Settings Options for under 18.. Let the kids play!

Hiro_Kintsugi

Lock em out of Dar

MrGhosty wrote: »

While I feel wanting to have something to play with your family, Elder Scrolls (while not being super hardcore) has never really been kid friendly. I can immediately think of a quest in the DC faction where it would have to be completely re done to make it "kid friendly" and is one that gave me a good chuckle and was used to establish a character. Let's not forget there would be several characters who would have to be completely rewritten just to accommodate this move and I would rather those resources be spent on improving the game we've already got.

From a community perspective, most kids aren't going to be contributing members of a community. While I imagine most of their time spent would be with supervision, there is never 100% supervision and from a safety standpoint that is a no go. Additionally, it seemed you implied you would like to see characters be addressed as if they are younger and roleplay as a kid is always super touchy gameplay at the best of times. Not impossible, but has to be designed around from the ground up.

There are many options available already for kid friendly play that would be better alternatives. Additionally you could look to some of the games that allow you to host your own server and apply mods which give the ability to tailor the experience to a younger audience.

ESO is not one of these games, nor should it be modified to be.

well my suggestion was to actually just cut those quest lines out, obviously the dark brotherhood etc. I don't feel like I would be losing anything not to have them and I don't think most younger players would care either. Basically if you had that setting you wouldn't have those quests just like when you don't have the DLC. maybe there could be an entire DLC geared to a younger crowd which I think be a lot of fun for the devs to write. I must just be a big kid because I prefer farming things like the big-eared Ginger kitten vs being just a murder hobo for a random random sorcerer who it's too weak to complete their own spells.

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

Not everything in this world needs to be made for, or geared towards, children- there are enough games out there aimed at them.

With that being said....I'm a little bit torn, because I like the idea of an "ESO light" where storylines are a little more...cheerful and a little less dark. I've never understood why gearing things towards adults automatically means everything has to be as dark and edgy as possible. It isn't that I can't appreciate those storylines. It's more that its tiresome and cliche after a while for the edge to be ramped up to the max in 18+ games.

Yeah I couldn't agree more and you worded it perfectly. It's wierd how the best most classic literature is actually shelved in the youth section of the library because somehow adult means you just have to have it be more the kind of content kids can't see? Instead of actually being insightful thoughtful and more complex.

robertthebard

Hiro_Kintsugi wrote: »

CyberSkooma wrote: »

If you want your kid to play the game, educate them on things that are displayed in the game and online safety and keep it moving. There is no reason for developers to go out of their way using development time so that Sally Lue doesn't have to see blood. Not going to try and sway your parenting strategies, but if you want them to play a "kid friendly" game, this is not for them and never will be.

I disagree and I don't think that it's so some kid cannot see blood and let's be honest the only Sally Lue's I would imagine actually playing are our milquetoast privileged gamers.. Some of us first responders, ex-soldiers, police, officers firefighters hospital workers first line workers during Covid.. people living in other countries where things are more shall we say violent..refugees etc.. a lot of those people don't want to see the excessive gore either because they have actually seen some s*** and are more than over it. other than the gore I really can't see why this is not a kids game. Also an adults game AKA and all ages game. My best description is like, what Harry Potter Star Wars LOTR level? ESO genuinely is 10+ or PG13 outside of the excessive gore.

Where are 10-13 year old children constantly exposed to drugs and alcohol? Didn't happen in my house, and it's not an everyday thing in my family's homes either. There are a lot more themes in this game than gore, and isn't there already a blood setting in game if you want to turn it off? I don't recall.

daim

Lotro is pretty child friemdly I think. At least the low levels and especially the hobbit part. But its probably pretty outdated, I havent played for years.

Dusk_Coven

Hiro_Kintsugi wrote: »

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

People bypass zone chat censors with "creative spelling". So no, it probably won't work. Let's start by having real GMs patrol the chat and address TOS violations -- as if this were a game for under-18's. If that cleans up the community by getting rid of most offenders with permabans, then we can reasonably look at expanding the game to allow under-18.
Although that would probably also require them to rewrite some content and re-plan future content to get that rating.

Good points. it would be nice if there was a little bit more checking in by the GM's in general. My idea is that they just wouldn't be able to read zone chat at all. there would be no zone chat they would have to talk together in discord if they wanted to chat, even though chat exist in so many other MMOs that are not as tightly regulated.

