Fuck yeah dude and adults are also wasting their life in general. I don't buy them as much as I used to. Infact, I come to the forums more to check out the screenshots and topics. I still like creative zones, cool looking maps,and stuff that makes the game fun in short stints, like a well written storyline.
I play EVE online because I do not have to kill myself playing it. I think in about 94 days I'll have everything I want combat wise for the game. I pvp about 2-3 times a week for a total of about 2 hours and then about 1 hour ratting.
The reason I cut about 99% of the game, was because as stated above, it is a waste. I was becoming out of shape, and people I trained with were saying, what the hell guy I never see you train at the academy anymore.
So I decided at that point my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was WAYYYY more important. I then competed at the WORLDS in LA taking bronze. To do it, I had to dump WOW. This was the best thing I could have done. I also had to dump AOC and WAR.
I figure if you play the games for more then 2.5 hours a night 7 days a week there is a problem. I mean those are hours you will never get back and you have nothing to show for. So know I'm looking at doing a Triathlon which I know will be HELL ON EARTH, but I figure I need a challenge and am gonna just go for it, even if it is gonna take me 6 months to get ready.
Don't get me wrong MMO's are cool, you have a ton of people and a lot of neat things to see, but they suck your life, and give you a false sense of accomplishment. I figure these days, the screenshots/ forums on mmorpg.com, along with EVE are just enough for my gaming needs.
Now getting back to the original topic, yeah kids are wasting their youth, I thing most guys on the forums that game in thier mid 20's 30's remember going out when they were 13-14 trying to impress girls, Hanging out at a friends place playing guitar, going to an arcade, playing soccer/football. Now it's like 4-7 hours of raiding and soon we will see teen candidates for cardiac arrests.
God.. let the kids have their fun. What you mention, playing 6 hours or more, is an issue for everyone, not only kids.
^ That shows exactly how I feel about it.
I'm not a parent but I'm in the 20+ range that was mentioned and I'd say its up to the parent to decide...personally I'd let my kids play games.
Too much videogames in general has that same effect and I'm sure most people could find something better to do then playing games, but if someone wants to spend their time playing its their right....end of story.
The kids staying home on Friday-Saturday nights to play MMOs are the same kids that would have stayed home to play with their pet rock/G.I. Joe Collection 40 years ago.
The kids who play MMOs 40+ hours a week aren't the ones who would be going to parties anyway.
I'd have to agree with this.
Video games have just become the de facto form of entertainment for this generation.
All things in moderation people.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own. -- Herman Melville
100 years ago youths were wasting their lives chatting on the telephone and killing themselves in their new Model Ts.
80 years ago immoral young people were wasting their lives listening to Jazz and wearing shorter skirts.
50 years ago youths were wasting their lives listening to rock and roll.
20 years ago youths were wasting their lives playing 8-bit Nintendo games.
10 years ago youths were wasting their lives on SMS messaging.
Four years ago youths were wasting their lives on Myspace & Facebook.
See: New Media Are Evil. This happens anytime anything new and reasonably popular comes about - a bunch of people jump on the bandwagon and a bunch of other peoply decry it as the end of civilization.
I am a father myself so I can somewhat relate to your concerns, Metalhead, and as well as the point of the topic of this thread.
Many of you have made valid and sensible reasoning in your replies. I myself also feel that no matter what age you are, young and old, having balance is the key quality to maintain. Dedicating certain time spent on each area and aspect of your life as well as your kids, is made by your own discretion. That doesn't mean one should limit their time playing MMOs because Joe Smith from work lost his job, had a nervous breakdown, and got kicked out of his home because of playing the same amount of hours that you currently do. The same applies for your kids, what may be suitable for your kids and the time spent playing MMOs, may not be the same for someone else's kids.
Everyone is different. Therefore, time spent playing MMOs one may consider it "wasting away their childhood." But to another it may simply be a minor hobby they enjoy that keeps them out of trouble with drugs, violence, and such. It is all in how you percieve it that makes you come to your own conclusion.
I am 15. I manage my playing time for my MMO's. I have friends, play sports, play the guitar, party, etc. Yet there are some people who I know that spend countless hours on games. I resort to my MMO's late at night or when Im not doing anything else. I think its just as much of a waste of time if your 10 or 100, age doesn't matter. I am not an adult, so I can't really say anything about adulthood, but I think that its all the same.
Originally posted by metalhead980 This is a good troll post, this shows just how childish you are. this is why i said my post was directed toward adults. Did I say how Old my children were? If I told you my oldest was nine and youngest was five would I still be an asshole for monitoring what my children did? Considering that my children are reading and doing math about three grades above whats considered average at their age range I feel that i'm doing a good job. Unlike todays brats, my children are into Art, sports, dancing and socializing with my friends children. They don't beg me to play a god damn MMO and my children have respect and would Never! Ever! talk to me the way your scenario played out. How you could even type out that scenario just shows the lack of parenting skills your own parents had. You bring up me letting my kids play the Wii on the weekends? little man, my children would rather me take them out then even bother playing it. I still have that stupid mario game box in the wrapper my son wont even bother with it. Oh and to the idiot that agreed with your shitty scenario, just shows how many children I attracted with my thread.
Well, when you print this as vague and broad sweeping an indictment of the "young kids" playing mmo's as if this is the average, you're bound to get slammed. You just see this with your critical eye and print it as if this is the reality.
Originally posted by metalhead980 I know im not the only one thats noticed this. The young kids playing mmos hardcore.They get home at 3 and play MMOs until its time to goto bed. Hell some actually lie to thier parents and stay up way passed to raid or do other mmo activity.I hear these kids go on and on how thier grades are getting worse, how they never had a GF/BF before.They don't go out and chill or play a sport.
Kids today multitask WAY more than we did when we were kids. When kids were growing up when I did, we were pretty simple kids. Sports, school, maybe job, go home; that was about it.
Today's kids have so much of a bigger world than we ever did, but you make it seem like they are all the kids you see in the malls and filling up high school events are figments of someone's imagination. Computers, sports, cellphones, college prep stuff that starts in 6th grade, community stuff to put in resumes, etc. Most parents nowadays are trying to turn their kids into taxpaying adults before they even hit puberty. I'm glad I grew up at a time when the world was slow. We didn't have to do all that crap.
