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Blizzard releases parental control video
Parental controls are of paramount importance in games such as WoW, which appeal to a wide audience of young and old, and are sufficiently immersive to permit lengthy sessions. Blizzard has long advocated responsible gaming, and WoW Insider is no different. To this end, Blizzard has released a video clearly and carefully laying out all the Parental Control options available to the WoW-playing family. These include: Limited hours' play per day or per week Scheduled playtimes and preset schedules Limiting of the use of RealID and in-game voice chat Preventing use of Diablo III's Real Money Auction House Automatically generated weekly playtime reports. These features may be useful for more than just parents. Students wishing to ensure they aren't distracted by WoW could have their own parents set up controls for them, or players who wish to limit themselves for any other reason could do the same. Additionally, any player might appreciate weekly reports of their playtime! Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
A parent's guide to World of Warcraft for kids
Is WoW appropriate for children? While we're sure the inevitable trolls out there are already clicking straight to the comments to revile the very idea of allowing children into Azeroth, the fact is that with preparation and consistent parent moderation, WoW can be a fine fit for kids -- especially for families with parents who already spend time in Azeroth. It's definitely one of those cases in which your mileage may vary; parents who don't already play or who take a more hands-off approach to gaming will probably want to wait until their little goblins- or worgen-to-be are well into their teen years. For players whose kids are itching to join in the family fun, though, there are plenty of ways to make World of Warcraft a productive, happy experience for kids, parents, and fellow players alike. Here's the thing: There's more to think about and more ways to throttle age-related issues than simply turning off trade chat and forbidding PUGs before walking into the other room to watch TV. We'll show you how to find the best fit for WoW with kids, teens, and even parents themselves.
MMO Family: A parent's look at World of Warcraft
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family. World of Warcraft? Yeah, even folks who don't play video games at all have heard of this behemoth of MMO gaming. With 12 million subscribers worldwide, the WoW phenomenon has practically come to define an entire generation's worth of MMO gaming. While it's designed for teens and up, the game is so ubiquitous that you wouldn't have to dig far to find players of all ages, including many teens but also younger children as well. With a new expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, due for release on December 7th, plenty of kids (and grownups) will be angling for WoW in their holiday stockings. The question is: Is WoW a good fit for your kids? With good preparation and consistent parent moderation, it can be -- but if you don't play the game yourself or you take a more hands-off approach to gaming, you may want to wait until your little goblin- or worgen-to-be is well into the teen years. Join us after the break for an insider's look at WoW for younger children and teens.
MMO Family: Mind your massively multiplayer manners
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family. Kids are like sponges, sure -- old saying is old. But are online manners something you really want to leave to chance? Are the interactions your kids so intently follow online the manners you want them soaking up and using themselves? As parents, we know that the habits and attitudes that kids pick up today are what we'll find coming right back at us tomorrow. Teens who are used to trolling in games and forums will have a hard time modulating to a less strident tone in a business meeting. Kids who excuse a lack of scruples with "whatever -- it's only the internet" are due for a big surprise when a thoughtless instant message or careless lack of response to an email slams doors in their faces later in life. As parents who game, we all have hot buttons that set us off: the guy who always shows up late to raids, beggars, you name it. The point is: Have you talked to your kids yet about these behaviors? Are you explicitly (by both word and example) helping them not to grow up to be That Guy? I'm pretty sure we don't need a primer in online etiquette here at Massively, but I don't think it would hurt to share some of the things we wish Those Other Parents had taught their kids before turning them loose in our games. I'll share my dirty dozen after the break -- won't you share your own in the comments?