Ah sorry I missed that part about no chat whatsoever.
Discord couldn't be regulated at all so it might be less restricted and worse there. Even if you had a discord channel specifically for them, I bet you a bunch of trolls would infiltrate it -- and then being on Discord, ZOS would have no control over it whatsoever. So it might be actually better to keep it in-game -- IF there were GMs.

The thing about live GMs who actually respond: If people see that it happens, and have confidence that a GM will respond, then they will be less likely to initiate bad behavior.

What we have now is no GMs, and zero response from the devs when it comes to TOS violations. They don't even comment on the forums that they will investigate. That makes people push the limits and when they are not punished for it, they do it even more.

So no matter what, get some live GMs first and police the game as if it were for kids.

Hiro_Kintsugi

daim wrote: »

Lotro is pretty child friemdly I think. At least the low levels and especially the hobbit part. But its probably pretty outdated, I havent played for years.

yeah I looked at that one, its a pretty cool game, I guess I just meant like the movies kids are watching.. ratings/content wise like Star Wars and LOTR/Hobbit films.. it's far "worse" than anything Elder scrolls has ever offered. 😸

The_Drop_Bear

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

People bypass zone chat censors with "creative spelling". So no, it probably won't work. Let's start by having real GMs patrol the chat and address TOS violations -- as if this were a game for under-18's. If that cleans up the community by getting rid of most offenders with permabans, then we can reasonably look at expanding the game to allow under-18.
Although that would probably also require them to rewrite some content and re-plan future content to get that rating.

Swearing and talking about adult stuff in game chat isn't against TOS

The_Drop_Bear

Hiro_Kintsugi wrote: »

freespirit wrote: »

I think they already do!

I wish they did but I couldn't find anything my niece and nephew really want to play with us but the whole you have to be over 18 things definitely in the way

Cadbury wrote: »

Didn't kid-friendly MMO's like Wizard101 and ToonTown try this and it was largely considered a fail?

JamuThatsWho wrote: »

Hiro_Kintsugi wrote: »

OG_Kaveman wrote: »

JamuThatsWho wrote: »

No.

Why not?

Because it would require a complete overhaul/rewrite of the game for no real benefit.

It would be a complete waste of time, effort and resources.

There are plenty of kid-friendly games available.

you'll be talking about a whole new player base and yeah I mean obviously parents can say yes to kids playing and yes there are kids games out there but what I'm trying to put together here is a legit way for kids to play since kids are supposed to say that they're over 18 when they sign in which is just not true. and I'm not looking for a kid friendly game I'm looking for a game families can play together. One that's just as fun for the adults. The idea is for instance when you play a khajiit player the NPCs respond to you differently. You simply write the code that if you are an under-18 player the crazy gore whatever makes over 18 is limited. I just think it would be a really nice option for a lot of people not just kids. The game is awesome without it. And with discord there's no need for zone chat. Its one ittle bit of a limited function that maybe could be a checkbox that is limited for them or not.

That takes a lot of resources, which will *** of the current players

The_Drop_Bear

Hiro_Kintsugi wrote: »

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

They are already playing. Just look at in-game chat...

Isn't that for real lol but also I can never tell if it's kid players or just unfortunate toxic game addicted players. I don't know I think it's one of the only games I would actually recommend for kids especially because we don't give the devs and story writers enough credit for how well they represent people. for instance it's probably one of the only games where women aren't just displayed as sex objects. They work hard on equality and often the stories have pretty good fable style morals. Most games designed for kids are condescending and well often pretty lame. I tried alot out ..there awful. I guess I was just pretty surprised to find that only ESO makes a big deal about being over 18 and I could not for the life of me figure it out why? I would argue that ESO is a hell of a lot more wholesome than fortnite. Why not Warcraft why not all these other games, racing, shooting...even Fornight and Minecraft which also have zone chat. But yeah.. it's really hard to tell and I know my godkids play even though they're not supposed to according to ESO I assumes lawyers and insurance companies. It would just be really cool if you're the kind of parent that is down with them playing if you could have a few options for settings. Cuz like you in a few other people have said Sheogorath knows they're playing.

Most games don't have women as sex objects, the fact you think they do says alot about your mindset.

