My son just started DDO - anyone with advice on how to help him appreciated

[Spoonwelder]

My son just turned 9 and has been watching me play once in a while since he was 7 (lucky that DDO has very limited gore or my wife would have gone ballistic). I told him he could play when he turned 9 and the day he turned 9 he reminded me.

So I setup a F2P account for him - helped him through building a fighter to keep it simple and not so button mashy (yet). Logged him in - set him to anonymous and then I have stood back and let him play. I will actually try to be out of the room so he doesn't look for my help every other minute but I do provide some guidance(gear choices - remind to turn on power attack). I know my nature and if I sat with him I would end up taking over too much so I give him some space - also he reads all the text (good thing for his reading but bad thing since I would get twitchy wanting to hit CTRL-F1)

So far it has been fine - he even taught me something (there is more than one way to do the puzzle in Stopping the Shauhigan - I just assumed it was a single solution puzzle) and I have shown him a few things - toolbar usage, using hirelings, using action boosts, farming a quest for XP (he was close to level 4 and I told him to just do Ringleader again on hard) which also showed him how to open up higher difficulties. He is mainly running on Normal but he has surprised me with how fast he is picking things up - he did the entire WW chain without any help until he got to the last quest (couldn't find Venn's body).

He's about to hit the marketplace quests and I think the difficulty is going to start to ramp up a bit - as well as the speed of leveling will slow down (due to being only on normal). I think he will be ok with it but we will see.

Anyway - I just wanted to see if any other parents out there had good tips for kids (not so much about playstyle but about guiding/coaching your kid in this particular game).

[Livmo]

My son just turned 9 and has been watching me play once in a while since he was 7 (lucky that DDO has very limited gore or my wife would have gone ballistic). I told him he could play when he turned 9 and the day he turned 9 he reminded me.

So I setup a F2P account for him - helped him through building a fighter to keep it simple and not so button mashy (yet). Logged him in - set him to anonymous and then I have stood back and let him play. I will actually try to be out of the room so he doesn't look for my help every other minute but I do provide some guidance(gear choices - remind to turn on power attack). I know my nature and if I sat with him I would end up taking over too much so I give him some space - also he reads all the text (good thing for his reading but bad thing since I would get twitchy wanting to hit CTRL-F1)

So far it has been fine - he even taught me something (there is more than one way to do the puzzle in Stopping the Shauhigan - I just assumed it was a single solution puzzle) and I have shown him a few things - toolbar usage, using hirelings, using action boosts, farming a quest for XP (he was close to level 4 and I told him to just do Ringleader again on hard) which also showed him how to open up higher difficulties. He is mainly running on Normal but he has surprised me with how fast he is picking things up - he did the entire WW chain without any help until he got to the last quest (couldn't find Venn's body).

He's about to hit the marketplace quests and I think the difficulty is going to start to ramp up a bit - as well as the speed of leveling will slow down (due to being only on normal). I think he will be ok with it but we will see.

Anyway - I just wanted to see if any other parents out there had good tips for kids (not so much about playstyle but about guiding/coaching your kid in this particular game).

First off this is great news to hear! Congrats!

-

I don't know how to say this. I love puggin', however there is my concern, puggin'.

I know several people that have not logged in for a long time after getting some verbal abuse from other players when they were new. My concern is from what I witnessed regarding an 8yr old that hasn't been back on in some time. Basic scenario, PUG open to everyone, player joins, then that player berates 8yr old for play style. He could have turned around and left if he wanted to. End result baddie made little girl cry and not play anymore. Moral of the story ~ don't make assumptions, because you never know who is (8yr old), and what a player may be experiencing in the moment (someone at door), on the other side of the screen.

I'm not sure how to express this in a way that would make the expereince better for your young one. Maybe wait till older to PUG? On a side note, the 8 yr old was a better player in my opinion than that other so and so.

[Trillea]

My son just turned 9 and has been watching me play once in a while since he was 7 (lucky that DDO has very limited gore or my wife would have gone ballistic). I told him he could play when he turned 9 and the day he turned 9 he reminded me.

So I setup a F2P account for him - helped him through building a fighter to keep it simple and not so button mashy (yet). Logged him in - set him to anonymous and then I have stood back and let him play. I will actually try to be out of the room so he doesn't look for my help every other minute but I do provide some guidance(gear choices - remind to turn on power attack). I know my nature and if I sat with him I would end up taking over too much so I give him some space - also he reads all the text (good thing for his reading but bad thing since I would get twitchy wanting to hit CTRL-F1)

So far it has been fine - he even taught me something (there is more than one way to do the puzzle in Stopping the Shauhigan - I just assumed it was a single solution puzzle) and I have shown him a few things - toolbar usage, using hirelings, using action boosts, farming a quest for XP (he was close to level 4 and I told him to just do Ringleader again on hard) which also showed him how to open up higher difficulties. He is mainly running on Normal but he has surprised me with how fast he is picking things up - he did the entire WW chain without any help until he got to the last quest (couldn't find Venn's body).

He's about to hit the marketplace quests and I think the difficulty is going to start to ramp up a bit - as well as the speed of leveling will slow down (due to being only on normal). I think he will be ok with it but we will see.

Anyway - I just wanted to see if any other parents out there had good tips for kids (not so much about playstyle but about guiding/coaching your kid in this particular game).

1) Let him learn at his own pace (though you seem to be doing OK with that)
2) Don't let him run the Carnival chain unless you are OK with him seeing succubi....
3) Grab your laptop and group with him, let him see what it is like to have other people in a party to interact with. From the sound of it, you can probably at least start a character at lv. 4.

[Spoonwelder]

First off this is great news to hear! Congrats!

-

I don't know how to say this. I love puggin', however there is my concern, puggin'.

I know several people that have not logged in for a long time after getting some verbal abuse from other players when they were new. My concern is from what I witnessed regarding an 8yr old that hasn't been back on in some time. Basic scenario, PUG open to everyone, player joins, then that player berates 8yr old for play style. He could have turned around and left if he wanted to. End result baddie made little girl cry and not play anymore. Moral of the story ~ don't make assumptions, because you never know who is (8yr old), and what a player may be experiencing in the moment (someone at door), on the other side of the screen.

I'm not sure how to express this in a way that would make the expereince better for your young one. Maybe wait till older to PUG? On a side note, the 8 yr old was a better player in my opinion than that other so and so.

For now - yeah no pugging until at least a second life/toon - not a real problem since he is playing a fighter, has figured out hirelings and he has already learned that traps can be ignored on Normal. I don't think it would be fair to him to subject him to people like me (and I am pretty nice in pugs....mostly). But mainly because you can't censor voice chat.

[knightgf]

Actually, I take my advice back; nobody should have to endure how *@#(ty this game is. I recommend NOT letting your son play this game due to the poor quality it contains as well as the overcomplex game mechanisms and recommend something in the single-player range; I would preferably go for Mature themed games, but watch what it contains in case it may offend him or you; if that fails, try a single-player game in the rating of E-T. The Kingdom Hearts series might be appropriate for your son if that's the case.

[LightBear]

My son just turned 9 and has been watching me play once in a while since he was 7 (lucky that DDO has very limited gore or my wife would have gone ballistic). I told him he could play when he turned 9 and the day he turned 9 he reminded me.

So I setup a F2P account for him - helped him through building a fighter to keep it simple and not so button mashy (yet). Logged him in - set him to anonymous and then I have stood back and let him play. I will actually try to be out of the room so he doesn't look for my help every other minute but I do provide some guidance(gear choices - remind to turn on power attack). I know my nature and if I sat with him I would end up taking over too much so I give him some space - also he reads all the text (good thing for his reading but bad thing since I would get twitchy wanting to hit CTRL-F1)

So far it has been fine - he even taught me something (there is more than one way to do the puzzle in Stopping the Shauhigan - I just assumed it was a single solution puzzle) and I have shown him a few things - toolbar usage, using hirelings, using action boosts, farming a quest for XP (he was close to level 4 and I told him to just do Ringleader again on hard) which also showed him how to open up higher difficulties. He is mainly running on Normal but he has surprised me with how fast he is picking things up - he did the entire WW chain without any help until he got to the last quest (couldn't find Venn's body).

He's about to hit the marketplace quests and I think the difficulty is going to start to ramp up a bit - as well as the speed of leveling will slow down (due to being only on normal). I think he will be ok with it but we will see.

Anyway - I just wanted to see if any other parents out there had good tips for kids (not so much about playstyle but about guiding/coaching your kid in this particular game).

First thing I would do is team up.
It's a good excuse to get that shiny new laptop into the house. ;)

I think the main thing here is spending time with your kid.

When I think back, I loved it when me and my old man (god bless his soul) took turns on Digger.
My oldest is about the same age as yours and she does make a statement every now and then that she wishes to play this game with me.

I guess I have to invite her over :)

[axel15810]

I wouldn't let him PUG alone if I were you, lots of possible bad experiences.

I'd tell him to solo, or possibly allow him to PUG if you are in the group with him. Still duoing is probably better, you'll be able to go at a pace that suits him. If you have some friends in DDO maybe let him group with them as well. But as far as giving a 9 year old free reign to group with anybody...I think that's a bad idea. He's too young to be interacting with strangers on the internet in my opinion.

[Spoonwelder]

1) Let him learn at his own pace (though you seem to be doing OK with that)
2) Don't let him run the Carnival chain unless you are OK with him seeing succubi....
3) Grab your laptop and group with him, let him see what it is like to have other people in a party to interact with. From the sound of it, you can probably at least start a character at lv. 4.

re: Carnival chain - succubi - good point - he's actually still too young to care but best to avoid the questions. At this point though he will be mostly free to play - I may pony up for Deleras for him (Carniflex and Voice are sooooo handy).

re: grouping with him - I am on the fence with this - I see what you are saying about learning how to interact with others but I am afraid that it would frustrate the heck out of both of us (me going too fast for him and vice versa). I want him to learn the quests so he can pug in a future iteration and 'know it'. I am sort of leaving it as a single player game for him for now - I may pop in to help him on tough boss type quests. I can roll up 4/7/15 level characters at will and have another sitting at 10. So I can probably group in with him at any stage and help as needed.

