We
constantly hear about the “perils” of gaming and the “corrupting”
influence our favorite hobby has on young generations, but the positive
side of gaming rarely gets its time in the spotlight. I recently had a
quick chat with Tom Purdue, the new community manager for KingsIsle–the
dev team behind
Wizard101 and
Pirate101–where we chatted about the positive influence that parents playing videogames with their kids can have.
Tom Purdue has been
blogging about Wizard101
for several years and was just picked up by KingsIsle last week to
manage their community, mostly consisting of kids, grandparents and
parents who play the game together. He has three kids that he plays
games with regularly.
PC Gamer: I very fondly remember playing Kings Quest IV with
my dad and brother when I was growing up. We drew maps, we planned
routes and had a great time together. I know you play videogames with
your three kids as well. Obviously we like it, but do you think it’s
actually important to play games with your children?
Tom Purdue: If you come from the philosophy that the
computer has never been a very good babysitter and your children are
far smarter than you give them credit for, you’ll fully understand why
it’s important to play the same online games your kids do. There’s so
much you can discover about your children by watching the choices they
make, laughing at the same jokes on the screen and immersing yourself in
something they find highly important. It gives you an opportunity to
both learn from them and guide them in a way that’s fun. The ultimate
hope of a gaming dad is that it’s no longer a game about pirates and
swashbuckling, but it becomes a game about history, math, and social
studies.
My father once bought me a game of Atari Pac-man and he played it all
day while I was at school before he gave it to me. He wanted to beat me
at my own game. I came home from school and was overjoyed. My dad and I
played, and I smoked him on the first try. He never played a video game
with me again. I wish games like Wizard101 and Pirate101 would have
been around when I was a kid because I think they balance the playing
field a bit. They aren’t about twitch accuracy and reflex speed. I wish I
had more memories of my dad playing the games I liked with me.
Will you be my father?
PCG: So you’re about to go from managing three kids in a game
to managing millions as the community manager at KingsIsle. Is the role
of a community manager different in a family-focused online game?
TP: Yes, it’s highly important. I’m just starting
out here in this job, but from my interactions with fans of Wizard101
through my blog, I can tell you that you’re talking to both grandma and
her grandkids. All generations of players are equally important, but
there are legal rules and company policies that govern our social
interactions. I can tell you this though: as a really cool side benefit,
you get to receive fridge-worthy fan art from kids all over the globe!
PCG: Kids can be a handful. Can you talk a bit about why you pursued this career so long?
TP: I didn’t start out wanting a job at KingsIsle,
but it grew in that direction when I saw that there was an enormous
amount of creativity and opportunity there. I love the people that love
their games. They’re a genuinely fun bunch of people that tend to not
take themselves too seriously while simultaneously taking their pastime
of choice to new heights. If I can tap into an ounce of that magic, I
think I’ll be a completely satisfied community manager.
Go on adventures together.
PCG: So why did you want to work at KingsIsle in particular?
TP: It’s funny because I’ve had a few long time
readers of my blog ask me, “Why hasn’t KingsIsle scooped you up yet?”
Working at KingsIsle was as natural a fit for me as playing Wizard101.
The moment I started playing the game, I couldn’t stop myself from
writing about it. I’m a father who loves to game alongside his kids, and
Wizard101 solved so many of the issues I had with MMO gaming and kids
in general.
To me personally, KingsIsle has always appeared to be a game company
with a huge heart. They respect loyalty, they avoid crunch when they can
and they’re both young at heart and wise at the same time. On top of
that, they make games I can support and feel proud of. Seriously, I
could gush about KingsIsle all day long.
A
new three-way PvP faction war mode will land on Rift’s test servers
later on today. From 4pm PDT / 11pm players will have the chance to and
jump into a new PvP warzone in a new version of Stillmoor to do battle
for a cluster of control points (or Sourcestone Extractors, as they’re
called). 
