70-year-old grandma rules World of Warcraft raiding guild

You don’t get much more charming than the Knitting Grandma, the surprise hit guest at last fall’s BlizzCon 2011 WoW Insider Reader Meetup. Remember her? She charmed our staff and meetup guests alike with her dry wit and talk of Thunder Bluff-themed socks.

Today, we press forward from the warm, fuzzy territory covered by the Knitting Grandma with two window-rattling volleys in the battle against gamer stereotypes:

1. You don’t have to be a granny to knit and play World of Warcraft. Even the author of Clique, the preeminent click-casting addon, gets his knit on.
2. Whether they knit or not, even grannies can be GMs. Of raiding guilds. Who’ve raided since original Molten Core. And top the DPS meters. Wielding Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest. (So yes, that does indeed qualify her to tell you kids to “GET OFF MY LAWN!”)

Meet Marthazon, the 70-year-old GM of Spartans on Dalaran (US-A).

People Being Awesome: Guildmates band together to keep blind ex-serviceman playing WoW

Any writer is overjoyed when a story takes off, getting picked up by other publications and passed from hand to hand via social media. Nothing warms my heart more, though, than seeing a group of people like this get the recognition and kudos they so richly deserve … just for being generally awesome folks.

At point: Ben Shaw, a British ex-serviceman who lost both eyes in a horrifying explosion in Iraq, continues to play World of Warcraft, thanks to the persistence of guildmates who literally lead and talk him through the game’s intricacies. This is no show-and-tell mission, either; Shaw manages to remain a top performer and contributor to the group’s in-game success.

Well, your guild sounds like a pretty tight-knit group. Even so, having a raider such as Ben on the team is bound to be a challenge at best and a real roadblock at worst. What’s been the overall reaction to including him in raids?

I have to say from my point of view that without Ben hot on my tail, I would just be lost in a raid. Everything I have accomplished and us as a guild, Ben has been there for it. Yes, we all have our off days and things seem to be impossible (e.g. Ragnaros), but it’s never held against anyone. There is never a reaction to Ben alone; we don’t see that having Ben there makes us more special than other guilds. He’s just another one of the guys (and girls).

A huge praise needs to go out to all of the raiders in Die Safe. Without everyone’s dedication, this would not be possible.

It sounds like the guild went through a period of struggling to learn how to work around Ben.

Yes, I would say it took some time to get the right group of people together — but now that we have this committed group, I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Plugged-In Parenting: How to carve out computer time for yourself

The kids are finally in bed — whew, time for a little grownup screen time! Kicking up your virtual heels in a video game, your favorite website, or social media sites lets you get away from it all while still being right there when the kids need you. Still, you can’t dig in with the same focus when your kids are toddlers that you can when they’re teens. Even if you’re just flipping through your Facebook Ticker, you still want to be available to your kids.

Let me let you in on a few secrets computer-centric and gaming parents have gleaned over the years on how to combine keeping up with the kids with a little virtual fun for Mom and Dad.

An interview with gaming industry insider Liz Danforth

For the crowdsourced site that it is, it’s funny how Wikipedia’s attempts at straight-laced objectivity so often nail the tenor of its subjects in an almost poetically understated fashion. Take this week’s subject, Liz Danforth: “Elizabeth T. Danforth is a figure of note in the game industry. Although primarily recognized as an illustrator, she is an editor, writer, game scenario designer, and game developer.” A figure of note? I’ll say so. When I oh-so-casually mentioned who I was emailing back and forth with this week, the IMs from my husband (who’s been playing pen-and-paper RPGs and card games since 1978) hit capslock mode: “WHO? Oh, HELL YEAH! Ask her if she can send the art for TUKNIR DEATHLOCK!”

Thus began my immersion into the world of Liz Danforth. Lest you think she comes strictly from an old-school perspective, Danforth’s route today continues forward through computer gaming and forges ahead into new frontiers of MMO design. As our sister site Massively noted just last month, “Danforth is an industry pro whose resume stretches back to include classic PC games like Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Wasteland, and she said she was impressed enough with what Namaste was doing with Storybricks to allow herself to be called out of semi-retirement and back into action. Right now she’s providing the team with concept and promotional art.”