[PermaBanned]

Anyway - I just wanted to see if any other parents out there had good tips for kids (not so much about playstyle but about guiding/coaching your kid in this particular game).

On the game: There are some discouragingly nasty quests in the lowby market arena: Proof is in the Poison, Swiped Signet and Redfang can be brutal for new players. Some "stick with it" and "yep, that happened to all of us :)" encouragement may be helpful.

On the players: people suck. Take a look at the most recently closed thread on general page one entitled "Puggies" and use the game as an opportunity to develop a socially "thick skin." Also introduce them to the /Squelch command for dealing with certain players who couldn't care less about who they're talking to or how they're talking to them.

[Livmo]

because you can't censor voice chat.

Yep. I could not beleive the things I heard from that fella. I wanted to say, "you kiss your mama with that mouth?", but did not think of it in the moment :/

[MuleAxe]

Pretty cool stuff :). First, and most important thing for him to learn (especially since voice chat can't be censored) .... /squelch

[Enoach]

First I want to commend you for doing the basic protection of anon. I recommend creating one character and creating a Guild - Let them name it, don't let them be an officer as this will prevent them from inviting people to the guild. You can also look in the Guild forums for Children/Parent guilds.

Also run quests with your child, dedicate time for them to move at their pace, not yours. Let them lead, offer advice and prompt them only if they are on the verge of a "rage quit", allowing them to get a little frustrated and teach them how to deal with it in a constructive manner.

Personally even in a known community I still wouldn't let my child roam free with out having at least one eye and one ear on them at all times.

Also make sure you set appropriate limits on play time.

Outside of that have fun with your son.

[Spoonwelder]

Oooh, tricky one...it's kinda hard to explain how this game works in a very simple sense that kids could understand. I guess a few of my tips could be:



You WILL experience defeat. Don't be afraid to walk away from the game for a while if that happens, it's ok.
Not everything works as the descriptions say they work. In this game, 2+2 may NOT equal 4, it may equal a crazy number.
Take your time leveling. Not everything has to be done on elite or even hard.
The game takes a while to learn. In a way, they over complicate game mechanics. If you want to learn how things work in the game, go to ddowiki.com, it's a VERY helpful resource. It may not be complete, but its better than guessing or using in-game resources.
If you loot something that you have no idea what it does, DON'T sell it or destroy it until you know what purpose it serves.


He has experienced defeat already....sort of....he forgot to pop hireling(then timer ranout) and ran out of pots (he only had a few he had picked up - a learning experience I left open for him). He was near end and only had about 10hp left - I took over for 2 minutes to get him to the shrine (knowing I could do it due to better play skill from years of doing it). Got him to shrine then he got enough HP back to finish the quest going slowly. Not full defeat but he was at an AAAACKKK point - we talked about it briefly after and I mentioned he should find a way to get more pots. He found a vendor and bought about 40 cure mods......Nice thing the daily roll he has more plat than my first character ever did.

As to levelling - he's doing everything on normal (hard only on a repeat as he's a F2P account) and has done korthos/harbor to get to L4 - I think the pace is about right for him so far.

Loot - this is about the only thing after 4 levels that he needs alot of help with - end rewards he always asks me what to take and then what to sell - so I think we got that covered.

Learn - 5 years in and I am still learning stuff - so I expect he will too - right now my goal is basic melee game mechanics - next will be saves/counters to magic from mobs.....after that maybe work on more of the tactics choices a fighter gets.

[Azarddoze]

Awesome OP! Was a fun read.

I don't have kids but I think your approach of letting him solo first is the right way.

If he likes game in general, I would maybe introduce him as well to some action rpg-like platformer (like a cheap game on steam) where you die alot but games are quick (where you get better through both upgrades and re-playing so there will be a true progression). Recently, I played Rogue Legacy with my friend's kid (he was 10 1/2 - about same age) who had problem accepting defeat when playing games on his X-Box. With a bit of time (LOTS of deaths) and philosophy, it did ameliorate his behavior when facing challenges in game. Now to transpose that into real life :).

Glad you could find an activity both you and your kid enjoy.

Edit: Since he does accept defeat already... Awesome, period.

[Spoonwelder]

Pretty cool stuff :). First, and most important thing for him to learn (especially since voice chat can't be censored) .... /squelch
Good point (nod to Permabanned as well) - I will teach that to him next time he is on - though I still have no plans for him to pug yet it will be good for him to be aware of it - I will actually point him to the /help command he will probably have fun with the emotes.

[schelsullivan]

re: grouping with him - I am on the fence with this - I see what you are saying about learning how to interact with others but I am afraid that it would frustrate the heck out of both of us (me going too fast for him and vice versa). I want him to learn the quests so he can pug in a future iteration and 'know it'. I am sort of leaving it as a single player game for him for now - I may pop in to help him on tough boss type quests. I can roll up 4/7/15 level characters at will and have another sitting at 10. So I can probably group in with him at any stage and help as needed.

My son started playing at age 9 too. I did not let him pug at all at first, we two manned everything with hires. Later on I relaxed a bit and he found a few other kids playing that he ran with some. I think I was guilty pushing too ahead a little too fast. I really wanted him to love it like I do and that didnt happen. So dont pressure him and let him learn to love it (or not) at his own pace. He did make to level 15 with a wizard and had a few alts. We had some good times playing together but he moved on to another game too soon for me! ( I played minecraft with him for long time after he left DDO and its a great parent/child game) Hes 12 now and hes playing Counter Strike! (blast from the past there, apparently its still very popular on steam). Any way cherish the time spent gaming together!

[Sam1313]

I did the same thing with my daughter. Set her up a f2p account and just turned her loose. She is 7 years old, her little ranger is now level 7. I created a level 1 cleric and ran with her through Korthos island then when she got to stormreach she was on her own. As a parent you have to be very careful who your child quests with though. What I have seen from my own personal experience is your child will group with some people who are power gamers/elitist and if your child makes a mistake they will get their feelings hurt and may even deter them from playing any further. This also happened to my daughter. I had a talk with her and explained to her that some people even though they may be adults never really grew up. I try to get her to run with guild members as much as possible because they all know that she is only 7, but there are times I am not home and she logs in and ends up in a public group. Its going to happen, the best we can do as parents is just hope our child ends up in a group of understanding people.

[burningwind]

well.. for new player there are several essential items..

1) dr item.. they are really nice at low level.. especially invulnerable armor from crafting
2) level 6 raid set.. they are some of the best at the level
3) ring of ff and water breathe..can be done through crafting or stk/pocket of air
4)best show him where guild vendor are..

p.s. fighter isn't the best class to start with..especially for new player.. very hard to self sustain on fighter.. unless you umd really well.. which is salmost impossible thing to do for new player.. the way around is give him good sum of plat so he could grab some healing potion from guild vendor.. personally i would recommend druid or cleric.. or even caster over fighter.. it is very expensive and hard to play melee at most stage imo.

[NaturalHazard]

I wouldn't let him PUG alone if I were you, lots of possible bad experiences.

I'd tell him to solo, or possibly allow him to PUG if you are in the group with him. Still duoing is probably better, you'll be able to go at a pace that suits him. If you have some friends in DDO maybe let him group with them as well. But as far as giving a 9 year old free reign to group with anybody...I think that's a bad idea. He's too young to be interacting with strangers on the internet in my opinion.

This.

[Spoonwelder]

First I want to commend you for doing the basic protection of anon. I recommend creating one character and creating a Guild - Let them name it, don't let them be an officer as this will prevent them from inviting people to the guild. You can also look in the Guild forums for Children/Parent guilds.

Also run quests with your child, dedicate time for them to move at their pace, not yours. Let them lead, offer advice and prompt them only if they are on the verge of a "rage quit", allowing them to get a little frustrated and teach them how to deal with it in a constructive manner.

Personally even in a known community I still wouldn't let my child roam free with out having at least one eye and one ear on them at all times.

Also make sure you set appropriate limits on play time.

Outside of that have fun with your son.
Guild - I am wavering on this one - my own guild would actually be a very good home for him - most everyone in the guild is mature enough to just leave him be and as the leader I have some ability to police things but I also kinda like that I have a space to myself as well. So building him a guild would be a good solution - I like the benefits of the big guild but I think I'll just roll up an alt - buy a guild and get it going from there. If/when he shows the chops I will probably get him in my guild. Thanks for that thought.

[NaturalHazard]

Its going to happen, the best we can do as parents is just hope our child ends up in a group of understanding people.

Im not so sure this is a good idea man, these people are really rare, but over the years run across some not so nice people in groups and no way would I let these people group with children especially a child on their own.

[Livmo]

First I want to commend you for doing the basic protection of anon. I recommend creating one character and creating a Guild - Let them name it, don't let them be an officer as this will prevent them from inviting people to the guild. You can also look in the Guild forums for Children/Parent guilds.

Also run quests with your child, dedicate time for them to move at their pace, not yours. Let them lead, offer advice and prompt them only if they are on the verge of a "rage quit", allowing them to get a little frustrated and teach them how to deal with it in a constructive manner.

Personally even in a known community I still wouldn't let my child roam free with out having at least one eye and one ear on them at all times.

Also make sure you set appropriate limits on play time.

Outside of that have fun with your son.

I agree, this is all good advice.

Also you can find peeps that are child friendly. I'm in allot of different guilds, and in one that looks out for the young (allot of families in that guild). When the call goes out for guildies to come join group I always do. I keep several low to mid level toons for this. We let the young ones establish the tempo. There are some really great child gamers for sure. It does seem they are always playing with one or both parents, or grandparents in group.

