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:

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
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?
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]

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.

----------

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.

[magnetaress]

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]

How did EQ help you become pretty?

Spoiler alert- It didn't!

[magnetaress]

Spoiler alert- It didn't!

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

[strongNpretty]

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]

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]

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 :) 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.

[rayeatts]

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.


Mavis Beacon!

Holy Shit!

I remember that. But you have an excellent point there. I thought of the same thing.

I'd love my daughter to be able to improve her reading and typing skills through a game like this.

[Mblake81]

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.

+REP to Frostynads. Adults, even young adults, need their space. I am not talking about safe space because that is fey.. even though that might be what it is.

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.

Taught me to type in stressful situations. That wasn't a game feature or a developer design though. Reading and comprehending is required but its not on the game box listed as a requirement.

[Gustoo]

mavic beacon teaches typing 12 standard.

I killed at drag race game. but I was already shredding thanx to 1999 eq but all the chat room training on AOL and others from times past.

I am not giving my children video games for a while, and at the very least not making them part of my home life. Occasionally we go to the garage and I pull out the NES and we play some games until he is tired of them. I choose NES because it is so much harsher than SNES and N64 which my big boy doesn't yet know exist.

[branamil]

Always funny are people like, my 8 year old son definitely doesn't want play fortnite or minecraft with his friends... he wants to press complete heal over and over again while his dad plays a 45 year old kobold simulator.

[Kayso2]

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:

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
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?
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.

I did the same thing years ago. Mine are 13 and 16 now. I also had the same concerns re: the perception of boxing.

I applied for the exemptions and noted my concern and their ages in the application. I also mentioned that they would have no chat enabled, but that I would always be playing with them when they played.

The response was, essentially, that their level progress should match their abilities and that I should circle back with staff if they ever got past the mid-20s. I think they made level 14 or so before they got bored and quit.

[Mblake81]

Not enough John Wick and pink bunny skins.

Last I checked Ninja has never called anyone up from P99 (https://youtu.be/R5cSJVz8vYo?t=39). Its a shame too, I had my white tracksuit ready.

[gherron]

I choose NES because it is so much harsher than SNES and N64 which my big boy doesn't yet know exist.

So what do you mean? There are kids out there that think Nintendo consoles went from NES to....Switch (or maybe Wii)?

[mcoy]

So what do you mean? There are kids out there that think Nintendo consoles went from NES to....Switch (or maybe Wii)?

https://youtu.be/qt7HLA69dsI

-Mcoy

[Mblake81]

https://youtu.be/qt7HLA69dsI

-Mcoy

My little niece did the same thing, she tried touching the monitor. I guess she thought the screen was a big Ipad. She is 5 years old now and can use the mouse and type simple requests into Youtube.

Touch screen cellphones are so ubiquitous that a 3-5 yr olds first instinct is to touch the screen. Mobile games companies have already won the long game.