World of Warcraft

Hmmm. DH plays for a couple of hours every day. I can ask him when he gets home from work, if ya like, but here's my take on it.

It's pretty cartoonish, I believe it costs about $15 per month, and I've never heard DH complain about problems with billing. I can't vouch for the cleanliness of the language, since my DH's guild is all made up of adults. I know that one of the members of his guild allows his ten year old son to try it (or did at least once), but I don't know the circumstances of that.

I'll grill DH for details when he gets back.

As with all online communities like Xbox 360 it's made up of all different people from every walk of life.. so yeah there can be cursing.. depends on who you play with. They're very legit as I have friends who have been WoW'ing since it first came out so there shouldn't be any viruses or anything and I've also never heard of any billing problems. However it is very addicting and I've known people that forget about the real world in their efforts to build up their characters and play..

But I'm sure Cranky'll get better info from her husband.. as I don't let WoW in my house because my husband is hugely game addictive and we have a three-year-old I'm not about to be sole responsible for ALL THE TIME.. LOL

Shadow_Ferret said:

How much is the monthly fee (I assume there is a fee, since its a 10-day free trial)

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$12.99-$14.99 monthly, depending on the duration of your subscription. Longer = cheaper.

Is it legit or will I find thousands of charges on my card for geeky gamer stuff?

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Legit.

Are there adults on it swearing and cursing, like can be found on X-Box Live?

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If reported, people who curse on public channels are usually punished. Private channels are unmoderated.

Will it open me up to virii, hackers, trojans, spyware and the like?

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Not unless you specifically seek out addons known to infect your computer with these things.

Any other info that would help me say No would be invaluable.

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Easy: it's a gear/level grind designed to consume your free time. Don't do it.

The new PvP system was fun enough for a while, but after you figure out all the tricks, it comes down to who can better exploit those tricks. Once you have your cute rewards and title, why bother? Shallow.

lostgirl said:

As with all online communities like Xbox 360 it's made up of all different people from every walk of life.. so yeah there can be cursing.. depends on who you play with. They're very legit as I have friends who have been WoW'ing since it first came out so there shouldn't be any viruses or anything and I've also never heard of any billing problems. However it is very addicting and I've known people that forget about the real world in their efforts to build up their characters and play..

But I'm sure Cranky'll get better info from her husband.. as I don't let WoW in my house because my husband is hugely game addictive and we have a three-year-old I'm not about to be sole responsible for ALL THE TIME.. LOL

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DH and I went around and around about gaming a few years back. Now he saves it for after the kids are in bed for the night, or at school.

Cranky said:

DH and I went around and around about gaming a few years back. Now he saves it for after the kids are in bed for the night, or at school.

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That what my hubby and I do over Rock Band.. his latest cash cow addiction.. *sigh*

thank god for headphones.. LOL

Oh dear. I just recently got into WoW.

I believe the monthly fee is $15/month.

It is legit.

As far as cursing goes, the game has a built-in feature that automatically censors any kind of foul language - you have to go in there and disable it yourself if you want to see the dirty words. People type back and forth to each other but the stuff I've seen has generally been PG. Now, if your kid gets REALLY involved and gets a headset...well, I've known people who did that. Known. As in, they stopped making contact with the outside world.

I haven't seen any viruses, spyware, et al on my comp...I run it on my desktop and my lappy.

There are two kinds of WoW players, as far as I can see. The hardcore ones will abandon real-life social gatherings to go raiding. The casual ones might play it for an hour a day or so, if that.

There is some violence, though, when you fight beasts and such...nothing a typical 13yo couldn't handle, but something to consider.

Overall it's a fun game. I've enjoyed my time with it. If it'd been around when I was 13, I'd have thought it was the bee's knees (and spent time on it, instead of on AOL...)

Shadow_Ferret said:

OK. I am so not a gamer. I actually find them boring, but my 13-year-old loves them and we just got a 10 day free trial for WoW in the mail. Before I load it and open myself up to millions of computer virii, hackers, trojans and the like...

can anyone tell me about this game?

How much is the monthly fee (I assume there is a fee, since its a 10-day free trial)

Is it legit or will I find thousands of charges on my card for geeky gamer stuff?

