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The REAL dangers of MMO games
SmurfMagic
Member Posts: 664
PARENTS BUYING GAMES FOR CHILDREN TOO YOUNG or not mentaly mature enough yet.
~a real persons experince~
I purchased this game for my 13 year old for christmas last year. It
has now been smashed to pieces, my son has be banned from the computer
for who knows how long....WHY.......
Sneaking up and staying up all night to play
Skipping school to play
Stealing credit cards to reinstate account after child restricted and account terminated.
Lying beyond belief
Personality Changes
Shirking responsibilities, friends, family, school work
Grads went from A's & B's
to D's & F's
The child nearly had a nervous breakdown from loss of sleep playing
this stupid game, and then again when the game was taken away from him.
I WARN YOU....DO NOT BUY THIS GAME FOR YOR CHILD, you will live to regret it. They become creatures you don't even recognize.
~a real persons experince~
I purchased this game for my 13 year old for christmas last year. It
has now been smashed to pieces, my son has be banned from the computer
for who knows how long....WHY.......
Sneaking up and staying up all night to play
Skipping school to play
Stealing credit cards to reinstate account after child restricted and account terminated.
Lying beyond belief
Personality Changes
Shirking responsibilities, friends, family, school work
Grads went from A's & B's
to D's & F's
The child nearly had a nervous breakdown from loss of sleep playing
this stupid game, and then again when the game was taken away from him.
I WARN YOU....DO NOT BUY THIS GAME FOR YOR CHILD, you will live to regret it. They become creatures you don't even recognize.
Comments
I'm curious which game this was, but it would make sense that MMO's can have these effects on any child. This may usually be due to the fact that kids can usually get addicted to something that is fun for them. Not necesarily due to any normal personality trait of the child, but more of the idea that children just want to have fun. The problem is, that the more fun they have it might be harder to get them away from it. Which is why in most cases MMO's are difficult things to allow a child to play. You would have to be very strict with them somehow on how long they play, and actually make sure they follow those rules somehow. It may help to establish these boundaries as early as possible so they get use to those ideas, strictness on those rules probably being key. But, one of the most uncontrollable aspects of games that really make it risky to allow kids to play MMO's is the fact that you can't monitor them all the time while they do it. This may lead to just the bad luck of a child making friends with a certain community within that game that happened to be of a personality that tends to follow what your child said they adapted to. Something you really have nearly no control over. So I imagine in general unless your child themselves have already a set of boundaries of what is more important in their life (family, school, fun, etc.) or they have no way of playing it continuously for hours on end, then it may just be best to avoid MMO's in general for a child. I'd actually steer away from most games for children if they're too destructive or if you can't watch them all the time or monitor which games you let them get. But that's just me and my opinion, hehe. What do I know? I actually played games since I was like 3.
It's a good day to beleive
OH NOES MY SON IS LYING TO ME AND PLAYING A VIDEO GAME!!!!!!!! WTF SHOULD I DO THIS IS SO UNCOMMON IN CHILDREN!!!!!! PLEASE HELP ME PEOPLE ON MMORPG BOARDS!!!!! IM WARNING YOU NOT TO SPANK YOUR CHILDREAN OH NOES !!!!!ONE1!!!!!11!!
I'm going to have to agree on some level about this, because games aren't really meant to be something to drop your child into for a few hours at a time like a day care. Otherwise they may enjoy it as their favorite thing since that's all they do every day. Having them spend time with the family or with some nice other kids at the play ground or such to enjoy themselves is probably a far better idea. I do understand though that some parent's usually are pretty busy now a days and don't have the time to always be with their child. But if anything to leave your children with to do all day, it probably shouldn't be MMO's.
It's a good day to beleive
--
Note: PlayNC will refuse to allow you access to your account if you forget your password and can't provide a scanned image of the product key for the first product you purchased..... LOL
Seems to me that destruction of the game was not the answer, because the addictive behaivor hasn't been addressed this way, and will happen again, either as a child or an adult.
I have a 10-year old girl who can easily get involved with Computer games beyond the healthy amount, and as a parent, I let this happen once, and only once (not a mmo). The solution was pretty simple.
We sat down and talked to her about it. Then we set computer time per week. Then I followed though on regulating computer time. You'd be surprised how a child can't play a computer game if they don't know the password to the computer.
We had a similar problem with my 13-year old getting up too early to jump on MSN messenger at 6am, and then being late for school, and forgetting things, while I was away for a few months working in Toronto (CAN). Same solutions again: Talk > Set fair time allotment > Follow though (in this case, a rule on the router to prevent wan access during certain timeblocks, since I wasn't physicaly present.)
The most important step is the follow though. If you do the rest but not this, then your time is wasted. Kids (and people in general) need to learn to control their impulses.
Here's something on parenting for you.
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=beat
I'd like to laugh somewhat at that, but at the same time feel horrible pity for that child. So I'll do the latter, as much as I assume that was a joke.
It's a good day to beleive
I would be shocked if the majority of those that advacate minors in online video games are much over 21 (except for those that are making a profit from it).
There have been many things in the form of "entertainment" that we as a species have come up with. Thoughout the centuries of entertaining ourselves there are those groups that through observing and performing statistical studies show the rest of society that this thing or that thing that we are doing for entertainment needs to have some restrictions because some age groups are adversley affected by said event.
I have nothing against these groups. We need em. I mean I ain't gonna do it but I do not want to be a policeman either but I am sure happy they are around.
There are many things that thoughout the history of our society we have looked at as it matured and found it unsuitable for or outlined laws for and protecting our children. Examples
Alcohol
tabaco
gambling
state/provincial/federal vote
military service
employment in the work force
sex
marriage
pronography
the list goes on and on.
As a society as we have discovered new things and advancements we have learned through the use of said items that some are and are not suitable for minors.
MMOs are a new form of entertainment and the internet a new means of social interation never before known by man.
Hey, cocaine was legal once over the counter, but as time went on we as a society deemed it unhealthy for our continuation as a society.
Minors in video games will only continue to be a heated topic as well as the content in any video game for minors. The industry is doing a poor job with no enforcement with their self imposed rating system and the parents of the world are not doing a bad job, they are naive to the games.
Neither are stopping minors from getting this new entertainment "fix" that has content that covers the entire spectrum...so what is left to do?
To those of you that are minors playing these games and keeping your grades up and not living every moment in these games, you must know that you are the exception not the norm.
What will happen? Only time will tell. I think eventually laws will be passed stating that mmo producers must work with manufactures over the next XX number of years to come up with an age validation system that is exceptable to government standards (whatever that may be).
Something sooner or later will happen. To many special interest groups looking into studies that show changes in an individual child behavoirs from video games.
Sure not all but some people are adversely affected. Just like alcohol - for some 1 drink and pop! drunk for life.
As a society we have always looked after our children first and foremost. This IS an issue that we can not continually turn our heads away from.
I am having a personaility change thinks to the idiots everywhere. I don't skip school to play video games, cause i need to go to school to learn something besides more bullshit. I don't know what country you live in, but if it's america, then you don't need to worry about your child's grades cause of the bullshit going around at school the personality changes from age growth, people do shirk around responsibilities for a reason, and stealing credit cards is stealing... you failed to teach your child not to steal. overall you fail at being a great parent.
The obvious answer is to stab them in the face. I mean, that's what the Night Elf Rogues do, right? It works okay for them.