Kids playing PlaneShift

[artemis82]

My nieces and nephews live 2000 miles away.  I'm looking for a game that we can play together online.  I have a Mac, so the options are limited, but PlaneShift looks interesting.

My nieces and nephews are 10-13 years old, so I'm trying to figure out if/how I can protect them from random DB's that might try to talk to them in a multi-player forum.

They will pretty much only be playing when I play, and their parents keep a close watch on what they do when they are online, so they will be supervised both online and with someone physically looking over their shoulders from time to time.

I guess I'm not sure what questions to ask at this point.  I won't recommend the game to them until I'm sure we can keep an eye on them.  Your thoughts?

[Xoorle]

There are policies that are supposed to be kept, that you can read in game policies.  This doesn't completely stop everything from happening that we don/t want, but if something is seen or heard ... anyone can report a player for improper actions by typing "/report [player's first name]" this will record 5 minutes prior to report and also the following 5 min. Then a GM will look over the report and deal with it accordingly.

[Aramara Meibi]

welcome! I'm sure if you're watching over them they won't get into too much trouble. Keep in mind RP is serious business around here, and we stay In-Character in the main channels. The Gossip channel is patrolled by GM's and kept clean, and the conversation is most likely about flinging pies at each other or any such intellectual discussion.

The RP can get gritty and macabre from time to time, but anything overtly sexual is typically frowned upon. The type of RP you participate in is up to you and nothing will be forced upon you. I think if you are able to keep a level head and a close eye on your nieces and nephews, you'll find us reasonable and respectful players. If you come across anyone who you feel is out of line, a simple reminder or request through /tell  to keep things age appropriate should do the trick.

This is a fantasy game, not everything will be rainbows and gumdrops. There will be violence portrayed, mischievous deeds, but everything will be rendered mostly through text and won't go beyond the level of detail you'd find in a Harry Potter novel (I'm assuming, never read one) or a Dragonlance novel (I was reading those at that age) or LOTR (which I read in middle school) or any mainstream comic book.

[Candy]

What Aramara said.

Also, it's probably a good idea to have these kids include in their descriptions, the OOC tab being the most appropriate place for this, that they are minors in real life to encourage the community to play responsibly around them.

[Gilrond]

Aramara: I found Silmarillion much more grim than LOTR

[Rigwyn]

As a player, I don't recommend this for childeren.. just my opinion.

[Aiwendil]

Have a look at the game yourself at first...

It depends a lot of what you think is appropriate for children of that age. For example everything even only remotely related to sexuality is usually put down long before I would even worry about my child reading it. On the other hand the descriptions of violence can be rather figurative and are widely accepted among the players. Violence as solution is normal and often even encouraged. Swearing and other verbal abuses happen but are not really very common. And as said before there is always the chance to get the Game Masters work as moderators in case you feel someone else went too far (Problem ist just that it already happened then).

There are some other things you should consider as well. The language of PlaneShift is English. So if the kids aren't native English speakers it might lead to some problems (Though I have seen German children of that age in PlaneShift whose English improved a lot in the time they played the game. Also the players are pretty open-minded and patient with non-native speakers like me.)

The game can still hardly be called a real game in comparison to others. It's more or less still in the alpha-testing phase and a lot things don't work. Of course an old man like me can only make assumptions there...but assuming those kids already know a lot of console games it might be possible they find a game that relies mostly on text a bit boring. PlaneShift has combat and some other game mechanics...but calling them fun at this point would be...a lie.

[Hipie_Froboz]

It really, really depends on the kid in my opinion.
Are they mature for their age?
I started playing about three years ago, and I'm almost 14 now
I think it's fine, but some things can get a bit graphic...
So, again, it depends on the kids
Overall, what Aramara and Aiwendil said...
Edit: Also, personally I found it a lot of fun to discover by myself...

[Galok]

Instruct children to never tell ANYONE:

- Their age.
- Their real name.
- Any other on-line network name, including their e-mail address/es.
- Their address, their country or state.
- Their telephone numbers, land-line and mobile.

When registering to play on PlaneShift, an e-mail address is required but since this is not used by PlaneShift for any purpose other than confirming your registration and retrieving your password when you forget it, you can use: a 'disposable e-mail account'

Disposable e-mail accounts are free and designed for exactly this purpose.

http://www.mailinator.com/

is an example.

---

My experience when I first joined PlaneShift in 2004 was not a good one. A player started a role play conversation with me but then sent me a private message which was a URL to a porn site.

That player is still active in PlaneShift and on PlaneShift's IRC channel.

Other times players have positioned themselves so that the are sitting with their heads between other player's legs, simulating a sexual position.

It happens when a character is busy crafting so stationary, the sexual predator will use that opportunity to get their jollies.

---

The fact is, if someone is a sexual predator in real life then they will be a sexual predator in-game. This is why your children should not let on they are children or any of the other details I mention above.

There is a log file kept for each character on their computer that shows exactly what has been said to them and by them so it will be worth locating that file from time to time to review what has been going on.

[Sarva]

Maybe a good time to remind people that if you feel someone has said something inappropriate to you or harassing or something that otherwise violates the game rules please use the /report command just do /report <first name of the offending character> and the previous 5 minutes and next 5 minutes of anything they say , in any channel, or anything said to them will be recorded by the server. Then do a petition for the GMs and give a short explanation why you did the report. The GMs will then review the logs and take action as needed. You can do the report command multi times if the problem lasts for more than 5 minutes after the initial report.

[Caraick]

I personally started playing Planeshift around the age of 13. 

I'll try to shoot straight with you, Artemis.  If I had to answer in a word: no  I don't think that Planeshift has arrived to the point where it's safe for your nieces and nephews to take part in.  I've seen, and experienced, far too many instances in which a gross lack of judgement on the part of the community or other players has produced an incredibly offensive, or hostile environment.  I don't mean to provoke anyone, but the Planeshift GM team also has a very poor track record when it comes to prevention of harassment of minors, or controlling offensive content and players.  I mean to answer in an unbiased manner, and this is simply my opinion, based on what I've seen and experienced at the hands of other players, and the Planeshift GM team. 

I think the majority consensus of the other players who've been around the block is that this is most likely not an optimal environment to bring young children into.  It's sad that that's the case currently, and perhaps as the game advances, this will change.  As Aiwendil pointed it, it's still very much in the alpha testing phase.  In time, things may become more minor-friendly, the the game better moderated.  As it is now, I personally will answer no.

[Rigwyn]

I have to agree with Cariack for the most part, though I wouldn't blame the GMs or players for this. The game is composed of players of various ages - mostly adolescent and adult as I understand. As a parent, I personally would not let a child (pre-adolescent) hang out with folks that much older - and especially without strict supervision.

Better to let children play games that are populated with players in their age range and at their own level of maturity. While the content of the game is supposed to be limited to a PG-13 level, its populated with an older audience and thus will naturally tend to drift more towards an R rating and towards topics that are relevant to their age.

Good Luck.

[MishkaL1138]

Set up your own minecraft server and play with your kids there. Worst that can happen is a creeper blowing up in front of them...

[Candy]

Also, MineCraft consistently works and its mechanics are more fun than PS. >_>

[Earowo]

Set up your own minecraft server and play with your kids there. Worst that can happen is a creeper blowing up in front of them...

Minecraft is a competely different style of gameplay however, and Ive rarely ever met anyone who plays, that is much older than a teen, or younger. But I agree that its a fun game >.>
And if he were one of those rare old people who plays, a private server would be benificial, as the contect of the text many many of the public servers, are much much more vulgar than i have ever seen on planeshift