You GOT to give today's kids much more credit than you are painting here. Your post looks like "Crotchety old man" syndrome if you read it again. You might see it sounds as if you're the "Git off my Lawn!" guy.
Around here, where i live, there is absolutly NOTHING to do, and i mean NOTHING. No mall, no beach, nothing.
During times like now in the winter theres even less to do..really the only thing you can do is go shopping (my parents arent exactly in that type of finantial income to go shopping every week) or play video games.. so yes i do spend most of my day playing video games or surfing the web when theres nothing to do.
Otherwise, if one of my friends is having a party, or if my friends want to go hangout, sure, ofcourse ill go and chill with them. Dont get me wrong, in the least "bragy" way.. i am popular in school. Everyone thinks that gamers are "nerds" and "nerds" only have ''nerdy'' friends.
This is not the case in my school. Theres so little to do around here almost everyone has a console or plays mmo's or rts' ext ext.
Sure, some who may not know me (very few) may consider me a "nerd". But all my other friends call me far from such.
I go to parties all the time, hangout all the time
--------
now i will say something else about mmorpg's for the young kids
i started playing mmorpg's around 11 out of bordem and my friends telling me to try this game called "Runescape" (yes i know now that the games shit..but admit it YOU probably played RS when you were a little kid too)
And i do not regret playing mmo's, mmo's have tought me MANY life lessons, such as how to advoid scamming, how to deal with annoying/insane/crazy people (noobs), how to stay calm under pressure, how to manage anger/frustration ext and many other life lessons.
Also i met some very nice people that to this day i still have relationships with (friends). One such is a friend i met named Ashlee (yes its a girl). Believe it or not, as it may seem "nerdy" we are boath considered "popular" in our schools, and we talk to eachother almost everyday (for 3 years now). I can truely call her my best friend and i can truely say she knows me better than anybody, even my parents.
--------
So to sum it all up:
Kids who play mmorpg's arent necessarily "nerds"
Mmorpg's can teach many valuable life lessons
Mmorpg's are social games (in nature) and can open the window to new friendships
Mmorpg's also are great entertainment if theres nothing to do! (winter ofcourse)
Mmorpg's are also a great way to have fun with friends (in real life) that have moved away.
--------
So thats my perspective, a 14 year old, i hope you enjoyed it, and sorry for the length.
Are yoots wasting away thier childhood playing MMOGs? YES!!
No one under the age of 21 should be playing MMOGs...ever!
-sigh- another igorant parent
Let me tell you something MY PARENTS tought me, from ther PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
Parents who limit there kids, who PREACH stuff on there kids that they dont nesseciarly understand or like, end up..well not so well
This is how my dad puts it: "All the kids that i remember from school whos parents pushed them into academics.. were over-protective..pushed there kids into sports..ext.. well.. they all go crazy after they get out of school. Its not there fault, its there parents fault. There parents didnt let them do anything so at the time when they get out of school they go crazy with everything that they felt they missed out about to the point where they do it more than any regular kid who did the same thing. Ive seen many examples of this, mostly involving over-protective parents and kids who when they get out of school, go straight into hardcore drug usage and mess up their entire lives."
Now tell me my dads wrong. The simple fact that i even see, a 14 year old boy, is that if you keep kids from the truth, and not let them go experiment and understand for themselves, they will not know what to do with themselves wonce the parent isnt there. They will not understand WHY it is wrong to do ___ and eventually do it because of there curiosity due to that there parents protected them from it!
I hope you can understand what im saying..as its not an easy topic to describe
But inshort, let kids experience..beind kids, let them get hurt, let them do stupid things, as this is the way humans are rigged to LEARN.
Ill tell you right now that i do have friends who did drugs, who started drinking, around the age of 12-13. And i will tell you now that (most) of them swear they would never do it again, because they LEARNED from it.
And i think we can all agree that you learn the most when you learn something the hard way.
I, a 14 year old, have never seen so many ignorant parents in my life, and thats the truth.
It all boils down to kids need to spend their time doing something......I would rather have my kid staying home on a Friday/Saturday night playing video games witha couple friends than out partying or getting into trouble.......As long as it doesnt become too consuming to the point where they never go outside or do anything else then I dont see too much harm in letting them play........
Originally posted by Theocritus It all boils down to kids need to spend their time doing something......I would rather have my kid staying home on a Friday/Saturday night playing video games witha couple friends than out partying or getting into trouble.......As long as it doesnt become too consuming to the point where they never go outside or do anything else then I dont see too much harm in letting them play........
Well, better MMOs than stroking and naming their carbine rifles. I vote for them to have MMOs.
First of all, I don't Video gaming is healthy at all, in any sort or fashion. You avoid real life, and you are very physically inactive. You ever wondered why the youth of modern nations are so durn overweight and not very sociable? The answer is poor diets, and lack of excercise. Heck, you don't even have to take a real P.E. class in school anymore. Humans are biologically social and active beings, and being inactive and anti-social (sorry but chatting online isn't being social) Having good health requires you to be physically active! Why do you think diet pills don't work but excercise does?
If you ever go to the movies on a friday night, just look how many children and kids are overweight. WHy do you think there are so many TV ads, and magazine ads about these new "active youth programs". Nobody ever heard of these until recently. Hell I just saw one with some NFL star urging kids to go outside, and play football. It's really sad to be honest.
It's all about how you parent your kids and using the excuse of video games over drugs is just an excuse for poor parenting.
