Victos wrote: ↑Mon 11 Mar 2019 11:18 AM
I myself have played PC games since I was 6, some on the C64/Amiga and then transitioned to PC. Never had problems with friends or in school, in fact I was even helping others up to and including university level mathematics. And I can certainly credit some of my success to games, like I knew English words my classmates didn't, I was more used to type in English by the age of 14 than some of them are today because I was quite active in battlenet at the time.
Now 32, have 3 kids to care about and the oldest one (8) likes games aswell. So he can play in case everything is done and he doesn't want to go outside. He's still crushing school, especially good in mathematics, he has a lot of friends, hell he even has a "girl he loves" from school. So I doubt gaming is doing any harm and would even claim that it helps developing skills he otherwise wouldn't have (problem solving is a big one).
In case of DAoC, I've recently had a Thane, before I deleted him, at lvl 49 and let my 6 year old daughter press like 2 buttons to "call thunder from the sky". And she enjoyed it quite a bit and immediately asked questions about the things in this game world. I then let her turn in my xp-eggs to the trainer that would turn me 50, and I said "give this man the eggs you collected" she did and then was completely amazed by the sounds and the effects and asked "what just happened?" And I told her that she reached a new level, she's stronger now because she worked for it by collecting those eggs.
You should see them both play together, they love the lego games and just explore the worlds. And then they turn it off, grab their real lego and play with that.
So yeah, I can't see anything wrong with letting them play from time to time if they're developed enough for the specific game. Sure I wouldn't let them raid DF or show them some of the more "scary" monsters of DAoC and I would also not let them interact with strangers at that age.
It is a case by case thing though, so I would try to show them the games carefully rather than just throwing them in.
But Thane seems to be fun, it's somewhat "flashy" and easy to play, especially when supported.
So I would guess thane+support is quite good.
You don't need to justify yourself. What happens in your house is solely your own business and should stay there - on the internet you will not get a agreeing 'oh yes, you may be right on that' instead lure all these trolls around the corner, just waiting for someone sharing a decent RL and mock on it.
Generally (not to one of you) speaking...
I did a lot of mistakes in the past raising my kids and thus I do know, that the worst case is, that kid/s and parents sit in front of the screen being focused there.
You do not bond with the kid, when both of you play the game separately. (grouping together, like really together may be a different story)
Parking the kid in front of the screen and enjoy RvR and high-five the kid in the evening, telling him what a beautiful father-son day it was is not the solution here.
The topics in the household will change and affect others. Kids learn from what you do, not from what you say.
All of you out there, do yourself ask one question every day:
What did I teach my kid today? not by speaking - by acting.
Do I really want to show my kid that going straight to the computer after dinner - or generally as often as possible is okay?
Do I really want to show them that not helping the partner in the household - or leave household behind is okay?
Do I really want to teach him that responding to someone whilst focusing the screen is okay?
How often have you/we 'ignored' a kid's need or him/her just wanted attention because we thought it is okay to play during daytime on weekends?
I do hear terrible things on teamspeak/discord every day....to me it seems some have kids as a tick in the box.
