My son has been begging me to let him play WoW. A few times, I’ve let him sit with me and we’ve gone through the character creation (he really digs checking out all of the options on the races and faces and beards). We’ve created level 1 “Wicked Green Dudes”, “Big Fat Cow-people”, and “Midgets” (sorry if I’ve offended, but those are direct quotes and I swear I didn’t teach him that stuff). He also insisted he create a Human Death Knight (because that’s what Daddy plays)… awww, how friggin’ cool is that?!?
Ok, I’m back…. Anyway, my son is eight years old. He plays with me next to him helping explain the quests and the navigation (he tells me WoW needs a Wii controller). I’m okay with him checking out the newbie areas, running quests and grouping up with me on stuff. I’m not ok with him jumping into instances, even with me in the group for interference. I’m far from fine with him jumping on Vent (headphones unplugged). Also, to keep him from asking inappropriate questions at the dinner table, I’ve locked down “Parental Controls” as much as I can think of: Prat routes trade chat to a hidden tab and the in-game “mature language filter” is active… but it’s just a matter of time before he reads something I’d prefer he didn’t… Another aside, he asked me last week what Hooters were, because he was watching How I Met Your Mother with my wife and she failed to explain it to him….
Anyways, that’s the stuff I’m doing to allow him to play a bit — he’s on, but it’s a censored / limited edition.
However, I’m not only limiting his exposure to protect his game experience from others, but also to protect other players game experience from him. Some people don’t want to play with little kids. I’m one of them — I’ll play with my own, but keep yours someplace else. I can hear the protests… “But my parents tell me I’m mature!” “But my guild thinks I’m an accountant named Syd!” When I play, the thought making bawdy jokes or innuendos when kids are there feels off… and it takes away part of my enjoyment.
I’ve played in a Family Friendly guild (people were actually /gkicked for language use!). It’s not impossible to tone down the vulgarity… but it’s pretty hard in vent when 50 bazillion adds pop that you weren’t expecting! There’s a place for that — but even family friendly is not elementary friendly.
On the other hand, in a “regular” guild, I used to run occasional instances with a pally tank that dropped the F-Bomb in party chat just about every time he typed something… so I pegged him as a wanna be Jon Belushi struggling through college. Imagine my surprise when I actually joined vent and his little soprano voice chimed in… it was like Alvin and the Chipmunks reciting Eddie Murphy’s Delirous routines… and it skeeved me. All I could think of was “Damn, I’m glad that’s not my kid!”. He was 14 and had just posted formal pictures from his 8th grade graduation party… Ewwww!
My other pet peeve, and yeah call me Grandpa Artie if you must, but I really abhor “chat speek”. I can handle a few “LOL“s… a few “KK“s, maybe even a few “OMG“s…. But the “r u rdy” “o rly” and the “ttyl” make me want to scream! “w/e pops. ctfu“, they would say. Whatever back, if you can’t speak English, I’d rather not instance with you.
Do I think that Blizzard should set up kid-friendly areas / channels / servers? Nope. I think the game is for teenagers and up. When you stop and consider it, do you really want to be teaching elementary school kids that the way to advance in life is to kill things so you can take their stuff, and if you had help killing, you get extra points for being Greedy or Needy. Teenagers understand the fantasy part (it’s cool, but it’s made up). Elementary school kids think fantasy is real. Teenagers tell dirty jokes… Teenagers are walking hormones, so most everything has some kind of innuendo…
Ramblings aside, I will continue to sit with my son and help him play from time to time. We’re not adding a new account any time soon, and I really hope that trash-talking mage in my instance group is old enough to buy a ticket to an R-rated movie….
Adhedodit on 
