We have a LOT of families out there. Moms, dads, kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, in laws, outlaws, ex-in laws - you're all out there. Sometimes you're on the same LAN, and sometimes you're half a world apart. I wish I could have printed every letter I received. I know I've never laughed so hard, or been so touched, in quite awhile. Thank you all so, so much for playing, and sharing your time with us.

But enough of my yapping, read on to see what your friends and foes had to say:

(Note: I decided, after much thought, that it would be best not to print in such a public forum the real names of your parents and your children, and to leave out character and guild information as well. You're more than welcome to link to this story and tell everyone that it's you :))

***

"I am replying in behalf of my family, to your request to find different generations that play Dark Age Of Camelot. I would like to give you a brief summary of the goals and accomplishments that my family has striven for in your game, as well as give you an overall glimpse into the lives of the few that I lovingly and respectfully call my family.

"I am proud to say that we have three generations of my family that play DAOC. My grandmother Linda S____ (age 65), my mother Lori C____, my brother Trevor C____ (age 18), and Travis C____ (age 20) all reside on Palomides server in the magical realm of Hibernia. Since the game’s inception, we have made our home within the borderlines of Hibernia and have accomplished much more than we could have ever imagined.

"Our venture into the world of DAOC might have been much different than most who entered. My brother Trevor was the one who introduced all of us into your game. Within the first week, we were all playing DAOC with different accounts, but taking turns playing on the same two computers. We started also with some strict guidelines of our own. We felt that we should all stick together, only group each other, and not talk to the others in the game. At that time we felt very unsure of ourselves and we were hesitant to make enemies so early on in the game. But things began to change as time progressed. We each wanted to play more and more; so gaining use of the computer became more of a competition than a privilege. The only logical solution was to get all of us computers that we could use independently. Once we all had separate computers, our involvement in the game exploded.

"Since then, we all have level 50 characters in the same guild. Our first level 50 was J___, Lori’s Hero. She was one of the first ten people on Palomides to hit 50. Linda’s Druid named B___ hit 50 shortly after Lori. Both of these characters hit level 50 killing pookas. Both Trevor’s Bard T____, and my Champion C____ hit 50 on the same day in the same group killing finlaiths.
"From that point to present day, we have accomplished many goals such as creating a guild called B___ D___, a very highly respected guild to which we are all accredited for founding. We have also had a number of new level 50’s and Lori’s Hero was in the top 3 realm point earners up until her retirement. We are also very happy to have a Legendary Grandmaster Armorer and a Legendary Grandmaster Tailor.

"We have become a major part of our realm, helping all who come our way. We each have become seasoned players, and have accomplished more than could be written or expressed fully."

I heard from Mrs. Linda as well! Read on:

"…[Mother and daughter] were such noobs that we both had headsets we used, talked on phone rather than using chat because we couldn't. Neither of us really understood the game since we told Trev we would never group with anyone else & never would RvR. We were scared! Needless to say we got beyond that.

"…Our guild has grown and we have a mother/daughter combo as well as a father/son combo and several husband/wife combos in our guild. We encourage the family/friends concept in the guild & it has worked very well.

"It's been a wonderful experience for me to meet so many nice people on Palo/hib and it's great for me to be able to interact with my daughter & grandsons in the game.

"The game has certainly changed our lives; there are now four computers involved rather than kids sharing a computer with their Mom. The evolving changes in the game have been great, too…"

***

"My daughter and I play Camelot together. It started first with her watching me play and asking questions about why I did certain things. Later, she wanted to give it a try. She has done well and has leveled her character up to level 13.

"She is a pre-teen so I do not let her play unless I am there to supervise. I will not let her group or converse with other players as I do not feel it is appropriate for a pre-teen to chat on the internet in any forum (for safety reasons), but for the most part this has not caused any issues.

