Father of elementary aged kids that want to play, questions

[magnetaress]

Originally Posted by strongNpretty [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

EQ taught me to type. Mavis Beacon lost a customer when I joined EQ.. That's about the only benefit I can think of from playing EQ as a child... I enjoy reading too.. Which probably also came from EQ.

How did EQ help you become pretty?

[strongNpretty]

Originally Posted by magnetaress [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

How did EQ help you become pretty?

Spoiler alert- It didn't!

[magnetaress]

Originally Posted by strongNpretty [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Spoiler alert- It didn't!

That is really disappointing. I thought you were both strong and pretty.

[strongNpretty]

Originally Posted by magnetaress [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

That is really disappointing. I thought you were both strong and pretty.

Let me clarify- I was born pretty, and I worked to become strong... EQ had no role in this. Your faith in me can now be restored Magenta Princess.

[Blingy]

Dad here with two teenagers. What I'm about to suggest goes against my enjoyment of p99 but when you're mixing kids into the EQ world stuff changes.

I played on the live tutorial with my kids. My daughter was 8, son was 6. Both were reasonably proficient readers. The three of us would talk about what each class and race was like. I wish there was a page like this when I talked to them: http://wiki.project1999.com/Character_Races

So the three of us chose our races and classes. They chose what sounded fun. I chose what would be needed to round out a decent group. On the live servers for the tutorial which race didn't matter much. Complimentary classes though helped a lot.

The live tutorial was great for a few reasons: Small zone so if you want to afk or corpse run it's easy. Lots of quests with good rewards for the level. Plat generation is great. Very easy to get into trade-skills if you desire. No need to worry about I.P. exemptions and bans. You can run free to play accounts all you want. Once you "graduate" the tutorial there's Crescent Reach with more quests. You can stay here through your 30's.

Things I did to keep my kids safe. Their UI had only a few windows. One window had spell spam, one for melee spam, one for quest spam and one for faction. Everything else went into one window that as minimized. I had them on permanent AFK mode with a reply "Send tells to *my toon's name*". They also never saw shout/ooc/auction or emoticon. Yea, last thing a young kid needs to see is some edgy ass-hat do a /em wants to fill your cherry cobbler with whip cream.

Good things that came out of playing EQ with my kids. They very quickly learned a lot of math. If one bag can hold 8 staves and each staff is worth 5p5g how many bags full of staves do you need to make 150pp? Also economics, do you want one bag full of staves or one breastplate? If your kids are struggling with reading then having them read through a quest for an awesome reward gives reading a purpose rather than some boring shit they were required to read. This can also be something of a carrot when it does come to school stuff. If they want to play EQ with dad after dinner they have to have ABCXYZ done before-hand.

Last and best reason to play with them; bonding time! Yea, it's only pixels. However letting your kids into your world will create something fantastic. You can still keep your p99 account just for yourself but three (or four if you can convince mom to play also) people sharing an hour here and there together is a ton of fun. Relying on each other to succeed is great; also giving a valiant effort together but dying anyway is valuable as well.

[strongNpretty]

Originally Posted by Blingy [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Dad here with two teenagers. What I'm about to suggest goes against my enjoyment of p99 but when you're mixing kids into the EQ world stuff changes.

I played on the live tutorial with my kids. My daughter was 8, son was 6. Both were reasonably proficient readers. The three of us would talk about what each class and race was like. I wish there was a page like this when I talked to them: http://wiki.project1999.com/Character_Races

So the three of us chose our races and classes. They chose what sounded fun. I chose what would be needed to round out a decent group. On the live servers for the tutorial which race didn't matter much. Complimentary classes though helped a lot.

The live tutorial was great for a few reasons: Small zone so if you want to afk or corpse run it's easy. Lots of quests with good rewards for the level. Plat generation is great. Very easy to get into trade-skills if you desire. No need to worry about I.P. exemptions and bans. You can run free to play accounts all you want. Once you "graduate" the tutorial there's Crescent Reach with more quests. You can stay here through your 30's.