MMO Family: Parents as gaming gatekeepers
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family. Does your child have the emotional levels it takes to tackle certain MMOs? The idea of parents as gaming gatekeepers all too often comes down to simplistic, ESRB ratings-based rulings passed down from on high by relatively disengaged parents. Deciding what and how your child should play is far from a black-or-white decision. Last time in MMO Family, for instance, we looked at how to tell if your child is ready for MMO raiding -- yet far too many commenters missed the point, assuming (from the topic alone, we can only presume) that we advocate a laissez-faire attitude that allows kids to abandon their other activities and strands them in front of a keyboard during every free moment. Come on, folks, it's not a choice between letting kids play to the detriment of the rest of their lives vs. not playing at all. It's about gatekeeping -- and this is where you, the parent, come in. The truth is, categorically forbidding kids who're interested in video games to play at all is no more thoughtful or balanced an approach than throwing up your hands and letting them log in during every waking moment. Your role is to help children learn to balance their interests and lives, with as light or heavy a hand as may be necessary for your kids. This week, we've brought you some thoughts from a mother and son who've been there, done that -- together.
MMO Family: Is your child ready for MMO raiding?
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family. Does your youngster have ambitions to become an MMO raider? As a seasoned gamer yourself, you may find it hard to believe that your kids are already old enough to be chomping at the bit to battle the same bosses, to pore over the same strategies, to put themselves through the same scheduling wringer that you do. That's the thing about kids, though -- they want to tackle the cool stuff just like you do, especially if that's what they've grown up watching you raid. Is MMO raiding appropriate for your older child or teen? That's a matter only a parent can decide. The answer will be different from child to child, age to age and family to family. The best analogy I can offer is to treat this like a virtual team sport. Make sure your youngster has the bandwidth to support adding another focused activity to his schedule; from there, you'll want to help him choose the right team with a solid coach and assistants, supportive teammates and an age-appropriate challenge rating and social environment. A little direction from a tuned-in, gaming-savvy parent can help many young wannabe raiders realize their ambitions in an age-appropriate, balanced and enjoyable way.
MMO Family: Con your games like a pro
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family ... From tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate niches for every family member, MMO Family offers you advice on MMO gaming of the family, by the family and for the family.When I first started playing MMOs in the very earliest days of EverQuest, I never quite understood my husband's rantings about the con system (i.e. to "consider" a monster's levels in relation to the player's). He can only take on light blues? Say what?! My magician's pet was putting down dark blues and whites while I ran to the kitchen for a drink. What was his problem, anyway? Unfortunately (for my husband and monks everywhere), no matter what they say, what's good for the goose isn't always good for the gander. And when it comes to choosing MMOs for your family, what's appropriate for one child and one family might be off the rails for another. Like keeping kids safe on the internet, the best strategy for choosing suitable games is a combination of tactics tailored to your family's likes, dislikes and needs. How can you best con the games your kids are begging to bring home?
MMO Family: 17 internet safety tactics for gaming families
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family. From tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate niches for every family member, MMO Family offers you advice on MMO gaming of the family, by the family and for the family. "Be careful, there's nasty stuff out there on the internet." It's frustrating to hear this warning clarioned over and over again. We're gamers ourselves, after all. We know easily children can get in over their heads on the internet. "Be careful," intone the experts. "Watch carefully, and be very, very careful ..." But how? What must we be careful to do? To not do? What does "being careful" mean in actual practice? Specific online safety tactics – and putting them into practice without driving anyone crazy in the process – become an epic quest reward that always manages to stay two turn-ins out of reach. As we mentioned last week, your main objective as the parent of a young MMO player is to remain figuratively logged in to their activity. When children are online, parents cannot afford to be figuratively AFK. We're not suggesting you pull up a chair and some popcorn to faithfully oversee kids' every move online. No child needs direct supervision to kill 10 rats (or pick 20 flowers or befriend 30 fairies or frag 50 enemies ...). But young gamers do need your boundaries and your guidance (as well as your feedback, your enthusiasm and your support). Just how strong the boundaries should be will depend on the age of your child and the game that they're playing. Apply common sense, based on your own MMO experience, along with these 17 tactics for safe online gaming.