[memloch]

My 13 year old daughter started to play this year. I set her up on a F2P account. I also created a toon to play along side her and we will play together and the odd time some guildies will join us.

I also set her up on a fighter for the same reasons as the OP. I have found that I currently look after her enhancements as it is a bit for her to take in and understand. She does the lvl ups on her own though. At first she just wanted to collect every gem in the game, lol. We play about once a week. I do log into her account the odd time to do a daily dice for her so that we can maintain the same xp. My VIP bonus plus tome would outstrip her xp quickly if I did not do this.

As you never know what you get in a pug she only plays with me or other guildies. Not sure if she will continue playing as the game is tougher than she thought. Darn monsters keep moving around. Need to decide soon if she should start buying some content.

Good luck and have fun.

[Spoonwelder]

well.. for new player there are several essential items..

1) dr item.. they are really nice at low level.. especially invulnerable armor from crafting
2) level 6 raid set.. they are some of the best at the level
3) ring of ff and water breathe..can be done through crafting or stk/pocket of air
4)best show him where guild vendor are..

p.s. fighter isn't the best class to start with..especially for new player.. very hard to self sustain on fighter.. unless you umd really well.. which is salmost impossible thing to do for new player.. the way around is give him good sum of plat so he could grab some healing potion from guild vendor.. personally i would recommend druid or cleric.. or even caster over fighter.. it is very expensive and hard to play melee at most stage imo.


DR - he has the axe block from korthos and a spearblock on armor (lucky loot pull) that covers the essentials for now - I could craft him more but I want him to learn the vagaries of loot as well....don't want to hand him everything so he learns the challenge.
Chrono raid set - seeing as it is bound to account stuff - not really accessible on a first life.
FF/Water breathe - he got the FF cloak in korthos on my guidance - then he got lucky with some boots in loot for himself so he now has perma FF if he wants (though I told him to keep the Angers set for Exp. Retreat and in case he needs a boost in his too hit). Water breathe - he has already noted that long swims can hurt - I told him to watchout for stuff that says waterbreathing on it - I 'll give it a few more sessions before I point to the ring that is already in his inventory.
Guild vendors - useless unless he is in a guild (not yet at all) and even then only once the guild is over level 20 which would be a fair while on a solo basis.....that said I know what you are saying - so far he knows where the marketplace pot vendor is and has bought CSW pots - I expect he will learn about some of the other essential pots as he runs into the need for them.
Fighter choice - it was simplest one to play from the mechanics of it to the actual manual dexterity of it - with a healing hire and playing on Norm he will be fine for 90% of the game and will learn from the other 10% that a different approach is sometimes needed.

[bartosy]

with kids the fun factor is really important

don't get to technical just let him find things out himself its a marathon not a sprint
chances are he will get enough of it or not but if he really enjoys it a lot I suggest
buying him some adv packs. some of them got a really nice story I he likes reading it
mainly deleras and my personal favorite the vault of night they also supply ample amount
of experience.

[AzB]

But mainly because you can't censor voice chat.

Sure you can. Turn it off. I do it all the time when my wife gets tired of listening to the nerd rage and profanity. (She's a sensitive one)

I pugged with a very young kid (probably 5 or 6) several years ago. He (she?) was a pretty competent player but I had to turn voice chat off because they never stopped talking.

[Hoglum]

remind to turn on power attack).


Will you come over to my house and play with me?

[moomooprincess]

Go into the CHAT tabs and disable these incoming chats,

No trade chat. No general chat. No advice chat. Turn off emotes, only because they won't wonder what they are to save you time. Turn off Say.

Don't allow him to party with players you do not know.

If you are on Cannith or Ghallanda, I will gladly give your son Snow Elemental Gems. Candy Canes, and Air Elemental Gems.

[Theolin]

When my kid started, though he was older (11) than your at the time, I used to be sure I was in the room when he plugged . Never allowed when I was not there, I would help him select a group and then when he joined I would hop on the Mic and tell the group it was my kid and I would be there If they needed. I also told them he would not be using the Mic but typing things. Then I made sure he followed that rule for about a year. Did 3 things one I could check what was said & 2 he learned to type and 3 most times the group would type as well as speak.... sneaky parent that I am.

I was also very fond of asking, well what does it say? And what do you think?

[Livmo]

Guild - I am wavering on this one - my own guild would actually be a very good home for him - most everyone in the guild is mature enough to just leave him be and as the leader I have some ability to police things but I also kinda like that I have a space to myself as well. So building him a guild would be a good solution - I like the benefits of the big guild but I think I'll just roll up an alt - buy a guild and get it going from there. If/when he shows the chops I will probably get him in my guild. Thanks for that thought.

A side benefit of a seperate guild may be to get another ship chest to store items in? If you get to guild level 20+ and he stops playing, an alt/mule could work or make use of the guild chest. Of course it will be way cool if he liked the game enough to keep playing.

[Rykka]

Not sure if anyone mentioned it, but there is an option to play anonymously. I'd make sure that check box was ticked for a 9 year old. When I was leveling my first life character I got a lot of unsolicited invites to party up and though the leader that invited me was always "ok", there was often someone in the group with inappropriate behavior that needed /squelching.

[XiaNYdE]

Good to see :D I have tried to get my son into D&D or DDO for the past 5yrs but alas he is now 16 and can't see past GTA V :(

[Rykka]

Will you come over to my house and play with me?

Lol. I put an invitation in my "examine character" description to tell me to activate Power Attack, 'cause I run whole quest chains with it off.

[Mick]

I have 2 sons who have played DDO for the last 2 years or so. They started at age 9 and 11 respectively.

Initially we only grouped together so I shielded them from other players. We slowly went from 1 to 20 using F2P classes and unlocking TP to add a few packs here and there. They created a guild which we all belonged to for this journey. I simply loved the fact that even after me playing for many years, they were teaching me different ways to do things that I would never of considered.

Fast forward 2 years and my now 11 year old frequently runs high level raids on Ghallanda and party members have no clue to his age. His instructions are concise and knowledgeable, yet he laughs at party deaths and seriously, so many adult players could learn from his "it is only a game" attitude. I now use them as a source of good high level gear that they loot but have no use of. That love trading and seem to acquire necessary ingredients with ease.

Having said this though, both boys have never used voice, hence they remain somewhat incognito, concerning their ages.

Enjoy the journey with your kids. There are so many other gaming options out there that the journey in DDO might be short for them.

Cheers,
Mick

[LightBear]

By now, even if he's half as handy with computers as you think he is then he's seen way more then the succubus from Under the Big Top.

[Arnez]

My family plays. Wife, Myself, Bro-In-Law, my son, 2 daughters. (and a few assorted RL friends)
Wife & I created our guild so our kids can have a separate chat. We've been careful about PUGs, but we've usually had enough online to fill our own teams. Raiding is the problem as in the years we've been playing together- we've all yet to do a single raid.

Lots of good advice here so far about protecting kids. My question for the OP is- CONTENT. Do you plan on getting more for him/you?

While you can get pretty far being purely FtP- there can be a LOT of fun with very little investment (or grinding TP).
Is your account a Premium? Wife & I went VIP for 2 years, but saved all our TP and last Sept bought all the content.
Kids accounts are all Premium, and through sales managed to get a LOT of content for them (probably spent an average of 30$ for each account)

[Angelic-council]

I'm sorry.. this is just ridiculous. How can someone allow 9 years old to play online MMO games. With all the respect, you should think more carefully.. I'm serious.
You have to understand kids psychology. Don't you think your boy get addicted later?

[Angelic-council]

deleted

[Demarill]

You know.. I can never do that to my kids. I usually go outside and play with them. I'm doing everything in my strength to support my kids.. But never Online MMO.. What kind of education program is that.

teaches them reading, writing, communication, hand eye co-ordianation and its fun, sure you don't want them to spend all their time playing a game but that's for the parents to decide.

As for voice chat, there is the option of turning the volume on voice chat to 0 which effectively stops it should you decide to explorer pugging, good luck with your play, hope you both have fun!

[Angelic-council]

teaches them reading, writing, communication, hand eye co-ordianation and its fun, sure you don't want them to spend all their time playing a game but that's for the parents to decide.

As for voice chat, there is the option of turning the volume on voice chat to 0 which effectively stops it should you decide to explorer pugging, good luck with your play, hope you both have fun!

I think there are better games out there. It's not about pugging and voice chats... It's about how kids would react to the online world. What are the kids thinking, when they kill monsters or die etc (more).. Sure, it's ok, there is no blood effect. But, kids understand that, they destroying something.. What if something goes wrong? like, the game is lagging or targeting issues occur... can they really accept this unfairness?
What do you mean by explorer pugging, shouldn't we be ashamed to play this emotional game with little children? where even adults get stressful and emotional.. this is serious game. I'm telling you guys.
.. I hope everything is gonna be alright with the kids

PS: at the end of the day, it's parents decision, but remember.. We have person here who don't even know what do to with his son..

[Oliphant]

I think letting kids play stressful, emotionally charged activities is pretty normal. It's kinda what we all gravitate to and consider fun, really. Like Ping Pong for example. I would totally understand someone letting, or not letting, their kid play an MMO.

My advice would be to:

Supervise play in the DDO setting given the player base and relatively few kids I've identified playing in DDO pugs. It's basically a bunch of adults with a kid once every few months showing up in a pug.

Think broadly about this big new thing we have called Online and focus on coaching real life lessons as a priority over video game lessons. Not saying to take the fun out of the game but make sure it's just a game and therefor treating someone poorly is much worse than doing poorly.

[Azalin]

I hope e has a great time! I play with my family and have a daughter who started when she was 8. Playing as a family will allow you to monitor the interaction with other players. Indeed, some people take it too seriously and can ruin the experience in the short-term. Just be up front about the age and experience of your LFMs and you should be fine. I'm on Sarlona with various versions of Azalin - If you play on that server, look us up - we would be happy to group!