Read more at WoW Insider, part 1 and part 2.

9 ways to figure out if a video game is right for your kids

The problem with rating systems and lists that purport to tell you which games are best for kids is that what works for one child or one family might be a head-on collision for another. Sure, it’s easy enough to round up a herd of hot, new family-friendly games that most kids would enjoy at least trying.
But what if your kids are pining for specific titles you know nothing about? What if their friends are pestering them to join the latest multiplayer online game? What if they’re begging for games on console systems you don’t even own?

8 other ways gaming is good for your kids

Educational video games can nudge your little one’s reading skills. Games challenge older kids with a workout for their reflexes, slipping in a few mouse and keyboarding skills along the way. Puzzles and quests tickle kids’ natural curiosity and stretch problem-solving skills.

None of these things come as news to digitally aware parents. But what you might not have considered are some of the other ways that playing video games offers opportunities for growth that kids might not be getting in the classroom.

Read more at Tecca.

Man combats early onset Alzheimer’s with zest for life

Bill Craig is doing it right. The 61-year-old WoW player has suffered from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease for half a dozen years now, winding his way through Azeroth for about half that time. He’s ridden a bicycle all the way from Carrollton, Texas, to Carrollton, Georgia, to raise money and awareness for animal welfare — not once but twice. He’s a Vietnam vet. He serves as an advocate with the Alzheimer’s Association, having recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., with his wife to meet with legislators about bills impacting Alzheimer’s. Bill’s contributions and commitment to his community and country are impressive for any seasoned professional, let alone someone living with a disease that monkeywrenches a person’s thinking, memory and behavior.

Is World of Warcraft appropriate for children? The fact is that with preparation and consistent parent moderation, WoW can be a fine fit for kids — especially for families with parents who already spend time in Azeroth. It’s definitely one of those cases in which your mileage may vary; parents who don’t already play or who take a more hands-off approach to gaming will probably want to wait until their little goblins- or worgen-to-be are well into their teen years.

For players whose kids are itching to join in the family fun, though, there are plenty of ways to make World of Warcraft a productive, happy experience for kids, parents, and fellow players alike. Here’s the thing: There’s more to think about and more ways to throttle age-related issues than simply turning off trade chat and forbidding PUGs before walking into the other room to watch TV.

At WoW Insider, I pulled together a roundup of ways parents can find the best fit for WoW with kids, teens, and even parents themselves!

A friendly face behind the scenes

When you work behind the scenes as an editor, you don’t get to make much of a personal statement. It’s not like writing, when your name is splashed all over the front page of the publications you work with and strangers pelt you with calls and emails, hungry for quotes and references and contacts.

In these more peaceful days as an editor toiling away behind the curtain, I admit that having my World of Warcraft character and her favorite in-game pet peeking out from a WoW Insider Breakfast Topic lends a smile to my morning. Recognition? It may not mean anything to anyone else, but it reminds me that even when my words or name are nowhere in sight, the time I spend polishing everyone else’s work smiles quietly from just beneath the surface.

A chat with musician David Arkenstone

There’s absolutely nothing like the sweeping vistas of an orchestral soundtrack to help you slip the surly bonds of earth and touch the face of Azeroth in all its epic glory. One of the composers behind World of Warcraft: Cataclysm’s in-game soundtrack, David Arkenstone, took time not only leading up to expansion’s launch but again after last night’s game launch concert in Fountain Valley, California, to chat exclusively with WoW Insider about painting a new sonic palette for Azeroth.

Arkenstone is one of a team of Cataclysm composers headed by Blizzard’s Audio Director Russell Brower that tackled a whopping eight hours of new music for the expansion — about the same amount of music as was added with Wrath of the Lich King expansion, bringing World of Warcraft’s musical tally to something like 36 hours of in-game music. “I think it’s exciting for a player to get all this new content at one time,” Arkenstone says enthusiastically. “When you have all this music spread out across the word, composers, meshing … It’s hours and hours of music.”

Read more at WoW Insider.