MMO Family: Log in to your kids' gaming interests
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family. From tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate niches for every family member, MMO Family offers you advice on MMO gaming of the family, by the family and for the family. Are you leveling a pack of MMO gamers? Welcome to MMO Family, where we look at tips for families who love MMOs. Should you be keeping an eye on your kids while they game? (Yes!) How can you do that without seeming heavy-handed? (Stay tuned.) Are MMOs appropriate for young kids? (Sure!) Which ones? (Coming soon ...) What MMOs might your family enjoy playing all together? Should you be using parental control devices and tools? What are the best ways to quickly gauge the age-appropriateness of a game? There's a lot to cover when it comes to leveling a family of gamers, so let's breeze through the tutorial and tap our first topic. As the parent of a young MMO player, your main strategy is to remain figuratively logged in to whatever they're doing. There's no AFKing when it comes to parenting. Every parent knows they need to get involved in their children's extracurricular hobbies. We want to know what they're doing, who they're with, whether they're safe, whether they're enjoying themselves, if what they're doing is a productive source of life lessons as well a good, old-fashioned fun ... What you might not have considered is that kids' gaming deserves the same level of scrutiny and support as, say, their karate classes or violin lessons. Whatever captivates your child's imagination should also attract your parental periscope. We're not suggesting you plop down and dutifully watch every move as your child logs in to kill 10 rats (or pick 20 flowers or befriend 30 fairies or frag 50 enemies ...). Frankly, no gamer wants or needs a hall monitor. But young gamers do need your boundaries, your guidance, your feedback, your enthusiasm, your support – all the same things you'd bring to their piano recitals or baseball games.
Drama Mamas: My GM is a succubus
Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with the Drama Mamas. Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. We're taking your questions at DramaMamas (at) WoW (dot) com.We know, we know: A hot, fresh Succubus managing your every need - in game, in Vent, on the forums ... How's this a problem, again? Unfortunately, we suspect the reader who submitted the headline question this week was thinking of the more traditional type of succubus: the life force-sucking vampires who impose a real-life Curse of Exhaustion on their hapless victims. Yeah, this guy from this week's headline sub-mission (har, har) has got it that bad. The Drama Mamas exorcise his demon, plus explore what to do when you catch a young guildmate indulging in some not-so-pretty behavior, after the break.
How parents really feel about online gaming and their children
For literally generations now, we've had to endure those ongoing discussions regarding the harm of video games on children. Now with almost the entire industry being online, children are able to interact with other people across the world. This, of course brings up a whole new array of problems when it comes to protecting our children from harm.In a recent article at Yahoo's Shine, this subject is approached in a way that keeps its distance from the usual mainstream doom and gloom we read regarding online games and parenting. Instead, readers are invited to share their own experiences with their kids and video games or online games. The comments are (mostly) interesting, and give a glimpse into how some parents are conquering this battle. Also, there's a link to a survey conducted by SOE regarding what parents think of their kids playing video games, and how it affects the children's school work and social lives.
Xenonics SuperVision Tactical Package does night vision in HD
Traditional night vision kits aren't anything extraordinary, but Xenonics is taking things beyond the pixelated output we're used to and going straight to HD. The outfit's SuperVision Tactical Package comes packed with a high-definition night vision device, a SuperVision IR Illuminator and mount, a Snyper Tactical illumination light, additional circuit-protected rechargeable Li-ion batteries, additional CR 123 batteries, a battery charger and a waterproof SKB case for those treks through the moat. Granted, this here bundle is aimed at police departments and security firms more than mere consumers, but who's to say you can't have a little fun in your own backyard once the sun heads down?
Japanese government to track kids via mobile handsets
Here's a tip: don't relocate to Japan unless you're entirely down with being monitored practically everywhere you go. Sure, things aren't that serious quite yet, but with RFID tracking going on in schools, prisons, airlines, and now, um, everywhere else, you can pretty much rest assured that big brother is indeed taking notes. The next step in mass monitoring involves GPS, RFID, and cellphones, and the service is intended to track kids' whereabouts and alert parents whenever they enter potentially "dangerous areas." Reportedly, RFID readers will be setup in various areas (like school gates and electric polls) and track tags carried by (incredibly obedient) children, or better yet, simply monitor the GPS locator in the youngster's handset. Of course, we've no idea where these "danger zones" could be, nor how long the crime lords of the area will actually let that pole-sitting RFID reader remain in tact, but the system is supposed to be piloted in "20 regions across the country" real soon.[Via Textually]
