Your kid plays an MMO, and either you have experience with the concept or you don't. Either way, I've found it incredibly helpful to be informed. Being a part of an online game community often involves aspects parents are not aware of, and it is useful to know which elements you may want to protect your child from and how. I try to stay away from gamereviews here, but for the purpose of example I'll be going into a little detail on some specific titles.
One of the first things you should be aware of is that MMOs carry a strong social aspect. As opposed to single-player games, you don't need to see any redflags immediately if your kid spends most of his freetime alone in his room. But do remember, even though your child is interacting with others and learning useful social and team skills, there is no substitute for sunlight and physical activity.
What might be the most frustrating aspect of MMOs from the perspective of an adolescent gamer is the inability of parents to understand that to access some content of their game, it is necessary to form a team of players, in some instances at least 25. This means spending a lot of time waiting for players and recruiting to put a group together before the actual adventure can start. If he or she has just spent an hour preparing, your child may not understand your need to bring the game to an end, at bedtime, for example.
World of Warcraft players may be familiar with this extreme scenario: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-cBRhXEyX4
In this particular instance the child in question has just completed the preparations to enter the dungeon instance Karazhan, an undertaking in itself that can take three to eight hours and is very difficult, as well as necessary for ingame progression in many cases. Obviously the kid in the video has an unhealthy addiction that needs to be brought under control, but I want to focus more on prevention tips for parents than to display the addictive degradation that can occur. The point I am trying to make revolves around the complete lack of knowledge the parents have of the game environment, which in many cases leads to misunderstanding and frustration in both parties.
We have a very important rule in my house. If my kids plan on entering an instance (the most common term for team dungeons), my wife or I must be notified in advance. Long instances are not permitted after a certain time, to ensure that its completion doesn't overlap with bedtimes or family dinner. Remember this: nothing ruins your ingame reputation like abandoning a group of other players in the middle of a dungeon run. It leaves the rest of the team unable to continue if they cannot find a replacement player, and it may prevent people from wanting to team up with your child again, meaning much longer preparation times before future instances. My advice: talk to your child about instances and playtimes, and set guidelines you can agree on.
Many parents are not aware that World of Warcaft comes with a parental control feature that allows you to set the times during which the game is accessible. When creating the account, make sure you have access.
If violence or foul language is your vice, many games come with functioning filters. Learn to use them.
I've spent a little time analyzing some of the more common MMOs with a focus on violence, moderated conduct of other players, how much time it can consume, and how expensive it is going to be for you.
Before I go into detail lets talk money. Many MMOs, especially the bigger well-known ones charge a monthly fee. While this is in some ways preferable to games with cash shops, there is an interesting article on yahoo I feel every parent of gamers should read: http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/gaming-s-greatest-values/1408251.
The majority of MMOs out there are Free-To-Play (F2P), meaning no payment is necessary to play the game. What you should familiarize yourself with are the elements within these games that DO require payment. Some cash shops offer purely optional items like fancy-looking armor or mounts for player characters. I call these the "good" cash shops. At the other end of the spectrum we have the "bad" cash shops that sell items without which playing the game is next to impossible. These are a bad sign to watch for, as it often a hint that the company involved has switched its focus from player community to greed, and other unwanted elements are sure to follow, such as poor moderation and supervision of player conduct. Games that make frequent content like quests, maps, necessary equipment or higher level achievement a purchase item are also a likely sign of trouble to watch for. I'll be blogging in more detail about F2P and how to do it wrong some other time. For now, lets get to the tips and reviews:
World of Warcraft:
Payment: A subscription game, meaning a monthly fee as well as initial purchase cost
Violence: standard, people get hit with swords, no blood, nothing out of the ordinary
Supervision/Player Conduct: The majority of WoW players are the friendly and social type. Gamemaster supervision keeps poor behavior to a minimum. It's slow, but it works. Many players who are also parents police themselves and the conduct of their guilds.
Time Involved: Lots! To reach endgame content it is in many cases necessary to view the game as an obligation not unlike the military. Players are required by their guild to be available at certain times, for a certain minimum length of time.
Parental Note: Recently WoW inolves a lot of rehashing. Were it a single-player game, many would get bored and quit fast. It's strength lies in the community and a need to keep up with your friends or they will be too high-level to play with very fast. Leaving a guild can often feel like abandoning friends, and that keeps deserters to a minimum. Make sure your kid has frequent contact with friends who do not play WoW to keep things in perspective
Everquest II:
Payment: subscription with intial purchase
Violence: standard fantasy violence, a little darker in atmosphere and some blood
Supervision/Player Conduct: EQ2 players tend to get along nicely. Bad apples aren't reprimanded as quickly as I would have liked, GMs rely on players reporting bad conduct rather than controlling it firsthand
Time Involved: Variable. Much of the game as I remember it is accessible alone or in small groups, finding replacements for lost players wasn't very difficult. The most common time-consumer in EQ2 for me was "spawncamping", waiting for a specific monster that I needed to kill for a quest to appear on the map (which can take a very long time) and then engaging it before one of the many other spawncampers does.
Parental Note: Sony Online Entertainment has a reputation for greed. Don't be surprised of your child encounters frequent gimmicks that may cost you more than you expected to pay in the long run.
Guild Wars:
Payment: One-time purchase fee, optional "good" cash shop. Expansions of the game are not immediately necessary for play, but they do become necessary one at a time later as your child completes previous game content.
Violence: Child-safe, no worries
Supervision/Player Conduct: GW Players are generally very well-behaved. An excellent optional language filter keeps the pottymouting to a very very low roar
Time Involved: The game revolves around instances, many of which are soloable(no group of players necessary) at the early stages, later however it is impossible to progress alone. Instances can take about an hour on average to complete, sometimes more
Parental Note: perfect for some quick fun that is easily interrupted, kids should give warning before instances are started
Ragnarok Online:
Payment: Free unless you don't like being very frustrated. Leveling at a rate that is at least humanly tolerable requires a premium account. Good cash shop, not strictly necessary to progress.
Violence: Cute 2-dimensional anime characters, non-threatening cartoon violence
Supervision/Player Conduct: Trolls are easily avoided, the constant kill-stealing does cause some tension/aggression. GMs are reachable but veeeery slow to respond
Time Involved: This is a pure grinding and walking game. If you want to accomplish anything, many hours of rinse and repeat are necessary. Multi-tasking is possible, but movement is limited. PVP Events that require attendance in many guilds happen at consistantly scheduled times.
Parental Note: Safe but time-consuming. Try to find a timeframe with your child that is good for you and also your kid's guild. Keep WoE in mind (thats the PVP Events).
I'll have to expand the list later, this took a little longer than I thought ;)
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