Are there adults on it swearing and cursing, like can be found on X-Box Live?

Will it open me up to virii, hackers, trojans, spyware and the like?

Any other info that would help me say No would be invaluable.

Thanks.

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Completely legit (largest game in history actually). I think the fee is like $20 per month, but that is it, there are no "hidden charges". There are a lot of adults (as I said, largest game in history - I think over 6 million play now) but I believe that you can turn on some editing features for language. The main worry is that one will become hooked on the game. There are lots and lots of support groups out there for WOW players and families of players. I think there are even psyhologists who have talked about it. Overall, its a fun game and, as long as kept to a decent level, nothing dangerous about it. As with anything in life, its the extremes that will get ya.

Just my few cents.

I would so kick DH's hiney if he thought gaming was a viable alternative to hanging out with his friends in RL. At least one or two of those guys he games with he knows in real life and has hung out with 'em, too.

Oiy. My brother, on the other hand, falls into the hardcore gamer category. I'd like to kick his butt meself.

So, SF, if you think your guy can handle what we've talked about, violence/language wise, I'd say the only real thing to worry about would be just making sure you limit his time playing.

But I'm sure I don't need to tell you that.

Cranky said:

I would so kick DH's hiney if he thought gaming was a viable alternative to hanging out with his friends in RL. At least one or two of those guys he games with he knows in real life and has hung out with 'em, too.

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My problem was that I played with a number of good RL friends, and some of them moved away. WoW was our way of keeping in touch. From that perspective, it doesn't seem so bad--but we really did get hooked into spending a lot of time in the game together.

Our eventual solution was to replace WoW with non-video game activities.

From wikipedia article
Game addiction
World of Warcraft has also come under criticism for stories of game addictions to the popular video game. In June 2005, it was reported that a four-month-old South Korean child had suffocated due to neglect by her World of Warcraft-addicted parents, who were reportedly at a nearby café, playing World of Warcraft.[100] In August of that year, the government of the People's Republic of China introduced an online gaming restriction limiting playing time to 3 hours, after which the player would be expelled from the game. In 2006, it changed the rule so only citizens under the age of 18 would face the limitations.[101]

Dr. Maressa Orzack, a clinical psychologist at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, was interviewed August 8, 2006 stating that many of the then 9 million subscribers are addicted. She is quoted as saying "... 40 percent of the players are addicted."[102] Note that the 40 percent figure was not derived from a scientific study overseen by Dr. Orzack, but rather came from "a forum that Nick Yee runs". She added in an August 2006 interview that "even if the percentage is 5 to 10 percent which is standard for most addictive behaviors, it is a huge number of people who are out of control."[103] Also, according to Dr. John Grohol, a colleague of Orzack's, "Dr. Orzack is not claiming that up to 40% of World of Warcraft gamers are addicted based upon any actual evidence or surveys of players. This is just her opinion, based upon her own experience and observation of the problem."[104]

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It's evil.

My husband plays WoW regularly (about 4-5 hours a week). Yes, the game can be addictive, but it doesn't have to be. The real problem with WoW is that it is actually a very community-based game. For instance, my husband only plays with his coworkers - people he knows in real life. They have a guild and they go on runs together. You really have to work with other people (assuming you're not on a PvP server). So the addictive part comes in when you get a group of people who want to play obscene amounts, and you feel obligated because you are part of the "group." The other addictive aspect is of course making your character better and better.

Actually, if your kid is interested, you might consider playing with him (if you have more than one computer). I know a couple of father-son teams.

For some people(sic) it is not a game, it is a business. There is a small army of "entrepreneurs" out selling "gold". Yes, selling. You can buy your way up in the game if you don't mind dealing with filth. The sleazy pigs seem to do a large part of their advertising via forum spam these days.

Google: wow gold

So -- if you don't mind helping indirectly to pump that kind of sh*t, what the heck. To my mind, the whole scene is infected with corruption, too smeared with slime to touch. Besides -- well, don't get me started.

