Are WoW parents aware of the parental controls and in-game clock? Are you using them to help your gamer? The parental controls allow you to micro manage all 168 hours of every week, preventing access at specific times of the day. For example, you can set the controls to allow your son/daughter (or spouse ?) to play between set hours on weekdays and weekends, to a total of 18 hours per week, then adjust that depending on the results you're seeing in their lives from week to week.
Just think... no more wondering if he's up raiding at 3 am, even if he's visiting your ex-husband!
When you enable the controls, Blizzard will prompt you for the account's secret question and a tamper-proof email account and password. Create a new Yahoo, Gmail or Hotmail account for yourself that will be designated for this purpose.
Have a heart to heart with your gamer then set the controls.
One final note. While most gamers use Ventrillo, you can also use the parental controls to partially or completely disable the in-game voice chat system.
If you have trouble configuring the system, call Blizzard tech support.
Good luck!
-Brad
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
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I had no idea about WoW parental controls :o Regulating time ingame is better than playing all the time but quitting altogether is the best solution in my opinion. Most players won't accept being under the parental control system as it will limit their addiction unfortunately. However, this might be good in the case of younger players living with their parents. Limiting the play time might be a good start towards the right direction.
An hour of gaming is an hour wasted.
Absolutely, and I am thrilled to see that Blizzard has added this feature to the game. Make no mistake about it - WoW is here to stay. We have to learn to live with the presence of the MMO genre in our society. What's really surprising, as I noted above, is that so few parents know anything about this remarkable tool at their disposal. Obviously, players are not going to broadcast the existence of this to their parents, so moms and dads are gonna have to get the info for themselves or call Blizzard for assistance. I'm giving a talk to a community group this week and will be sure to mention this and other gaming parental control options, such as the great system built into Windows Vista.
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
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