"She enjoys completing quests and achieving new levels. I think it is very good for her to be able to learn and apply the different strategies associated with the game. We often talk about the encounters and how to better approach them next time. This "out of the box" thinking is great for her creativity and problem solving skills. It has also been very positive from a general education aspect. Most players may take it for granted, but there is a lot of math and reading in the game as well as some geography.

"When we recently visited our local zoo, we saw a cotswald sheep. As we play Albion characters, she immediately caught the association. It was fun to look on maps of England for other names we recognized from the game. The best thing is we get to spend time together doing something we both enjoy."

***

"My whole family, almost, plays DAoC. I myself have many characters on the BORS server in Midgard… My wife plays some but not as much as myself, my daughter (twelve years old) and my son (3 years old). The only one that does not play is my two year old daughter.

"My wife mainly plays her 33 Healer when she does play. She also plays a 16 shadowblade. My wife is also the one that got me into the game to start with and she has made and deleted many characters. But when my daughter got into the game my wife sort of lost her computer and thus her play time.

"My daughter has multiple characters as well. She plays her 44 Huntress most…

"My three year old son plays as well. Yes, three years old and plays DAoC. And is pretty good for his age. He has a L35 Aug/mend shaman that he loves to play. It is the char he plays the most and groups with either myself or my daughter. And I do have to say that if others group with us, I let them know the shaman is being played by my three year old son. They have almost always have been very nice. There is the occasional person that will disband very quickly.

"He loves healing people and rezzing them. But he does know that he can give the Friggs spell while they are fighting but has to wait until they are done before he can use a heal spell. There has been occasion when he has been grouped with me where he will let me die because he thought it was time he used that one spell that brings them back to life, lol."

***

"Hi!

"My 46 year old husband, myself (almost 46), our 14 year old son and 10 year old daughter have 2 family guilds out here. One on Bors, Hibernia and the other on Gaheris.

"In addition to just having fun together, our family uses DAoC to help our kids understand group dynamics and real world politics and relationships and teamwork. My kids have learned a lot about themselves and how they interact with others by playing this game. How they level up and the choices they make in characters also tells them a lot about how they go after things in life.

"(Our family also has some chronic illnesses that make playing this game a life saver on those days we aren't feeling so well... but that's another entire story!)

"My son got the game 6 months after its release for his 13th birthday. The two of us (I'm his mom), had buddied up for about 3 years playing on-line games. I ended up being a clan mom for his Tribes clan, and at one point, after playing Tribes RPG, we ran, programmed, administered our own Tribes RPG server. The stress from that made me swear off on-line anything for about 3 months, especially after we put in player housing!!

"I looked over his shoulder about a week after he installed the game and was astounded by the player interface. "I've got to play that game!" I said and immediately went out to the store and bought my copy! Two hours later, I'm happily leveling away and absolutely hooked!

"That was April 8, 2002. My son and I made our way to Bors, Hibernia pretty quickly and found ourselves immersed in a few guilds and the entire world of DAoC. We shared with my daughter (9 at the time) and my husband. We talked about it at restaurants. Waiters overhearing us going on about the easiest way to take Vikings, or fighting battles, or best weapons would often look askance, making for much added hilarity around the table. Most notable was the time our family drove through a shopping parking lot and my daughter spotted a Viking Freight truck making a delivery to a store. Bouncing on the back seat, she pointed and screamed, "AAH! Viking!!! BASHY BASHY BASHY!" That quickly became a guild joke and her trademark on-line.

"My daughter begged to play with us. Not entirely comfortable with her being on-line with a lot of adults in a gaming environment, I reluctantly agreed, making sure she only grouped with me and those I knew. I was very lucky that some of my guildmates at the time also had children. She stumbled a bit a first and wasn't typing very fast for conversations, but having watched her 13 year old brother play so much, she understood best practices and managed.

"By the time Thanksgiving 2002 rolled around, my husband gave up listening to us talk about it and actually joined in the play! His first realization after joining us was that we need a 5th account so I could run a second healing type character to optimize for a 5-character group. We figured out smaller groups had less aggro and we were good enough to go where larger 8 person groups could go quite easily. We formed our own family guild and proceeded to enjoy ourselves, though, from personal experience, I was worried about RvR for the 9 year old.