Well, heres how i see it (a 14 year old) Around here, where i live, there is absolutly NOTHING to do, and i mean NOTHING. No mall, no beach, nothing. During times like now in the winter theres even less to do..really the only thing you can do is go shopping (my parents arent exactly in that type of finantial income to go shopping every week) or play video games.. so yes i do spend most of my day playing video games or surfing the web when theres nothing to do. Otherwise, if one of my friends is having a party, or if my friends want to go hangout, sure, ofcourse ill go and chill with them. Dont get me wrong, in the least "bragy" way.. i am popular in school. Everyone thinks that gamers are "nerds" and "nerds" only have ''nerdy'' friends. This is not the case in my school. Theres so little to do around here almost everyone has a console or plays mmo's or rts' ext ext. Sure, some who may not know me (very few) may consider me a "nerd". But all my other friends call me far from such. I go to parties all the time, hangout all the time -------- now i will say something else about mmorpg's for the young kids i started playing mmorpg's around 11 out of bordem and my friends telling me to try this game called "Runescape" (yes i know now that the games shit..but admit it YOU probably played RS when you were a little kid too) And i do not regret playing mmo's, mmo's have tought me MANY life lessons, such as how to advoid scamming, how to deal with annoying/insane/crazy people (noobs), how to stay calm under pressure, how to manage anger/frustration ext and many other life lessons. Also i met some very nice people that to this day i still have relationships with (friends). One such is a friend i met named Ashlee (yes its a girl). Believe it or not, as it may seem "nerdy" we are boath considered "popular" in our schools, and we talk to eachother almost everyday (for 3 years now). I can truely call her my best friend and i can truely say she knows me better than anybody, even my parents. -------- So to sum it all up: Kids who play mmorpg's arent necessarily "nerds" Mmorpg's can teach many valuable life lessons Mmorpg's are social games (in nature) and can open the window to new friendships Mmorpg's also are great entertainment if theres nothing to do! (winter ofcourse) Mmorpg's are also a great way to have fun with friends (in real life) that have moved away. -------- So thats my perspective, a 14 year old, i hope you enjoyed it, and sorry for the length. ~LuckyPotato ~Josh
Well, i dont know but i cant imagine that there is "nothing to do". But i remember well that with 14-15 i did watch a lot TV but went also 2x a week from 8-10 pm doing Karate sports, internet didnt exist in this time dont forget. I did collect stamps (really lol) and i did start using a photo camera (but not that often). I was a lot outside too but honestly there wasnt that much time like i had on college. School did start at 8 am and my busride at 6:50 am, came back home at 2:30 around, you do your homework get outside a bit or meet friends, dinner and the day is gone already almost. Thats getting worse if you have your fulltime job later on, you stand up and come back for dinner more or less. With the age from 16-18, I did do a lot sports (did street bycyle and mountainbiking races) and met friends at 16 i did start going out in nightclubs at weekend sometimes, with 18 i did start playing guitar and selfmade didgeridoo sometimes lol. I didnt have any pc at this time, bought my first pc when i was 23 around but played amiga when i was 10-12 but not endless hours...well you had games like pacman, digdug or frogger, doom lol. All i can say is that socializing was always fun and is important, mmorpgs doesnt teach you what you need for life.
Scenario: OPs Kid Comes Home From School, im going to name the OPs kid Bobby. Bobby:hey dad, can i go play "Insert MMO" OP:no Bobby you have to do your homework and then go to "instert Sport" Practice Bobby:why cant i do something i enjoy after i do my homework? OP:i dont want you to play an MMO like me, and become addicted Bobby:then why do you play MMOs daddy? OP:because i lived my teenage years the way i was supposed to doing drugs, drinking and driving, getting into trouble all the time,etc Bobby:so once i do that i can play MMOs? OP:yes son once you do that you can play MMOs Scenario Over The point was only letting your kid(s) play the wii of all things only on weekends, is the cruelest thing in the world, srsly. Learn to let your kids do things they enjoy so what they come home do their homework and then play WoW or EVE, for a few hours woopty fucking doo
This is a good troll post, this shows just how childish you are. this is why i said my post was directed toward adults. Did I say how Old my children were? If I told you my oldest was nine and youngest was five would I still be an asshole for monitoring what my children did? Considering that my children are reading and doing math about three grades above whats considered average at their age range I feel that i'm doing a good job.
Unlike todays brats, my children are into Art, sports, dancing and socializing with my friends children. They don't beg me to play a god damn MMO and my children have respect and would Never! Ever! talk to me the way your scenario played out. How you could even type out that scenario just shows the lack of parenting skills your own parents had. You bring up me letting my kids play the Wii on the weekends? little man, my children would rather me take them out then even bother playing it. I still have that stupid mario game box in the wrapper my son wont even bother with it.
Oh and to the idiot that agreed with your shitty scenario, just shows how many children I attracted with my thread.
[15] actually my parents were and still are great parents, they dont need to monitor me because i do what im suppose to do. they dont have to worry about me having unprotected sex, doing drugs, getting drunk, etc, etc because i rather sit infront of my computer 6+ hours straight and play an MMO or play CoD5 on XboxLive then getting into any kind of trouble, yeah i may play MMOs alot but im still doing good in working toward my future career. And playing MMOs is helping me toward that. Plus playing MMOs is an incentive to doing good in school, and not doing drugs. and you being so uptight is going to cause some serious problems in yer relationship with your kids, and when that happens you'll be asking yourself why...
"Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force" The Original Jedi Code
Scenario: OPs Kid Comes Home From School, im going to name the OPs kid Bobby. Bobby:hey dad, can i go play "Insert MMO" OP:no Bobby you have to do your homework and then go to "instert Sport" Practice Bobby:why cant i do something i enjoy after i do my homework? OP:i dont want you to play an MMO like me, and become addicted Bobby:then why do you play MMOs daddy? OP:because i lived my teenage years the way i was supposed to doing drugs, drinking and driving, getting into trouble all the time,etc Bobby:so once i do that i can play MMOs? OP:yes son once you do that you can play MMOs Scenario Over The point was only letting your kid(s) play the wii of all things only on weekends, is the cruelest thing in the world, srsly. Learn to let your kids do things they enjoy so what they come home do their homework and then play WoW or EVE, for a few hours woopty fucking doo
This is a good troll post, this shows just how childish you are. this is why i said my post was directed toward adults. Did I say how Old my children were? If I told you my oldest was nine and youngest was five would I still be an asshole for monitoring what my children did? Considering that my children are reading and doing math about three grades above whats considered average at their age range I feel that i'm doing a good job.
