Kesselia

Hate to break it to you fellas but this is a family oriented game...if you haven't noticed already. I myself as a parent no I don't let my kids play MMO's even tho my oldest is 8 years old and reads on a third grade reading level and is very smart and picks up on stuff quickly. I bet he would have a load of fun playing.

Here are the simple rules for parents who let their kids play EQ2:

1. Keep in the family....if you teach your kid to play you better be sitting there playing right along with him/her

2. TURN OFF THE CHAT CHANNELS!!! They don't need to be reading this until they are older. Mom and Dad can easily get whatever their child needs so long as they have a high enough level toon, plat, and crafters.

3. Said child is not allowed to raid, run a guild or otherwise have contact with other players. This game has plenty of area where said child can solo, harvest and craft to their little heart's content until they are older, paying for the game themselves and are mature enough to converse and play with other MMO players.

That is just how I feel. I do feel that kids can play this game...just so long as they are properly supervised, chat channels are off and Mom/Dad or both are playing right along side with their kids and monitoring everything. It is possible to have fun and keep the kids having fun in a clean environment. There are family guilds where the only players in the guild are those that live in the same neighborhood or are real life family.

Me myself...no my kids won't be playing this game as I am on a tight enough budget and don't have money for more accounts....and this is my private time when I play. When I play with my kids I go to the park with them or do other "family projects".

Just my 2 copper.

Kess

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Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.

Sqee

I dont see how EQ2 is such a bad think for the 8-10 year old crowed. My GF's son play's and he's pretty good at it. If we see him doing something unethical (random duel invites) he gets in trouble. If some one swears at him, we laugh and say "Alright - you know you cant say it at school, but we arnt dumb enough to think you dont know the word"

What boggles MY mind is the parents that flip out. Not the kids that play it.

You rather them be playing Grand Theft Auto? Or any number of other games out there with allot worse stuff in it than EQ?

Ya, so go outside and toss the ball with him? Ok.. and during the winter when it rains 90% of the time? He enjoy's the game and would be playing a differant game if he wasnt playing EQ2 - at least we dont abuse him and let him play WoW.

The problem you have is with stupid parents - not with the kids that play the game. If they are mature enough to play it and go out of their way to get into others ways - then i dont really see the problem with them playing.

Cervanto

There has to be some strict guidelines for this or no law at all otherwise any law regarding sexual consent could be administered in an arbitrary or unfair fashion (see also: consent laws regarding mental handicap or inebriation). Don't blame very clearly stated laws on someone else's lack of self-control.

There is a psychological/emotional component to our reproduction/child rearing that does not happen in the animal kingdom. We are much more complicated than other animals and to argue that we are just another species is ridiculous and ironically that thinking lessens the responsibility we have as stewards of our planet. As soon as another animal designs, for examplem a helicopter, I will think more of their role in the world, but never less of ours.

NAMBLA much?

Tyirul

The fact that you believe that it takes a psychological/emotional component to reproduce is more then slightly amusing. If that were the case then half the adopted/aborted/left to die in a dumpster- sceaniros would never happen. We are not so much more complicated than an animal, we possess a higher coginitive ability and that allows us to delude ourselves into thinking we are something special.

We are just another species, there is nothing to argue about, we are Homo Sapiens.

Responsibility? Seriously, we are not the stewards of anything but our own persons. It's thinking like that which leads to the gigantic fuck-ups within the world. If we were to simply learn to co-exist instead of screwing around with everything then we wouldn't have half the problems we do.

Linbran

Children are learning about computer and technology earlier in their lives than ever before. I started eq1 when I was 15 and took the game seriously instead of acting like a child. I wanted to fit in.

I think kids should be allowed to play and agree on parents just filtering what they see in the game by supervising.

Maybe the children will have quicker reaction times to clicking buttons than some of the older crowd

Khalan

Dudes were banging chicks and knocking them up when they were 12/13 back in the medieval times, no one thought it was wrong. That was the proper age of marriage and child birth etc etc. Just because societies view points have changed doesn't mean a person that young is no longer capable of sexual maturity.

P.s not advocating banging 12 year olds.

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Dilfx

Ever see that 9 yr. old on Youtube who plays Through Fire and Flames on expert for GH3? I'm convinced kids have faster reaction times after seeing that video lol.

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-Silf (Intolerance For'Noobs), 71 Warden, Nagafen
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-Intolerance, 26 Assassin, Doomsayer

Sakua

Western societies also accepted that very young children could be forced to work in dangerous industrial settings up until the early 20th century. There are probably 11 year olds perfectly capable of working a textile mill (especially with the strict safety regulations these days), but we don't give them that choice for one good reason: There are many people out there who would take advantage of children who are not yet mature enough to make that choice. By what process is it possible to separate those who are mature from those who are not, and perhaps more fundamentally, how do we even define what maturity (sexual or otherwise) is?

Its certainly unfortunate that laws made to protect everyone also impinge upon the freedoms of some. I know that I resented it when I was younger. I still feel that children, teenagers specifically, should be trusted with more responsibility and in fact "babying" them until they are 18 is harmful. Its important to remember though that the average teen is not fully psychologically capable of making high risk decisions and many (if not most) improperly judge their own maturity. This makes them quite susceptible to predatory adults.

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Wolfe

Interesting subject... Personaly me and my son have played mmo's together for years now he start out in dark age of camelot with me (i maybe a little off on exact ages) I think he was about 10 years old he always played a healer to my tank or dps toons. he cane with me to eq2 and played this up till about 6 months ago when he finally decided to get out and do teen stuff LoL (i still miss having him as my healer) Hes almost 18 now going to ship off to the airforce in a couple more months. So roughly about 10 years of playing a healer and as of today i still think he was the best healer i have ever played with! I dont see that it has in any way negivitly impacted him.
Actualy since i was basicly a house bound handicapped most of that time it was our way of bonding Since i couldnt take him out fishing or to a ballgame we slayed dragons together!
Althu i do think i wreaked him from ever being a crafter LoL 3 lgm crafters in daoc via 1 hour of crafting as punishments!

Cervanto

I didn't say that it takes a psychological/emotional component to reproduce, I said there is one that is not present in other animals specifically because of our higher cognitive abilities, which makes us complicated, which makes us special. There are people who feel nothing, do horrible things out of greed and self-motivation, but these are outliers and the exception shouldn't make the rule.

Just like the other species with the ability to reason, to build civilizations, to map the genome, to send people to the moon, to destroy all life on the planet if we wanted to. Stop denying that we are totally different and special and that requires us to responsible.

Not true. As civilizations have evolved/grown we have encroached on the habitats of other animals and through not understanding or not caring about what we were doing have changed things. Putting things back to normal or changing them for the better only makes sense (higher cognition). We can not simply co-exist without having an impact.

Just because everything that we do hasn't turned out for the best, doesn't mean that the decision to act wasn't the correct one to make. Using your theory, we don't do smart things like allow logging companies to clear dead lumber and undergrowth from forests just because activists don't like logging of any sort so you have huge fires that burn 1000's of acres and homes instead of smaller and much more manageable fires. This is a case where sitting idly by and just coexisting puts people/animals/habitats in danger. When you've already changed the environment, you have to be responsible and manage it.