Father of elementary aged kids that want to play, questions

[legoblocke]

Hello, I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask but I thought I'd start here.

I've been an EQ fan since 1999. I started playing P1999 off and on a few years ago. Recently with everything going on IRL I found myself playing a lot more recently. I have young kids that watch me play and are interested in playing with me.

I'd told them that they can perhaps play when they are older, but I feel kinda bad when they play their MineCraft while I play EQ next to them and they want to play.

A few concerns I have:

1. I know boxing is not allowed, and I can petition for these accounts to bypass the IP restriction, but I'm sort of paranoid that since my kids are young elementary and not proficient w/ reading and writing that someone might think I'm boxing them
2. Since the children are young, I'm also worried about them not necessarily following the P99 rules and possibly getting banned. And would they ban my account as well if they are linked?
3. If I did create accounts for them, would it make sense to have them linked to my forum account or create a forum account for each? I'd prefer linking them to mine (over-protective dad worried about stranger danger)

What do you all think? I'm sure they'd enjoy the game.

[magnetaress]

*emphatic* No, this game will mess with their neurological development, I really recommend they stick to more creative or constructive tasks like minecraft.

Perhaps you should learn to set the example?

I have been playing for 20+ years and yes I was a productive member of society, veteran, and I believe I am trapped inside EQ because it is the last bastion of virtual space that hasn't been taken over by PC millenials and their kids grandkids (who'm I have very strong usually pretty violent visceral impulses towards as an 'older male' *the get off my lawn clint eastwood with a shotgun kind*). I suggest you consider EQ very much like somethingawful dot com and filter it on your router at the packet level with plain text matching.

At least your kids will then have to become smart enough to circumvent your meager attempt at sheltering them from the horrors of forumquesters such as thyself.

If you need look no further look at my join date, post count, chemical cleavage, and then read some of my posts.

Trying to make this space 'safe for everyone' not from the 90's will just kill it. So I do not recommend some SJW crusade to make EQ safe for family with all the skeletons edited out into breadstick men. All the whips turned into pool noodles. And all the assless chaps turned into fursuits.

Sometimes, and I belive the devs were into this stuff, playing EQ is like donning a rubber suit with a zipper over the face and a tube stuck down your throat, it is very much about domming the players. So you don't want your kids to meet the strange people attracted to that kind of thing.

You should probably re-evaluate why you actually play this game if you are considering any of what I said to be exceptionally extreme or radical.

[magnetaress]

Also find a nice Sunday school and please attend it with your children. Having brought life into Gods world you bare a very strong responsibility towards his creation.

[loramin]

If your kids can't read, this isn't the game for them (yet): it's very reading-dependent, and really it'd be you playing with them in your lap.

If they can read, but they're too young for curses and sex talk and stuff, this isn't the game for them yet.

If they're old enough that you can live with them reading "naughty" stuff in shared chats, I think that's age-appropriate time.

... but, FWIW, there is a profanity filter in-game you can enable.

P.S. As for "linking", accounts aren't linked unless you seriously break the rules (ie. if you buy/sell plat you can expect staff to look at your IP address). But as long as your kids don't purchase plat with money, you have nothing to worry from them having their own accounts.

[magnetaress]

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

If your kids can't read, this isn't the game for them (yet): it's very reading-dependent, and really it'd be you playing with them in your lap.

If they can read, but they're too young for curses and sex talk and stuff, this isn't the game for them yet.

If they're old enough that you can live with them reading "naughty" stuff in shared chats, I think that's age-appropriate time.

... but, FWIW, there is a profanity filter in-game you can enable.

Thats a gentler way of putting it. However that profanity aka also sexuality wierdo filter is sadly out of date with todays terminologies.

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Would you let your kids run around second life unsupervised...? IMVU? There are a lot of bad people who play this game and while they may mostly behave themselves and be tolerable among other "adults", they probably lack the impulse control to make this a safe environment to anyone vulnerable, whether they are children or adults.

Also, beware of the nice ones, the nicest, most adult seeming people here are the ones with the darkest agendas and the most to hide. Those people who put on a facade of being upstanding netizens and great citizens without any emotional outbursts ever are the darkest among this group. They have agendas, be they pixel, or otherwise. The very ability to 'seem cool and normal' is a indication of danger, as most people who are actually cool and normal do not have the ability to appear super cool 100% of the time.

[Videri]

1. Don't worry. If you get an IP exemption and people think you're boxing, they can simply report you, and a GM will administer the boxing test, and because you and the kids are not boxing, you'll pass.

2. They can learn the rules, like not taking monsters other people are already fighting. They'll be fine.

3. Nah, don't worry about suspensions or infractions. Just try to teach your kids the rules as you go. I guess you could create separate forum accounts (no need to give the username/password to your kids) in the hopes that GMs would only suspend one of them.

inb4 people troll this thread accusing you of boxing and breaking other rules and trying to hide it

[magnetaress]

The fairest compromise I can think of would be to expose them to the TLP everquest live server communities. You are much more likely to meet people who aren't obsessive compulsive or have abusive personalities at least. People generally have an outlet in being able to buy Krono when they aren't able to spend 90 hrs straight to get the drop they need or farm seafuries to pay the epic tax. It is just a generally healthier environment. You can play with them there and watch over like a mother hen without running into hordes of righteous furious dragon lawyers...

[Chinetter]

I'm the father of an 8-year-old who is deep into Minecraft and quite entertained/interested in Daddy's EQ99. And just by coincidence (life happens) I had a son about the same age back in 2000-2001 when I was playing EQ the first time around.

Of course the two contexts are not the same in some ways (e.g. the existence of Minecraft) but in my view the fundamentals are the same. My little guy isn't going to be playing his own EQ characters anytime soon, which isn't stopping us from having a lot of shared fun with it. (Same deal with his elder brother back in the day, and the elder guy grew up into a serious gamer who's actually a bit of a celebrity -- a literal world champion -- in a different niche game.)

My little guy is having a blast kibitzing as my low-teens ranger has been leveling up and earning plat in Crushbone. We have our own in-jokes about types of orcs that should exist, I let him pick which orc to pull next, etc. For me that's the level of EQ involvement that feels right and is working for us. Of course YMMV, this is just one gamer dad's experience.

(Currently spending my EQ time on Spotswood, a 14 ranger on Green)

P.S. One change that I recently became aware of is how rich Minecraft has become. My wife figured out how our little guy can now play Minecraft with one of his best chums in their own private instance. (Not called an instance, I forget what it's called.) They started doing that a few days ago and are having a blast, hearing them plan and argue over and build their own little virtual world is a hoot.

[kjs86z]

I wouldn't let children near this game.

Just isn't healthy or good for them in any way.

[strongNpretty]

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.