5 Life Lessons my son learned from playing World of Warcraft

This second in my series "Are computer games bad for your kids" was inspired by Esther Schindler who wrote about 10 Business Lessons I Learned from Playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Over the past six years my son has been playing World of Warcraft (wow) on and off TG. He's been through a few phases where he'll play only a few hours in a few months. Since we had to end the subs it's been a while since he's been able to play (more than eight months), I wrote most of this some time ago and it's time to share it.

I know that many parents are concerned about the addictive qualities of computer games, I think addiction can be a problem with anything. The better it feels the greater the addiction, that doesn't mean to say the rule is to stay away from the good things in life. So I'm considering; how good - or bad - is wow.

I've picked out some of the lessons he learns in the game. wow is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (mmorpg) provided on a monthly subscription by Blizzard Entertainment. The game was released on November 23, 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise. With more than 10.2m (May 2012 and 11.5 million in May 2011) monthly subscribers, World of Warcraft is the world's most-subscribed mmorpg, it's been in the Guinness Book of Records for many years.

Playing this game has more than taught my son the rules of combat or proper behavior 'in a dungeon'. He's gained several skills that I expect will help him in his adult life.

In WOW or wow, you can find out how someone solves problems and copes with stress, as well as various other activities that map to real life.

1. Reading and writing: In Grade 2 the - special needs teacher approached me to ask what am I doing with my son? I was taken aback and responded by asking her why she is asking me this. She said that in her independent testing his reading skill was at least at grade 6 level and a lower grade 7. I know that he would say that I read with him (actually I used to read to him in bed at night) so that's how I thought best to respond. I mean the truth - which is that he learned it from wow where the chat windows in too small to follow all the messages if you can't read fluently - I don't think would have gone down too well. Anyhow, I have logged his messages and they're at a pretty good level, although it's all very specific, brief and to the point. He's learned to use digestible bytes of information, probably with a bunch of 14-17 year old Danes, Swedes and Englishmen. I'm not too worried as they have strict rules and you're not allowed to mention age or geography (there is a 12 year old age restriction though and he was only around 8-9). He doesn't embellish so his writing hasn't been well accepted at school. He manages to type a lot, so I'd say that he's fluent with keyboard even if he doesn't touch type yet. On the whole I'd say that his reading, writing and typing skills are strongly enhanced from wow.
   
   
2. Team work and social skills: wow enables players to learn behavior that allow people to achieve social reinforcement and to avoid social punishment. Operant conditioning procedures evolve as part of the wow game, which inevitably develops social skills, as well as modeling, coaching, and social cognitive techniques all operate within the wow virtual reality. In grade 4 he was pretty upset with his mom one day, as he had told her in the morning that he had 'arrangements' with his buddies. She was a little perplexed until it became apparent that it was a wow buddies that he had arrangement with. When he reached level 80 at age 10, I really saw his leadership skills working - I think it's harder for him in the real world but in wow - he manages to pull together a team of more than 15 people to enter a battle ground and lead them all through the battle, it's really most impressive.
   Parenting.org mention the following skills, all of which personally seen my son perform in WOW: following instructions, accepting criticism, accepting “No” for an answer, staying calm, disagreeing with others, asking for help, asking permission, getting along with others, apologizing, having a conversation, giving compliments, accepting compliments, listening to others, being honest, showing sensitivity to others, introducing yourself as well as some not mentioned, like persuading others, leading a group through a complex attack strategy and managing real world time constraints.
   
   
3. Analytical and strategic thinking: The best quests require a mixture of skills in the party. one has to always find new markets and cultivate ancillary skills. He experimented with various skills but took a liking to fishing. After fishing many lakes and playing the auction houses he found a buyer for a fairly rare type of fish. She guaranteed a buy (for a while) at a certain (inflated) rate in gold. So he fished for her and she bought, for a while. I suspect that the markets are fairly efficient in wow so she probably visited the auction houses too and found a more eager seller. And as he leveled, he found it easier to earn gold so the economics changed.
   More recently he has some older real world friends that he's helped reach higher levels. I've seen him train them on the mix of skills needed for various categories of battle. When selecting a weapon or tool, bigger is not always better, unique weapons tend to identify the heroes in the room, something he spends hours on. One action, used well, can be more powerful than plethora of actions. I've re-learned how to think out the box from his understanding os the most simple principle, "What are the tools at my disposal, and what can I do with them?" No matter how much he has experience in a specific weapon or specialty, he tried new ones and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of each element of the make up of each character. Once I find something that works I have tended to overuse it (just because it works) rather than focus on relearning new skills and techniques. It's better to out-smart an opponent than to fight one. In the early levels of wow, players can get into what feels like an endless repetition of "Find a monster. Kill it. Get its treasure." But your character (and career) can get hurt that way. Whether it's selecting appropriate quests, or setting up team efforts, winning special awards, learning special skills, playing the auction rooms or reaping the holiday spoils, the wow economy and world goes well beyond repetition. Picking up the spoils (and the experience points) can assist players develop real world physical and virtual values. It's not always appropriate but in a room of competition, an aptitude to get them to fight, can be an effective life strategy.
   
