The game is rated Teen but from the bits of the Empire story I have seen many responsible parents would want to limit their children's exposure to it.
Yeah, it is almost as bad as that Hannah Montana...
Really, even tweens watch a lot worse stuff on TV. While I agree that parents needs to spend time with their kinds and explain stuff like violence in media and so on very few teens would get issues with the stuff in TOR.
If you think your kid might however the best option really would be playing with him or her and explain the stuff as you play.
Trying to shelter you kid too much tends to backfire rather nasty in many cases.
It is of course you as a parents that decide when your kid is grown up enough to play the game but chances are that he/she will play at friends houses instead otherwise. If you explain things the right way the game will not hurt the kid the least even if he is 13.
Gee, I always take moral advice from someone named Thunderballs.
brilliant!
On a serious note though, teens are exposed to far worse even in school. Last time I checked kids in secondary school are taught about things like ww1 and ww2. No game can ever be as dark as history itself and I would not worry one bit if my kid was playing empire in swtor (although I would be slightly amazed as he is 2 and more interested in spinning around than mmo's )
This argument has been repeated multile times in this thread. It is irrelevent to the topic.
If you think parents are ignorant to the rest of their childrens world, you are wrong. It's silly to suggest otherwise.
It's like this: Before you have kids, you think you know everything, you look at parents and judge them saying how you would do it "right". After you have kids, you realize that you know almost nothing when it comes to being a parent, and you have to adjust your attitudes, and pre-misconceptions to fit with reality.
I always thought I would be a 'cool' parent and let my kids to whatever I did. As it turns out, the only things I want my kids doing that I did is listening to Led Zeppelin and playing video games. Pretty much everything else I did is off the table. If Metallica was still cool, they could listen to that too if they wanted.
If a video game brings up moral gray areas and decisions that you have to think about, then I'm all for it. People are worried about the decisions you have to make, but the important bit is why your kids come up with the answers they come up with. The most likely thing is that it gets them more 'dark side' points, not because they are a psychopath in training.
My daughter, while playing Deux Ex killed an entire precinct full of cops in what we've dubbed 'The Massacre'. I'm not worried that she's going to go out and start murdering people because she recognizes the difference between a game and reality.
Ya exactly, and I am with you on the Zeppelin, but my son loves The Clash, which I am quite ok with because they are my favourite punk era band.
My son picked BH as his first char, and there were a few times where I could see he was really thinking about the consequences ( he mostly chose to be a good guy, but sometimes he went for the dark side to see what it was like). I think that is a brilliant design btw.
Governments send 16 year olds off to warzones, but it's to young to play a mildly violent game? The world is crazy.
Tbf I'm pretty sure the op would be against sending his kids off to war aswell. It's not about priority, it's about a point of view. We are being asked to judge a game based on the standards of the op, when the more useful perspective should be to judge the standards of the op first.
----- The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
Honestly if you think that your young child is not mature enough to be playing an open chat online game then either tell them no OR PLAY IT WITH THEM. There is a frankly astonishing fact that this could be a great opportunity to play with your child, develop a rapport with them and lay the ground work for a solid healthy relationship with them. It also allows you to explain the differences between a game and real life and to help steer them from the random general chat humor that may offend them or upset them. If a child can be shown that it is make believe they have no issues separating a tv/book/game from reality. Involved parents rule.
Honestly if you think that your young child is not mature enough to be playing an open chat online game then either tell them no OR PLAY IT WITH THEM. There is a frankly astonishing fact that this could be a great opportunity to play with your child, develop a rapport with them and lay the ground work for a solid healthy relationship with them. It also allows you to explain the differences between a game and real life and to help steer them from the random general chat humor that may offend them or upset them. If a child can be shown that it is make believe they have no issues separating a tv/book/game from reality. Involved parents rule.
I am going to save this to a .doc file and share it with all my (few) friends. Three cheers and a +1 trophy of shininess for you.
I believe in the philosophy that kids need parents to be parents. If a game, tv program, movies, party is questionable, then the parents need to restrict it from the kid. The problem in today's society is that many parents don't do this. I don't view SWTOR as anything exceptionally bad, so I don't see a problem. But parents need to make that choice for their kids.
Indeed.