[TanisSutton]

Kay I should be able to give you some of the basics since I've been playing since the disc release

First things first - if always aim to get favour if you're looking for ddo points I always make sure I have completed every harbour and every Beginner quest on elite before moving on to the marketplace - if you're doing favor runs later on you'll thank me later.

Second depending on whatever your class always make sure you're allocating your skill points into the useful skills - don't waste any in swim or perform for example as both are usually useless for most players, if you're a trap person focus on the search spot disable device and open lock skills if not most of these skills are pretty useless to you - if I was you I'd either invest in jump or sneaking skills because those are the only other useful skills in the game balance can also be good for avoiding getting tripped but I've gotten through the game without investing anything into it currently - it's more for those who care about not getting tripped but usually for me it's all the time.

Keep an eye on your health - if you're a cleric your job will be to make sure your allies are healed and to res them when they are dead - learn all the different diseases and curses because you're going to need that knowledge when you need to cure something you or an ally has. If you are not a healer you'll just have to learn when it's best to attack and when it's best to withdraw usually I would avoid tough fights when the cleric has low mp. On the other hand clerics usually are just used like hirelings anyway since they can't dps.

Make sure you have a good build for dps if you aren't a dps character build don't waste your time on skills to increase your attack - only focus on the skills you need like increasing your magic damage for a sorcerer for example.

Try and group with 6 players if not just make sure you have at least 1 cleric and 1 rogue and you'll be ok everytime.

Certain quests will require a certain wis or int skill check this usually applies to all the other ones as well but mostly these 2 because of the runes - if your character has 18 str for example no problem - you can kick down doors there are workarounds in some cases but having something high usually means u can't fail the skill check - higher the skill the higher the probability you can succeed.

Learn the difference between the classes - favored souls are not clerics they don't have divine vitality but they can melee better, sorcerers and wizards cast the same spells but the wizards can write as many as they want in their spell books - sure it will be weaker but they'll have more variety which can level out the playing field but probably a sorcerer can beat a wizard in a 1 on 1 fight. Artis and rogues have similar skills but Artifacts can have better pets and specialize in making traps they are basically the buffed up version of a rogue. The only ones you don't really need to know much about are the melee focused groups as they all focus on one thing - tanking.

Make sure you have alot of health - this goes for all characters really people want to see you with about 500 health when you get to level 20 otherwise they prefer not to allow you to quest with them which sucks because usually you're only 100-50 out typical really but to be honest if you really don't need that +1 attack die roll invest in health as much as you can.

Make sure you choose how to fight properly: e.g. if you use spells mainly for fighting don't melee your enemy, if you are a tank don't get out your crossbow, if you are a cleric don't fight unless you have to - clerics are usually called nannybots for a reason. Also make sure you have the right tools equipped for the job - a 2 handed weapon is not something I recommend for a spell user for example.

If you're doing a wilderness run bring a ddoguide map with you: it'll save you the hard work remembering every spot you need to find.

And because I'm tired of thinking of other stuff - make sure you get all the quests in the area so that when you need to start a quest you don't have to go through the chat windows just to start the quests. Now go out there and make daddy proud! xD

[goodspeed]

yar, don't let em. MMO's are addicting.

Do of old. Chuck em outside and let em play with dirt, or rocks or actually I think most parents just didn't want to hear their kids so they chucked em outside away from the nes.

[Angelic-council]

I hope e has a great time! I play with my family and have a daughter who started when she was 8. Playing as a family will allow you to monitor the interaction with other players. Indeed, some people take it too seriously and can ruin the experience in the short-term. Just be up front about the age and experience of your LFMs and you should be fine. I'm on Sarlona with various versions of Azalin - If you play on that server, look us up - we would be happy to group!

You know, I'm not even surprised. It's your choice. because some people like you, many kids are in poor situation right now. This is very serious, why do you think addiction is an issue. Especially kids... How can you even come up with this idea letting child play ddo.. There is no other games out there? What's your plan? how about when she turns 15 - 16.. You going to introduce new MMORPG for her? maybe next time it would be M rated... Now, look.. if you know there is negative side in this game, why in the world you allow them to play it in the first place. I can answer on this, because probably parents themselves are addicted and can't control themselves without playing game. So, lets play all together because it's easier that way.

[Azarddoze]

You know, I'm not even surprised. It's your choice. because some people like you, many kids are in poor situation right now. This is very serious, why do you think addiction is an issue. Especially kids... How can you even come up with this idea letting child play ddo.. There is no other games out there? What's your plan? how about when she turns 15 - 16.. You going to introduce new MMORPG for her? maybe next time it would be M rated... Now, look.. if you know there is negative side in this game, why in the world you allow them to play it in the first place. I can answer on this, because probably parents themselves are addicted and can't control themselves without playing game. So, lets play all together because it's easier that way.

So you've found the mystical algorythm that makes MMO = addiction? And there's no way around it?

It's that formula that makes good education not matter anymore, right?

It's a thread about a father asking tips to enjoy more his time with his kid and that his kid enjoys more his time (look how he cares already)... Don't you wanna start with the premise that he is an intelligent person enought to know what's he's doing instead of thinking he's already screwed and doomed?

[Angelic-council]

So you've found the mystical algorythm that makes MMO = addiction? And there's no way around it?

It's that formula that makes good education not matter anymore, right?

It's a thread about a father asking tips to enjoy more his time with his kid and that his kid enjoys more his time (look how he cares already)... Don't you wanna start with the premise that he is an intelligent person enought to know what's he's doing instead of thinking he's already screwed and doomed?

Azarddoze, let me ask you this question -- Why would intelligent father come here asking us for tips. He is smart adult who here since 2009. 5 years wasn't enough for him to understand what's the best for his son? Now, speaking of addiction. You should do more research by yourself. I have very good friend who is kids psychologist. I have seen many kids who are addicted because of their parents fault.
This game is T rated for a reason... DDO is not a family game. You should also be smart enough to understand that.. his son knew about DDO at age of 7, I'm sure he seen how his father play and killing stuff...
Why did he even teach him quest farming.. really.. he was 7 years old at that time right? You know, everything what this nice intelligent father have taught his son is.. how to be a gamer. If he truly just want to enjoy the game with his son.. why in the world he had to teach him quest farming and all that. Google about kids addiction age 7 - 9.

[Singular]

Azarddoze, let me ask you this question -- Why would intelligent father come here asking us for tips. He is smart adult who here since 2009. 5 years wasn't enough for him to understand what's the best for his son? Now, speaking of addiction. You should do more research by yourself. I have very good friend who is kids psychologist. I have seen many kids who are addicted because of their parents fault.
This game is T rated for a reason... DDO is not a family game. You should also be smart enough to understand that.. his son knew about DDO at age of 7, I'm sure he seen how his father play and killing stuff...
Why did he even teach him quest farming.. really.. he was 7 years old at that time right? You know, everything what this nice intelligent father have taught his son is.. how to be a gamer. If he truly just want to enjoy the game with his son.. why in the world he had to teach him quest farming and all that. Google about kids addiction age 7 - 9.

All my friends were into video games when I and they were young. They're basically over it now, playing casually for fun. I avoided video games and only picked them up recently - and am totally addicted now! I think the experience of doing it early teaches you that it's just part of life, you can manage it, and even outgrow it. So learning it early, among a variety of life experiences, is great - you can't discount a variety of early experience as learning devices.

[Spoonwelder]

Go into the CHAT tabs and disable these incoming chats,

No trade chat. No general chat. No advice chat. Turn off emotes, only because they won't wonder what they are to save you time. Turn off Say.

Don't allow him to party with players you do not know.

If you are on Cannith or Ghallanda, I will gladly give your son Snow Elemental Gems. Candy Canes, and Air Elemental Gems.
Chat turn offs - good idea
Partying - already set on him being solo for now
You want to give my child candy.......hmmm not sure if I like that :)

[Spoonwelder]

My family plays. Wife, Myself, Bro-In-Law, my son, 2 daughters. (and a few assorted RL friends)
Wife & I created our guild so our kids can have a separate chat. We've been careful about PUGs, but we've usually had enough online to fill our own teams. Raiding is the problem as in the years we've been playing together- we've all yet to do a single raid.

Lots of good advice here so far about protecting kids. My question for the OP is- CONTENT. Do you plan on getting more for him/you?

While you can get pretty far being purely FtP- there can be a LOT of fun with very little investment (or grinding TP).
Is your account a Premium? Wife & I went VIP for 2 years, but saved all our TP and last Sept bought all the content.
Kids accounts are all Premium, and through sales managed to get a LOT of content for them (probably spent an average of 30$ for each account)

Content - yeah F2P for now - probably will drop 10-20 bucks for him to get some key packs - Deleras/VoN/GH/Vale (sands after that). But I will see how it goes first before I drop some money on the game.

[Spoonwelder]

I'm sorry.. this is just ridiculous. How can someone allow 9 years old to play online MMO games. With all the respect, you should think more carefully.. I'm serious.
You have to understand kids psychology. Don't you think your boy get addicted later?
He could get addicted, but that's why I am around and helping him to keep that from happening - limiting his access to times I am around - making sure his other more important tasks are done (homework, chores etc..). He games on DS/Wii/Iphones already - but he only has a limited amount of time each week (two charge of a DS, one hour of all others). He manages the time to learn self control - I just monitor and once in awhile check his activity log on his DS.

As his game choices go - I don't think DDO is any worse than Donkey Kong Country.

Actually I will expand since you are so worried I am a bad father - he's an all A student, plays football, swims(local team but just entry level ie. not yet ready for competition) and is learning guitar. He is active and healthy and gaming is something he likes anyway - I play chess, cards and other games - I am slowly introducing him to more and more complex games. But right now he has basically outgrown most Wii games, has finished all his DS games and isn't really interested in anything he can afford (oh btw he saved his own money to buy his DS and saves his allowance to buy games - once in awhile he gets one for a Bday or Christmas present) and he has shown a level of maturity as well as an ability to play games without it spilling over into his life such that I felt DDO was a reasonable thing for him to play as an electronic form of entertainment. My coming to the forum was a recognition on my part that I don't have all the answers and sometimes the forumites have insight that can help.

