what's your opinion on children playing...

[ywer]

I am a new member of this forum and wanna say hi to all the members :) , since I'm putting together a collection of selected free computer games on my site. I'd really like to know what's your opinion on children playing online games, has anybody had any good or bad experiences. 2) what is your favorite free online game? I would appreciate your input and of course everybody will benefit from your post as well.

[goKi]

Children should be allowed to play games. Games can be good for developing hand-eye coordination, and thinking skills, among other things. Although, like television, video games should NEVER be a subsitiute for parenting. The problem with ALL kids that misbehave these days are bad parents.

Hitting your child becomes immoral, and soon enough, almost every child in the western world has ADD

[rocksfan13]

I think goKi hit it right on the head there. Games should be for fun and not always for learning. Although they can be great for teaching children values and such, there are other things that must be learned without the aid of such things.
Hence why some people refer to the TV as "the electronic babysitter".

Personally, I believe hitting a child is not wrong. As long as it done correctly. Without foreign objects and within reason. A swift smack on the arse is usually good enough and if you don't believe in that, there is the corner.

ADD doesn't always come from abuse. A lot of it comes from a child not being challenged enough educationally. If your child is gifted, it may seem that they have ADD when in fact they don't, They're just bored. Give them something intersting or challenging to do and you'll see that they will be fine.

[lord_jamitossi]

I think it's okay in moderation.
As goKi said, it should not be a replacement for parenting, or for socialisation with other real human beings. This is one case that the parents have to be paying attention with, though. They have to have the common sense that a Mario game isn't going to corrupt a 6-year-old the way a GTA game could. And it should never be a babysitter.

Seeing as the topic has risen, I think hitting your kid is wrong except in extreme cases. I once had a discussion with some of my parent's friends; the ones who were hit as kids mostly don't remember why, but the people who where only hit once or twice in their entire childhood know exactly what they did to earn it, and seldom did it again.

[Master Ghaleon]

I think its fine. Though reading that blue text makes my eyes bleed, and that isnt fine

[Aegix Drakan]

as long as the gaming is done in moderation, and you explain to the kid the difference between the game and real life, it shouldn't be a problem.

and for free online games, check out shattered earth (it's here at AGN)

I personally play Ragnarok Online, on a free server.

[MacWeirdo42]

Mainly I believe the games should be suitable for the kids... I'm not gonna get into the whole "games are corrupting our youth" argument, but I do sometimes feel that kids are growing up way too fast. Also everything in moderation.

[Darth Marsden]

When kids are young, keep a close eye on what they do. As they get older, back away. It's surprising how many parents don't do that.

Online gaming... it's not a huge problem, as long as both kids and parents know what they could be getting into. I don't play online stuff, but I have heard many a story about bad language from certain games. Stay away from those, and I think it's a good thing.

EDIT: Oh, and hi ywer. Feel free to keep your text coloured (hell, I did that for a few months) but could you possibly make it a lighter shade of blue? Thanks.

[MottZilla]

Children should not be communicating with anyone through the internet. So many times I've played games and little pricks are playing online doing some retarded thing or another. As far as offline games, kids should not play games unsuitable for them. No kid should be playing Grand Theft Auto unless they have been properly raised by their parents which seems so rare these days.

And you know games these days are far worse than in the 80s and 90s. Sorry but Mortal Kombat and Doom were never all that violent. Comparing Doom to Grand Theft Auto San Andreas or Mortal Kombat (1992 Arcade Original) to Mortal Kombat Deception, holy shit. Hell, when I played Mortal Kombat Deception for the first time I was quite impressed by the brutality. And Grand Theft Auto however is far worse than MKD. GTA depicts a bunch of criminals commiting nothing but crimes and being easily the worst serial killer ever. But the funniest thing is, parents weren't upset about the violence, they were upset over some LOCKED OUT sexually suggestive animations. Oh ya, seeing poorly detailed models make sexually suggestive motions and sounds is FAR worse than blowing people's heads off, killing police, etc. Wtf?

That just goes to show how retarded things are these days. The last thing we need to add is online games, plus the rest of us shouldn't have to suffer listening to these brats. That's the real job of parents, keeping their spawnlings away from us normal people.

