Children in MMORPG

[Ms.Ice]

OOC:

Ok, i don't usually post ooc, but today i got TOTALLY freaked out!!!
i work in a 5th grade class and the kids are 10-11. During a chat today i discovered that 7, yes Seven kids in my class play UO! Maybe i am naive, but i was totally shocked.
Now i have this fear that my students may be lurking in AO...
Wouldn't that just be... WRONG!

i can just imagine them snickering on the playground about HOT lesbian sex on the sofa at Reets or Rompa.... *blushes*

[Otori]

Well, I dunno...do they call you Ms. Ice at school too? Couldn't resist

[Boinky]

I can see it now...

Tristalyn's holding a round of Truth or Dare in Reets. MsIce partcipating is surprised by one participants truths!

MsIce: Billy is that you? It's past your bedtime, and did you finish your Math homework?

[Tacz]

LOL

Man, my computer teacher played CS, but thatd be freaky if he was an anarchist too.

[Jassel]

Well, doesn't Oto teach?

I know its college (if he does) but wouldn't you still feel weird if your students say you lurking in AO doing.. umm.. things?

You could always ask what other games they play, and maybe you can get on a better stance with them because you can relate better to them since you all are involved with gaming? I dunno, I'm just talking...

[Metalynx]

Guess that kind of makes you think a moment before you strip down in Reets (with emotes), and begin to have a hot sweaty orgy in public with your 3 Female freinds....

Some of the people viewing this (not nessasarily wanting to becasue its in emotes) might actually be a wee bit underage to be seeing it. Kinda like INternet Pr0n that pops up when your doing a search on Yahoo for "Horses".

Kinda makes you think eh? Some of the crap that we do might be influencing children. THen again...if you watch some of the behavior of some partygoers, it should be failry obvious that they are....less than mature in content.

Ahh well....the Downward spiral of todays youth continues

[Ms.Ice]

umm... No, they don't call me Ice! *laughs*
And i didn't tell them i play AO because i dont want them running out to buy it and try to find me.

Is it just me, or is it odd for a 10yr old kid to have played UO for 2yrs?
No wonder his math grade is low! But, i bet it helps his English grades...

Lynx... i have a sneaking feeling you are offended. i try to know who is in the room before anything happens. And, on the one or two occasions i have received a message about someone being offended or uncomfortable... All play immediately stopped.
Sooo... if your ever bothered, just let me know. Cause...well... that ISNT my intention!

[Firia]

The moral of the story is either;

Get a room you (#of people)!!

or

"Get voice confirmation."

[Tacz]

"Hey..."

"Hey..."

"Oh my god, Mrs Perkins!!!!" *hangs up*

[Lauri]

Yeah, the kids are there!

Way back in '97, I knew a couple of 14 year olds in mmorpgs.. and that was *really* young. It was pretty cool 'cause one of them was a fun kid... so I got used to being able to play with the younger gamers if they were nice.

Now, we're almost a decade later.. it's not surprising to find 8-10 year olds playing these games, MMORPG's aren't new anymore, and kids are spending a WHOLE lot more time at the PC. (often unsupervised, wink wink )

[Sergeiovich]

Playing FFXI, I have come across nearly everything... Everything from someone who claimed to be 13 and stole his parents CC# to get the game, to a guy who said he was 50, and has loved Final Fantasy since the first one.

Then here in AO... we get it all, too. Everything from the 13 y/o kid who is obsessed with the female character models to the 55-y/o guy who is the "old sage one" that is trying in vain to act young.

MMORPGs attract a much bigger audience than anyone thinks.

[Tacz]

13 y/o kid who is obsessed with the female character models

So you can hurt my feelings behind my back thinking I wouldnt notice... Either that or your talkin bout DFClock

[Sergeiovich]

I didnt name names. Although, I can. (Bribes for either can be made payable to "Sergeiovich")

Actually, I wasnt talking about either you or DFclock. I was talking about some noob I met long long ago at the Rome Blue Basic Shop when my main was around lvl 150. I was being a nice "older" soldier and giving some pointers to this noob. Then he asked me out of the blue.. "Do you have problems NOT staring at the female characters?" I just replied with "um, no..", and then he went on to talk about how he wishes that he could have one of them as his girlfriend, and how he is 13, and yadda yadda yadda. I wasnt sure whether I should laugh, or run.