Now I am not ignoring your input - I just think I have it squared away. I may be a bit more wary of his becoming addicted due to your input so thanks for that. But as of now I think I am good with the actual step of allowing him to play DDO.

[Rykka]

I'm sorry.. this is just ridiculous. How can someone allow 9 years old to play online MMO games. With all the respect, you should think more carefully.. I'm serious.
You have to understand kids psychology. Don't you think your boy get addicted later?

Meh. it's a game. There's nothing going on that they won't encounter in much worse forms in the flesh. No worse than football. You just have to watch out for the pedos, like anything. 9 is a bit early, but with proper parental enthusiasm the kid will discard it when they hit puberty. just the way it is.

[Angelic-council]

All my friends were into video games when I and they were young. They're basically over it now, playing casually for fun. I avoided video games and only picked them up recently - and am totally addicted now! I think the experience of doing it early teaches you that it's just part of life, you can manage it, and even outgrow it. So learning it early, among a variety of life experiences, is great - you can't discount a variety of early experience as learning devices.
:)

[Azarddoze]

:)

Think your lacking some balls here... but well played.

[Angelic-council]

He could get addicted, but that's why I am around and helping him to keep that from happening - limiting his access to times I am around - making sure his other more important tasks are done (homework, chores etc..). He games on DS/Wii/Iphones already - but he only has a limited amount of time each week (two charge of a DS, one hour of all others). He manages the time to learn self control - I just monitor and once in awhile check his activity log on his DS.

As his game choices go - I don't think DDO is any worse than Donkey Kong Country.

Actually I will expand since you are so worried I am a bad father - he's an all A student, plays football, swims(local team but just entry level ie. not yet ready for competition) and is learning guitar. He is active and healthy and gaming is something he likes anyway - I play chess, cards and other games - I am slowly introducing him to more and more complex games. But right now he has basically outgrown most Wii games, has finished all his DS games and isn't really interested in anything he can afford (oh btw he saved his own money to buy his DS and saves his allowance to buy games - once in awhile he gets one for a Bday or Christmas present) and he has shown a level of maturity as well as an ability to play games without it spilling over into his life such that I felt DDO was a reasonable thing for him to play as an electronic form of entertainment. My coming to the forum was a recognition on my part that I don't have all the answers and sometimes the forumites have insight that can help.

Now I am not ignoring your input - I just think I have it squared away. I may be a bit more wary of his becoming addicted due to your input so thanks for that. But as of now I think I am good with the actual step of allowing him to play DDO.

Oh boy.. I don't know spoon. I never met you in person so, I can't really comment anything bad about you. But, I don't think it's a good idea when you like, introduce him to more and more complex games..
well.. too much games could be poison you know.... and, he is only 9 years old. Anyways, you seems like a nice guy. I just wish you best of good luck spoon!

[Angelic-council]

Think your lacking some balls here... but well played.

What do you mean well played? I was serious. This isn't a joke Azar. I'm just tired of explaining. It's your life, I wish you best of good luck.

[Azarddoze]

What do you mean well played? I was serious. This isn't a joke Azar. I'm just tired of explaining. It's your life, I wish you best of good luck.

It's not even worth an once of my breath but since you're being hypocretical about it :)... since I was reading random stuff and using my link to general forum has a way to get back to other threads, I happened to have read your original message which, apart from being insulting and generalizing like the other ones, also included a part about you being done for good with this thread.

I'll show you the exemple. I'm done with this thread.

[ulgabi]

Like it or not, you are going to have to lie a lot about the game. Mostly about the gameplay featurebugs.
Game crashed? The game is very concerned about your health son. It wants you to stop playing and go out to sniff some flowers, ask your mom what can you help, and socialize with the neighbors.

[Kaisoni]

You know, I'm not even surprised. It's your choice. because some people like you, many kids are in poor situation right now. This is very serious, why do you think addiction is an issue. Especially kids... How can you even come up with this idea letting child play ddo.. There is no other games out there? What's your plan? how about when she turns 15 - 16.. You going to introduce new MMORPG for her? maybe next time it would be M rated... Now, look.. if you know there is negative side in this game, why in the world you allow them to play it in the first place. I can answer on this, because probably parents themselves are addicted and can't control themselves without playing game. So, lets play all together because it's easier that way.

It's because of bad parents who don't pay attention to their children that many kids are "in poor situation right now", not because parents let their children play computer games.

The problem in a lot of cases where people play far too much of a computer game is usually rooted in their real life or a deeper mental instability. Computer games are an escape from reality, and people sometimes just withdraw into that escape instead of trying to deal with their issues, and then start to feel more and more that they can't or don't want to deal with sorting it out as time goes on making it worse and harder to get out of.

People will and do try to escape problems by burying themselves into activities other than computer games in the same way and that behaviour is sometimes not seen as a problem or even praised depending on how society views those activities.

Arguably if someone is going to retreat into an activity, a social game like an MMO probably isn't the worst thing.

There are a lot of people under the impression that computer games cause a whole range of problems in children, but most of that is purely because people are always looking for somewhere to point the blame that distracts other people (and themselves) from mistakes that they themselves have made. People can also make a lot of money from telling people what they want to hear...

There are many far worse things for people to do than playing computer games, and lots of real scientific studies have shown that computer games can be positive in many ways such as improving decision making, eyesight, concentration, attention, reflexes, and have also been proven to help with a few medical conditions. Here's an interesting Ted talk explaining some of these: http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_bavelier_your_brain_on_video_games.html.

Arguably parents being over protective and sheltering their kids can be far more detrimental to a child's future as they will struggle to learn many social skills effectively.

However! The OP seems like they have a lot of interest in and care a lot about their child from what I've read from them so far, so I really doubt playing a game is going to be detrimental to their kid.

[Arnez]

Content - yeah F2P for now - probably will drop 10-20 bucks for him to get some key packs - Deleras/VoN/GH/Vale (sands after that). But I will see how it goes first before I drop some money on the game.

If urgency is not an issue when getting content for multiple accounts- I'd suggest waiting for double or triple point sales. Also- the MotU pack go on sale for 75% off every so often and the standard is the best bargain. ( MotU, Epics, Druid, and 4 classic adventure packs plus 1000TP for 8.75- however only goes on sale like twice a year)
I actually keep a spreadsheet for our accounts that keeps track of who owns which packs/classes/shared banks/etc.


Also- don't want to give any more time to the "Do as I say, not as I do" type of parents- but Kuddos to you for modeling what gaming can look like for your kids.

Now I'm going to tell my girls we're going to slay a dragon today.

[totalmir]

Buy him a ball and send him to play outside,that's the best advice I can give you.You want your son to grow strong,a warrior of sorts,not some obese,sight-impaired diabetic.Playing an MMO isn't something a 9 year old kid should do in it's free time.

[enochiancub]

Typical ridiculous ranting.

Your posts usually irritate the heck out of me, but this new rant takes it to a new level. The OP is coming here, in part, for advice to distinctly avoid these problems that you're accusing him of exposing his child to. A wealth of the posters have offered kind and useful advice to also avoid these issues. You're out of line. You need to get a friggen grip. End of story.

Obnoxious.

[Spoonwelder]

Buy him a ball and send him to play outside,that's the best advice I can give you.You want your son to grow strong,a warrior of sorts,not some obese,sight-impaired diabetic.Playing an MMO isn't something a 9 year old kid should do in it's free time.
Must of ignored my post about how active he is otherwise.....go back and read. But that said I will be the first to unplug every bit of entertainment in the house if my kids even start to approach slugdom.

Some down time is actually a good idea too - choosing how that time is spent by your kids (or helping them choose) is just as important for them as keeping them active. I would rather they play a video game versus just staring at some insipid kids tv show. But that is my opinion.

[Spoonwelder]

Like it or not, you are going to have to lie a lot about the game. Mostly about the gameplay featurebugs.
Game crashed? The game is very concerned about your health son. It wants you to stop playing and go out to sniff some flowers, ask your mom what can you help, and socialize with the neighbors.
Call it a learning experience - he needs to learn (as soooooo many people do) that information technology is loaded with bugs - some of them annoying, some of them debilitating.

[Spoonwelder]

But, I don't think it's a good idea when you like, introduce him to more and more complex games..
well.. too much games could be poison you know....

You need to chill a bit. I introduce him to more complex games because he is capable. He started with checkers, got good enough with that, so I introduced him to chess. What am I supposed to do leave him playing tiddly winks all his life. Life is complex - learning that is important. Games are fun yes but they are also great teaching tools....ie. with chess my son plays to fast so I gave him a timer once and told him not to move a piece for 30 seconds once it was his turn.....best game he had played in weeks. We talked about it after as well - to reinforce the lesson.

Last thing I am going to say to you - anyone so strident about some perceived issue usually has some underlying personal issue behind it - go do some introspective thinking about why this is such an issue for you then think about how that has impacted your life and whether you really need to have that issue overlay what I am talking about here.

[ulgabi]

All my friends were into video games when I and they were young. They're basically over it now, playing casually for fun. I avoided video games and only picked them up recently - and am totally addicted now!

That just means you are a bad person.

[schelsullivan]

Hey Spoonweilder, sounds to me that your are on top of the parenting situation to me. Dont let a few nosey busibodies ruin you and your sons playtime!

[ulgabi]

I think the issue with computers and parenting is that some parents just use computer as a babysitter.
But that happened in the 70-90s when parents used TV as a babysitter. Remember Cable guy? "Learned facts of life from Facts of Life."
And some neurobiologistscientestdude proved that monitors don't actually ruin eyesight. In fact, gaming enhances the ability to follow multiple objects.
Gaming is not bad for the kids. Living their lives in front of the computer is.
So since he's got an excuse to buy a new computer to spend quality time with his son, I see no problem. Of course he could also attempt to introduce sports like basketball for example in his life. For balances sake.