   
4. Imagination and creative thinking: My son took on a keen ability to role play in real life. He can speak in dozens of accents with various cultural enhancements and more recently he learned how to impersonate dozens of people. He can do it on the fly.   Roleplaying (RP), or Role Playing, in World of Warcraft means taking on the role of a character and acting it out in-game through emotes, /say, /yell, and sometimes other channels. Players may also participate in roleplay outside the game by posting on blogs, wikis, or forums (official or otherwise). Roleplaying has similarities to improvisational theater, with the participants acting out characters in unscripted situations. The character's personality, goals, morals, and quirks may resemble that of the player or be completely different. Regardless, roleplayers recognize a boundary between what is in character and what is out of character.  For the advanced reader: RP also refers to RP Realms. RP servers are functionally the same as PvE Servers, with added social rules and stricter naming enforcement. The same is true for RP-PvP Servers and PvP Servers. Both sets of rules apply. RP-PvP is commonly misunderstood to mean that the roleplaying part is optional. In fact, these servers were started in response to petitioning from roleplayers, who felt that the ability to engage in PvP added realism.
   Bottom line: wow teaches role playing 
   
   
5. Ability to disseminate information, hone ones strengths and strengthen ones weaknesses: My son lives the information and digital age, it's normal for him. Fortunately he's also learned the importance of social interaction at school. The rest is just encouragement I think. On WOW there are so many geographies, skills and talents, areas of development and options for play that every player has to learn haw to discern information (i.e. develop keen insight and good judgment). In order to identify each individuals strengths and weaknesses one has to try each and all of the potential combinations (an impossible task). As one discovers areas of interest, talent and developed skill, one has to research and explore in order to extend ones characters to deeper levels. 
   
   
6. You don't have to read all the books: My son has read all the books, World of Warcraft is immersive no doubt about that. But they move on to other immersive worlds that all include different life lessons, and a modest description of the beast you are about to face is better than facing a daemon and trying six dozen spells before finding the right one. (If you live that long.) Do not eschew documentation. Learn from others' mistakes — or from your own. Draw a map as you go. It is easier to avoid the pitfalls and to find that hidden room the next time through.

There are many more so what did I miss? Add your own wow or other MMORG life lessons in the comments. Also see Social Impact Games

UEPS stock alert, advisory sell Net 1 shares

I've been using Easypay to pay municipal and Telkom accounts for the past 13 years (since 1998). The company was an offshoot from Pick 'n Pay who always acknowledged themselves to be more of a financial institution than a retailer (they make money off the cash flow rather off the goods), and they had been accepting Telkom and municipal payments for many years prior to the online payment company Easypay was established. The Easypay website and system was simple and easy to use, one could save ones account details and login monthly (anytime) to make payments with ones credit card. It took a few minutes....

The website and systems worked flawlessly for more than 13 years... then some bright spark thought it must be upgraded and changed everything. The new site took about an hour to work out how it worked, one needed to call the support line in order to get it working, and finally the banks stopped allowing them to transaction (Both ABSA and FNB that I am aware of). Now they say on their site:

EasyPay's SOLUTION will launch in 26 days: As you are probably aware, a number of reports have been published in the press regarding Credit Card fraudsters targeting EasyPay's website. This led to ABSA, and other financial institutions erroneously suspending all credit card transactions processed through EasyPay's website. Some banks inferred or simply blamed EasyPay for the failure of their own Credit Card security systems. "We at EasyPay have always adhered to all the rules as imposed by the banks." 

Yes, Easypay you have always adhered to the banks rules and your new system failed because the users could not work it, and because your old system worked there is no wonder as to why the bad press is happening! It is so clear that Easypay are playing with words to try save face. We know that it's not fraud, it's the systems you built and changed to (which cause the people using it to revoke the payments they tried to make), since the new system is bad and customers revoked payments as they did not intend to make some that the system forced. I went through the whole process personally and I've spoken to others who had the same experiences.  