What parent is going to sit through "200 hours" of storyline to decide if it is appropriate for their - I am aot a A grade achieving under 18 year old, that thinks they have seen it all, and know it all, just becasue they have seen "stuff" on the net or watched some films etc ?
Some rely on the ESRB rating others wont care then they wonder why little billy didnt get grade A in his exams.
"Beleive me - it is BETTER if underage person see that bad things happen cause of choices you make, than it is just bad things."
With Empire goodthings happen when you make morally reprehensible choices (yes I know). Is this right for for an educatrionally underachieving 13-17 year old with relatively poor parents ?
I'd set through it if I was really that concerned about it.
That's called being responsible.
I used to play MMOs like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
If you think TOR is dark and not for kids, then take a look at most games they play on consoles or the tv shows they watch... On another side, take a look at what they do at school or when they're with friends, now i bet you'll see stuff that you wouldn't think possible in a XXX or Scifi movie.
This argument has been repeated multile times in this thread. It is irrelevent to the topic.
If you think parents are ignorant to the rest of their childrens world, you are wrong. It's silly to suggest otherwise.
It's like this: Before you have kids, you think you know everything, you look at parents and judge them saying how you would do it "right". After you have kids, you realize that you know almost nothing when it comes to being a parent, and you have to adjust your attitudes, and pre-misconceptions to fit with reality.
The problem I have is the 20+ million copies of CoD sold. CoD glorifies real world violance in a very realistic way. This has far more of a impact that cartoon violance on desensitizing people.
Comments
Yeah, it is almost as bad as that Hannah Montana...
Really, even tweens watch a lot worse stuff on TV. While I agree that parents needs to spend time with their kinds and explain stuff like violence in media and so on very few teens would get issues with the stuff in TOR.
If you think your kid might however the best option really would be playing with him or her and explain the stuff as you play.
Trying to shelter you kid too much tends to backfire rather nasty in many cases.
It is of course you as a parents that decide when your kid is grown up enough to play the game but chances are that he/she will play at friends houses instead otherwise. If you explain things the right way the game will not hurt the kid the least even if he is 13.
brilliant!
On a serious note though, teens are exposed to far worse even in school. Last time I checked kids in secondary school are taught about things like ww1 and ww2. No game can ever be as dark as history itself and I would not worry one bit if my kid was playing empire in swtor (although I would be slightly amazed as he is 2 and more interested in spinning around than mmo's
)
Governments send 16 year olds off to warzones, but it's to young to play a mildly violent game? The world is crazy.
Ya exactly, and I am with you on the Zeppelin, but my son loves The Clash, which I am quite ok with because they are my favourite punk era band.
My son picked BH as his first char, and there were a few times where I could see he was really thinking about the consequences ( he mostly chose to be a good guy, but sometimes he went for the dark side to see what it was like). I think that is a brilliant design btw.
Tbf I'm pretty sure the op would be against sending his kids off to war aswell. It's not about priority, it's about a point of view. We are being asked to judge a game based on the standards of the op, when the more useful perspective should be to judge the standards of the op first.
-----
The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
Honestly if you think that your young child is not mature enough to be playing an open chat online game then either tell them no OR PLAY IT WITH THEM. There is a frankly astonishing fact that this could be a great opportunity to play with your child, develop a rapport with them and lay the ground work for a solid healthy relationship with them. It also allows you to explain the differences between a game and real life and to help steer them from the random general chat humor that may offend them or upset them. If a child can be shown that it is make believe they have no issues separating a tv/book/game from reality. Involved parents rule.
Currently Playing: D3-ROS
Previously played: WoW, Tera, SWTOR, TSW, Rift, Defiance, GW2, Aion, LotRO, Rapplez, RoM, Dofus, LC, Requiem, WoKF, PW, etc
Waiting on: Wildstar
I am going to save this to a .doc file and share it with all my (few) friends. Three cheers and a +1 trophy of shininess for you.
I'd set through it if I was really that concerned about it.
That's called being responsible.
I used to play MMOs like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
The problem I have is the 20+ million copies of CoD sold. CoD glorifies real world violance in a very realistic way. This has far more of a impact that cartoon violance on desensitizing people.
LOL just this
Try the Imperial Agent class, you'll be surprised. That's all i can say.
LMAO!