post occurred.
What it all boils down to is that we all don't want to be offended in our refuge from the issues we have to deal with in real life. WoW is an escape and when we get offended and/or personally attacked, then our escape becomes another source of stress instead. The best thing to do, of course, is not to bring up religion at all, since it is an extremely volatile topic. But it happens and I'd like to break it down in detail to help both sides tolerate each other and possibly reduce the occurrence of these religious flamewars. Yes, I am sometimes unrealistically optimistic.
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
Last week, we talked about some basic guidelines for having a successful WoW playdate with your significant other. This week I want to talk about some examples of couples playing WoW together.
From last week's comments, we have a few success stories and one not so happy ending. Diana received a tiny red dragon for Valentine's Day (I want one!). Scott and wife, fellow SWG refugees, have characters they level together. Erica and husband watch fireworks in Stormwind together and and play a bunch of duos (an excellent idea). And Jasperwind romances his betrothed in Azeroth and bought her a pretty dress there.
Rudathin coaxed his bride into playing and highly recommends dedicating characters for duoing. You can read about their exploits in their blog. (RP Alert) He also directs us to The Daedalus Project where there is actual hard data supporting WoW as a "place where existing RL ties are being strengthened."
Dan, I'm sorry to see that you did not have a positive experience playing with your girlfriend. You are better off without someone who has a wandering eye. Playing WoW together can enhance a relationship, but it won't change people from their true nature -- however much you may want it to.
This brings us to my very first piece of reader mail. (Yay!) After writing my first Azeroth Interrupted, I got a great story from Baroes and Reighlei.
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
First of all, I would like to apologize for my lack of column last week. I may be good at balancing real life with WoW, but I have yet to master balancing anything with illness. I'm feeling a lot better now and looking forward to a WoW date with my husband, after not having played for a week.
Are you snickering now? Do you think that virtual romantic outings are unforgivably geeky? Well, if you don't think playing a video game makes you a bit of a nerd, go argue it out with Gabe. Those of us who are comfortable in our geekiness will be here when you get back. Regardless of the dork factor, sharing any hobby is a great way to keep a relationship going, particularly when the hobby is as time consuming as WoW can be.
Today, we're talking about established couples, not couples that are just starting a relationship -- WoW dating is a different topic which I will discuss in a future column. I've already talked about getting a girlfriend/wife to play WoW, so this is for couples who already both play WoW. I'm also not saying that WoW dates should replace romantic dinners and other traditional togetherness activities. But having romantic "outings" in WoW are a fun, low-cost way to supplement the other things couples do to keep things interesting. Spend your quality time together any way you like, but it's best to take care of the fundamentals to get the most out of it:
Make an Appointment: Set aside a day and time beforehand and don't be late. You both will appreciate having something to look forward to and the convenience of being able to plan around the session. Do not "play it by ear". This will make the person who is ready first feel neglected waiting for the other person to become "available".
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
Today I'm going to answer some Reader Mail from Berzurk:
Hello Robin,
I played the original EQ for about a year, and I took a break for a long time. I just last week got into WoW, and I am loving it. I have been scared, however, that it may end up ruining my life. My g/f doesn't like video games much, and I'm about to get a new job to help pay bills. I can't, however, give up my passion for MMO's. It's just my nature.
I did have one idea though. In your opinion, do you believe it would be beneficial to just play for a set amount a day on WoW, instead of hours at a time? I know that life comes first, but I almost always have about 2 spare hours to myself everyday. Do you believe that maybe an hour a day would be a decent amount of playtime?
Thanks.
Berzurk, Human Warrior, Lvl 8, Stormwind City
Hello Berzurk,
Because you are aware enough of the addiction risks in playing WoW and have already proposed a solution, you are definitely on the right track to playing WoW without it hurting Real Life. You can play WoW for an hour a day and have fun, but there are limitations to what you can do in WoW with that schedule of which you should be aware.
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
In my second column, I described the different personalities you can get stuck with when you invite friends and family to WoW. Of course, you can get stuck with these personalities even if you don't know them in real life. You see them in general chat, in groups and, unfortunately, in your guild. Today, I would like to discuss three possible severities of the Drama Queen. I know this has been done before, but sometimes the drama can affect real life and I would like to present some solutions for dealing with it.
Attention Addict: Not all Attention Addicts are Drama Queens, but all Drama Queens are Attention Addicts. (In logical terms, Drama Queens are a subset of Attention Addicts.) We all want some attention when playing WoW, which is why we are playing an MMO instead of a single player RPG. But the Attention Addict must have as much attention as possible at all times. Following are some of tactics the Attention Addict uses:
Attention Grabber: If Attention Addicts say what they want to say all at once, they can be ignored. So they want to make sure they have your attention before they tell their story/problem/world-ending-tragedy. They will say one or two phrases, waiting for responses before they finally give a hint about what they want to say. For example:
AA: OMIGOD! <long pause waiting for someone to respond> SuckerGuildie: What? AA: I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!! ConcernedGuildie: What's wrong? AA: Stupid @#@$#%$ Horde!!!!
The best way to handle the Attention Grabber tactic is to ignore the Attention Addict until he gets to the point.
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
Today is the day we celebrate Dads, so I thought I would pay tribute to my favorite WoW-related Father/Child relationships, in no particular order.
Micah and Ezra: The story of Micah and Ezra playing WoW together, strengthening their relationship, and helping Ezra deal with the awful realities of a brain tumor is a truly inspirational one. Blizzard making Ezra's WoW wishes come true is even more so. I hope that Micah and Ezra are able to continue playing together for many years to come. Happy Father's Day, Micah!
Rob Pardo and daughter Sydney: Rob Pardo is the Vice President of Game Design at Blizzard and plays WoW (among other games) with his daughter, Sydney. Talk about balancing real life with WoW, Rob says that playing with his daughter has taught him to look at the pure fun aspects of the game to round out his overall perspective. Happy Father's Day, Rob!
South Park's Randy and Stan: Whose eyes didn't tear up after Randy's character was mortally wounded when handing the The Sword of a Thousand Truths to Stan's character? An excellent example, albeit fictional, of a father and son becoming closer together because of WoW. Happy Father's Day, Randy!
Kids on the internet is (or at least should be) a pretty scary thing for parents. There are predators, perverts or people with questionable ideas that you just don't want to expose your children to. I find it odd, therefore, that so many parents let their elementary school age children play WoW unsupervised. They must see it as an electronic babysitter like television or single player video games rather than what it really is: having your child be babysat by 9 million potential weirdos. These children attempt to get much needed guidance and attention from whatever stranger happens to be nearby. But players don't know how old unknown, needy players are -- they just see them as a nuisance and verbally abuse them accordingly.
This week, I am answering an email from Gabe in Venezuela:
This past week, I was browsing the WoW European forums and came across 
First of all, I would like to apologize for my lack of column last week. I may be good at balancing real life with WoW, but I have yet to master balancing anything with illness. I'm feeling a lot better now and looking forward to a WoW date with my husband, after not having played for a week. 
In my second column, I described the 
Today is the day we celebrate Dads, so I thought I would pay tribute to my favorite WoW-related Father/Child relationships, in no particular order.