[Warlock]

Children should not be communicating with anyone through the internet. So many times I've played games and little pricks are playing online doing some retarded thing or another. As far as offline games, kids should not play games unsuitable for them. No kid should be playing Grand Theft Auto unless they have been properly raised by their parents which seems so rare these days.

And you know games these days are far worse than in the 80s and 90s. Sorry but Mortal Kombat and Doom were never all that violent. Comparing Doom to Grand Theft Auto San Andreas or Mortal Kombat (1992 Arcade Original) to Mortal Kombat Deception, holy shit. Hell, when I played Mortal Kombat Deception for the first time I was quite impressed by the brutality. And Grand Theft Auto however is far worse than MKD. GTA depicts a bunch of criminals commiting nothing but crimes and being easily the worst serial killer ever. But the funniest thing is, parents weren't upset about the violence, they were upset over some LOCKED OUT sexually suggestive animations. Oh ya, seeing poorly detailed models make sexually suggestive motions and sounds is FAR worse than blowing people's heads off, killing police, etc. Wtf?

That just goes to show how retarded things are these days. The last thing we need to add is online games, plus the rest of us shouldn't have to suffer listening to these brats. That's the real job of parents, keeping their spawnlings away from us normal people.

QFT, unless you are playing something like Toontown, or "Barbie's Magical Online Adventure" (or whatever), most online games are not suitable for kids. That kind of content can't be regulated so you get a lot of retards being jerks, swearing, and generally making the game not friendly for children.

And in the same vein, normal gamers tend to find children annoying because they don't know what they are doing (i.e. the World of WarCraft "Can I have 1g PLEEEEAZZEE!!!" or "Can <insert random lvl 60 they don't know> run me through Deadmines???!?!?" syndrome).

Online games with no form of communication (i.e. no chat), while rare, are generally good though. Those would be competition games, like FPSers or something along those lines. Though most games do have chat - maybe with the exception of console online play (I imagine there might be a way to turn off voice chat on an Xbox game - but I don't know)

Edit: I'll count the above as a sidebar since I reread the question and I'm pretty sure you are refering to games played off websites, like say a Flash version of Tetris. Most of those are probably ok, as long as you look at the content. I think Disney's and Nickelodeon's websites have a bunch of those for kids.

[jessethe2nd]

Children should not be communicating with anyone through the internet. So many times I've played games and little pricks are playing online doing some retarded thing or another. As far as offline games, kids should not play games unsuitable for them. No kid should be playing Grand Theft Auto unless they have been properly raised by their parents which seems so rare these days.

And you know games these days are far worse than in the 80s and 90s. Sorry but Mortal Kombat and Doom were never all that violent. Comparing Doom to Grand Theft Auto San Andreas or Mortal Kombat (1992 Arcade Original) to Mortal Kombat Deception, holy shit. Hell, when I played Mortal Kombat Deception for the first time I was quite impressed by the brutality. And Grand Theft Auto however is far worse than MKD. GTA depicts a bunch of criminals commiting nothing but crimes and being easily the worst serial killer ever. But the funniest thing is, parents weren't upset about the violence, they were upset over some LOCKED OUT sexually suggestive animations. Oh ya, seeing poorly detailed models make sexually suggestive motions and sounds is FAR worse than blowing people's heads off, killing police, etc. Wtf?

That just goes to show how retarded things are these days. The last thing we need to add is online games, plus the rest of us shouldn't have to suffer listening to these brats. That's the real job of parents, keeping their spawnlings away from us normal people.


QFT, unless you are playing something like Toontown, or "Barbie's Magical Online Adventure" (or whatever), most online games are not suitable for kids. That kind of content can't be regulated so you get a lot of retards being jerks, swearing, and generally making the game not friendly for children.

And in the same vein, normal gamers tend to find children annoying because they don't know what they are doing (i.e. the World of WarCraft "Can I have 1g PLEEEEAZZEE!!!" or "Can <insert random lvl 60 they don't know> run me through Deadmines???!?!?" syndrome).

Amen to that.