"Then news of Gaheris came out. I jumped into what was the test server as soon as I heard! It sounded like a god-send for our family. Our family guild moved over there and have been there since it went live, loving every minute of it. My son, now 14, realized he also needed a second account, and so we bought the 6th one for his 14th birthday, a year after the original one that got us all started. My daughter, now 10, will make her first 50 tomorrow and played better at level 20 than a lot of 50's I knew on the RvR server. She's grown a lot!

"Through it all, DAoC has been there as a basis of comparison for real life for us. We can describe school work and projects in terms of crafting or leveling up in education. School and real world politics get described, leadership, teamwork, people's abilities, what they bring to situations and communities. Giving, sharing, caring, communicating. All the things built into DAoC are the things that are also very relevant in the real world. Using the right tool/process effectively in real life is the same as using the right weapon/armor. And all the parts of starting on a new server from scratch, and budgeting money carefully for special armor at level 20 or 25, or investing in a crafter to supply spell crafting are all applicable to real-world budgeting in college or household expenses. Giving back to the community, helping fund other crafters, the importance of good relations with other players, reputations; all important in the real world as well.

"Gaheris has the added benefit of teaching tolerance and acceptance and looking at things from a different perspective. Getting rid of preconceived ideas about how to use things and experimenting, those all important "what-ifs" that are so important in any creative endeavor.

"Most of all, it's been fun. Our family plays together in one large room, yelling and laughing and cracking jokes. And going on raids with others, we bring that same joy and laughter to them.

"That's our story. It's still on-going. The new housing is going to be another lesson in applied real-world experience. They are looking forward to it!"

***

"Sanya, we have quite a few players playing DAoC. We all play on the Tristan Server - Midgard realm. My husband, age 35, I, age 33, my daughter, age 12, my son, age 6, and my brother-in-law, age 18. Our five month old daughter loves to sit and watch. Whenever she is upset--it calms her."

***

"…My husband and I are in our mid thirties and we both play in Hibernia and Midgard. He has three kids from a previous marriage, and we have a toddler together. Our oldest boy is 18, and he plays in Midgard; he also likes his enchanter on Mordred. Our daughter is 15 and she plays in Hibernia and Midgard (now that Shrouded Isles came out). Our third child, who's 11, prefers the X-Box for some reason, and only played for about two weeks before he was bored with it. I figure he just needs some time and typing lessons. But our youngest child is 2 (will be 3 in August) and he LOVES DAoC. He's been playing for about 3 months now. I only let him play when mobs around him are grey, so he's never actually been in a fight. But he loves swimming (that's his favorite), riding horses, exploring, and jumping. And although he can't type out the words, he loves to watch people dance and wave hello. In fact, he likes all the emotes, but he has his own definition of what they are (he's learning sign language, so some of them are understandable). For instance /victory is actually "/touchdown", /military is "/Daddy" (that's the sign language) and /cheer is really "/to-infinity-and-beyond".

"When people come over they're AMAZED at how good he is on the computer. DAoC isn't the only game he plays, he also plays Toy Story 2 on the pc (which he's better at than anyone in the family). Don't worry, though, he gets plenty of outside time, parks, swimming, etc. So if you do end up writing this article, I hope you mention our little guy. I wouldn't be surprised if he's the youngest player in the game!"

***

"...My family only has two generations playing…my mom got us started on it. She knows many RPG players at her jobsite, and a friend who had played [another MMORPG] with her suggested a switch over to DAoC. Needless to say, she switched and [I switched with her]. Soon my sister became interested and started playing. Then my step-dad. And soon the whole family was online most of the time. I beat everyone in the family to 50…

"Being the idiot I am sometimes, I deleted my sister's and step dads characters to make way for [two of my own]… I've found out, don't delete your family's characters, they get mad ;)"

***

"I stare in wonderment as everyone elbows for room, network cables and surge protectors grow like vines from the carpet. This is bliss. We have 7 people crammed into one home office all online playing DAOC. No more typing "HELP ME, HEAL THE SISSY CASTER!!!", or complicated attack plans, etc. All communication is verbal. As a group, forgive my dude speak, but we r0ck3d. All except for the poor 8th person of our group who never saw any group chat and just followed along. He must have assumed none of us spoke English.