Now they say "EasyPay have considered the weaknesses of the current credit card security protocols, and will in the following weeks educate our users with regard to a newly patented system, developed by EasyPay's holding company, Net1 UEPS Technologies, Inc" 

Sad and disappointing from a consumer point of view, I can also see them spending heaps of money on even more systems development that will shed even more customers. I'm disappointed, Pick 'n Pay must have sold out... anyone know the best alternatives? 

South Africa - prepaid 3G HSDPA on Vodacom (and MTN)

I've been exploring the options for travelers or those that don't want to (or can't) get a contract with Vodacom. A few months ago I blogged about how we have some of the cheapest (and accessible) 3G in the world so I recently went through a process recently of getting a Vodacom 'data bundle'. Unfortunately it's not as straight forward as you may expect.

You can get Internet access on the 3G/HSDPA network using your pre-paid (any Vodacom pre-paid card costs around R5 at any Pick n Pay or Spar, etc.) or contract SIM card using any phone or PC/USB card. If you phone doesn't 'just work' then you can register at Vodacom4me and follow instructions to download the settings to your phone (for MTN just enter *123*13#).

At the cost of R2, standard 3g HSDPA (or GPRS) may be globally competitive but it isn't ideal if you plan to use more than 100 MB.

The Vodacom web page here (and btw, MTN is similar here) describes the "Prepaid and Top Up data bundles". The table shows (prepaid) prices from 19c per MB to R1,19 (depending on the bundle) as an alternative to R2,00 using a 'data bundle', although it doesn't say anything about how to get a data bundle. So what do you do?

As a contract customer one would ask ones 'service provider' (SP) who usually won't know but will get back to you and explain that there are a few forms that you need to complete and fax to them (although interestingly you can order a once off data bundle at any time as well as a monthly recurring one).

So for prepaid the SP did not know and suggested to buy a 'pre-paid data bundle'. So I assumed that one could buy a data bundle anywhere where one buys airtime. After looking at half a dozen places that sell airtime I learned it's not the case. After I bought what I thought was a R49 data bundle from Spar, I followed the instructions and found that it was an SMS bundle, so I ended up with 60 useless SMS's. I spent half and hour navigating the ridiculous Vodacom IVR and waiting for a real person who kindly explained that the only way to get a data bundle is to load normal airtime first and then convert that to a data bundle by dialing *111# and following the voice prompts. I did that and then easily added a 500MB bundle for R189.

Some observations:
- although advertised, you can't get less than a 500MB (pre-paid) data bundle on Vodacom (although you can on MTN).
- you have a maximum of one month in which to use the data bundle (ie. use it or lose it)
- if you want to use pre-paid on a HSDPA or 3G modem, you need to take out the card and put it into a phone every time you want to reload a data bundle
- it may be desirable to buy the exact amount of pre-paid airtime rather than 2 x R110 vouchers but more on this thread

This is still the best (lowest cost with maximum coverage) way for an international traveler to get Internet access in South Africa.

Ubuntu printing - fixed

At the office the other day I noticed how the Feisty Fawn (Ubuntu Linux - April 2007 release) had fixed its printing. The 'Cups engine' just makes it easy to print. Another very good sign, IMHO, Ubuntu is ready for anyone who doesn't need to plat certain Microsoft games or other proprietary needs. At home it's our most stable (and oldest) machine.

btw, thanks to Mr Mandla, who helped me very quickly to identify the Lexmark Optra 321 driver for the Lexmark E232 (which incidentally cost me R699 (i.e. <$99) in South Africa) and works like a champ.

Adding a fat PVR - Windows Media Center (MCE), Joost, Snapstream or GB-PVR

Its been eight months since our family of five added a PVR to our list of devices in the TV room. It was more expensive than what some call a PVR, although we believe we've got more out of it than we expected. After much humming and hahing and after having read dozens of articles and website s about them we finally purchased and installed what we a fat PVR, fat because it's NOT:
- a DSTV PVR (cable/satellite decoder)
- DVD with PVR (solid state device)
- USB storage with video
- slimline PC style PVR system, all in one package
- any other 'pre-built' (PC-based) PVR

Our fat PVR was custom built so that it can perform all the functions of the others as well play games that generally use a Windows platform (for the kids :P). The box, a Thermaltake Tenor is a dud but at least keeps things at a cool operating temperature. Once you add the gaming requirement, the specs increase and benefit those looking for better quality display. Games need a better display adapter than those which come packaged in a pre-built PVR. I look forward to an HDTV hi resolution set.