[Skipper]

I'd really like to know what's your opinion on children playing online games, has anybody had any good or bad experiences.
Ok. Here's my opinion.
First of all, I believe children should be allowed the experience of online gaming. Sure, there may be a little questional stuff that some people would say on an online game (Like people on RuneScape, Ragnarok, ect.). But, in my opinion, children should experience first-hand on what the online gaming world is like, that way, they know what to expect when they become older.
But, that's just my opinion.


what is your favorite free online game? I would appreciate your input and of course everybody will benefit from your post as well.
Well... I don't really play online games, due to my slow internet connection. (Stupid dialup.) But, I can tell you, from what a lot of other people say, that games like Ragnarok Online are challenging and fun, and others, like the Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com), are just downright funny. Plus, for KoL, you don't really even NEED a reasonably fast internet connection. It's a browser-based game, not something that would require a server or Java to connect to.

Also, welcome to AGN. Enjoy your stay. ;)

[Daarkseid]

Ok. Here's my opinion.
First of all, I believe children should be allowed the experience of online gaming. Sure, there may be a little questional stuff that some people would say on an online game. But, in my opinion, children should experience first-hand on what the online gaming world is like, that way, they know what to expect when they become older.
But, that's just my opinion.


No, we don't need more impressionable idiots going online and being conditioned to behave like assholes.

People should be banned from online play until their adulthood has cemented their character, such that their response to exposure to an online environment isn't to mimic other shitheads or find new ways of being a shithead online.

Refer to this Penny-Arcade comic (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19).

Children, being the horrid, needy, growing maggots of the human experience, crave attention, and being in a situation where they can resort to anything for that attention, without ANY of the consequences, they are much more inclined to being jackasses than adults who have been molded by their real life experiences, and its therefore reasonable to assume they have advanced beyond their nurturing phase of life.

[Solair Wright]

I think children should be able to play video games online. Mature children should be able to play games like World of Warcraft, but they better not be like "i need 10 gold" or "HORDE IS STUPID FOR PKING ME." I think most children are smarter than that, though. Younger children should just be monitored by parents to see if they're on appropriate sites or not.

[Grasshopper]

You have to keep in mind that these are little kids playing games. You can't expect them to act like adults. They act like kids because they ARE kids. :rolleyes: Don't go and forget that. And besides "mature" children or not, if everyone went by the ESRB guidelines, then World of Warcraft wouldn't have little kids playing in the first place. And just because you act all "noob", doesn't mean you're little. They might be 25. You never know. There are people like that regardless of age.

As far as children playing online games; most online games are rated higher than E anyway, a lot rated M. So no, children should not be playing these games. But they do anyway.

"Its not like its anything they haven't seen on TV already.":rolleyes:

[Darth Marsden]

Ach! It's like the Grand Theft Auto argument all over again!

Parents should be more involved with what their kids do on and offline. Simple as that. Instead, they treat things like computer games and TV as babysitters while they do other stuff. They shouldn't, cause that's really how the trouble starts. They need to take a more active role in their children's lives. This may be watching TV with their kids, it may be getting their asses kicked in Mario Kart, whatever. As long as they're there.

...and that's my view. Agree or disagree as you see fit.

[punkonjunk1024]

Children should be allowed to play games. Games can be good for developing hand-eye coordination, and thinking skills, among other things. Although, like television, video games should NEVER be a subsitiute for parenting. The problem with ALL kids that misbehave these days are bad parents.

Hitting your child becomes immoral, and soon enough, almost every child in the western world has ADD
I love you.

Really though, I guess my oppinion is don't hit a kid. I was hit, and really, it's the easy way out. A timeout, or losing my videogames was alot worse than getting forty pattles on the ass with the spoon. That just made me hate my step mom and dad, and enraged for a little while.

But... if a kid is truly being violent, cruel, or malicious, like torturing his his dog, or burning ants, I think that's a crack in the skull with the back of the hand. Thats the kinda shit that needs an abrupt "wtf kid?"
In my oppinion.

But, you know, this isn't exactly topical. I think.
I don't know. forgive gramatical errors as I haven't slept in 2 days. I'm... gonna do that now.

[Skipper]

Children, being the horrid, needy, growing maggots of the human experience, crave attention, and being in a situation where they can resort to anything for that attention, without ANY of the consequences, they are much more inclined to being jackasses than adults who have been molded by their real life experiences, and its therefore reasonable to assume they have advanced beyond their nurturing phase of life.
Tsk tsk. Not true... some of the times.

Sure, kids can be annoying as HELL at times, but... when I joined PureZC at age 12, people actually thought I was around 16. 16! Even kids can be mature, some of the times.
I don't complain much at ALL. In fact, I don't think I've EVER complained in chat, or on a forum.