"Yes, in that room was a mixed bag of folks. Myself, my wife, my wife's ex-husbands sister and her husband, my wife's ex-husbands sister's ex-husband and ex-husbands sister's daughter, my wife's ex-husbands sister's ex-husband and ex-husbands sister's son and finally my wife's ex-husbands sister's ex-husband and ex-husbands sister's daughter's friend. All of us playing DAOC and loving it."

"Things I learned:

It was very profitable being able to hire all 7 of you out to start guilds for people.

The family that slays together, stays together.

Nothing like a duel to settle arguments.

10 gold is the average price to have someone get you a drink.

"We will be getting a call from Jerry Springer shortly, I'm sure."

***

"I (32nd Cleric) am a single mother of two boys, M____ (28th
Wizard) and D____ (11th Wizard), and Dark Ages of Camelot has become a major family activity for us. In our home, the television has become obsolete as we continue our battle to rid Albion of the evil creatures that infest it. I have found DAOC is very useful in teaching my 7 and 10 year old sons about cooperation, team work, goal setting, reading and of course, history. We have a great time playing and it makes for some lively dinner conversations!"

***

"Like many players, I was really hooked. Needless to say my wife wasn't too thrilled. We started fighting over the amount of time I was spending [online]. Then one night I got the bright idea of "If I get [her] to play, then we can play together and not only will I be spending time with my wife but getting to play and we'd all be happy."

"So I introduced her to DAoC. And she took to it pretty quickly. So quickly we had to get her her own machine and account because we began to fight over who's play turn it was.

"I was playing a sword and shield Armsman at the time. She rolled a Cleric and we had a grand old time. I then introduced her to the IGN boards and she started posting pretty regular there. Then one dark day she dropped a bomb on me. She wasn't enjoying her Cleric and wanted to delete and reroll on Hibernia / Guinevere because of friends she had made on the message board. I was concerned because I didn't want either of us accused of spying, so I copied my Armsman to Pendragon, deleted him on Guin and made a Sword and shield Hero (what can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment. Must be gimped in the blood).

"But here's the problem. While she was really enjoying her new found nightshade, I never really liked Hibernia. Just wasn't my cup of tea. I got my hero to 50 but things never got better. By this time, she and I had a pretty good reputation for honesty and fair play in all three realms due to the message boards. We didn't always get along with folks, but our stance against spying and such was very clear to the point of reporting two declared spies (people who were giving numbers reports from second accounts of enemy realms).

"Now by this time yet another interesting twist in the story came about. See I lost my job in Cleveland and we lost our home between that and some serious medical complications that arose. We were basically facing the very real likelihood that we'd have to live out of our car. I went to IGN just to make a goodbye post. Just told folks we'd be gone for a bit and didn't know when we'd be back. Folks asked what was up, and I explained that I lost my job and we'd had some financial problems.

"And the Guinevere Community decided to reach out and help one of their own. Folks took up a collection for us to help us out for a short time. I though it was very nice and was expecting maybe $20-$30. My jaw literally hit the floor when I discovered [how much was gathered] to help us out. Not only that but one player, [very well known to Guin] offered us a place to live until we got back on our feet.

"This story has a happy ending. [The fund] covered the cost of moving out here to Kansas City. My wife found work within 24 hours of our arrival and I found a very good job within 3 weeks. We're solidly back on our feet thanks to the Guin community who took it on themselves to help one of their own, whom they'd never met other than through a game…"

***

"We all play on the Igraine server in the realm of Hibernia.

