With the release of Patch 2.4.3 today, construction has commenced at the docks in Stormwind. It's located between Cathedral Square and The Park, at the end of the canals. If you talk to the workers in the area, they'll tell you that they are preparing to bust out the wall to create a new entrance to the city. There's lots of life bustling around the construction site, and here's your first tour.
Being a mom of two boys, this is definitely a good recipe to have in my bag of tricks. Slime is ultimate fun, and the ingredients are super cheap. The secret to this ooze is clear glue and a small amount of Borax solution. Here is what you will need:
1/2 cup of clear Elmer's glue
1 cup of water
Borax Solution (1/4 cup of water + 1/4 teaspoon of Borax)
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of WarcraftHello Kitty Online players of all shapes and sizes – both the renowned and the relatively anonymous.
Since all the hardcore HKOers are locked up in Hello Kitty Online's closed beta NDA agreement, this week's 15 Minutes of Fame chats with a young MMO player who is anxiously awaiting her turn in the Flower Kingdom. Six-year-old Amillia, a level 23 warrior on Argent Dawn and CakeMania 2 fan, enjoys the occasional hour online under the watchful eye of her mother and big brother -- but longs for the day when she can accept new quests from Hello Kitty herself.
15 Minutes of Fame: So, Amillia, when your days of Cleaving are over, what are you most looking forward to in Hello Kitty Online? Amillia: Oooh, making my room. It just sounds so great! I want to do harvesting and go in other people's places and stores. None of my friends play World of Warcraft, but I hope that their moms will let them get Hello Kitty Online so we can play together. I hope my character looks just like me -- or maybe a little sweet kitty. I want a pink bow in my hair with flowers on it.
Did you apply to the HKO beta? I wanted to, but we didn't have time to do the video thing, so we couldn't. We decided to wait for the game.
Gamers on the Street logs onto U.S. servers to get the word from the front on what's going on in and around the World of Warcraft.
How young is too young to play WoW? We've discussed the ups and downs of grouping with kids quite a few times over the years, but the topic – like the kids themselves – just won't go away. Earlier this week, we interviewed an 11-year-old SSC raider and his mother. While most reader comments applauded the family for a disciplined, sensible approach to online gaming, a few readers seemed confused or even aghast that someone so young would be allowed to play World of Warcraft.
Gamers on the Street decided to pop in on Bloodscalp, a high-population PvP realm with what one supposes would be a correspondingly tough outlook on kiddie action. We surveyed several level 70 players at random, asking them about their own experiences with children in game. The consensus: Jerks come in all shapes, sizes and ages -- and children and teens are no better or worse than their adult counterparts. Hear out their reasoning, after the break.
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.
This week for our "Almost time for the American Food, Family, and Football Day" edition, we're bringing a WoWspace to you that keeps the family in mind. It doesn't just house Erikmathew, L64 Undead Rogue of <Sabotage> from the Sargeras server; it's the space where he and his kids geek out together. Here's the 411 on this space from Erikmathew (he named his Rogue for his son) himself:
OK, here is a picture of my down to earth WoWspace. Included in the picture is -- first and foremost -- my assistant copilot Meg (4) who is someday sure to be a vital part of the WoW community. Also pictured is my 39 gallon aquarium, which is very calming after a long night of raiding. From there, you'll notice my logitech X230 speakers, 19" Dell LCD screen, Logitech Elite Keyboard LE, and Logitech Marble Mouse.
A simple premise done well. I can't say that I officially recommend drugs as an alternative to this game (or that I agree with the idea that doing drugs is better for you than raiding for epics every weekend), but I thought the joke here was done pretty well.
And especially well for just some kids messing around. The sound, colors, and the music all worked, and while you can't fault those anti-drug PSAs for doing what they do, they do have a certain style to them that begs to be parodied.
Syphonis is back. The poor young Warlock who got banned from WoW by his parents for the "oooh ooooh"ing succubus is back on the forums with another tale of woe.
It's still funny (he's now learned how to pronounce Succubus, though his mother is a little freaked out that she "seduces" people, and we learned the real reason why his parents want him out of WoW: because child predators play "mmogrpos"), but I'm more inclined to call "shenanigans" on this one-- the insight on how kids work seems too mature to me somehow.