[Tacz]

LOL! OMFG! THATS HILARIOUS!

[Jassel]

When I played AC, one of the guys that was in the same allegiance as I was, had a 7 year old son that played AC.. he just played with one of his dad's chars and under his dad's super vison..
Its not uncommen.. and I am sure that the 8-13 year olds have already heard/seen this stuff before.. and that doesn't shock me in the least.. TV, games, music etc.. has caused the child to grow up a lot faster now then back when we were all that age.. even though that was like 10 years ago for some, and more for others...

I agree, I grew up too fast.. but not in the way that some kids are now

It scurs me...

[dfclock]

lol... me? nawww female chars in AO too soft for mae... *grin*

and my dad plays a game called runescape with his 5th grade students sometimes... its an MMOPRG (a free one)...

lol... ms ice.... AHAHHAHAHAHAa.... (thinks if he might see a certain female character in a bikini swetn moves and talking about a student named cosmo martinez that gets his x and y cords messed up)

[Xtrophic]

It's the parents that do suck in these scenarios. They have to little information about the games out these days. They need to get down and learn more about the shit, maybe try the games out themselves before approving their kids to play.

I doubt they play the online games unknowingly since you need to use a creditcard, and I don't think any parent would ignore a recurring note on the bill saying "funcom"

AO is for 18+ players, and as such using sexual content isn't a problem. If the parents are ignorant enough to let their kids play they also agree to expose them to this kind of content. I am not sure they are aware of this cause they only see a game, not a game with real people behind the characters. I don't think they would send their 7 year old kid to a room filled with 18+ people, that would just be wrong.

I can draw a real life scenario from the knowledge of my boss and towards her little 10 year old boy. I took him to a supermarket a while back to look for a game he was promised by his mom. He went straight to GTA 3 (or 4?) and said I want this game. I in turn asked him if he was really allowed to buy this game, and he replied yes.
Beeing sceptical about the whole deal letting a 10 year old kid buy a game rated 18+ I phoned his mom (one of my bosses) and she confirmed my suspicion, that he was not allowed to buy the game AFTER I explained the content in the game.

Had this boy gone to the store with his mom I am sure he would have gotten the game because she doesn't know what she is potentially putting in his hands.

My point: The rating on the boxes is there for one reason, to give guardians a heads up about content. And parents/guardians need to use this information as a hint when handing games to kids.

And this is the sole reason why not fucking parent can sue the gamecompanies for inspiring his/her 12 year old kid for getting inspired by for instance GTA, to go out and shooting people. IT'S THEM THAT ALLOWED THE KIDS TO PLAY THE GAME(S). A good parent should monitor content and get the knowledge to disable the content if found agressive and violent.

Gah, sorry for going a little bit out of topic. But I still had to post my views on the 7 year old kid playing MMPORPG thing.

[Oddysee]

True and not true...
I've met peeps ingame who were way above my age, yet were offended by almost anything... (yanks, sorry peeps, but some places of America just needs to be whiped of the planet...)
I was attacked by some person once, who accused be of using obscene languange and such... I said shit... BIG DEAL!... But she pulled a god damn GM on my arse and he gave me some big VERANT doesn't want you to talk like that and bla bla bla... Blow me! I paid to use the game, and if I feel like saying "Shit, we pulled multiples with no calmer, better run" I'll damn well do it... Ok this was in EQ, but still... Some peeps just generally suck...



Tm

[Boinky]

Kinda like INternet Pr0n that pops up when your doing a search on Yahoo for "Horses".

Yahoo doesn't seem to be working

[Mummu]

(yanks, sorry peeps, but some places of America just needs to be whiped of the planet...)

uh.... no, i m not reacting to this one right now.