Re-activating your WoW account, or interested in "Trying Before You Buy"?Warcraft Teens: Finding A Raiding Guild That Fits
World of Warcraft is a game that is marked "Teen" in terms of recomendation of minimum age group to play the game. This does not mean people younger than teenaged years do not play, however, nor does it mean they "should not" play, necessarily. HOW the game is intended to be played may change this opinion for some when it comes to pre-teen players.
This entry is specifically for those aged approximately 12 to 17 years of age.
The Lure Of Raiding Guilds
When a new player joins the game, they're generally completely unaware of the "raiding scene" unless they have a friend already in the game who has influenced their joining decision in the first place.
Eventually, however, everyone becomes aware of the "big dungeons" with the "phat loot". If a teen is joining when he already knows some of his friends play, it's possible he'll already have a dream of joining these elite teams and getting this cool equipment before even having entered a dungeon at all.
The Challenge Inherent in Raiding Guilds
To raid takes a lot of time and effort. Many agree that no player can properly begin to understand how much time and effort until they follow the standard pattern of advancing to level 70 and starting the process of looking for a raiding guild for the first time.
Some questions you might want to ask yourself before getting into a raiding guild:
- Do you have TIME to raid?
- Sharing your computer and having to jump off with little notice because parents or siblings demand it is a great way to lose online raiding friends and gain a bad reputation
- Ignoring real world responsibilities (chores, homework, bedtime) and leaving a dungeon or raid party in the lurch as a result is another great way to lose friends and gain a bad reputation.
- Are your professions levelled up?
- A nice chunk of the best equipment for level 70s these days is crafted from Tailoring, Leatherworking, Blacksmithing and Engineering. Don't just rely on dungeon runs to gear yourself up
- How about your secondary professions?
- Sometimes, grinding out "boring levels" in Fishing, First Aid and Cooking can pay off quite nicely when making an application to a Raiding guild. Advancing these secondary skills not only provides free healing and nice buffs that you can share with guildmates, but it shows a dedication to the game that a lot of leaders are looking for when tackling the harder game content
- Do you know how to earn Warcraft Gold without having to ask others?
- Asking for cash from virtual strangers is extremely bad form, even in guilds that are nowhere near tackling End Game content. It's important to support yourself or lean on Real Life friends
- Raiding guilds and those tackling Heroic 5-man content at level 70 all have on thing in common: When learning new encounters with a new group, repair costs are high, and consumable costs are high. The more you can farm materials for your consumables, the less you have to buy from the Auction House. The more gold-earning strategies you've devised before applying for the raiding guild, the better as well
Honest Opinions From Raid and Guild Leaders about Teenaged Members/Raiders
Aside from all the "player" aspects of the game mentioned above, there are many other issues that Guild Leaders and Raid Leaders consider when reviewing an applicant to their raiding guild. Legal issues regarding minors may arise, for example, and some adults do not feel comfortable having to worry about censoring themselves. As a result, some guilds have imposed age restrictions on their membership.
At the end, teenagers may need to do an extra little bit of "guild shopping" before finding a guild that they wish to apply to that wishes to accept them as a member, because there IS a raiding guild out there for them, and if they perform well and get a good reputation, age won't make a difference in the long term.
Check out this recent thread in the World of Warcraft official forums on this topic, which inspired this entry:
Can I Get a GL Banned For This?
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Excellent post, if I had younger friends or siblings interested in WoW, I'd point them to it.
Its also probably important for the kid to talk to their parent about raiding/their raiding schedule and try to have them understand exactly what raiding is: a team sport. Some kids have the time to raid, but their parents do not understand that there are anywhere between 9 to 39 other people depending on their childs timeliness. So raid times should be technically be treated like a sport; no parent would run out onto the soccer field screaming at their kid to take out the trash, would they? Not that real world responsibilites take precedence over Warcraft, it just seems like many parents don't frasp exactly what it is their kids are doing.
And like a sport, Warcraft can be taken away if the child isn't oing so well in school, neglecting real world responsibilites.
Rambled, but yeah. :)
My 9yr old daughter likes to watch me play, and I've even made a char for her but she doesn't like playing alone (I couldn't help but chuckle at that since its a MMORPG)... Unfortunately its not worth it for me to have a 2nd account to play 'with' her, so I sit next to her and control the movement with the mouse while she hits the combat keys and reads the quests. Needless to say she has improved reading/writing/imagination in school because of it.... go figure.
I've seen her ignore tells/group chat/says/guild chat because so much is going on, so I'm not too worried what's going on there just now as she's just focussed on how 'pretty' the game is and taking out 'bad guys'. :) I think for us its more of a thing to do together. We even play some PS2 games with her (always try to check that its a 2-player game that's about her speed so that we have stuff to do together when its not a good time to go outside or do other things).
Again, everything in moderation, and if the kid is advanced enough to participate in upper guild stuff, voice chat, raids, etc... then they should be treated as such, but like everything, it can be taken away by parents or /gremoved if gotten out of hand....
I remember when I was a teen and all we had were text adventure MUDs and the like... we had 1200 baud modems and BBS's, and that was the way we liked it! LOL... Needless to say I remember being excluded from some of the 'adult' banter, but included with some of the other game stuff as they got to know me. Good thing about a screen dividing you is that you can get away with being as old as you act! ;-)