I’ve been tinkering with an idea of how to introduce my mom to the idea of World of Warcraft in a format she, as a non-gamer and email-only computer user, can understand.

I came up with a few things she should watch as homework to bridge the culture gap of Mom and Gamer Kids.  You may consider all of the videos optional.

Homework: Learn These Terms

MMO - Massively Multiplayer Online.  Like playing against someone on the second console controller in your living room, it’s multiplayer but on a massive scale.  You can play with  hundreds and even thousands of other people at the exact same time (though trying to interact with them all would be inadvisable).  Their characters run around and do stuff, controlled by them, as you run around on your character and do stuff.  You can talk, group, and even form a large permanent group called a guild.

RPG - Role Playing Game.  Used for the game genre where you play as a character to fulfill a role in the game’s larger story.  The term “role playing” used alone as an action and not a game description often means playacting as your character.  Though World of Warcraft is an MMORPG, some players go deeper and role play within the game on specified role playing servers.  Most choose not to role play, but whether you role play or not, the game is still considered an RPG.

Avatar - Your Character.  The physical representation of you in the game.  In older console games, your avatar was usually 2D and limited to certain areas.  In MMOs, for the majority, your character is 3D, customizable, and can walk, run, jump, or ride anywhere they can reach in a large world setting.

Own/Pwn - To thoroughly defeat another player.  To “own” in general is to be good enough to defeat most if not all other players.  “Pwn” is usually reserved for defeating another player so thoroughly that it is humiliating.  These words are often bandied about in high-testosterone situations and can be transferred to non-game-related activities such as driving or conversation, as long as someone else is perceived as being defeated.

Noob - An inept player.  The exact meaning of a noob is a player who does not know how to play and refuses to learn.  The rudest experienced players use it as a derogatory term for new players and anyone who can’t keep up with them.

Homework: Watch These Videos

1. A Beginner’s Guide to World of Warcraft.  Created for a 12th grade project.  Perfectly clean.

2. World of Warcraft Instructional Video.  How to start playing the game.  Comedic and clean. Follow up with the sequel, City Life.

3. College Saga: Episode 1.  This is not an MMO but is a classic RPG.  The creators act out what it would be like to be in a single-player RPG set at college.  They are very accurate and detailed in reproducing the feel of a real game.  This will give you a feel of what non-MMO RPG games are like.

This is 90% clean (it’s the worst in the last episode).  There are four episodes at ~10 minutes each, but you should get the gist well enough from the first one if you want to stop there.

4. The Guild: Episode 1.  A professional comedy produced free for internet consumption by mega-geek-star Felicia Day (the redhead) about a group of addicted gamers who have only met online.  The main character begins the episode with a monologue to her webcam about how she’s jobless, stuck at home, her therapist “broke up with her,” and she has “a gnome warlock in her living room, sleeping on her couch.”

The Guild, should you decide to pursue it beyond the first episode, is a great, light intro into gaming vernacular, as it’s all about the dysfunctional people behind the characters and never even shows what video game they’re playing.  Each episode is a bite-sized 4-6 minutes long.  There’s a bit of language and crude humor, as each person represents a type of gamer and many gamers really are foul-mouthed and/or perverted, but the driving force of the show is simply awkward humor and the main character is a very sweet, soft-spoken, neurotic girl.  If you like it okay, I recommend the whole first season (10 episodes).

I also can’t help but promote the show’s new music video, “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar” — it’s loaded with clever gaming references (for example, “tank and spank” is how you describe a boss that requires no special strategy) and you’ll recognize the cast of The Guild in their avatars’ clothing.

5. Imapwnu of Azeroth (Pure Pwnage Season 1 Episode 6).  Canadian comedy web show filmed as a “documentary” about the filmer’s obnoxious gamer brother.  This particular episode is how Jeremy, who is used to first-person shooter games, picks up Warcraft to date a girl, and it’s his first MMO ever.  There’s a great song for this episode, and if you just want to see the song it starts at 13:33.

I don’t watch the show itself because it’s geared more toward guys, but this episode is amusing and instructive if you can overlook a bit of strong language and crude humor.  Apologies for those parts.  Like I said, it’s geared toward guys.

6. Who’s The Tank?  Now that you understand everything about Warcraft (right?), you might enjoy a comedy reference to something that started in your generation.

A “tank” is the player who keeps the badguys on themselves so they don’t attack anyone else.  This person receives most of the healer’s attention and stays alive by using heavily defensive gear and abilities (like if someone shoots at a real world TANK, it has more defense than an ordinary vehicle).