Then again, as any parent will tell you, kids are insidious at convincing you to give them their way. Fortunately, he closes the epic story with an acknowledgment that school is just around the corner, and that WoW is going to take a back seat to that for a little while. Sounds like the best thing for everyone, buddy.
Ah, to be young again. Arawn of L2Lock pointed out this poor kid on the forums, who got caught by his parents checking out the "you know what" of the Warlock Succubus pet, "and then it made this sound like uhh uhh uuhhhhh whiip whippp" ("I think warlocks will know what I mean"), and now the poor guy's banned from playing WoW.
Oh, the post itself is so funny, I don't even know what to add. I haven't heard of it happening in a long time, but way back when the game first came out I remember hearing about kids who rolled female Night Elves just to watch them dance, and I think all of us who played Tomb Raider know exactly what this kid is up to. Yes, I mean you-- Lara Croft didn't have to stand facing the corner for five minutes just so the camera could zoom in that one time. And even Blizzard knows what's going on here.
Still, this seems like a good kid (if nothing else, the experience has gotten him interested in correct pronunciation). You might try telling your parents you're rerolling something like an Orc, buddy-- the uglier the better. Otherwise, wait a few years, and all will become clear. The entire post preserved after the jump.
According to Ars Technica, a study appearing in the June edition of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine covering the effects of video games on young people paints a relatively reassuring picture. The study suggests that video games have no significant impact on academics or socialization. From the article:
Although there were some figures that might suggest that gaming displaced academic activities, such as reading and homework, the total time spent on these pursuits was so small that minor effects were magnified. If people are concerned about the lack of reading done by adolescents, the fact that non-gamers spend only eight minutes a day reading should be a far larger concern than the fact that gaming causes that figure to drop by a little more than two minutes.
And in my experience playing World of Warcraft with both kids and adults, I have to say that the game is very social, and can even teach plenty of social skills. (Well, as long as you eventually level out of Barrens chat.) Of course if you're replacing homework time with World of Warcraft time, that's one thing, but this study doesn't suggest that's what's happening. What's your opinion -- do games like World of Warcraft have a negative effect on our kids? [Thanks, Mogwai!]
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.
Warcraft players come from nearly every demographic on the planet, so it's virtually inevitable that you're going to run into people from the dreaded and often misunderstood 10-16 age bracket. In my two-plus years with the game, I've dealt with all kinds, from the polite and enthusiastic kids who are always eager to help someone out and gladly accept advice about their class, to the nightmarish brats who come online purely to spread their antisocial hatemongering and basically use the game's chat channels as their personal repository for four-letter words.
At WoW Insider, we've told you of our woes and even ranted a little bit. Now one reader wants to know how to handle the younger players in a guild:
How can you teach etiquette, chatting or otherwise, to younger audiences? Should they be punished or treated differently? How patient is patient enough before severe actions have to be taken?
It's so easy to lose track of time when playing World of Warcraft. You start out grinding this reputation, leveling that alt, then get invited to go run an instance, then come back and check the auction, then inspect some people standing around in their pretty epics... and suddenly discover that it's 1 in the morning and you've spent many more hours playing this game than you had planned.
Then again, for some people, limiting themselves isn't at all the problem -- it's limiting their kids they worry about! Their children agree to only play for 1 hour, but then 2 or 3 hours go by and they're still in there at the computer, saying, "But Daaaaad, I forgot!"
If either you or your loved one needs a gentle reminder about how much time has gone by while adventuring in Azeroth, WoWTimer may be the addon for you.
We've covered this kind of thing a fewtimes before (quite a while ago-- man I'm getting old), but it's an issue that I find perpetually interesting. Tviokh over at WoW Ladies had to deal with a bad kid in her guild-- he constantly requested help for stuff that was easy to do himself, and constantly bugging the guild to try and fight a world dragon that no one really had any interest in fighting. Finally, the kid blew up in whiny 10-year-old fashion, and /gquit... only to pester another guild with his whining and begging.
Now, I should emphasize (since I am older, and have learned to be more and more patient over the years) that this is in fact a bad kid. While there are lots of younger players in Azeroth, not all of them are whiny beggars, and there are quite a few of them that are fun to have around. We've got a kid in our guild, and while he misses quite a few raids (because he has a little bit of a problem doing his homework sometimes-- his parents are in touch with our GM, and the fact that they keep him from playing when he shouldn't be only tells me that they're good parents), he's a fun guy to have around, and a respectable hunter.