It's a lot cheaper to play chess, they say, and probably a whole lot healthier, mentally and morally.

there's a lot of community on it. If you're on a pvp server you will be killing a lot of opposing people (and being killed--"ganking" refers to when a higher-level player kills a lower level player that has no chance of defending themselves). If you're on a normal server, you get a choice of when to do that. My brother and I were leveling our characters today, running different dungeons, pvping outside Scarlet Monastery, doing daily quests in Outlands. I have 1,500 gold and need 3,500 more to get an epic flying mount, so I do a lot of dailies and farming. I need to start pvping more to get that new armor, since mine sucks (and paladins just suck in general).

As for $$, it's whatever the cost of buying the disks are (he'd have to buy both WoW, and The Burning Crusade expansion, and the Wrath of the Lich King expansion is coming out soon but there's no set day). And then its about $15 a month, give or take payment plan.

As for other charges, just make sure your teen doesn't fall for the gold spammers. Just like in your email, companies will create a character, send them into the main hubs in WoW, and spam out a website to visit to get free gold, or an offer to level your character. Make sure he doesn't touch those--they ask for your sign-in name and password, and if they have that they can get your credit card information off the worldofwarcraft.com site.
(ETA: As for wanting to buy gold from those who actually *do* sell you gold, it's against the rules and you can have your account canceled if caught.)

As for time consuming, quests could take a few minutes to hours (but you can always stop in the middle). Battlegrounds (scheduled pvp) can last a few minutes to an hour or more, if the opposing groups are at a stalemate. Dungeons can take an hour or five, depending on who is your group or how many times you die. Raids take hours. Battlegrounds, dungeons, and raids, you can't quit unless the whole group does (well, you can quit, but your group will get pissed at you, especially if you're a tank or healer or dps or crowd control--basically, anyone).

As for add-ons, there are a few safe-to-download things. Cosmos UI adds things like coordinates for finding mobs, damage meters, drop rates, etc, and is safe to use. The alternate to Cosmos is Titan, but Cosmos is more common. Your son might also download ventrilo (a lot of guilds have designated ventrilo servers), which is a system to verbally speak to other players (WoW added a microphone/speaker system, but I've never gotten it to cooperate).

(ETA: as for cursing, communication is through a chat window with different channels, like Trade channel or General channel, which your son can see. There is an option to sensor bad words, and you get the traditional &*#$^ symbols. There is supposed to be a live talk option, but my brother and I can never get it to work (I'm on mac, he's on dell). Vent is live talk, and there's no sensoring because it is a separate entity from WoW, and the channels in vent are privately owned and controlled by whoever pays for it.)

And as for playing together, two people cannot play on one account at the same time. I think it's against rules to even share an account, but I'm not sure. My brother has his account and I have mine so that we can play at the same time.

Basically, it's like crack.

And here's a tip for anyone looking for more addons with less technical knowledge needed...WowMatrix. Google it. Lots of addons but no requirement that they have to be downloaded a specific way. WowMatrix takes care of it.

I go in cycles. Some weeks I play quite a bit, other weeks, not at all. I've cancelled my subscription a handful of times, and I end up reactivating it to play with my RL friends.

As with ANYTHING in life, it's all about moderation. With kids, we tell them that they get so many hours a week to watch television and play video games. Why not include WoW in that equation, with extra hours allowed based on a reward system?

If he's just starting out, you're okay to just buy the first set of discs. Then if he starts getting more into it, you can decide whether he's handling it well or not. If he's not, well, then you're not out crazy amounts of money, but if he's handling it well, then maybe he can earn the discs from you by doing well in school, doing extra work around the house, or otherwise doing things outside of that world with the family.

Don't start - it's an addiction! (Even worse than this place)

Mind you I do have my own entry on Wowiki. That's how bad it got. Don't drag me back in, pleeeease!

My youngest boy (he's fourteen) plays WoW quite a bit. He started out by sharing an account with his cousin. I later bought him the software, which came with a credit to play on the site for one month free. He recently upgraded to the Burning Crusade version. He plays with a group of friends while chattering on the headset, and I've never heard any cursing.

At first I thought he was spending too much time playing the game. He scaled back some, but not by much. He loves the game and seems to have fun playing. Even though it costs fifteen dollars per month, I've actually saved money because he hasn't asked for a single video game since he started playing WoW.

If you'd rather not use a credit card, you can buy pre-paid cards from the retailer that sells the software. I usually purchase two or three months worth at a time.