Things I did to keep my kids safe. Their UI had only a few windows. One window had spell spam, one for melee spam, one for quest spam and one for faction. Everything else went into one window that as minimized. I had them on permanent AFK mode with a reply "Send tells to *my toon's name*". They also never saw shout/ooc/auction or emoticon. Yea, last thing a young kid needs to see is some edgy ass-hat do a /em wants to fill your cherry cobbler with whip cream.

Good things that came out of playing EQ with my kids. They very quickly learned a lot of math. If one bag can hold 8 staves and each staff is worth 5p5g how many bags full of staves do you need to make 150pp? Also economics, do you want one bag full of staves or one breastplate? If your kids are struggling with reading then having them read through a quest for an awesome reward gives reading a purpose rather than some boring shit they were required to read. This can also be something of a carrot when it does come to school stuff. If they want to play EQ with dad after dinner they have to have ABCXYZ done before-hand.

Last and best reason to play with them; bonding time! Yea, it's only pixels. However letting your kids into your world will create something fantastic. You can still keep your p99 account just for yourself but three (or four if you can convince mom to play also) people sharing an hour here and there together is a ton of fun. Relying on each other to succeed is great; also giving a valiant effort together but dying anyway is valuable as well.

Can't hate on this!! Well done dad. And best of all- In 2020 when gaming all consists of in game purchases, you won't have to worry about that here!!

[Bardolap]

I have two accounts, my wife has an account, both of my sons have accounts, and my wife's daughter has an account. They are all linked to my forum account. I've never had a GM visit to perform a boxing test, even when my wife only logs on to buff me / keep me healed while I'm leveling. I've never had a problem with my kids (my oldest started playing when he was only 8) being exposed to anything in game that worried me more than what they may see or hear in every day life.

I don't see any negatives to letting the kids play with you, so long as you are monitoring what they do. I had to teach mine the play nice policy and importance of not ruining the experience for other players. But there are plenty of positives. There are many skills to be learned from this video game. And there are far worse games that they could be exposed to.

[Lostfaction]

Current server staff look the other way at blatant racism and hate speech in game and in unofficial but GM monitored discussion channels. This game is not the best place for kids with the current server staff refusing to acknowledge and make an example of repeated server policy breakers. I may be quieted for sharing this strong opinion, though I recommend anyone with kids to stick to blue server if able as green seems to harbor much more toxicity in chat than blue does currently which is much more laid back. Unfortunately this probably resembles many outside environments so in that case it could be a learning experience at least.

[branamil]

"My kid will probably appear to be violating boxing rules, how do I get around that?"

Hmmm suspicious. Methinks he doth protest too much

[greenspectre]

Originally Posted by strongNpretty [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

EQ taught me to type. Mavis Beacon lost a customer when I joined EQ.. That's about the only benefit I can think of from playing EQ as a child... I enjoy reading too.. Which probably also came from EQ.

I started playing EQ at 14 and my typing speed went THROUGH THE ROOF so fast it wasn't even funny. I would get odd looks at the library at school while typing up a paper because my classmates were like "holy shit he is MURDERING that keyboard".

Now I work in Police Dispatch and that 70wpm typing speed helped me make the cut *thumbs up* thanks EQ!

Currently I am working with my 7yo, who has Asperger's, by using video games. We read to him every night, but I just coached him through Super Metroid to teach logic and problem solving and now we've started Zelda: ALttP to teach him the importance of reading and reading comprehension, while reinforcing the logic and problem-solving of SM. He's also learning more emotional self-control such as when to "take a break" because a hard boss is frustrating him. Someday I hope to get him into EQ, responsibly of course [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] Lord knows my grades dropped in high school because of this game...

At the end of the day, the best way to teach kids is to make it as fun as possible and sneak the lessons in subliminally. Blingy has the right idea with teaching advanced math and economics and having "digital" family time together.