World of Warcraft

Post Reply New Topic

My son has Asperger's and is 14yrs old. He became addicted to World of Warcraft since last August. He stays on it night and day except when he has to go to school. Does anyone have any experience with WOW as I am quite worried. He talks to people all over the world. If anyone has any knowledge or experience of this game can you let me know. Is it safe for a 14 yr old boy and how healthy or unhealthy is it for him to be so obsessed with it.

When I was around that age I played Warcraft II hours a day for several years..

I can't give a definite yes or no. If you originally approved the content and spoke with him about keeping himself safe on the internet, then maybe you could just control how long he is on. It does sound like he is getting his money's worth out of that monthly fee.

It is not as violent as some games if that is your concern.
If you teach him about internet safety, then he can have loads of safe fun.

As far as obsession, those games are addictive. I myself had a serious Diablo2 addiction that took months to break. (It was worse than quitting smoking.)
As long as it does not interfere with schoolwork, he is probably getting his social needs met through the chat/interaction that goes on in game. Which is a good thing, even if it seems a little weird.
It is rare for someone to make fun of you on those games, and everyone tries to be direct in their speech. This is very comforting to aspies. It is just nicer to relate through a computer----more one on one speaking, you can go off by yourself and do your own thing if you want----and usually profit from doing so.
Why don't you watch him play sometime and see what goes on? That might settle your fears.

I've heard obsession with WoW can be pretty overwhelming even for neurotypicals
So I dunno if I'd recommend it
Content-wise it should be okay for your son. Nothing he doesn't see in Saturday morning cartoons. The people on it might be a little crude, but it is the Internet after all.

I voted yes, but like everything it should be enjoyed in moderation, night and day sounds like a little much. If it was my son I would say two hrs a night tops. I played for a month and several times went over twelve hrs in one sitting, don't think that is very healthy.
On second thought maybe the answer should be no.

I play WOW for 3.3 months, then got so sick of it, looking at the box at best buy makes me nauseas

I play tons of World of Warcraft, and still manage to get all my work done.

Pretty much get your child to stick to the RP servers and keep the language filter on you should be fine. The people on the RP servers tend to be more accepting of people, and there's less immaturity for the most part. Doesn't mean you won't encounter stupid arguments, but at least people there tend to use english instead of leetspeak.

I tried WOW for a while, I did not like it. I do not like RPG and only play war games.

like:

Rome Total War, anyone want to play multiplayer here?
Warcraft II
Star trek Armada

Other then that I dont like video game systems and do not often buy games as I am to cheap.

I have two brothers who both have Level 60 Characters and my dad who also has a level 60 character, I myself reached about level 27 before quitting.
The game is horribly addictive, and the higher level you get the more time you have to invest in it, for instance, the two hour moderation just won't cut it if he's in a higher level instance.
I think the worst thing is that he could lose a lot of spare time, but you shouldn't take any severe action unless it's effecting his schoolwork.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I asked my son and he is on level 60. I think maybe the only way to break his addiction is to find something else that really facinates him and takes his attention away for a while, even if it is a different type of game. Do any of you know of any other interactive games that he could find interesting just to break the control of this one for a while.

I've been playing the game since the beta, and I will agree that its very addictive. I've always been a big gamer, but this one has by far stolen more of my life than any other game.

Like someone stated above, content wise there is nothing to worry about. Unless you're worried about your son smashing a few zombies here or there.

I've put in something like 50 or so days of gameplay into my main character (yup, 1200 hours... lol) not to mention my alts which have all had a few days game play on them. I probably never would've stopped playing if it wasnt for my guild falling apart. I still have an account and am keeping my character for when the expansion comes out, which should successfully steal whatever remains of my soul.

Also, I hit level 60 around 20 days gameplay. So I've more than doubled it since then. There's just such an incredible amount of content that is continuously being added to (ie: new instances and gear, upcoming expansion).