[Mick]

You ask for a bit of game advice for a new young player and receive parental advice from people with no knowledge of your situation.

For all we know, this young fella will only be allowed to play an hour or so a week. How can anyone judge parenting without knowing his situation.

I try for balance in my boys' lives. Balance in schooling, sports, outdoor activity, mental stimulus, social development ect.

Learning to participate in on-line gaming is just another form of social and mental development, some good, some bad.

For DDO, for me, it has been an activity I can share with my sons as equals... this time does not last for long, so I cherish it while I can.

Cheers,
Mick

[Seikojin]

I think for MP on, you will want to start grouping with him. Maybe remind him that you are available to help if he needs it. Which he will when those later MP and house quests come into play.

[TanisSutton]

It should be noted that the parent only asked for advice on helping his child with gaming related help not parenting criticism and how long he allows the kid to play video games... for one, stay on topic and two, don't make a habit of pushing your opinion on parents - it's their choice how they choose to parent not yours so leave them to it.

Personally I think it's sickening to see a tonne of "adults" gang on top of another adult like it's a school playground and nitpick about this parent's choice of upbringing. Sure opinions are good for creating a good perspective to make better decision but I do believe learning is best being learnt and not spoken otherwise you're just creating a off topic post that feeds into your obsession of criticizing other people and no-one wants to read flame wars so please don't ramble on and on about how your little boy Johnny is a poor influence on Mike just because he plays video games. If you do want to discuss that topic please create your own topic and quit pestering the guy about what time his son goes to bed and all the other stuff which is none of your business.

Little advice for parents who just want advice for their kid - don't even mention that he is your son just say that he's a new friend who's joined ddo and wants some tips and tricks that way we don't have parenting trolls being fed their daily this parent is bad cause he lets someone play violent video games pill. Most of these opinionated adults don't even play video games - I'm just waiting for the day when video games are accepted in the mainstream media and then these christian "video games are bad" pseudo fanatics can be just ignored because they are too blind to even admit their own book is filled with violence and all the other sensitive content they don't want to expose to their children. I'm not being insensitive towards Christians by the way I'm just telling it as it is since most people seem to get their thrills over a drama they've created on a forums site and I put up with alot of it in-game and in real life as well.

[Angelic-council]

You need to chill a bit. I introduce him to more complex games because he is capable. He started with checkers, got good enough with that, so I introduced him to chess. What am I supposed to do leave him playing tiddly winks all his life. Life is complex - learning that is important. Games are fun yes but they are also great teaching tools....ie. with chess my son plays to fast so I gave him a timer once and told him not to move a piece for 30 seconds once it was his turn.....best game he had played in weeks. We talked about it after as well - to reinforce the lesson.

Last thing I am going to say to you - anyone so strident about some perceived issue usually has some underlying personal issue behind it - go do some introspective thinking about why this is such an issue for you then think about how that has impacted your life and whether you really need to have that issue overlay what I am talking about here.

I'm very chil spoon lol... I was just saying, it's cool that you have control over him. But, you shouldn't go on web and constantly try to find new game for him... It's just little advice. I no longer mad at you. I'm happy to hear that he is doing other things like sports. :)

Now.. I work for http://www.square-enix.com. I'm an art designer in Japan, and I make really good money. I have 2 kids myself and those people who accusing me think l have "no knowledge" are wrong. I'm very experienced adult. Kids addiction problem from early age is one serious known issue. Nobody have to strictly forbit their kids to play games. My kids are ok btw, it's not my case. I apologize if I said something bad.... I left offensive comments because, I care about kids.

Edit: not towards spoon.
I didn't say kids should go outside and play soccer. But, should they stay home everyday and play games?
Games are for fun and it's ok to play them, but home work etc should be 1st priolity. My kids Play will u, Nintendo, iPhone + iPad games, and it's cool. But, online mmo like DDO at early age is maybe.. Little something we have to consider about it.
What learning experience from DDO people are talking about btw. I'm just curious.

[Angelic-council]

Your posts usually irritate the heck out of me, but this new rant takes it to a new level. The OP is coming here, in part, for advice to distinctly avoid these problems that you're accusing him of exposing his child to. A wealth of the posters have offered kind and useful advice to also avoid these issues. You're out of line. You need to get a friggen grip. End of story.

Obnoxious.

Deleted. I'm only telling the truth. Nothing else, it's your choice at the end of the day.
Many people would agree with me. There is M rated games out there, just disable blood effect and lower the graphic settings. Look what advice people giving here. Some people trying to teach a kid how to be successful in game. TR and quest farming. Why 8 - 9 years old have to know about that process. Where does it say that DDO is for kids. DDO is not wii u or DS game, online world is big. Turbine release contents for us adults. Good for spoon tho, because he seems intelligent person. Not many parents can do that let me tell you.

[Arnez]

Yep. I'm convinced, your logic has swayed me to the evils of teamwork and achieving goals together. This fallacy that good can triumph over evil- it's better for them to learn to be evil from the start-

I'm going to go get my kids (each) a copy of Grand Theft Auto so they can keep away from this dangerous fantasy realm. Better to play a game that is rooted in reality. Bonus is that thanks to you- they'll learn important life lessons (like kill the hooker to get your money back, or torture anyways, even if you get the information willingly)

[Angelic-council]

Yep. I'm convinced, your logic has swayed me to the evils of teamwork and achieving goals together. This fallacy that good can triumph over evil- it's better for them to learn to be evil from the start-

I'm going to go get my kids (each) a copy of Grand Theft Auto so they can keep away from this dangerous fantasy realm. Better to play a game that is rooted in reality. Bonus is that thanks to you- they'll learn important life lessons (like kill the hooker to get your money back, or torture anyways, even if you get the information willingly)

Oh god... I'm speechless... You really don't understand do you. Normal adult person wouldn't say that. Shouldn't we gamers understand the reality of importance? Kids can play online rpg, but what rpg and how they would react to it. What do you think, people are hooked on DDO right? That means, we all want to play this game badly correct? Don't we understand that DDO has ability to attract people, that's turbine purpose btw. Just how many adults play this game compare to kids. From that you can guess somehow that, DDO is not a family game. If you think you are so smart then let them play whatever you think it's cool. Even if you give them GTA.. Who possibly can stop you here. It's always adults fault in this case, because parents can't control themselves.

[FlaviusMaximus]

Knowing how much time I've wasted in my life playing MMORPGs and having my fair share of friends who have all but mortgaged their futures because of their video game addictions and the false sense of accomplishment that MMORPGs provide, I would be very reluctant to let a child of mine play an MMORPG and I certainly wouldn't play one around them knowing that they might emulate me. That being said, a healthier balance than I or many others have been able to achieve seems possible.

My recommendation is this:

If you son is getting good grades, reads voluntarily for at least a half hour a day, plays outside a decent amount, already has more productive, thought provoking hobbies, and gets ample opportunities to socialize face to face with his peers, then a little DDO here and there might be acceptable during downtimes.

Although it is, in theory, possible to set up rules that prevent an unhealthy balance, it's hard not to view video games, particularly MMORPGs, which are literally designed to be endless time-sucks, as anything but detrimental, particularly to children who are in the midst of developing habits that will last a lifetime.

[Angelic-council]

Knowing how much time I've wasted in my life playing MMORPGs and having my fair share of friends who have all but mortgaged their futures because of their video game addictions and the false sense of accomplishment that MMORPGs provide, I would be very reluctant to let a child of mine play an MMORPG and I certainly wouldn't play one around them knowing that they might emulate me. That being said, a healthier balance than I or many others have been able to achieve seems possible.

My recommendation is this:

If you son is getting good grades, reads voluntarily for at least a half hour a day, plays outside a decent amount, already has more productive, thought provoking hobbies, and gets ample opportunities to socialize face to face with his peers, then a little DDO here and there might be acceptable during downtimes.

Although it is, in theory, possible to set up rules that prevent an unhealthy balance, it's hard not to view video games, particularly MMORPGs, which are literally designed to be endless time-sucks, as anything but detrimental, particularly to children who are in the midst of developing habits that will last a lifetime.

Yes, I agree! :)

[totalmir]

I would rather they play a video game versus just staring at some insipid kids tv show. But that is my opinion.

What is the difference even?In what way is playing an MMO better for a kid than watching a kid's show?

I am glad to hear that you're helping your child sharpen his wit by playing chess,and that is applaudable,but I don't believe for a second that he's going to get any brighter for playing DDO.In the end it is you who knows best what's best for your child,it's just that I'm of the opinion that MMOs just contribute to the overall apathy of the modern society.

[Chilldude]

My kid is a gamer.

My kid has been gaming since he was 3 years old. He played Unreal Tournament, where he ran around 'booming' stuff. From the start I made it clear to him that everything on the screen was merely pretend, colored dots floating around in a sea of light. There were times he did get scared in video games, in Halo there is this part where you are overrun by creepy crawlers, he had to close his eyes for that part. All in all, there's been plenty of ups and downs just as there are ups and downs in every other aspect of life. He had to learn to accept defeat with dignity and grace, something he definitely had to work at. There were, from time to time, shouting matches with his buddies on XBOX Live. There were, from time to time, kids grouping up to pick on someone in the group. There were, from time to time, really close battles that ended in tears. Just as there were, from time to time, moments of triumph and jubilation.

