15 Minutes of Fame: Confessions of a teenage warlock

15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – both the renowned and the relatively anonymous. Know an interesting player you'd like to see profiled? E-mail us your tips.

The subject of this week's 15 Minutes of Fame is not a rare drop – he doesn't have a novelty schtick or an unusual lifestyle, nor is he a WoW culture mini-celeb. Seldorm, a level 70 warlock on Exodar, is that guy you PuGged with yesterday: the guy with solid if not stellar PvP gear who handled himself well and lent a witty, gracious and friendly note to the group. Based on the way he presented himself, you assumed he was 20something – but you'd have been wrong.

Here's what a guildmate had to say about this 15-year-old Canadian: "On the young and incredibly funny and mature front is Seldorm. He's in grade 10, although he became my guildie in grade 9 (and one of the only upper level officers, actually). People who don't ask are completely floored when they eventually find out his age. I've never seen him display an even remotely immature bone in his body, even when goaded or insulted. He's trustworthy, hilarious, loyal and very generous."

Meet Seldorm and get a glimpse inside the views of a player from "that" age group, after the break.

15 Minutes of Fame: So tell us a little about yourself, Seldorm. What makes Seldorm tick?

Seldorm: I'm 15 years old and mostly play my 70 warlock on Exodar. Currently working on my gear for the step up to raid content. In a small, family type guild called <Iron Skin>. It's not big, but it's ours. Mostly just trying to get to raiding and havin' fun doin' it. Personal interests: literature (loves me a good book), other vidya games, and I dabble in my old Lego.

How long have you been gaming? What about World of Warcraft?

I started playing WoW about two years ago, and have been off and on for real life reasons.

About video games, I was always into games that were deep in story and sort of complex. Sadly, not a huge amount of those anymore. Then I just got into party games, fun games for me and my buds. Used to like games like those old Ogre Battle games, the Legend of Zelda series. But now I deal in the online shooters and party games like Halo 3, Rainbow 6: Vegas and Rock Band.

Tell us about your guild.

Ah, the guild. <Iron Skin> itself isn't all that big, maybe 50 people total, but only two to five actually exist. Rest are alts or quitters. It's what I like about <Iron Skin> though -- it's just me and another at one time: chatting, questing, dungeoning, whatever. No burdens, responsibilities, that stressful junk. Joined because my RL friend was in it, but he doesn't play anymore. I'm not playing a job, I'm playing a game. And I will play it however much I like. Sometimes a lot, sometimes a little.

Being on the younger end of the "serious" play spectrum, have you run into any discrimination or caught any 'tude based on how old you are? What about voice chat – are you ever afraid of sounding too youthful to other players?

Voice communication is something I haven't been using frequently, just when I've been invited to some Kara runs and a few heroics. I suppose I'll come to embrace it soon enough, but I can contort text into however I feel fit. Ironically enough, age still doesn't factor in with voice. Turns out I'm rather baritone.

Age actually doesn't come up all that much, and I find this interesting. Everyone is free to sort of imagine what everyone looks like in real life, but that just sort of takes me and them out of the game. I just craft imaginary accents based on grammar, profanity frequency and comprehension. I don't actually listen to the stock voices, I drown them in music.

Speaking of music, the absence of music. My parents are deaf and as such, growing up, I had no music. When I got older -- 10ish -- I became paranoid that when I heard nothing, I became deaf myself. I dug rock at the time and as I grew, my tastes did. The second language is totally worth it though. My parents are pretty respectful of what I do and mostly just give me my space and trust me. Although, I think this has less to do with being deaf and more to do with being a good parent.

On that note, let's talk about parents. What do your parents think about your gaming? Do they keep a tight rein on your game time?

My parents don't talk to me about WoW. They rarely bother me in my sort of cave. They are, however, very supportive of anything I do and respect my decisions.

How often do you play?

I play WoW pretty much every day on weekdays after school, for a few to several hours. Weekend WoWing is rather sporadic though. Sometimes all day, some days not at all. What I do in the time I play also varies. Usually dailies, then look for a dungeon group. A few times, I go off on abstract missions such as attune myself to old world raids, level an alt, farm something I don't need but someone else does ... that sort of thing.

So what are you into when you're not online in WoW?

In grade 10 now, just tryin' to get by, have fun, that junk. Frankly, I don't really have a passionate direction towards post-secondary and need to do a little more looking. I like to just figure stuff out. Off WoW, I just rifle through the internet and think. Figure stuff out, like human behaviour, how quantum physics work, how TVs are made. Anything, really. I like to know.

What about in game – where are you headed there?

Back to the WoWz, I'm currently working with some online buds to get into end-game content, hopin' to make PuGs a little-used option (as opposed to the only option). If I gotta leave <Iron Skin>, I ain't. I'm bringin' it with me.

<Iron Skin> is small, but it's characters are apparently very popular. We've got a few tells and whispers about a guild merge as we are small, but awesome. Just being an intelligent, friendly player gets you places.

Sounds like you're going to be getting places, yourself. Best of luck and good gaming to you, Seldorm!

Who's your daddy? 15 Minutes of Fame is looking for guild leaders and officers of the hardcore variety. Is your uberguild on the bleeding edge of raid content? Does your raid leader keep it together with skill and aplomb? Shoot us a tip and show us your leader's kung fu.

More interviews with World of Warcraft players from 15 Minutes of Fame. Plus, Lisa Poisso logs on to the WoW servers every week to ask players what's on their mind in Gamers on the Street.