Have I ever mentioned my son Odin?
Have I told you he is 3?
Of course I have, too many times to count.
We have also joked about me training him to farm for me.
That hasn’t happened yet… Yet.
Until recently he hasn’t been allowed to play on the PC.
- It’s not that I fear that he will break it.
- It’s not that he would be eating into my play time.
- It’s not even the fear he will discover my wife’s porn collection.
It’s just that my wife didn’t want him growing up stuck to the PC.
- Square eyes from too much TV – ok.
- Broken limbs from falling out of trees – every kid should do it.
- Farm gold for Daddy – no way!
As a result when he finally badgered me enough to play on the PC (He carefully waited until she was out), his computer skills were the equivalent of my cooking skills.
After spending hours of playing the games for him (he would sit in my lap and place his hand over mine on the mouse and bark out instructions), I finally stumbled a cross a game he could and wanted to play on his own.
Required:
- Simple point and click interface
- Construction
- Robots
My Government came to the rescue with a game based on a kids TV show I have never heard of… Thank you My ABC!
Now:
- He starts the PC himself
- Starts the browser himself (he even started WoW for me this morning (/rubs hands in glee)
- Browses the games and tries them out.
- Has a basic character recognition, he knows the words: Play, Start, Retry, Print (don’t press), Back, Quit and many more.
- Wubbzy even says…
It’s Hammering Time!
Although I am sure he means something else
Best of all, he isn’t a keyboard turner!
Bring on the boss fight!
Although at times his attention span is short and he will quit out of a game before it has completely loaded, he has one major advantage over 80% of WoW players…
He doesn’t mind a wipe!
It must be the 3 year old “I fell out of the tree, let me get up and try again” mentality.
When he wipes in a game, he cheerfully restarts it and has another go, as many goes as his attention span will permit.
Word of advice:
Next time you reach your 3rd wipe on that progression boss, don’t pull out the alts, pull out the kids.
They won’t mind wiping (ghost form will be a different look… Just like dress ups) and their quick minds will work out the boss mechanics before bosskillers has even loaded.
The only problems I can foresee are:
- Petitioning Blizzard 4 times a night for them to replace the ugly T10 items they threw away.
- Repair bills
- Fighting for your turn in game (believe it or not, it’s hard to control the mouse with a screaming 3 year old wrapped around you ankle trying to pull you away from the PC)
Gnomer and Out!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/10/29/wubbzy-trains-a-farmer-2/
I have to say that i love this post so much, and i agree with everything you’ve mentioned.
2 months remaining for my 1st child to come, and i am going to make him farm for me as soon as he is 3
.
Grats on the incoming bundle of poo… Errr joy
Sent from my iPhone
on behalf of all keyboard turners, i resent your insinuation that we are somehow lesser. : P
but congrats on the farmling.
; )
Lesser? No I welcome all Horde keyboard turners to meet me on the BG of their choice!
Sent from my iPhone
Keyboard turners of the world UNTIE! er.. unite.
lol
We have a 3 year old grand daughter around on the weekends, and cringe at the merest thought of turing over our dear characters to her. She enjoys the occasional view of us traipsing around Azeroth, but we minimize it simply because we kind of agree about not getting her hooked on the PC.
(and Odin is adorable! )
I once signed the guild chater of dyslexics untied!
It took me a good 30 seconds to realize what it really said.
Balance… It’s all balance. Odin can have the PC as long as he reads and plays away from it.
He can have spacecream (icecream with sprinkle “stars” as long as he eats his greens.
Sent from my iPhone
You have seen the pitfalls.
Delcan sent me broke back in vanilla. my freshly minted capped lock was poor because he was tailor/enchanter.
I sent declan 10g to get bags and training. only to find it had been spent on weapons from vendors, items from ah that were unusuable or the wrong level.
I have also learnt that he found farming as boring as i do.
killing low level mobs no problem
I can live with him playing dress ups, but he has to work in the coal mines!
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amg it’s World of Warcraf Wubzzy
MATES DON’T LET MATES KEYBOARD TURN!
this goes for lil’uns as well IMO
How long do you think until he can wipe the floor with you in any and all games?
Dunno.. But I’m thinking of getting him to play Gnomeaggedon in Arenas… He can’t do any worse than me and he will learn faster… / sigh