World of Warcraft - advice please

sarah861421

My 13 yr old would like to subscribe to WoW, and I am in two minds about it. It appears to be quite addictive ( and expensive ), but it's his money, and hopefully he will stop in September or soon after, when homework begins to take priority. He has played runescape in the past and enjoyed that but says that this is the next stage up. I know there are quite a few players who use this forum and I would love to hear their ( unbiased ) opinions. He is very sensible and plays on the computer anyway, so would it make it any difference if it was this game as opposed to a PC game ( such as LOTR ). I always limit the time and make him take breaks as he shares the computer with his sister.
Any views welcome. Thankyou.

[Deleted User]

It is highly addictive, I easily spend five hours a night week days on it and entire weekends can be lost to it. It's only £8.99 a month to play, which is less than two trips to the cinema and you get much more for your money.

From a parents point of view it's safe. You can chat to other players and you can join a guild (a group of players) and chat, share resources and play together in that. In my three years I've not seen any chat that could be of concern and there's a swearword filter in place.

I assume his friends at school are playing it too?

If you can ensure that homework takes priority and set times on it then I see no problem. You'll probably get sick to death hearing about it over dinner though, or until the point you try it out yourself.

Justin_Scotland

I wouldnt expect him to drop it in September if he gets addicted to the game. I played for about 18 months varying from a few hours a week when I lost interest to 20+ hours a week when heavily involved in guild management and raiding. Depending on how heavily involved he gets it can be quite a time drain and he will start to have time commitments from the guilds he joins if he gets into raiding. So expect comments like I cant do my homework at the at the moment as I have to be at Gruuls Lair for 6pm for my raid. As once he gets to higher levels there will be 10-20 other people relying on him turning up at an agreed time and commiting to the full raid (2 hours +) then it does mean he has to schedule his time effectively to complete both his homework and commitments in WoW. If he is going to start playing then now is the time as the next expansion (yep you need to be prepared to pay out a bit more for the 60-70 expansion and the 70-80 level cap expansion) will be out in about september so he will need to put the hours in now in order to feel included when the expansion comes out and not be left behind.

I'm 32 and me and a lot of my friends all enjoyed playing WoW some still do regularly and at some point you will quickly see how it takes up a LOT of time. I wouldnt say dont let him play it as it probably is the best online game and you do make a lot of friends through it. However you also might want to think about stearing him away from it to other alternatives that have less of a time commitment.

Recommendations
(First Person Shooters):
Counter Strike Source (C:SS) - has a huge following by younger gamers 16 yrs olds ish
Team Fortress 2
Call of Duty 4

Alternatively get him to try out strategy games:
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance.
Company of Heroes
World in Conflict

If he likes gaming also get him checking out multiplay website. http://www.multiplay.co.uk/

They are hosting the UKs largest LAN gaming event 2000 people in August near Coventry that when he gets older he might be interested in attending competitively which he can do with the other games I mention.

So to sum up on WoW - the answer as a parent is think very hard as it will be a MASSIVE time sink. From a gamer its no question the best online MMO.

simonts

WoW is very very very addictive, I wouldnt put much faith in homework taking priority when he has another level or two to grind out so he can wear that new epic armor!

I'm 27 now and avoid these games like the plague as its very easy to not leave the house :rotfl:

Console gaming is far better because you can dip in and out...with WoW your committed for hours

Idiophreak

Justin_Scotland wrote: »

I
Recommendations
(First Person Shooters):
Counter Strike Source (C:SS) - has a huge following by younger gamers 16

Just to note that this isn't markedly better than WoW - CSS *ate my life* while I was at uni

At least it's free to play, though...

superjaggybunnet

OMG - Don't let him do it if you ever want to see him in daylight again.

Talk about nerdy geekdom this sounds like the pinnacle!!

Get him down to the local squash club to take up a worthwhile activity!!

TechTerry

Mabey let him try the 10 day free trial.

Justin_Scotland

superjaggybunnet wrote: »

Talk about nerdy geekdom this sounds like the pinnacle!!

Get him down to the local squash club to take up a worthwhile activity!!

WoW is so far away from being a nerdy geek game and as for squash being worthwhile :rolleyes:

WoW creates thousands of jobs - just think of all those chinese gold farmers who would be out of business without World of Warcraft

Justin_Scotland

Idiophreak wrote: »

Just to note that this isn't markedly better than WoW - CSS *ate my life* while I was at uni

At least it's free to play, though...

and with CS:S each round is only a few minutes long so less of an argument for trying to pry the sons fingers from the keyboard. Not like the 30+ days played for WoW and the 4-6 hour dungeon raids that really out of courtesy shouldnt be left mid way through by participants.

BillScarab

Letting him try the trial is a fairly high risk strategy. If he likes it then he is going to want to play it more. Personally I'd try and steer him away from it as it is incredibly addictive. If he joins a guild he will be expected to be available at certain times regardless of his other commitments.

There are lots of other online games that you can just dip into without having to commit to such as Company of Heroes. Although that may be a bit old for him, some of the chat on the forums is a bit spicy, although it is probably 13 year olds doing the talking. :rolleyes:

[Deleted User]

BillScarab wrote: »

Letting him try the trial is a fairly high risk strategy. If he likes it then he is going to want to play it more. Personally I'd try and steer him away from it as it is incredibly addictive. If he joins a guild he will be expected to be available at certain times regardless of his other commitments.

Not necessarily.

A lot of the big guilds which have been around for ages don't have any real expectations on the low level members. If he starts a small guild with his friends who already play then they're all going to be on similar schedules. You don't become much use to guilds until you're a high level anyway.. Every day I see guilds advertising for fun, all levels welcome and the big elistist groups will invite you if you're good enough.