Are Children Mature Enough to RP? Why worry about "for all family"?

[Xordan]

What I mean by that is I know parents that will not blink if their children are playing a game where they are murdering innocent people with terrible weapons, but would suddenly freak out totally if they saw a cigarette in the game.

What's more common is for parents to be fine with violent games, but they freak out about games which have references to anything sexual.

To which I say that those parents have their own issues which they need to deal with.

[eldoth_terevan]

Right. But just to say I don't think you guys should have to overly stress about every little detail. You can't please all of the people all of the time...

[Jackdaw]

As a parent, who also talks to other parents, it may seem illogical but we worry more about our children in a situation where they are chatting in real life with "strange" adults than we worry them playing violent games. Everytime I am dealing with someone I know to be under 18 I can't help but wonder whether their parent knows or approves. This is a personal issue I have to live with but I don't think as a community we can dump all responsibility on the parents.

I agree that good rp is not based on the age of the player, in fact as an adult I probably find it harder to learn. The issue I have seen is more often the younger players have less patience for hanging back, observing and learning. One of the things I like about ps is the fact that it is not based on how fast my reflexes are. But if I spent a lot of time playing games in which that is the main focus, then if I wandered in to ps I would immediately be wanting that same experience.

Not to pick on just the younger players, there are adults who have a hard time adapting to the fact that they are starting as beginners with a character, that it takes a while to build the character up, and that a 16 year old may know a heck of a lot more when it comes to ps.

I think that as a fact of life we will always have the chance for good rp to be disrupted, by someone young or old, as unfortunately that happens in real life.

[Idoru]

I suspect that if under 18s had always been banned from this game then we would not have some of the excellent Devs, GMs and Mods that we currently do. Please correct me if im wrong.

[Kalika]

hmm...there are a few features that i wish could be in game but have been debated because of the age restrictions (pipe smoking for example, though i stll dont understand why thats such a big deal and drinking isnt *shrugs*) im not sure that the game should have an age limit because i jsut dont perceive it as very fair. when i was growing up i was exposed to porno and drugs and violence and yet i still turned out to be a peaceful little hippie girl. i dont think that we should necessarily judge an age-group because of their roleplay and grammar. i suppose it is annoying when someone starts to use leet and all but that can be ignored, and bad grammar happens to us all. I know that i cant even play an alt because my writing/speaking style is so distinct that everyone guesses who i am, i dont think thats bad roleplaying though, it jsut the way i think...and im 18 and though i am very good at spelling, when i type in conversation my fingers fly to fast to pay attention to every word that is mispelled.

i think this game is more about the experience of it. i dont know if we should limit someones ability to play jsut because of an age, like all the others said, adults usually have similar difficulties as children do when it comes to roleplaying.

however, i do think sometimes that quite a bit of what i even consider as inappropriate stuff happens in the game and is caused by the players themselves.

[Jackdaw]

Idoru, without hearing from any of them I would agree you are right.

My son started his own software company at the age of 14. His company got favorable write-ups from several software magazines and he frequently was chatting online with some high powered programmers. No one ever realized his true age.

I suspect that many great developers are younger than we think.

[drah]

Well.. at least among all the MURDER and KIDNAPPING.. we're not going to hear any mildly offensive words like "$%*&!#".

[Karyuu]

The dev team doesn't admit anyone under 18 (we did once and I think we're still cleaning up after him to this day.. ) but barring that age-group from the game entirely definitely wouldn't have prompted people like Xordan, Gentar, and me to join. I think the good outweighs the bad without a doubt.

*edit* Idoru, I was referring to this:

I suspect that many great developers are younger than we think.

:] They are all at least 18.

[Akaye]

Well.. at least among all the MURDER and KIDNAPPING.. we're not going to hear any mildly offensive words like "bugger" now!!!

Phew!!

That post was useless and could be taken offensive by those who are offended by the word. The thread was closed for a reason, quit poking fun already. It isn't helping things.

[Idoru]

when i was growing up i was exposed to porno and drugs and violence and yet i still turned out to be a peaceful little hippie

Here, Here, I had friends and internet access aswell  

Well.. at least among all the MURDER and KIDNAPPING.. we're not going to hear any mildly offensive words like "bugger" now!!!

Hurrah, the world is safe once again... I await its impact and the inevitable world peace that will obviously follow

The dev team doesn't admit anyone under 18

Yeah, I was refering to people starting as players before the age of 18 and then becoming contributors at a later date.

[zanzibar]

Heh.  Would this conversation ever happen on the Blizards forum?

[Eublepharis]

I believe Planeshift needs a disclaimer, saying this game is intended for an adult audience.

Then if children play, that's their parents or guardians problem.  If they kill someone or themselves and the game gets blamed, you could always point to the disclaimer.  Not to mention we would put an end to the whiners with their “Think of the children” argument.

Then we could add a few more “buggers” in the NPC chat, along with with more gory graphics and maybe even some provoking clothing for the females (heck or no clothing at all).

[Karyuu]

Then we could add a few more “buggers” in the NPC chat, along with with more gory graphics and maybe even some provoking clothing for the females (heck or no clothing at all).

Er... no. PlaneShift is not going to have adult content in the game to the degree that character nudity will be around. Nor do I need more gory graphics to enjoy the game, and we are definitely not going to limit anything to the 18+ crowd. This game isn't a Disney production, but it's not going to the other extreme as well. The way things are now is fine.

[Garile]

hmm true 18+ doesn't seem right for PS. Having a disclaimer more like 12+ or something similar would be better though. Just becuase I don't like the idea of a Disneygame

[bilbous]

Aww c'mon, Please please please! I wanna trash talk and be offensive all day long. please.
Disclaimer: The preceding comment was meant as hyperbole and not meant to be taken at face value.