Episode 8: Parental Guidance Strongly Suggested
September 2, 2011
Episode 8 is up! We’ve got a record number of guests on the show (at this rate, we’ll have over a hundred guests by the time the show reaches it’s first anniversary) and the energy radiating from our combined forces is undeniable.
Our guests, Fannon, Hydra, Christine and Ceraphus are all new parents, performing a delicate balancing act between their gaming lives and their budding families. They were gracious enough to candidly share their experiences: from success recipes, to trials, to selecting the best flavors of baby formula.
If you’d like to get to know any of our guests better, or if their guilds sound like one you’ve always been looking for, be sure to check out the following links:
Fannon’s Blog: Dwarven Battle Medic
Fannon’s Twitter: @Fannon541
Fannon’s Guild: Mountain Top
Hydra’s Blog: Almost Evil
Hydra’s Podcast: The Twisted Nether Blogcast
Hydra’s Twitter: @HydRAWR
Hydra’s Guild: The Sleepless
Christine’s Twitter: @StineErino
Christine’s Guild: Violent Apathy
Ceraphus’ Blog: Variant Avatar
Ceraphus’ Podcast: The Sundering
Ceraphus’ Twitter: @Ceraphus
Ceraphus’ Guild: Phalanx of Nod
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Excellent episode! Being a married gamer w/ children, I was thoroughly engaged in the conversation. Add to that, I recently started a podcast of my own (just to see if I could- http://wp.me/1IO97) talking balancing WoW with real life is what I’m looking for. After listening to this episode, I headed back to Episode 1 (skipped 0 for I don’t know why), also a great episode. Looking forward to many more in the weeks to come.
When I started playing about 2 and a half years ago, my youngest was just turning 2, (so she’s 4 now and my son is 7 and the elder is 16)(it seems like I’m really into parenthesis in this comment)- and since then I’ve gone through stages of playing too much and taking short breaks from the game. Playing too much is usually pointed out to me, no holds barred, from my lovely wife, who is not a gamer and occasionally expresses a little interest in my WoW babble. These are very short lived moments of interest that end with me trailing off as her eyes glaze over . . .
Communication is key, as all your guests touched upon, my wife finally had a light turn on when someone other than me (oh, how I wish it had been me) pointed out to her how much she enjoyed yoga and what she got out of it. She recently became a yoga instructor and her own individual practice eats up a few hours each week.
My son is an avid gamer and recently discovered ToonTown, which a few of your guests mentioned as well. I’m not sure he’d be ready to give up ToonTown for WoW at this point, he’s watched me play but I think he sees how difficult it can be and hasn’t expressed too much interest in playing. I’d be perfectly willing to let him play at this age, I don’t think the content is too graphic, it’s always about the amount of time staring at the computer screen. It does become a bit difficult to explain why they need to turn off the games when they see Dad staring at pixels for long periods of time. Most of my game time is relegated to the after bedtime hours though.
Anyway, long comment, dug the show, keep it up.
Hey Al,
Thanks for stopping by, leaving a comment, and even subscribing to our site! If you want to record a bumper for our show, introducing Ophelie and I, and dropping a plug for your show, we would love to include it on one of our future episodes some time.
It’s good to hear that people related to this episode. I admit that I wasn’t expecting such thorough responses as we got from our guests and certain people really surprised me, with how willing they were to share their struggles and thoughts on the game with us and the others. I was really glad we talked about this and it sounds like others were, too.
I’ll be sure to check out your show in the next couple of days. Thanks again!
🙂
I think I am late to this party. I always have my headset on for Vent/Mumble/whatever conversations. Nothing is coming out of my mouth that they don’t hear fairly regularly anyway, but they don’t hear any of the more inappropriate conversations.
When my now 17 year old was raiding with us, we did have a rule about keep it PG-13 during raid. Given that she was a productive member of the raid team, and not just a nepotistic addition, our decision and ruling was respected. I’m guessing that me being the raid leader and my husband being the guild leader *may* have had something to do with it, LOL.
Great episode! As a dad myself, I’ve played warcraft since my (youngest) son was born, in 2006. It was my little present to myself, I am already up, why not do something. My wife, a non-gamer has always been excepting, but never truly understanding until last year. (I recently patched a hole in the wall from one such misunderstanding.)
With my wife and kids always first, I left my game play until after they were asleep. Sure, this means I don’t start the game until at least 9 or 10 PM local and I play until sleepy (as late as 2am). Alternating this with crashing at 11PM and not playing at all. Now, I believe I have gotten rather good of living on just 4-5 hours of sleep. Partially due to my late hours and playing on a server 2 hours ahead of me (central to my pacific), it was usually a nice quiet time to play all around. Unfortunately, making for very slow leveling. I didn’t reach max level (60) before BC and didn’t reach 70 until a few months before Wrath. In turn, I only saw Karazhan when everyone else was already farming other content.
Reminds me of one episode about 4 years ago, my son woke up during a raid. (Probably could hear me speaking on vent.) My wife asleep, I was on duty. Unfortunately we were in the middle of some boss fight and I didn’t want to run off. He cried, he screamed, and when he got that upset, yeah, well he barfed. After a quick cleanup and change, he raided with me for about a half hour until he fell back asleep. Hindered by only one hand available, my DPS dropped, but I got to continue tagging along.
Anyway, as is mentioned during the interview, I learned to play in such a way that I could quickly disappear without hurting others. Back in Wrath, I found PVP. It has a quick queue time (compared to DPS as a lock), it has quick gear upgrades (if you can ignore the resilience) and doesn’t really care about your skill level (if you don’t mind dying). Now, I have a priest, playing in 2×2 arenas with a 970 arena rating (and improving as gear improves). Which, with a little coordination, is the best way to get PVP gear.
I do let my kids play Warcraft. My 9 yo daughter likes to run my BEF priest (with red hair like hers) around town. She died once, and hasn’t liked the fighting portion, so, basically a $14/mo Barbie doll (dresses, hair, vanity pets, oh my!). My son, now 5, loves to just sit there and help me jump. Scanning the AH, jump. Running to mailbox, jump, jump jump. Channeling spell, jump, not now daddy’s trying to heal someone..
Hi Elko!
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We’re glad to hear that you enjoyed the episode and sounds like you could relate to a lot of what our parents were talking about. Your experiences also sound a lot like Cynwise’s, in that he found PVP to be a bit more friendly towards a parent or busy career person who has to leave at the drop of a hat or who is unable to devote the countless hours to raiding that it entails. I’m pretty sure he’s also told us many tales about various adventures involving puke and poo, too. Such is the life, I guess!
I love the idea of the $15 a month Barbie doll. I know many adults who feel the same way about the Blood Elves, too. Thanks for stopping by!