Getting Involved

I have always been the type of mom who was totally involved in my kids’ activities, EXCEPT for gaming. Even though I can recall each summer vacation by what videogame dominated their time, I never had the interest to sit down and actually play one with them. Well, at least until my oldest went off to college and the nest started to dwindle.

Both of my kids have been in World of Warcraft since beta. They play on different realms and in different factions. My son, who was still in high school at the time, convinced me I could play World of Warcraft even though I never had done anything in a game other than run into walls in Mario Brothers once or twice. The goal was to be able to play with my daughter while she was away at college. With my son’s help I created Mamadee, an orc (since my daughter was Horde) hunter (like my son’s main character), on Silver Hand (my daughter’s realm). He tutored me and got me over my extreme case of the nerves until I reached level 20 and was able to surprise my daughter by applying to her guild. Yes, by then I had stopped running into walls, though I did on occasion still fall off of the flight towers.

My daughter was thrilled when we sprang the surprise on her. She quickly set about introducing me to all her friends. I was approved after my grunt phase (boy did I sweat that poll) and became a member of a wonderful family role-playing guild, Rotten Luck. In this wonderful environment, I dawdled my way through Azeroth at what became known as "Mamadee pace," which means I stopped to smell the roses and experience everything I could along the way. It took me nine months to get to level 60, but I don't regret a moment of it, even swimming underwater when weather was introduced to see if the raindrops were visible from below the surface.

Now level 70 and an officer in Rotten Luck, I’ve also tried out other characters and have filled all 10 slots on the realm. Recently I was reminded of why I play World of Warcraft. Our guild had its first Gruul kill a week or so ago. I was there dpsing my heart out while my daughter was a healing machine! One of our raiding alliance partners made a video of the kill. When it was posted on our forum I actually cried. You could clearly see Mamadee and her daughter in their first joint initial boss kill. I was at home and she was away at school. How many mothers and daughters can say they shared such a glorious moment?

During the past two-plus years I have made many wonderful friends in Azeroth and Outland. I have seen the power of the World of Warcraft community change lives in wonderful ways. I know I would have never been able to stay part of my daughter's daily life while she was at college if it were not for guild chat and whispers. We share experiences and memories created in World of Warcraft that IMs just can’t provide. Now I need to get psyched to do the same on my son's PvP server while he's in college!
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/community/stories/archive/story7.xml