teenagers
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Officers' Quarters: Drawing the line
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.We often talk about our guilds as if they are families. A family would do anything for each other, wouldn't they? The writer of this week's e-mail asks, When it comes to helping your guildmates with real-life problems, where do you draw the line?I've been reading your Officers' Quarters column, and I would like your input. I am a longtime (2 years plus) member of an Alliance guild and also a senior officer in a similar-sized Horde guild. In the Alliance guild, one of the members is a teenager who has also been in the guild for a long time. This guildie, along with his father, are well-known in the guild, but the teen is more known for his offensive and insulting behavior in guild chat and in raids. Several members of the guild have left specifically because of this kid. It's also known that he is on medication for behavioral problems. Despite his unpleasant behaviour, he has not been removed from the guild, which has caused a lot of friction.
On age discrimination
Fraid is a young player who says that people show discrimination towards teenagers in WoW. He plays maturely and responsibly, so well that most of the time other players are surprised to find out how young he is. Yet he often encounters guild requirements that say one's age must be 21 or higher to join. Is this fair?In my own experience I've certainly met kids like Fraid who can behave just as well as (if not better than) most of the adults I've encountered in WoW. I've also met players who came across as bragging and became very difficult for me to deal with until a friend said "They're only 12," and I understood. After that, I found it much easier to tolerate the things they were saying as just part of being a teenager rather than some plot to make me feel inadequate. Another time, I went through several 2-vs-2 arena matches in which my friend was strangely quiet, and yet playing very well. Afterwards, my friend explained that it wasn't her at the keyboard, it was her 10-year old friend. This friend isn't very good at typing and talking, but he certainly knows how to play!Kids can be fantastic players, or lousy ones, just like anyone else you might encounter -- it isn't right to judge them based on age alone. The fair way to deal with kids in WoW is to give them a chance to show their skill, and even to help them improve however you can. If they prove unreasonable, then kick them out the same way you would an unreasonable adult. For those adults who just exclude young people from their activities altogether without giving them a chance, there's no denying it is prejudice -- judging before knowing -- and it often means depriving yourself of some quality talent for your group. Of course, if your guild does some sort of ERP, or other "adult" activities, then by all means, exclude away! But in normal gaming, especially in a casual guild or a PuG, there's really no reason a kid shouldn't be allowed to join unless they've already shown themselves unable to do what's required of them. Anyone who says, "some of these people are not fun to be around, so I'll just exclude the whole lot of them," has some growing up of their own to do.[Thanks Raegn!]
Study finds teens still like to hang out behind the Gas N' Sip
According to a recently released report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a telephone study of US youths aged 12-17 found that -- get this -- kids actually put value on "non-online" meetings, such as "talking on the phone" or "hanging out." If you believe these so-called findings, 40-percent of teens say they use that archaic and confusing system of wired telephones, while 31-percent claim to spend time "in person" with friends every day, as though they're not frittering away their time on PCs, DS Lites, and cellphones -- interacting virtually, like the rest of us. Our take? Obvious youth-driven cover-up. Hear us out here. If the 'rents found out kids were growing up so socially disenfranchised, they might just take all those beautiful gadgets away. On the other hand (or OTOH, as the youngsters say on their picture calculators), we don't exactly take a telephone poll of 935 teens as empirical knowledge, so maybe it's possible that kids are pretty much the same as they've always been -- if slightly more distracted. One thing's for sure -- they'll never experience the pain of not knowing the lyrics to Rock Me Amadeus like we did.
High school study shows love for Apple, P2P music sharing
In today's episode of "no surprises here," we look at a recent study published by Piper Jaffray & Company which attempts to take an intimate look inside the minds of high schoolers across the US. As you'd probably expect, none of the results were all that shocking. When asked about MP3 players, some 82-percent of those that already owned some form of DAP stated that it was an iPod, which was slightly up from last fall. Additionally, 64-percent of those surveyed admitted to downloading music illegally, which may actually be an (ever-so-slightly) positive figure considering that the percentage actually dropped from 72-percent in 2006. As for the iPhone, just 3-percent of students claimed that they owned one, but nearly 10-percent stated that they were looking to pick one up "within the next six months." [Via CNET, image courtesy of MSN]
Breakfast Topic: No children, please!
I recently overheard someone giving advice on how to avoid guild drama: avoid teenagers. Why? Because nothing loses respect for a guild leader more than their parents kicking them off the computer in the middle of a raid.It's an interesting point, but I've noticed this sort of age discrimination becoming more prevalent recently. People are happy to tar all WoW's younger players with the same brush -- one experience of an abusive fourteen-year-old in Barrens chat blows up into a strong dislike of all under-18s, resulting in "mature-only" guilds which only take players over 30 (for example).My experiences, especially of the last few months, have shown me that teenage players can be as mature and responsible as anyone -- perhaps more laid-back than older players who have limited playtime thanks to jobs and other responsibilities. Have you suffered from the common stereotypes of younger players? Do you cringe whenever the words "fourteen-year-old" are used as an insult? Or are you happily entrenched in a mature-only guild without a single curfew in sight?
Stupid kids try to steal David Copperfield's cellphone
Not necessarily mobile news as such, we still thought you'd get a kick out of this tale of four teenage thugs, two lovely assistants, and a man who earns his living by making stuff disappear. After Sunday's show at the Kravis Center in alm Beach, Florida, illusionist David Copperfield and his female assistants were walking back to their tour bus when they were approached by a small pack of kids. Instead of requesting the world-famous magician's autograph (don't laugh, we have one), the three 17-year-olds and one 18-year-old proceeded to rob the women of their purses at gunpoint, making off with several hundred dollars and a RAZR. When it came time to jack Copperfield, however, the teens were apparently dumbfounded by his special powers, as he managed to conceal his own wallet and cellphone while appearing to completely empty his pockets in a trick he referred to as "reverse pickpocketing." Eventually all four morons were picked up in their stolen car after Copperfield took note of the license plate, and their cache of loot from the night's activities was returned to its rightful owners.[Via mopocket and textually]