Unlike todays brats, my children are into Art, sports, dancing and socializing with my friends children. They don't beg me to play a god damn MMO and my children have respect and would Never! Ever! talk to me the way your scenario played out. How you could even type out that scenario just shows the lack of parenting skills your own parents had. You bring up me letting my kids play the Wii on the weekends? little man, my children would rather me take them out then even bother playing it. I still have that stupid mario game box in the wrapper my son wont even bother with it.
Oh and to the idiot that agreed with your shitty scenario, just shows how many children I attracted with my thread.
[15] actually my parents were and still are great parents, they dont need to monitor me because i do what im suppose to do. they dont have to worry about me having unprotected sex, doing drugs, getting drunk, etc, etc because i rather sit infront of my computer 6+ hours straight and play an MMO or play CoD5 on XboxLive then getting into any kind of trouble, yeah i may play MMOs alot but im still doing good in working toward my future career. And playing MMOs is helping me toward that. Plus playing MMOs is an incentive to doing good in school, and not doing drugs. and you being so uptight is going to cause some serious problems in yer relationship with your kids, and when that happens you'll be asking yourself why...
Well i disagree to a certain point here, since this sounds a lot carebeer like. Some of the points you mention will confront you later if not now, since you wont sit always at home and playing mmos. It depends on yourself if you taking drugs, forget a condome or taking alkohol - this is called responsibility and you are not protected from them doesnt matter which age. It depends also what friends you have and you decide this too. As a teenager you start to go out, meeting friends, socialize and getting first steps towards the other gender. This will happen anyway sooner or later, so you cant hide from that.
So instead of playing games or posting here, I should go to something outside? Right. It's 4 degrees outside right now. That's 4 Farenheit, not Celsius. What am I supposed to do outside right now? Get frostbite?
The childhood memories is something one wants to remember for ones whole life, one thing i DONT remember is sitting indoors and playing all the time.
For the adult people that are playing and wasting 10-15 hours a day on a game, i bet one wouldent be too happy on the deathbed knowing that the only thing one has done in life is to waste it on games.
I'm 27 - been playing video games since the Atari 2600 and computers since Intel 486 MHz.
I agree and am worried about the future of children. Heck, I'm even worried with my friends that stayed on raiding on Christmas and New Year's Eve...
Still, I don't have a good answer for that - if I were a kid today, I'd want to stay on the PC all the time... the only option I see would be to raise my kids in a backwater city, with no broadband connection... But that's not gonna happen. I guess we'll have to wait until the negative effects surface and society decides to take action... Like when Apple introduced the volume control on its Ipods to protect itself from lawsuits against deaf fools... I mean, since long I'd heard listening to loud music could damage your ears - and we only had Walkmans by then...
Been playing games since the Atari 2600, Nintendo and early Intel rigs. I love to game! Thing is I had a good father that made me play sports. I picked the ones I wanted to play and have very found memories of doing so. I went to parties and such had a great time and played the hell out of Diablo on the week ends. I also grill the younger guys who choose to play on Friday night vice going to the clubs or parties. I give them hell for it, a few actually go out and thank me for it the ones who don’t well I guess it really isn’t their thing.
I am almost 30 and have to step back and really look at how things have changed. Parents do not care for the most part, no one is around to guide these young men and women and a fair amount of these young people make the choice to game. I have 2 young children and building a rig for my oldest B-Day. She wants a pink cooler master case lol! But when I see her sitting around for hours I throw her ass outside. I live in an area I can do that without watching my kids like a hawk, most people do not.
If you are truly concerned about the younger generation you play with try and mentor them a bit. Some like I said will be very receptive to it. Others may just tell you this is what they choose to do, but may be open to other suggestions you make. The gamers in our age bracket owe it to the younger adults to pass on the advice they may not get from others. Really how many 25-30 year olds talked openly and with out judgment to you when you were 15-23? Not many. That is my suggestion.
"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". No one can stop anyone from pursuing happiness, but life and liberty are said to only exist if they are deliberately sought and paid for".
I'm 40+ (ahem) and my memories of youth (under 18) were mostly of boredom. I occupied my time with board games and TV, and when a teenager, spent a lot of time hanging around places I shouldn't have which resulted in inevitable brushes with the law, fights with other groups etc. (Didn't win any awards for scholarship either) Ran part time jobs from the time I was 11 (paper-boy) just to occupy my time. So the good ole days were not so good.
Now a real world example, my 16 year old son. I first introduced him to MMORPG's with Lineage 1, followed thereafter by DAOC. Being pretty young at the time, (8) he never really quite "got" the games, I had to mentor him through and at no point did he ever really get a high level character, as he didn't have the persistance. Other activities would draw him away.
Well, about the time he turned 12, WOW came out, and he really started to hit his stride with MMO's. While I grouped with him for his first 60, and then we raided Molten Core and BWL together when they first came out, very quickly he surpassed me.
All through this time he maintained decent grades, (not straight A's) and we never let him get too carried away with things. Maybe he'd have been a better student w/o MMO's, but I doubt it, he's much like his father, not acadmemically enthusiastic, and prefers to live life a bit easier.
He went on to raid the highest level instances in the game, defeating AQ 40 and was fighting the four horsemen when he too burned out on raiding, and couldn't devote the time to it.
Last 2 years he's played WOW pretty casually, mostly to PVP in the BG's and arena, and of course, whenever an expansion has come out, to level up and get new gear.
At 16, he definitely has other interests (aka 'girls') so his game time has dropped way down (actually started when he was 15).
Now that he can drive (one of the first among his friends) he's become quite popular, and WOW time has gone down exponentially.
In fact, in a weird turnabout, since High school starts so early, he generally goes to bed before 10:00 pm most weekdays, and even on weekends, no more gaming sessions until dawn.
All through the years when he was playing MMO's we always knew where he was, he never got in trouble like some of the neighborhood children have , the police never showed up at my door (unlike said neighbor kids) and overall I think he's growing up to be a fine, productive citizen. (except for the dreadlocks, not sure where he came up with that hairstyle concept)
Can MMO's be abused by children (and adults) to the detriment of school, work or social life? Of course, but with careful guidance, it can be controlled with no ill long term effects.