"The first to start the game was my brother, currently a lvl 50 shade. He is also the oldest shade (start date) currently on the Igraine server.

"[He] started really early in the game… He talked my boys into playing. The oldest (15 yrs, lvl 50 hero) started in April, 2002. [The younger] (13 Yrs, lvl 50 void eld) started shortly after that.

"I wanted to know more about the game so I started a char, actually as a joke, in April/May 2002 timeframe. I currently have a lvl 50 enchanter, and an up and coming Warden.

"My 74 year old father couldn't stand the fact that my brother knew more about the daily happenings of my children than he did. All through the game. You need to know that my brother and my father live in Texas, and I live in Virginia. Well, guess what, my 74 year old father started his character in Aug/Sept 2002 (to talk to the boys - his grandchildren) and currently has a lvl 50 hero.

"He (my father) and I both started as kind of a joke and are really hooked on the game. We love it. My father plays every day, as do I."

***

"Well, so far it's just me and my daughter. What makes it special to me is that my daughter started playing at age 5! Of course I would supervise her playing very closely and intercede if someone was harassing her. I set up many, many hotkeys for her to emote and just have fun. She made a druid, and her biggest joy is to summon a kitty, and make it swim in a fountain or a lake. Some of the "cute to a parent" stores from her playing DAoC:

"She had the opportunity to lead a game of "M___ Says". Basically she did a bunch of emotes, and then people around her had to follow her lead. This was quite a popular server event that day.

"She will ask about the consider colours on real life things (Daddy, would that dog be yellow or blue to you?).

"The game has actually helped her learn to read and write. She is actually becoming a good typist!

"In the year and a half she has played, she has actually gained 12 levels on her own! I've had to coach her a bit, but she has come quite a ways for a kid her age."

***

"Dad ([three level 50s and a 35]) In r/l he's 58 yrs old, been married to my mom for 38 years. He never seems to watch his system messages or chat ingame so he can appear antisocial at times, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

"Sister (50 minstrel, 49 friar, 43 paladin...) In r/l she's 29 yrs old, and been in school for the past eight years getting her medical degree. She LOVES the PvE aspect of DAOC, but my dad, bro and I are working on getting her to swing into RvR.

"Bro#1 (50 mercenary, 37 s/s merc, assorted lowbies...) In r/l He's 26 yrs old, and a Sheriff's deputy in a certain county in Texas. His mercenary is the first char he ever made in DAOC, and he loves it so much it's all he plays (hence only one char at lvl50).

"Bro#2 (50 cleric, 50 paladin, 33 minstrel...) In r/l he's 26 yrs old, and he works as a civilian employee for the Department of Defense (I'd go into his job more, but all that top secret [stuff] is secret.) :)

***

Family in game, you ask? Oh my, do we ever! We all play on Hibernia Perciva… My father is L___ . I have three brothers playing, and my little sister plays. I have [three] nephews playing. I also have [two] nieces. In my immediate family, players include husband, my son, and my two daughters. …That's 3 generations totaling 15 people :)

… DAoC has provided me with a very valuable "Tool Of Encouragement": poor grades, poor attitude and/or poorly done chores = No DAoC for a week. (Eep!) So, grades have come up, smiles abound, and my house is really really clean. /grins broadly

***

"M___ is my 72 year old mom, playing a part she has played my entire life. She's the family healer a level 50 Bard.

"H___ is my little brother. He's a void Eldy level 50.

"G___ is my wife. She is a level 50 Heroine. "The lovely and lethal Lady G___"

"I'm T___ a level 50 Light Eld.

***

"Had to say I read that and thought wow that question is directed at m, hehe. Anyway, here's my lil story and list of family who uses DAOC to spend time together, and yes there's a bunch of us.

"We play Albion Guin mostly. My name is T___, my husband is I___, daughter is age 13, my son is age 16, one of my brothers in law, and his wife, their son age 12, other brother in law, and my niece and nephew. My mom even plays.