Tough decisions to make was the choice of PVR software. I wasn't sure about Windows Media Center (MCE), mainly because of my experiences with IE (and IIS). From reading many blogs and sites it seemed that MCE was the best choice, so we started with MCE. There were a few issues we found such as:
- giving names to, and setting up TV stations neatly, so they are easy to use
- giving names to TV recordings
- sorting music and dealing with playlists, and
- general functionality or the lack thereof.

We looked for others. I had installed Democracy player but that's something else (so is Joost). We tried Snapstream and kind of used it for a few weeks. We ran out before the time limited license did.

Finally we stumbled upon GB-PVR and we've used it ever since. It does all the things well, has great functionality, works with the Media Centre remote, good functionality and also stores all the files very neatly. It works on Windows and does the job well. http://www.gbpvr.com/

Don't buy banner ads, especially NOT from Yellow pages

I've been trying to get a response from the staff at the Yellow pages about the value of their banners and listings and they do not respond. I guess that if I was them I also wouldn't. One of our SEO clients paid them R1750 per month for 6 months and they received 77 referrals. That's hundreds times more expensive than advertising using Googles' adwords, and unfortunately other banner type advertising is similarly ineffective.

The frustrating part was that Yellow pages reported to the clients that they had 1781 click throughs although our logs and Googles analytics confirmed it was only 77. They still had the chutzpah to ask the client to renew the contract...

Beware of banner ads, especially in SA!

Nokia E70 review (it's got 3G, wifi and Mac OS X)

After 6 months of contemplating, 6 weeks of writing letters, many forms, phone calls and sending faxes, I finally received my new E70 last week. After a day I was as pleased as I still am now. Great phone albeit slower than my previous. On a 'Talk120' package I also received a free Nokia bluetooth headset which works surprisingly well.

My first hour wasn't a happy one, I was trying to connect to a wifi network (that required a static IP). One needs to select the tools, settings, network and then a 'hidden' option called 'advanced settings' in order to find out how to set DNS and (static) IP address options. If you know this then you need not have any frustration at all. In order to sync my contacts and calendars all I had to do was pair the phone with my Mac (Macbook Pro OS X running an updated 10.4.8) fire up isync - make the basic settings as per my previous phone - and press sync. It worked first time and within 20 minutes my phone was fully loaded with all my appointments and (mobile) contacts. It also put my todo list on - which I am not sure I wanted and I don't know how to remove - and now I'm thinking to just load all my contacts.
I'll leave the letter of escalation to ICASA regards MNP related stoppages, and the headset for another post and stick to the phone here.

more earmarks

From Mays edition:
- I love the fact that Mark S won a rave award (well deserved and well written/photographed, check out the video)
- Worth checking out these delicacies, Marcels molecular gastronomy. I wonder if Marcels been reading about the kosher trend, check this out (America goes Kosher)! Marcel, get back to me please...
- Social network fatigue (from Jargon watch, how true... no need to define - mostly)
- Bartenbach LichtLabor artificial sky
- Instead of 15 minutes of sex, play 7 minutes of Wii tennnis to burn the same calories (lol)
- Parsons project still going strong
- Archos 704 wi-fi personal multimedia player - very nice, on my wish list

Baby sleeping with eyes open

During the last week Ethan's had his first real sickness (at 7 months). We're not exactly sure what it is but we've learned something we hadn't yet experienced. It was quite scary when he first fell asleep with his eyes wide open so we quickly googled it. Turns out that it's completely normal for an infant to do this. Our concerns were put to rest :)

Q20 in the eye

Q20 in the eye? ...no problem!

Last night I was putting Ethan to sleep on my computer chair which somehow became squeaky. With him in my arms I went to the home tools cupboard and grabbed the Q20. Leaning over (still with him in my arms) to look under the chair to see where to spray, I caught myself sending a direct squirt into my eye. It may not have been more than a seconds worth, but it came at quite a force.

Good news: It causes only a small amount of discomfort. I kept the eye closed (handed the baby to Terri) and rinsed well with lots of water. I admit that I also used a bit of soap as it's quite oily (with my eye still closed) before I dunked my eye into the water. It was no longer than two minutes later and it was fine.