(unless you are trying to raise some sort of child movie star, professional athlete or Rhodes Scholar, then I suppose you should keep the kids away from them)
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
This post is directed at the older gamers, the ones in the 21- 40+ age range. I know im not the only one thats noticed this. The young kids playing mmos hardcore. They get home at 3 and play MMOs until its time to goto bed. Hell some actually lie to thier parents and stay up way passed to raid or do other mmo activity. I hear these kids go on and on how thier grades are getting worse, how they never had a GF/BF before. They don't go out and chill or play a sport. When I was younger I didnt really pay attention to the kids playing these games, now that im a father it kind of scares me a bit to think these kids are missing out on life like this. I don't know what type of person I would be if I missed out on my entire childhood like alot of these kids. The parties, the sex, the sports and bonding with my friends. Just imagine if you thought back on your childhood when ur 30 and all you could remember was a raid or a certain character you played 24/7. Its freaking sad, really. What do you guys think? I know we all played videogames when we were younger but we also made time for other things, we didn't have MMOs that required commitments like second jobs then. Do you think these games are damaging these children in anyway? I think about this as a parent. My children are all either into dancing or sports and are only allowed to play Wii on the weekends. But some of these kids don't have parents to guide them, makes me think these games are hurting these kids. Anyway, thanks for reading. Just something i was wondering about, Let me know what you guys think.
To be honest, I dont know any kids, so I cant say for anything but hearsay. But what I see is the impression that kids today spent way less time outside than I did when I was a kid. Ok, back then, there WERE no computers, lol, I was 15 or so when the Commodore C64 came and I got one, and I sure didnt spent all my spare time at it, even though I was a computer nerd relatively speaking back then. What I observe here with kids in Germany is that parents allow their kids much less freedom to go out a roam at their own leisure. When I was kid in the late 70ies /early 80ies we just went out and were out of sight the entire day. Today, parents even drive their 12 year old kids to school with car. I never was driven to school! Heck, I even made a railroad trip to my Aunt when I was 13 all alone! It wasnt so hard, but I see kids today are kinda over-protected and overly held inside the house, so its not all their fault.
I see that as a dangerous development. Kids need to have physical experiences, they need to go outside and not sit in front of a computer all day long. Partially kids today are way too focussed on computers and doing stuff in the house, but thats also partial the parents fault, maybe just shove them off that way, glad to be rid of them, when they are at some monitor or screen. A sad development.
Children NEED outside experience, they need to exhaust their body, they need to do stuff with real people in the real world to learn something about themselves, about the world and about social bonding which you can not learn inside a computer or video game. So its balderdash to say people 20+ also waste away their time in front of the computer or TV. Thats sad enough, but kids still need to grow and learn things. They end up "socially dumb", and you can see where that leads us to already. Too many sociopaths out there. Kids need to run around and take a little bloody knee or stuff. They need to be out, play soccer (or whatever is fashion in your part of the globe), get a bit rough, play hide and seek, experience nature's seasons asf. Childhood just isnt healthy otherwise.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Comments
Fuck yeah dude and adults are also wasting their life in general. I don't buy them as much as I used to. Infact, I come to the forums more to check out the screenshots and topics. I still like creative zones, cool looking maps,and stuff that makes the game fun in short stints, like a well written storyline.
I play EVE online because I do not have to kill myself playing it. I think in about 94 days I'll have everything I want combat wise for the game. I pvp about 2-3 times a week for a total of about 2 hours and then about 1 hour ratting.
The reason I cut about 99% of the game, was because as stated above, it is a waste. I was becoming out of shape, and people I trained with were saying, what the hell guy I never see you train at the academy anymore.
So I decided at that point my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was WAYYYY more important. I then competed at the WORLDS in LA taking bronze. To do it, I had to dump WOW. This was the best thing I could have done. I also had to dump AOC and WAR.
I figure if you play the games for more then 2.5 hours a night 7 days a week there is a problem. I mean those are hours you will never get back and you have nothing to show for. So know I'm looking at doing a Triathlon which I know will be HELL ON EARTH, but I figure I need a challenge and am gonna just go for it, even if it is gonna take me 6 months to get ready.
Don't get me wrong MMO's are cool, you have a ton of people and a lot of neat things to see, but they suck your life, and give you a false sense of accomplishment. I figure these days, the screenshots/ forums on mmorpg.com, along with EVE are just enough for my gaming needs.
Now getting back to the original topic, yeah kids are wasting their youth, I thing most guys on the forums that game in thier mid 20's 30's remember going out when they were 13-14 trying to impress girls, Hanging out at a friends place playing guitar, going to an arcade, playing soccer/football. Now it's like 4-7 hours of raiding and soon we will see teen candidates for cardiac arrests.
Are yoots wasting away thier childhood playing MMOGs? YES!!
No one under the age of 21 should be playing MMOGs...ever!
^ That shows exactly how I feel about it.
I'm not a parent but I'm in the 20+ range that was mentioned and I'd say its up to the parent to decide...personally I'd let my kids play games.
Too much videogames in general has that same effect and I'm sure most people could find something better to do then playing games, but if someone wants to spend their time playing its their right....end of story.
Make games you want to play.
http://www.youtube.com/user/RavikAztar
I'd have to agree with this.
Video games have just become the de facto form of entertainment for this generation.
All things in moderation people.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
100 years ago youths were wasting their lives chatting on the telephone and killing themselves in their new Model Ts.
80 years ago immoral young people were wasting their lives listening to Jazz and wearing shorter skirts.
50 years ago youths were wasting their lives listening to rock and roll.
20 years ago youths were wasting their lives playing 8-bit Nintendo games.
10 years ago youths were wasting their lives on SMS messaging.
Four years ago youths were wasting their lives on Myspace & Facebook.
See: New Media Are Evil. This happens anytime anything new and reasonably popular comes about - a bunch of people jump on the bandwagon and a bunch of other peoply decry it as the end of civilization.