Over the years, gaming has been a bonding experience between us. Unlike the quintessential dad, who gets up before first light to pack the car with supplies so that he can take his son out on a secluded pond in order for their heartwarming silhouette to be back lit by the rising sun shimmering off the mirror like surface of the water, life isn't a Norman Rockwell painting for most of us. I can't deny that me and my father, along with my brother, sister, and mother, probably all drowned some worms in a mud puddle a time or two. However, my dad worked hard to keep food on the table, and when I reflect on the 18 odd years of my childhood, I conjure up far more images of dad leaving for work or falling asleep on the couch than tossing a ball around the back yard, much less packing up gear and going out on an adventure. In contrast, I believe my son will look back on his childhood and remember exploring distant moons with his father, battling through monster infested wilderness areas, racing Ferraris through the streets of London, smashing Darth Vader into a pile of studs (lego star wars) with our light sabers, and even laughing like psychopaths while sniping each other's heads off stealthfully hunkered under a bush from a hillside on the other end of the map.

My kid just happens to also be a voracious reader. I've got boxes full of books stacked to the ceiling out in the garage. Most everyone would applaud a child reading books as an admirable endeavor, while simultaneously admonishing video games as a waste of time. Video games can spark the imagination every bit as much as a book, even more so in many cases. My son loves building complex red stone creations in Minecraft, marvelous explosions in Gary's Mod, he's quite the rocket scientist in Kerbal, and designs all sorts of fantastic contraptions in Fantastic Contraptions. Now he's starting to work under the hood a bit, developing Android companion apps for some of the games he plays.

We did the whole little league, soccer, karate thing too. You know what? He was just never all that interested in it. So what? Is throwing a ball really a superior activity to designing and testing a rocket? Is kicking a ball really a superior activity to cleaving a monster in two with a great axe? Absolutely not. Society has always, and continues to hold certain completely irrelevant activities in high esteem while completely ignoring other more meritorious activities altogether. In my town their is a parade down main street every year celebrating a couple dozen boys that smash into each other while carrying a ball around, and one girl who was clever enough to be born pretty. Are those achievements really so paramount in our society that those children should be singled out and celebrated for it? When's the last time you saw a Science Fair parade, art show parade, or essay parade? I've never seen the first time.

My kid is in high school now, taking all honors classes, and is top of his class half way through his sophomore year. He wants to study software development and make games... the very thing I wanted to do at his age but was told it was a silly idea and there was no money in it. (Thanks Mom and Dad, you were SOOoooo right! That whole video game nonsense was totally just a fad.) There's no doubt he's extremely smart, but he's a great kid too. Very kind, he's got such a big heart. He's never been in trouble for anything, at his worst (like all teenagers) he's abrupt, from time to time even a bit curt when answering his mother about how his day was at school and needs to be reminded to watch his tone and address his mother with respect.

My kid is a gamer. He has been a gamer since he could wiggle a mouse, and will probably always be a gamer. I'm not in the least bit ashamed. I am nothing but proud of my son. I would love for him to go to a big tech school for engineering, he's got the knack for it, he might one day design your holographic cell phone brain implant. He says he wants to make video games. That's great too. I know whatever my son does in the future he will be great at it. Not despite being a gamer, but because he's a gamer, and all the life skills he's learned in the digital realm as a result of it.

[digitaljc]

Post above nicely stated.

[Angelic-council]

My kid is a gamer.

My kid has been gaming since he was 3 years old. He played Unreal Tournament, where he ran around 'booming' stuff. From the start I made it clear to him that everything on the screen was merely pretend, colored dots floating around in a sea of light. There were times he did get scared in video games, in Halo there is this part where you are overrun by creepy crawlers, he had to close his eyes for that part. All in all, there's been plenty of ups and downs just as there are ups and downs in every other aspect of life. He had to learn to accept defeat with dignity and grace, something he definitely had to work at. There were, from time to time, shouting matches with his buddies on XBOX Live. There were, from time to time, kids grouping up to pick on someone in the group. There were, from time to time, really close battles that ended in tears. Just as there were, from time to time, moments of triumph and jubilation.

Over the years, gaming has been a bonding experience between us. Unlike the quintessential dad, who gets up before first light to pack the car with supplies so that he can take his son out on a secluded pond in order for their heartwarming silhouette to be back lit by the rising sun shimmering off the mirror like surface of the water, life isn't a Norman Rockwell painting for most of us. I can't deny that me and my father, along with my brother, sister, and mother, probably all drowned some worms in a mud puddle a time or two. However, my dad worked hard to keep food on the table, and when I reflect on the 18 odd years of my childhood, I conjure up far more images of dad leaving for work or falling asleep on the couch than tossing a ball around the back yard, much less packing up gear and going out on an adventure. In contrast, I believe my son will look back on his childhood and remember exploring distant moons with his father, battling through monster infested wilderness areas, racing Ferraris through the streets of London, smashing Darth Vader into a pile of studs (lego star wars) with our light sabers, and even laughing like psychopaths while sniping each other's heads off stealthfully hunkered under a bush from a hillside on the other end of the map.

My kid just happens to also be a voracious reader. I've got boxes full of books stacked to the ceiling out in the garage. Most everyone would applaud a child reading books as an admirable endeavor, while simultaneously admonishing video games as a waste of time. Video games can spark the imagination every bit as much as a book, even more so in many cases. My son loves building complex red stone creations in Minecraft, marvelous explosions in Gary's Mod, he's quite the rocket scientist in Kerbal, and designs all sorts of fantastic contraptions in Fantastic Contraptions. Now he's starting to work under the hood a bit, developing Android companion apps for some of the games he plays.

We did the whole little league, soccer, karate thing too. You know what? He was just never all that interested in it. So what? Is throwing a ball really a superior activity to designing and testing a rocket? Is kicking a ball really a superior activity to cleaving a monster in two with a great axe? Absolutely not. Society has always, and continues to hold certain completely irrelevant activities in high esteem while completely ignoring other more meritorious activities altogether. In my town their is a parade down main street every year celebrating a couple dozen boys that smash into each other while carrying a ball around, and one girl who was clever enough to be born pretty. Are those achievements really so paramount in our society that those children should be singled out and celebrated for it? When's the last time you saw a Science Fair parade, art show parade, or essay parade? I've never seen the first time.

My kid is in high school now, taking all honors classes, and is top of his class half way through his sophomore year. He wants to study software development and make games... the very thing I wanted to do at his age but was told it was a silly idea and there was no money in it. (Thanks Mom and Dad, you were SOOoooo right! That whole video game nonsense was totally just a fad.) There's no doubt he's extremely smart, but he's a great kid too. Very kind, he's got such a big heart. He's never been in trouble for anything, at his worst (like all teenagers) he's abrupt, from time to time even a bit curt when answering his mother about how his day was at school and needs to be reminded to watch his tone and address his mother with respect.

My kid is a gamer. He has been a gamer since he could wiggle a mouse, and will probably always be a gamer. I'm not in the least bit ashamed. I am nothing but proud of my son. I would love for him to go to a big tech school for engineering, he's got the knack for it, he might one day design your holographic cell phone brain implant. He says he wants to make video games. That's great too. I know whatever my son does in the future he will be great at it. Not despite being a gamer, but because he's a gamer, and all the life skills he's learned in the digital realm as a result of it.

I'm glad to hear that chil. But, you are mistaken. You can't say just because he played games, he is intelligent. He was probably just special. It's very rare. It's really hard to understand what's going on in kids mind. It's all depends on what game and how child accept the reality. You can't learn life skills from video games like DDO. Other games, maybe yes. I don't know you in person so, I don't want to comment anything negative.. But, parents shouldn't rely on games too much. Developing games are very very hard thing to do. You have to spend 5 hours even more studying at home. Trust me, they get paid really well. Because many people are talented now, you have to be best of the best at it. If your story is true. I can help your son. How is his progress now.

[MadCookieQueen]

Our oldest son plays...he's 15 but I think the general parenting rules apply.


1. We make this family time. DDO is a great experience and if you can use it as family time it's even better. So set up a play night when you and your kid go out and conquer the world. (Yes, we've built toons or TRed just to join up with him) It also gives us lively dinner discussions ^^

2. Bringing him into the guild is your call. Our guild is VERY family oriented and we have set a priority on making families feel welcome. Our oldest is more of a casual player but when I talked to our guild about him joining the response was amazing. out of every game I have ever played the people who play DDO in general are the most kid friendly. Also he will have a great group of people to choose from.

3. It's going to happen but if some jerk pops off to your kid...resist the urge to call them a stupid-monkey-fraker. Use it as a life lesson to teach him about helping those who are learning.

4. If you are raiding or questing with your kid and you know the peeps around, send them tells that player x is your child. I have never had a problem with this and in fact have seen a few other players surprisingly go into teaching parent mode ^^

5. Use this as a platform to get him into good old fashioned DnD (if you play PnP) by building toons based on your DDO characters. This makes the game more alive.

6. Let him make mistakes with character building or with mechanics...it's how people learn. Also encourage him to do his own homework on the game.

7. I would advise against pugging for now. This is just me being the mama but when our peanut first started he ran with us and only us until he got the gist of the game and became pretty decent. Now he pugs or just runs with guildies but he has the game mechanics down and can hold his own.


Not sure which server your on but if in G-Land look for me...have your son add my alts to his friends list...be more than happy to help and watch out for him.

good luck!

[Singular]

That just means you are a bad person.

I am a bad person. I am a bad person. I am a bad person. Shhh! I'm internalizing. I am a bad person. I am a bad person.

[Singular]

I'm glad to hear that chil. But, you are mistaken. You can't say just because he played games, he is intelligent. He was probably just special. It's very rare. It's really hard to understand what's going on in kids mind. It's all depends on what game and how child accept the reality. You can't learn life skills from video games like DDO. Other games, maybe yes. I don't know you in person so, I don't want to comment anything negative.. But, parents shouldn't rely on games too much. Developing games are very very hard thing to do. You have to spend 5 hours even more studying at home. Trust me, they get paid really well. Because many people are talented now, you have to be best of the best at it. If your story is true. I can help your son. How is his progress now.

hahaha!

All children have the ability to be successful in where their interests lie. People who cut off their experiences and dictate what they should do, and how, what's too much for them - like you - turn them into non-achievers.

