I’m paying my tween son to farm gold for me in World of Warcraft. My wife is horrified; I equate it with paying him to mow the lawn. Am I a terrible dad?

When it comes to raising a son, often the best way to set your moral compass is to ask a simple question: What would Michael Bay do? OK, the explosion-happy, plot-averse Transformers director isn’t exactly Dr. Spock, but he does understand something elemental about the psychology of preteen boys—they’re not big on nuance. Your goal, let’s hope, isn’t to indulge yourself with some cheap MMOG child labo...