I am a father myself so I can somewhat relate to your concerns, Metalhead, and as well as the point of the topic of this thread.
Many of you have made valid and sensible reasoning in your replies. I myself also feel that no matter what age you are, young and old, having balance is the key quality to maintain. Dedicating certain time spent on each area and aspect of your life as well as your kids, is made by your own discretion. That doesn't mean one should limit their time playing MMOs because Joe Smith from work lost his job, had a nervous breakdown, and got kicked out of his home because of playing the same amount of hours that you currently do. The same applies for your kids, what may be suitable for your kids and the time spent playing MMOs, may not be the same for someone else's kids.
Everyone is different. Therefore, time spent playing MMOs one may consider it "wasting away their childhood." But to another it may simply be a minor hobby they enjoy that keeps them out of trouble with drugs, violence, and such. It is all in how you percieve it that makes you come to your own conclusion.
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The views expressed in this post are solely those of my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of pyromaniacs.
I am 15. I manage my playing time for my MMO's. I have friends, play sports, play the guitar, party, etc. Yet there are some people who I know that spend countless hours on games. I resort to my MMO's late at night or when Im not doing anything else. I think its just as much of a waste of time if your 10 or 100, age doesn't matter. I am not an adult, so I can't really say anything about adulthood, but I think that its all the same.
Well, when you print this as vague and broad sweeping an indictment of the "young kids" playing mmo's as if this is the average, you're bound to get slammed. You just see this with your critical eye and print it as if this is the reality.
Kids today multitask WAY more than we did when we were kids. When kids were growing up when I did, we were pretty simple kids. Sports, school, maybe job, go home; that was about it.
Today's kids have so much of a bigger world than we ever did, but you make it seem like they are all the kids you see in the malls and filling up high school events are figments of someone's imagination. Computers, sports, cellphones, college prep stuff that starts in 6th grade, community stuff to put in resumes, etc. Most parents nowadays are trying to turn their kids into taxpaying adults before they even hit puberty. I'm glad I grew up at a time when the world was slow. We didn't have to do all that crap.
You GOT to give today's kids much more credit than you are painting here. Your post looks like "Crotchety old man" syndrome if you read it again. You might see it sounds as if you're the "Git off my Lawn!" guy.
"TO MICHAEL!"
Well, heres how i see it (a 14 year old)
Around here, where i live, there is absolutly NOTHING to do, and i mean NOTHING. No mall, no beach, nothing.
During times like now in the winter theres even less to do..really the only thing you can do is go shopping (my parents arent exactly in that type of finantial income to go shopping every week) or play video games.. so yes i do spend most of my day playing video games or surfing the web when theres nothing to do.
Otherwise, if one of my friends is having a party, or if my friends want to go hangout, sure, ofcourse ill go and chill with them. Dont get me wrong, in the least "bragy" way.. i am popular in school. Everyone thinks that gamers are "nerds" and "nerds" only have ''nerdy'' friends.
This is not the case in my school. Theres so little to do around here almost everyone has a console or plays mmo's or rts' ext ext.
Sure, some who may not know me (very few) may consider me a "nerd". But all my other friends call me far from such.
I go to parties all the time, hangout all the time
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now i will say something else about mmorpg's for the young kids
i started playing mmorpg's around 11 out of bordem and my friends telling me to try this game called "Runescape" (yes i know now that the games shit..but admit it YOU probably played RS when you were a little kid too)
And i do not regret playing mmo's, mmo's have tought me MANY life lessons, such as how to advoid scamming, how to deal with annoying/insane/crazy people (noobs), how to stay calm under pressure, how to manage anger/frustration ext and many other life lessons.
Also i met some very nice people that to this day i still have relationships with (friends). One such is a friend i met named Ashlee (yes its a girl). Believe it or not, as it may seem "nerdy" we are boath considered "popular" in our schools, and we talk to eachother almost everyday (for 3 years now). I can truely call her my best friend and i can truely say she knows me better than anybody, even my parents.
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So to sum it all up:
Kids who play mmorpg's arent necessarily "nerds"
Mmorpg's can teach many valuable life lessons
Mmorpg's are social games (in nature) and can open the window to new friendships
Mmorpg's also are great entertainment if theres nothing to do! (winter ofcourse)
Mmorpg's are also a great way to have fun with friends (in real life) that have moved away.
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So thats my perspective, a 14 year old, i hope you enjoyed it, and sorry for the length.
~LuckyPotato
~Josh
-sigh- another igorant parent
Let me tell you something MY PARENTS tought me, from ther PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
Parents who limit there kids, who PREACH stuff on there kids that they dont nesseciarly understand or like, end up..well not so well
This is how my dad puts it: "All the kids that i remember from school whos parents pushed them into academics.. were over-protective..pushed there kids into sports..ext.. well.. they all go crazy after they get out of school. Its not there fault, its there parents fault. There parents didnt let them do anything so at the time when they get out of school they go crazy with everything that they felt they missed out about to the point where they do it more than any regular kid who did the same thing. Ive seen many examples of this, mostly involving over-protective parents and kids who when they get out of school, go straight into hardcore drug usage and mess up their entire lives."
Now tell me my dads wrong. The simple fact that i even see, a 14 year old boy, is that if you keep kids from the truth, and not let them go experiment and understand for themselves, they will not know what to do with themselves wonce the parent isnt there. They will not understand WHY it is wrong to do ___ and eventually do it because of there curiosity due to that there parents protected them from it!
I hope you can understand what im saying..as its not an easy topic to describe
But inshort, let kids experience..beind kids, let them get hurt, let them do stupid things, as this is the way humans are rigged to LEARN.
Ill tell you right now that i do have friends who did drugs, who started drinking, around the age of 12-13. And i will tell you now that (most) of them swear they would never do it again, because they LEARNED from it.
And i think we can all agree that you learn the most when you learn something the hard way.
I, a 14 year old, have never seen so many ignorant parents in my life, and thats the truth.
It all boils down to kids need to spend their time doing something......I would rather have my kid staying home on a Friday/Saturday night playing video games witha couple friends than out partying or getting into trouble.......As long as it doesnt become too consuming to the point where they never go outside or do anything else then I dont see too much harm in letting them play........