Funny I didn't know any of the chracters were *** to death in fornight, and then came back to life and massacred the kind villages who cared for them as they were dying, then *** the men and made them like her.

Tandor

Hiro_Kintsugi wrote: »

What if you could click "I am under 18" and you would not be able to see or type in zone chat.
The game could simply edit out the more gnarly gore or whatever makes it over 18 when your character comes in contact with it. They would just not be able to participate in certain quest. In fact I think it would be super cool if those quest were replaced with more "saturday morning cartoon" like quest storylines if you will. You could add a lot more players and families could play together during the quarantine.

I researched and play tested so many games trying to find the best game for family and friends to join in together online. Elder scrolls is from my research the most well put together game with diverse options by a long shot. So I think it would be great if we could have a 10+ setting. Honestly would be great if adults could choose it because I could care less about the gore and all the things that make it over 18 myself. I would much prefer more creative high fantasy quest and I often mute zone chat anyway... But seriously what do you think?

Ideas? Thoughts?
Cheers!

Good god. Really?

Danikat

I'm not sure if this has been addressed yet, but adding the option to hide inappropriate content would not change the age rating given to the game by organisations like PEGI or ESRB, especially if it was the user who decided whether to enable or disable it.

They rate games based on everything in them, not individual parts of games. To get a version with a different age rating it would have to be entirely seperate from the existing game.

However, I think in the majority of places those ratings are either advisory only or are only legally enforced at the point of sale. (You'll need to check the specifics for where you live, if you're not sure.) So if the parents or guardians of the children in question think ESO would be appropriate for their kids as long as they stay away from specific things they could allow them to play it. Even easier if you're all playing in a group, because then the adults will know exactly what the kids are doing.

indigorune

No, no, and no.

One of my favorite things about ESO is that the player base is (overall) not a bunch of children.

Hiro_Kintsugi

Danikat wrote: »

I'm not sure if this has been addressed yet, but adding the option to hide inappropriate content would not change the age rating given to the game by organisations like PEGI or ESRB, especially if it was the user who decided whether to enable or disable it.

They rate games based on everything in them, not individual parts of games. To get a version with a different age rating it would have to be entirely seperate from the existing game.

However, I think in the majority of places those ratings are either advisory only or are only legally enforced at the point of sale. (You'll need to check the specifics for where you live, if you're not sure.) So if the parents or guardians of the children in question think ESO would be appropriate for their kids as long as they stay away from specific things they could allow them to play it. Even easier if you're all playing in a group, because then the adults will know exactly what the kids are doing.

No it's a good point and I I'm not sure if anyone really knows exactly how the ratings are done and every rating system is different but I just mean so ESO can cover its bootay and it might be more fun for the younger players ( and the players who could do without the gore. Having a checkbox to be like" yeah nope "would be pretty cool)

wenchmore420b14_ESO

Hiro_Kintsugi wrote: »

CyberSkooma wrote: »

If you want your kid to play the game, educate them on things that are displayed in the game and online safety and keep it moving. There is no reason for developers to go out of their way using development time so that Sally Lue doesn't have to see blood. Not going to try and sway your parenting strategies, but if you want them to play a "kid friendly" game, this is not for them and never will be.

I disagree and I don't think that it's so some kid cannot see blood and let's be honest the only Sally Lue's I would imagine actually playing are our milquetoast privileged gamers.. Some of us first responders, ex-soldiers, police, officers firefighters hospital workers first line workers during Covid.. people living in other countries where things are more shall we say violent..refugees etc.. a lot of those people don't want to see the excessive gore either because they have actually seen some s*** and are more than over it. other than the gore I really can't see why this is not a kids game. Also an adults game AKA and all ages game. My best description is like, what Harry Potter Star Wars LOTR level? ESO genuinely is 10+ or PG13 outside of the excessive gore.

First off, there is a reason that it got a ESRB rating: Mature .
And besides gore there is same sex relationships, sexual references and mature situations, drug and alcohol use, and if you want to count them, gambling with Crown Crates.
Elder Scrolls has always been mature themed. Lets keep it that way.
My 2 drakes... Huzzah!

thorwyn

Considering the fact that ESO includes violence, blood, demons, ghosts, torture, murder (even with bullet time), stealing, drugs and sexual innuendos, the zone chat is the last thing to worry about. I think the game is just not meant to be played by children and I fail to see an easy way to make it more appropriate for them.