If you're going to champion preventing children from experiencing the world then you are the one hurting them. Even if they are your kids, it's not right. And if you're going to tell kids "it's rare to be intelligent and be able to pursue your interests and dreams. Just go do something pragmatic" you are harming children. You're simply adding psychological barriers for them - well done.

Most people are going to tell you that you can't do X. If you listen to them, they're right.

[Angelic-council]

hahaha!

All children have the ability to be successful in where their interests lie. People who cut off their experiences and dictate what they should do, and how, what's too much for them - like you - turn them into non-achievers.

If you're going to champion preventing children from experiencing the world then you are the one hurting them. Even if they are your kids, it's not right. And if you're going to tell kids "it's rare to be intelligent and be able to pursue your interests and dreams. Just go do something pragmatic" you are harming children. You're simply adding psychological barriers for them - well done.

Most people are going to tell you that you can't do X. If you listen to them, they're right.

You know, you previously admitted that you have game addiction and I don't want to judge you. But, you should be the one who understand this more than anyone else. Do you honestly believe every kids in this world are arch-angels?. In order to be successful in life, you have to be either talented, skilled or even both. What do you mean by cut off their experience. Since when DDO was good experience for children. We talking about 7 - 9 years old. I'm sure you have no idea how hard it was for me before I became art designer. I didn't get to play 3 - 4 hours daily like some people here. If not parents, how kids would survive in this world. I never said you have to limit their experience, but you should be careful.

[Angelic-council]

I am a bad person. I am a bad person. I am a bad person. Shhh! I'm internalizing. I am a bad person. I am a bad person.

very mature of you.

[MadCookieQueen]

Y In order to be successful in life, you have to be either talented, skilled or even both.

No you have to fail and get up again and then fail and get up again. you have to work hard and then even harder. You have to take risks and be better than you were the day before.

Successful people are successful because they don't let anyone keep them down. Because they never give up. Because they don't take the easy way. Because they don't' fall for the trap of natural selection or natural talent.

That's the truth.

[Angelic-council]

No you have to fail and get up again and then fail and get up again. you have to work hard and then even harder. You have to take risks and be better than you were the day before.

Successful people are successful because they don't let anyone keep them down. Because they never give up. Because they don't take the easy way. Because they don't' fall for the trap of natural selection or natural talent.

That's the truth.

That's what I said Queen. There is no skills without hard work. Talented people are better sometimes, but you can always overcome them. That's why I said it was extremely hard for me :/

[NaturalHazard]

You know, you previously admitted that you have game addiction and I don't want to judge you. But, you should be the one who understand this more than anyone else. Do you honestly believe every kids in this world are arch-angels?. In order to be successful in life, you have to be either talented, skilled or even both. What do you mean by cut off their experience. Since when DDO was good experience for children. We talking about 7 - 9 years old. I'm sure you have no idea how hard it was for me before I became art designer. I didn't get to play 3 - 4 hours daily like some people here. If not parents, how kids would survive in this world. I never said you have to limit their experience, but you should be careful.

Define success?

[totalmir]

hahaha!

All children have the ability to be successful in where their interests lie. People who cut off their experiences and dictate what they should do, and how, what's too much for them - like you - turn them into non-achievers.

If you're going to champion preventing children from experiencing the world then you are the one hurting them. Even if they are your kids, it's not right. And if you're going to tell kids "it's rare to be intelligent and be able to pursue your interests and dreams. Just go do something pragmatic" you are harming children. You're simply adding psychological barriers for them - well done.

Most people are going to tell you that you can't do X. If you listen to them, they're right.

Telling them that they can be anything they want to be is also a lie,and will also be harmful for them,simply because it is not true.
In the long run "something pragmatic" can be way more lucrative for them and provide them with more stability than daydreaming about becoming an astronaut and never becoming one.
Kids should be encouraged to excel by all means,but a good parent has to be able to see if the kid has what it takes to become something he dreams about,or he just doesn't have the set of skills required for it.It is the responsibility of a parent to direct a child into the proper direction in situations when kid isn't experienced enough,and lacks a proper insight into it's own abilities.

[NaturalHazard]

Telling them that they can be anything they want to be is also a lie,and will also be harmful for them,simply because it is not true.
In the long run "something pragmatic" can be way more lucrative for them and provide them with more stability than daydreaming about becoming an astronaut and never becoming one.
Kids should be encouraged to excel by all means,but a good parent has to be able to see if the kid has what it takes to become something he dreams about,or he just doesn't have the set of skills required for it.It is the responsibility of a parent to direct a child into the proper direction in situations when kid isn't experienced enough,and lacks a proper insight into it's own abilities.

Problems arise more when they go to the extremes of both sides too pragmatic or too supportive of dreams. But instead of crushing dreams they could say well, have a back up plan, and get them to have a wider range of options. Also sometimes children can later Develop skills or traits. Known some who where useless at sports early on to later become good, or poor at maths or whatever.

[mna]

7. I would advise against pugging for now. This is just me being the mama but when our peanut first started he ran with us and only us until he got the gist of the game and became pretty decent. Now he pugs or just runs with guildies but he has the game mechanics down and can hold his own.

Heh. With three kids playing, I figured about the same too... but then again, after they do figure out the basic mechanics, it's more a question of communications.

We're not native speakers of English, but, well... neither are everyone else, PUGs can be quite random in this regard. I've ended up in PUGs where the majority language was, hm, ... French, German, Chinese I think, Spanish or something like that, and...


And even I do have occasional problems understanding what passes for English with some of the supposedly native-speaker players too, anyway, even though I used to pass for a native in parts of Britain the other decade.

[mna]

Call it a learning experience - he needs to learn (as soooooo many people do) that information technology is loaded with bugs - some of them annoying, some of them debilitating.

Well. Not like information technology is alone in that.

Why yes, our kitchen stove fails to heat up the front right plate if the digital clock on it isn't set to a valid time. The repairman just visited today and confirmed that "it's WAI on this model".

[mna]

I'm glad to hear that chil. But, you are mistaken. You can't say just because he played games, he is intelligent. He was probably just special. It's very rare. It's really hard to understand what's going on in kids mind. It's all depends on what game and how child accept the reality. You can't learn life skills from video games like DDO. Other games, maybe yes.

Um.

I thought it was quite possible to learn certain kinds of life skills from video games exactly like DDO. As in, multiplayer games where there is an element of communication and preferably also cooperation, with limited communication (and in a foreign language too, in our case).

Granted, DDO does not have the kind of forced cooperation that some games do, but still...

There's also the "meta" skill of how to learn to use complex systems.



Also, about this discussion about kids and games... is this about kids 1) doing anything at all (general case) with computers in the first place, 2) playing specifically DDO or not playing at all, or 3) playing DDO or playing something else?

[mna]

re: Carnival chain - succubi - good point - he's actually still too young to care but best to avoid the questions.


Well, not like the concept of such a creature wasn't already in a lot of the old folklore storybooks that have been approved reading from very young age in my family since at least my grandma's time... (hey, I wonder if there's a newer print run of this thing around, the binding is starting to to give up and it's only a hundred years old...)

[danotmano1998]

I have to hand out props to the original Poster.

Mad props to you for wanting to spend time with your kid.

Sure, some activities are more "wholesome" than others, but at the end of the day all kids want is to have their parents spend time with them while they are this young.
Whether it's teaching them how to fold socks, write alphabet, sing songs, or play games, it's all GOOD.

Have fun and enjoy I say.

[Arnez]

Here's the thing I don't understand for the naysayer(s):

There's games like Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, Deus Ex, Final Fanstasy - but DDO is the bad one?

There's no gore, no killing hookers, no stealing cars, no killing random people at an airport- but slaying a Dragon together is BAD?!?!?

Taking down giants is bad? Rescuing (damsels or towns) is bad? Teamwork is Bad?

[Angelic-council]

Here's the thing I don't understand for the naysayer(s):

There's games like Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, Deus Ex, Final Fanstasy - but DDO is the bad one?

There's no gore, no killing hookers, no stealing cars, no killing random people at an airport- but slaying a Dragon together is BAD?!?!?

Taking down giants is bad? Rescuing (damsels or towns) is bad? Teamwork is Bad?

Nope, with all the respect nobody said that. But, DDO is made for Teens (13+) and many players are adults here. If you read the 1st page, you would understand that there is negative side in this game. Parents already know about this and their plan is to limit the game play for kids.. Now, if it's all that good, why not let them fully enjoy it and allow them to pug on day one. There is more to this story, but.. most importantly, we are talking about 7 - 9 years old kids. There is very poor element of communication in ddo, when you pug you will encounter with adult players and not many of them are friendly. There is no necessary reason why kids should play DDO. Online rpg games are made for those people who love the fantasy world. Turbine expect us to stay as long as possible and spend real money in this game. They will do everything in their strength to hook us up. As you can see, many people here addicted and there is no guarantee it won't happen to kids.. Wii - u is fine, Nintendo DS is cool, but why in the world DDO. You should ask yourself arnez, do you believe those people? They say, my kids are very intelligent: they have best grades in school, play on piano, guitar, chess, reading books, swimming, play soccer, they also have good communication skills etc.. at age of 7 lol.. remember, they are also big gamers... come on now :/ it was parents who pushed them to play it.. I personally don't play any online rpg games right in front of my kids. shouldn't be this basic stuff? Ofc 7 years old wants to play this game, they seen how their parents play everyday... kids guys... doh.

Alright.. this time, I'm leaving this thread for good. It's parents choice after all. (please ignore this message).

[AnubisPrime]

Just be there with him to help guide him. Maybe have him look at some old D&D books. The great thing about the game is that you can set up characters and get as deep into or as far away from the nitty-gritty mechanics as you want to be.

My son is into Minecraft, Kerbal Space Program, and Universe Sandbox--He will not take to DDO. Fantasy is too "unscientific" for my 10 year old (hmmm--Minecraft?)