Well, better MMOs than stroking and naming their carbine rifles. I vote for them to have MMOs.
"TO MICHAEL!"
not absolutely so . Since through playing mmorpg, children can make friends with the same class
it benefits them to this point
First of all, I don't Video gaming is healthy at all, in any sort or fashion. You avoid real life, and you are very physically inactive. You ever wondered why the youth of modern nations are so durn overweight and not very sociable? The answer is poor diets, and lack of excercise. Heck, you don't even have to take a real P.E. class in school anymore. Humans are biologically social and active beings, and being inactive and anti-social (sorry but chatting online isn't being social) Having good health requires you to be physically active! Why do you think diet pills don't work but excercise does?
If you ever go to the movies on a friday night, just look how many children and kids are overweight. WHy do you think there are so many TV ads, and magazine ads about these new "active youth programs". Nobody ever heard of these until recently. Hell I just saw one with some NFL star urging kids to go outside, and play football. It's really sad to be honest.
It's all about how you parent your kids and using the excuse of video games over drugs is just an excuse for poor parenting.
Well, i dont know but i cant imagine that there is "nothing to do". But i remember well that with 14-15 i did watch a lot TV but went also 2x a week from 8-10 pm doing Karate sports, internet didnt exist in this time dont forget. I did collect stamps (really lol) and i did start using a photo camera (but not that often). I was a lot outside too but honestly there wasnt that much time like i had on college. School did start at 8 am and my busride at 6:50 am, came back home at 2:30 around, you do your homework get outside a bit or meet friends, dinner and the day is gone already almost. Thats getting worse if you have your fulltime job later on, you stand up and come back for dinner more or less. With the age from 16-18, I did do a lot sports (did street bycyle and mountainbiking races) and met friends at 16 i did start going out in nightclubs at weekend sometimes, with 18 i did start playing guitar and selfmade didgeridoo sometimes lol. I didnt have any pc at this time, bought my first pc when i was 23 around but played amiga when i was 10-12 but not endless hours...well you had games like pacman, digdug or frogger, doom lol. All i can say is that socializing was always fun and is important, mmorpgs doesnt teach you what you need for life.
This is a good troll post, this shows just how childish you are. this is why i said my post was directed toward adults. Did I say how Old my children were? If I told you my oldest was nine and youngest was five would I still be an asshole for monitoring what my children did? Considering that my children are reading and doing math about three grades above whats considered average at their age range I feel that i'm doing a good job.
Unlike todays brats, my children are into Art, sports, dancing and socializing with my friends children. They don't beg me to play a god damn MMO and my children have respect and would Never! Ever! talk to me the way your scenario played out. How you could even type out that scenario just shows the lack of parenting skills your own parents had. You bring up me letting my kids play the Wii on the weekends? little man, my children would rather me take them out then even bother playing it. I still have that stupid mario game box in the wrapper my son wont even bother with it.
Oh and to the idiot that agreed with your shitty scenario, just shows how many children I attracted with my thread.
[15] actually my parents were and still are great parents, they dont need to monitor me because i do what im suppose to do. they dont have to worry about me having unprotected sex, doing drugs, getting drunk, etc, etc because i rather sit infront of my computer 6+ hours straight and play an MMO or play CoD5 on XboxLive then getting into any kind of trouble, yeah i may play MMOs alot but im still doing good in working toward my future career. And playing MMOs is helping me toward that. Plus playing MMOs is an incentive to doing good in school, and not doing drugs. and you being so uptight is going to cause some serious problems in yer relationship with your kids, and when that happens you'll be asking yourself why...
"Emotion, yet peace.
Ignorance, yet knowledge.
Passion, yet serenity.
Chaos, yet harmony.
Death, yet the Force"
The Original Jedi Code
This is a good troll post, this shows just how childish you are. this is why i said my post was directed toward adults. Did I say how Old my children were? If I told you my oldest was nine and youngest was five would I still be an asshole for monitoring what my children did? Considering that my children are reading and doing math about three grades above whats considered average at their age range I feel that i'm doing a good job.
Unlike todays brats, my children are into Art, sports, dancing and socializing with my friends children. They don't beg me to play a god damn MMO and my children have respect and would Never! Ever! talk to me the way your scenario played out. How you could even type out that scenario just shows the lack of parenting skills your own parents had. You bring up me letting my kids play the Wii on the weekends? little man, my children would rather me take them out then even bother playing it. I still have that stupid mario game box in the wrapper my son wont even bother with it.
Oh and to the idiot that agreed with your shitty scenario, just shows how many children I attracted with my thread.
[15] actually my parents were and still are great parents, they dont need to monitor me because i do what im suppose to do. they dont have to worry about me having unprotected sex, doing drugs, getting drunk, etc, etc because i rather sit infront of my computer 6+ hours straight and play an MMO or play CoD5 on XboxLive then getting into any kind of trouble, yeah i may play MMOs alot but im still doing good in working toward my future career. And playing MMOs is helping me toward that. Plus playing MMOs is an incentive to doing good in school, and not doing drugs. and you being so uptight is going to cause some serious problems in yer relationship with your kids, and when that happens you'll be asking yourself why...
Well i disagree to a certain point here, since this sounds a lot carebeer like. Some of the points you mention will confront you later if not now, since you wont sit always at home and playing mmos. It depends on yourself if you taking drugs, forget a condome or taking alkohol - this is called responsibility and you are not protected from them doesnt matter which age. It depends also what friends you have and you decide this too. As a teenager you start to go out, meeting friends, socialize and getting first steps towards the other gender. This will happen anyway sooner or later, so you cant hide from that.
So instead of playing games or posting here, I should go to something outside? Right. It's 4 degrees outside right now. That's 4 Farenheit, not Celsius. What am I supposed to do outside right now? Get frostbite?
The childhood memories is something one wants to remember for ones whole life, one thing i DONT remember is sitting indoors and playing all the time.
For the adult people that are playing and wasting 10-15 hours a day on a game, i bet one wouldent be too happy on the deathbed knowing that the only thing one has done in life is to waste it on games.
