This is a video from the 2010 Blizzcon introducting a hardcore wow-orientated family: the "dream family" for most little gamers and a good marketing storefront for Blizzard. Although this is not a big surprise to find little news pieces on this trend (although it's quite cool, I admit) it looks like a pivotal point for their communication. The game is no longer only good for your kids, it is good for your family life. It is a reasonable advice if you think about it: get involved in your kids passions: if you cannot cheer for them at their football matches, raid with them in Azeroth...

Of course they seem to be a little bit too much into the game, having transformed their entire living room into a cyber-command post and the fact that there is no mention of their 3rd kid (Was he slowing them down during their PvP sessions ?) is kind of creepy. But, hey, the editing would do that and honestly, who cares? Everything with moderation, etc. This not the point. The digital culture now being a part of every children's life, the old parenting habits have already changed, or need to. It is quite easy to say, and for our generation probably quite easy to practice as we have played video games and know how they work. My parents never played video games so they never understood why I wanted a Gameboy and what was the point of all of these bipidy-bipy thingies, but obviously I'll be more understanding, won't I? I'll be more than willing to play co-op on the second Reboot of Call of Duty with mini-me !

OR NOT.

I'm already bashing the "modern" gaming trends right now, from casualization to over-simplification, I simply don't like nor understand most of the blockbuster games for teenagers these days. Will I really have the motivation to try and enjoy myself with the descendants of those games 10 years from now ? Or will I desperately try to get my little smurf interested in an old copy of The Elder Scroll V : Skyrim ? "But; Daaaaad; there's not even an holographic keyboard or a neural interface (I know, wishful thinking...), it sucks space monkey balls !". The geek world is wrong to think that we will have better relationships with our kids than with our parents because we are confusing technological gap and cultural gap. A game is a game is a game, whether it is on a chess board or on a Gameboy, the entertainements basics are the same. It's not because our parents where technologically "retarded" that they didn't understood videos games or cartoons ("So they are humans... turtles? And they are ninjas ? They have a rat a master and a brain as a bad guy?"). It's just because it is very hard to bridge this cultural gap and to pass beyond the "everything was better before" approach.

But yes, maybe it will be simpler to decipher the codes of the next generation because we are geeks, and maybe, we have a small chance of not screwing it up too badly. Worst case scenario is what? Our kids rebeliously not playing any video games?

Along the same line of thinking, you can find this article where a mom explains how she got out of her post-divorce depression thanks to her son and playing WoW with him. It's quite touching, and it's very interesting to see how a "regular" parent goes from ignorance to deep understanding of the game and its benefits. There is hope I say, there is hope...

Geek'em Up !