"Bottom line I wanted to thank you guys for all the hard work you put into DAOC as we appreciate it greatly because its where we spend A LOT of our time together.

"On a peronal note I wanted to give you a lil background. 3 years ago now we lost 12 members of our immediate family… it's hard enough losing one person you're close to, but imagine...12. So what's left of us are close, very close, and DAOC has given us a place to BE to get away... and have some fun. We love it here."

***

"…My wife watched me and began to play again herself. Of course, it was required that we go and get a second copy, since we just couldn't share time on one account. Even though I had a about a month head start, she dinged her first 50 before me. Being a stay home mom gives her certain advantages.

"Our 11 year old son watched, and of course had to play too. Especially since we now have 3 pc's. So we got him an account, and now we usually do 1 or 2 family nights a week, where we all play our bg0 toons. My wife is now currently pursuing her fourth level 50 toon, and I am playing my ice wiz, trying to rack up as many rp's as i can.

"…I'm sure tonight when I get home, I'll get requests to play bg0 or help my wife level her current toon... her 41 Necro. Our evenings are generally filled with DAoC and a significant portion of our weekends. We just enjoy it. When it gets frustrating, it's time to go see a movie or go for a walk on the beach. If I didn't think it would be totally unromantic, I'd get my wife a DAoC gift of some sort for her birthday on the 14th. Guess Ill stick to the more traditional gift ideas :-)"

Note from Sanya – if you play on Kay Albion, if your husband's name is Keith – happy (early) birthday!

***

"I have been living for a few years in the US, whereas my family is in Germany. Lately my 10 and 11 year old kids have joined me, so we can play together even though they are half a world away from me, and we're having a lot of fun together.

"Usually I used to phone them, and with kids these talks are usually quite short, but now they call me and say let's start playing. And we do this for a while till they have to go to bed, and they like it big.

"So definitely a nice way to get a few family members together that are quite far away. At least till they invent beaming..."

***

"…I think we have quite the lil West Coast family going on in Oregon, one in California and one in New Mexico.

"Let me just say, this certainly makes dinner conversations entertaining when we are all together =) Oh and of course, this makes for fabulous grouping! =)

"We vary from age 25 up to about 35 we all have normal jobs during the day, and run our households, some of us have kids to raise, some just have pets to remember to feed... Some of us are great cooks (not me though!) others are artists, and gardeners, one is a college student, a few run a software company, while others work at a home improvement warehouse."

***

"Reading this you will probably think us quite the odd family, and you're right! But we love each other very much. We, for the most part, play on the Iseult server. My mother is known as [two 50s, three 35s]). She also has three trade skills over 1000, and her armorcrafting is merely a few points from being maxed out. As you can see she is definately not your average mother! She is co-guildleader of the I___ W___ and although she is my mother, she is also the guildmother.

"My step dad is… a lvl 50 shaman. He may be a kobold, but he is here to PUMP! YOU! UP! Girly mon!

"My brother is… a retired lvl 50 hunter, currently moonlighting as a cute female kobold warrior; just watch out for his Tuscarin raids, he might disqualify you from phat lewts; we wouldn't want that.

"My sister plays a 50 bard. Lately she has been owning the RP's gained last week for all realms chart, and is a few days from tracking down the #1 bard at just under 3.5 million.

"Her boyfriend is a 50 warden. They also play with us on Iseult.

"Our younger step brother is a lvl 45 shadowblade.

"I play a lvl 50 warrior… who loves greatly his pink epics, only real trolls wear pink!

"Needless to say, my family likes to play games! Playing Dark Ages for us is more then just a past time, Dark Ages keeps us in touch. As a family we are spread all over the US. My mother and brother live in South Dakota, my sister and her boyfriend in Texas, I am stationed at Hurlburt FLD in Florida, and my step dad lives in Maryland. One thing we will always have in common, and always be able to spend time together doing, is gaming. Even though thousands of miles separate us, we spend more time together than many families who live in the same house."