I'm 27 - been playing video games since the Atari 2600 and computers since Intel 486 MHz.
I agree and am worried about the future of children. Heck, I'm even worried with my friends that stayed on raiding on Christmas and New Year's Eve...
Still, I don't have a good answer for that - if I were a kid today, I'd want to stay on the PC all the time... the only option I see would be to raise my kids in a backwater city, with no broadband connection... But that's not gonna happen. I guess we'll have to wait until the negative effects surface and society decides to take action... Like when Apple introduced the volume control on its Ipods to protect itself from lawsuits against deaf fools... I mean, since long I'd heard listening to loud music could damage your ears - and we only had Walkmans by then...
I hope they are or old farts like me will never be able to fill a raid group.
To err is human....to play is divine
Been playing games since the Atari 2600, Nintendo and early Intel rigs. I love to game! Thing is I had a good father that made me play sports. I picked the ones I wanted to play and have very found memories of doing so. I went to parties and such had a great time and played the hell out of Diablo on the week ends. I also grill the younger guys who choose to play on Friday night vice going to the clubs or parties. I give them hell for it, a few actually go out and thank me for it the ones who don’t well I guess it really isn’t their thing.
I am almost 30 and have to step back and really look at how things have changed. Parents do not care for the most part, no one is around to guide these young men and women and a fair amount of these young people make the choice to game. I have 2 young children and building a rig for my oldest B-Day. She wants a pink cooler master case lol! But when I see her sitting around for hours I throw her ass outside. I live in an area I can do that without watching my kids like a hawk, most people do not.
If you are truly concerned about the younger generation you play with try and mentor them a bit. Some like I said will be very receptive to it. Others may just tell you this is what they choose to do, but may be open to other suggestions you make. The gamers in our age bracket owe it to the younger adults to pass on the advice they may not get from others. Really how many 25-30 year olds talked openly and with out judgment to you when you were 15-23? Not many. That is my suggestion.
"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". No one can stop anyone from pursuing happiness, but life and liberty are said to only exist if they are deliberately sought and paid for".
I'm 40+ (ahem) and my memories of youth (under 18) were mostly of boredom. I occupied my time with board games and TV, and when a teenager, spent a lot of time hanging around places I shouldn't have which resulted in inevitable brushes with the law, fights with other groups etc. (Didn't win any awards for scholarship either) Ran part time jobs from the time I was 11 (paper-boy) just to occupy my time. So the good ole days were not so good.
Now a real world example, my 16 year old son. I first introduced him to MMORPG's with Lineage 1, followed thereafter by DAOC. Being pretty young at the time, (8) he never really quite "got" the games, I had to mentor him through and at no point did he ever really get a high level character, as he didn't have the persistance. Other activities would draw him away.
Well, about the time he turned 12, WOW came out, and he really started to hit his stride with MMO's. While I grouped with him for his first 60, and then we raided Molten Core and BWL together when they first came out, very quickly he surpassed me.
All through this time he maintained decent grades, (not straight A's) and we never let him get too carried away with things. Maybe he'd have been a better student w/o MMO's, but I doubt it, he's much like his father, not acadmemically enthusiastic, and prefers to live life a bit easier.
He went on to raid the highest level instances in the game, defeating AQ 40 and was fighting the four horsemen when he too burned out on raiding, and couldn't devote the time to it.
Last 2 years he's played WOW pretty casually, mostly to PVP in the BG's and arena, and of course, whenever an expansion has come out, to level up and get new gear.
At 16, he definitely has other interests (aka 'girls') so his game time has dropped way down (actually started when he was 15).
Now that he can drive (one of the first among his friends) he's become quite popular, and WOW time has gone down exponentially.
In fact, in a weird turnabout, since High school starts so early, he generally goes to bed before 10:00 pm most weekdays, and even on weekends, no more gaming sessions until dawn.
All through the years when he was playing MMO's we always knew where he was, he never got in trouble like some of the neighborhood children have , the police never showed up at my door (unlike said neighbor kids) and overall I think he's growing up to be a fine, productive citizen. (except for the dreadlocks, not sure where he came up with that hairstyle concept)
Can MMO's be abused by children (and adults) to the detriment of school, work or social life? Of course, but with careful guidance, it can be controlled with no ill long term effects.
(unless you are trying to raise some sort of child movie star, professional athlete or Rhodes Scholar, then I suppose you should keep the kids away from them)
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
To be honest, I dont know any kids, so I cant say for anything but hearsay. But what I see is the impression that kids today spent way less time outside than I did when I was a kid. Ok, back then, there WERE no computers, lol, I was 15 or so when the Commodore C64 came and I got one, and I sure didnt spent all my spare time at it, even though I was a computer nerd relatively speaking back then. What I observe here with kids in Germany is that parents allow their kids much less freedom to go out a roam at their own leisure. When I was kid in the late 70ies /early 80ies we just went out and were out of sight the entire day. Today, parents even drive their 12 year old kids to school with car. I never was driven to school! Heck, I even made a railroad trip to my Aunt when I was 13 all alone! It wasnt so hard, but I see kids today are kinda over-protected and overly held inside the house, so its not all their fault.
I see that as a dangerous development. Kids need to have physical experiences, they need to go outside and not sit in front of a computer all day long. Partially kids today are way too focussed on computers and doing stuff in the house, but thats also partial the parents fault, maybe just shove them off that way, glad to be rid of them, when they are at some monitor or screen. A sad development.
Children NEED outside experience, they need to exhaust their body, they need to do stuff with real people in the real world to learn something about themselves, about the world and about social bonding which you can not learn inside a computer or video game. So its balderdash to say people 20+ also waste away their time in front of the computer or TV. Thats sad enough, but kids still need to grow and learn things. They end up "socially dumb", and you can see where that leads us to already. Too many sociopaths out there. Kids need to run around and take a little bloody knee or stuff. They need to be out, play soccer (or whatever is fashion in your part of the globe), get a bit rough, play hide and seek, experience nature's seasons asf. Childhood just isnt healthy otherwise.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert