I think to parents at least to millennials, the idea of an MMORPG is just even more foreign than it is to parents to gen z or gen alpha.
WoW was maybe not the first big title but it was the first that really put the genre into the mainstream. A genre inspired by the novelty of virtual worlds. I think to them, their son just played a dumb video game and in the best case they weren’t necessarily supportive but also not against it. Just a weird thing he did that they didn’t understand.
How could they possible imagine that he spent his time in that world with people from all around the real world talking about the game and their life alike for hours on end. Being there for those people when life hit them and being able to expect the same in return like what you’d hope friends in the real world would do.
To my mother, all people online that talked to me when I was a teenager would be creepy old people trying to groom me. But the people I’ve met in those games are now my best friends. If I were religious, one of them would have been the godfather to my child.
WoW was maybe not the first big title but it was the first that really put the genre into the mainstream. A genre inspired by the novelty of virtual worlds. I think to them, their son just played a dumb video game and in the best case they weren’t necessarily supportive but also not against it. Just a weird thing he did that they didn’t understand.
How could they possible imagine that he spent his time in that world with people from all around the real world talking about the game and their life alike for hours on end. Being there for those people when life hit them and being able to expect the same in return like what you’d hope friends in the real world would do.
To my mother, all people online that talked to me when I was a teenager would be creepy old people trying to groom me. But the people I’ve met in those games are now my best friends. If I were religious, one of them would have been the godfather to my child.