To answer your original question as to how safe it is... There's no immediate threat, its not like there's a lot of child molestors in that game trying to lure kids out of their house. Everyone is too busy "grinding" and doing instance runs to be bothered with that. A long term threat though is obesity. I gained about 20 lbs after an 8 month binge where I played around 12-20 hours a day. Still trying to burn that excess fat off.

Funny, I lose weight when I do a lot of gaming because I forget to or don't have time to eat.
Kinda hard to run and grab a snack when you're doing Baron Geddon or the likes.

Do either of you know of any other interactive games?

Julia ,
I never played WOW (cause i am pretty sure that it can't work wih my 128kpbs )
but as i read in reviews , WOW is the most interactive online game ever ...so I don't think it s easy to distract ur son with another similair game.

Addiction to games is a common problem among autistic kids . I was addicted to my Nintendo when i was child and to pc games , i am now a bit addictic to internet too , and i was addicted to some free mmorpg games.
The reason of that is simple , we autistics find interation in online games easier than real life ....so here our problem.

Now about health .. i don't believe it s healthy ... make sure that his chair is comfortable for his back and make sure that he is sitting correctly by leaning his back on the chair.
Encourage him to do exercises ....push-up and stuff....I am pretty sure that he like to look like WOW heroes.

Your son loves animals? if yes ,Do you have a pet? a pet can be a good idea and can help him to find another thing to play with other than video games.

It really depends on whether or not you regulate his time on it to make sure he doesn't become TOO addicted. But don't be like, "You only have one hour per day," because that's just brutal, and if he's in the middle of a mission, I recommend letting him finish it (unless it's gonna take a looooooong time) for the sake of fairness to the gamer. However, as I said, regulate it. Be flexible, and be fair, but regulate it so that it's not the only thing he does. As someone said, it could be his social outlet, and this is something that's very very important to people!

I haven't played the game itself because it's an MMORPG with monthly fees, and I'm not financially stable enough to handle those monthly fees, so I guess I'm not really the most...suitible person to be giving advice about this. But I wouldn't consider it to be a matter of age; WoW is, after all, rated T for Teen--13 and up (though in today's world it's more realistically 10 and up), so in terms of violence and what not it's not bad, generally appropriate.

---In response to the other games---

There's PLENTY of games out there! If you want a good gaming resource site, you can go to http://www.gamespot.com/

If your son's into MMORPG's (Massively multiplayer online RPG's), than he can try similar games like Guild Wars, which is the only half-decent MMO with no monthly fees. He can also try just playin' old RPG's (role playing games) like ones from The Elder Scrolls series (Morrowind, and more recently Oblivion--which I only recommend if you have a KILLER system), or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, NeverWinter Nights, or the more mature ones like Arcanum, [b]Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, and Planescape: Torment (these ones are quite Mature-Rated, however, with more profanity and gore and what not). If he'd like to try different genres he could try first person shooters (though most of these are M rated and quite graphic), platformers (like Psychonauts and the Prince of Persia series), Real-Time Strategy games (such as Warcraft III (which has the same universe as WoW), or Stacraft (universially regarded as one of the best games ever made) ), "sneakers" (the Thief series and the Splinter Cell series), or racing games (Need for Speed series, etc.). I also recommend The Sims or The Sims 2--they can be quite addicting, however, but almost any decent game is. ^.~

Thanks for the replies. At the moment I have managed to limit him to 3 hours on school days and unfortunately unlimited time at weekends. It is a start!

He says that he doesn't even like it that much anymore but he has nothing else to do and that his life is boring! He never goes out with frinds now because he says he is too shy and doesn't know what to say. A few of the boys he knows since primary school have started to broaden their horizons and are going out places he can't cope with also they are now interested in girls and my son is just not able to cope. So he has retreated into his room. He is not happy and hates his life because he can find nothing in it that interests him.

It is a bad age at the best of times, my only worry is that all this isolation is going to compound his problems and his fears will turn into phobias.

I know there isn't much advice anyone can give me, but if I keep talking maybe I will get some clues as to how to help him. Maybe there is nothing I can do, it is friends he needs not a mother at the moment.