I almost offered to let him join our guild (Master and I are level 69 hunter and druid well on our way to 70!) but then I remembered that it’s… sort of an adult guild.

There are expansions (one live, the other due to be out soon) also, but you don’t have to buy the first expansion until he’s hit level 60 because he can’t actually get to the areas in it until he’s level 60. And I’m pretty sure the second will require him to be level 70. It seems like a small jump but it’s taken Master and I longer to get from 60 to 69 than it took us to get to 60!

If he’s wanting to play so he can play with rl friends of his, make sure to have him find out what server they’re on before he creates a character. If memory serves, it costs money to switch servers unless Blizzard has another free server migration to lower load.

WoW also has a feature that other online games don’t have. The less you play the more experience points you get when you do play. Soooo you could say “Sure you can play on weekends. That way you’ll have X amount of rest bonus when you play and you’ll level faster!” Not that that will work… but it’s worth a try!

I won’t lie and say it’s a children’s game. It’s not. The language is foul and the outfits suggestive. There’s a language filter that’s on by default… at least until he figures out how to turn it off. But you seem to have pretty mature kids so that might not be an issue. Plus, if I remember correctly B-man’s pushing the teen years or older.

In any case, it’s a lot of fun. I’m sure he’ll enjoy it.

Thought I’d throw out this link for you to try if you like. It’ll let you test a system to see whether or not it meets the minimum/recommended requirements for a rather considerable list of games.

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest

Give it a try and see how it works.

My whole family (wife, 2 boys, and I ) started with EverQuest, progressed to WoW in closed Beta, then open Beta, then played for a couple years after it went live. We enjoyed it immensely for quite some time but became bored with what’s referred to as “end-game” play. I assume the expansion has added enough play to relieve some of that end-game angst.

We also have played a variety of other MMO games (Ultima, Eve, EQII, etc, etc) and despite what others have said, for a kid his age I’d still recommend WoW as it’s highly popular and not hard to play at all.

Its a time sink. You’ll need to understand that aspect and deal with it. I’d suggest(as has at least one other) playing some yourself and getting an idea of what the game is about. In other words don’t think you can give him 30-45 minutes of game time at a stretch. Limit the play, but expect the play that is allowed to be measured in hours.

We have made friends all over the world through MMO games and treasure them as much as those we see on a regular basis. Our EQ guild ( an in-game club, team, group whatever word fits) was Scandinavia based but played on U.S. time. We are still quite close to those folks. Give it a shot, monitor as you would any online chat activity, and he’ll have a blast.

Well, there’s my 2 cents :D

You basically buy the game (and expansions/addons) and then can play for free. No need to buy anything else, no gaming time you need to buy etc.

I play that game myself and like it a lot. WoW put me off because the pay to play thing.. dont like it.

Serioulsy, it’s a slippery slope. Don’t do it.

Let him join the SCA instead!!! Then you guys will have an excuse to come visit me. I almost had your master talked into coming to Pennsic.

Love you and we need to chat soon!

Danielle

I won’t bore you with gameplay, etc. But it does sound like you might need to invest in some upgrades for you computer to run the game well.

Also, just as a sidenote – His account will have parental control options so that you will be able to limit his gameplay – which sounds like it would be of some interest to you once school kicks in.

I personally love the game World of Warcraft, I have played it for quite some time. The game can be played on a fairly old computer, more RAM and a video card will make the game run smoother but is not needed. The only thing I do not care for about the game is that you have to find a good server and at the early stages of the game it can be difficult to form teams (which in my opinion is one of the better parts of the game)

But I would also like to say that I also play a game called City of Heroes/City of Villians. This game I have played since it first came out and I love it the most of all the games I have played. It is a very easy game to learn, extremely easy to play alone or to form teams with people all over the world. The bonus to this game is that you get both City of Heroes and City of Villians and you can play both games for the one monthly fee of $15 (same as World of Warcraft) plus every three months or so the developers create free expansions to the game as well as each holiday they bring in themed events and new missions for every level of character. Also, where else can you create and act and interact with others as the super hero or villian that you always wanted to be *grin*