Yes, he sometimes bugs us (as level 70s) to run Sunken Temple with him because it's his favorite instance, but in general he's a good kid. So Tviokh's experience isn't necessarily the norm.
Then again, there is part of me that still wants that adults only server, and I can definitely understand why some guilds don't allow younger players. But, as I'm sure WoW-playing parents will attest, not all kids are trouble.
As if to prove that not all media in Australia is completely insane about World of Warcraft, The Age has published a great column by comedienne and writer Wendy Harmer about her experiences playing WoW... with her eight-year-old son.
Now this is what I'm talking about-- she praises the game almost unreservedly for not only teaching her son about how to interact with computers and numbers, but also for how to interact with people. In the world of WoW, where the kid is "often playing alongside much older people who have high demands on courteous behavior and fair conduct," the kid is learning how to be social and save up a "bank of goodwill" with his guild members. She even attacks the notion that playing MMORPGs is anti-real world-social-- she says his son plays with both his mother and his friends, and that the game actually encourages real-world interaction modeled on the game, just as past generations of boys modeled their playtime on the TV and radio shows they experienced.
And notice how, as opposed to most of the crazy WoW kids portrayed by the media, Harmer actually moderates her child's playing. She keeps the computer out of the bedroom, and, I'd guess, evaluates and adjusts his playing time as necessary. In short, she lets her child play the game as its meant to be played-- as a part of a normal life-- and he's better off for it. That's the picture of WoW that most players see, and yet it's a picture that's almost never shown by the media.
Now all we have to do is get that kid to abandon his Pally and play Horde...
It's great to hear that Blizzard's little game could actually be the key to helping young kids out "socially, academically, and therapeutically." The social benefits are obvious-- even the shyest wallflower can get involved, meet people, and find a group in WoW (it's no substitute for the real thing, as the article says, but it's a step up from no social interaction at all). And it's true that with all the numbers and text in WoW, it's not surprising that figuring those out could translate to better academic work in some cases. If you don't care about aggro, you might not benefit, but if a kid really cares about how to max his DPS or make sure he keeps aggro on the main tank, there's some good number theory going on there. And we've already shown, here on this site, that there's a bias against bad spelling ingame.
But perhaps most interesting is how the shared experience of WoW can be used to build connections to kids who have trouble making connections at all. We're a culture, for sure, because we all know why they call it Lagforge, and we all know (well, eventually we do) where Mankrik's wife is. It's awesome that a therapist can use that connection to create some more real connections, as the story says, between the child and the teacher.
Now let's just see if the media covers a story like this. Or hasn't the suicide in China gotten enough press yet?
Every Thursday, Shelbi Roach of The Bronze Kettle guides you in creating WoW-inspired crafts using real world mats with World of WarCrafts.
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at 
Syphonis is back. The poor young Warlock who got banned from WoW by his parents for the "oooh ooooh"ing succubus is back on the forums with another tale of woe.
Ah, to be young again. Arawn of L2Lock pointed out this poor kid on the forums, who got caught by his parents checking out the "you know what" of the Warlock Succubus pet, "and then it made this sound like uhh uhh uuhhhhh whiip whippp" ("I think warlocks will know what I mean"), and now the poor guy's banned from playing WoW.
We've covered this kind of thing a few times before (quite a while ago-- man I'm getting old), but it's an issue that I find perpetually interesting. Tviokh over at WoW Ladies had to deal with a bad kid in her guild-- he constantly requested help for stuff that was easy to do himself, and constantly bugging the guild to try and fight a world dragon that no one really had any interest in fighting. Finally, the kid blew up in whiny 10-year-old fashion, and /gquit... only to pester another guild with his whining and begging.
As if to prove that not all media in Australia is completely insane about World of Warcraft, The Age has published a great column by comedienne and writer Wendy Harmer about her experiences playing WoW... with her eight-year-old son.
Lest you think playing WoW is nothing but trouble (and shame on you if you do), Terra Nova has an excellent story about how WoW is being used in a therapetic setting.
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