Hiro_Kintsugi

wenchmore420b14_ESO wrote: »

Hiro_Kintsugi wrote: »

CyberSkooma wrote: »

If you want your kid to play the game, educate them on things that are displayed in the game and online safety and keep it moving. There is no reason for developers to go out of their way using development time so that Sally Lue doesn't have to see blood. Not going to try and sway your parenting strategies, but if you want them to play a "kid friendly" game, this is not for them and never will be.

I disagree and I don't think that it's so some kid cannot see blood and let's be honest the only Sally Lue's I would imagine actually playing are our milquetoast privileged gamers.. Some of us first responders, ex-soldiers, police, officers firefighters hospital workers first line workers during Covid.. people living in other countries where things are more shall we say violent..refugees etc.. a lot of those people don't want to see the excessive gore either because they have actually seen some s*** and are more than over it. other than the gore I really can't see why this is not a kids game. Also an adults game AKA and all ages game. My best description is like, what Harry Potter Star Wars LOTR level? ESO genuinely is 10+ or PG13 outside of the excessive gore.

First off, there is a reason that it got a ESRB rating: Mature .
And besides gore there is same sex relationships, sexual references and mature situations, drug and alcohol use, and if you want to count them, gambling with Crown Crates.
Elder Scrolls has always been mature themed. Lets keep it that way.
My 2 drakes... Huzzah!

Those things are loosely alluded to and would be easy to take out and not be losing anything fun or awesome in the game. as for crown crates it would be as simple as they're not purchasable by under 18 players. But is that any more gambling than buying Pokemon or magic the gathering cards? also the quest that deal with drugs make it really clear that it's not good stuff. kids kind of do need to be talking about this stuff and nothing is traditionally better than stories and fables. And even though I'm down with getting rid of zone chat for them, I actually think adding a bunch of kids would improve the maturity and insightfulness of zone chat from what I've seen well at least it couldn't make it any worse

Nestor

The Violence in this game is cartoonish. Only Blade of Woe kills have any real gore. Most attacks are done with Ranged Spells or Skills, even the Melee ones. Played in Third Person, which is recommended for this game, the game is mild.

Dialog in this game, even that which touches on Sex is milder than PG13.

So, that leaves the sometimes cesspool that is Zone Chat. That is easy to disable on the PC. Quite frankly, Zone Chat is 99% OK, and when it is not, I just go to another zone.

Mettaricana

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

People bypass zone chat censors with "creative spelling". So no, it probably won't work. Let's start by having real GMs patrol the chat and address TOS violations -- as if this were a game for under-18's. If that cleans up the community by getting rid of most offenders with permabans, then we can reasonably look at expanding the game to allow under-18.
Although that would probably also require them to rewrite some content and re-plan future content to get that rating.

Other than the player base this game is about as violent and edgy as zelda or pokemon it hardly earns more than a pg13 kinda ratimg i my book

StormeReigns

On topic: If the parents allow (or does not allow) said minor to play the game, then it is under the parents responsibility to take appropriate actions and judgement. Simple as that, no need to waste rescourses.

Off Topic:

https://youtu.be/dFORM9nyZLY

Mitrenga

robertthebard

Hiro_Kintsugi wrote: »

wenchmore420b14_ESO wrote: »

Hiro_Kintsugi wrote: »

CyberSkooma wrote: »

If you want your kid to play the game, educate them on things that are displayed in the game and online safety and keep it moving. There is no reason for developers to go out of their way using development time so that Sally Lue doesn't have to see blood. Not going to try and sway your parenting strategies, but if you want them to play a "kid friendly" game, this is not for them and never will be.

I disagree and I don't think that it's so some kid cannot see blood and let's be honest the only Sally Lue's I would imagine actually playing are our milquetoast privileged gamers.. Some of us first responders, ex-soldiers, police, officers firefighters hospital workers first line workers during Covid.. people living in other countries where things are more shall we say violent..refugees etc.. a lot of those people don't want to see the excessive gore either because they have actually seen some s*** and are more than over it. other than the gore I really can't see why this is not a kids game. Also an adults game AKA and all ages game. My best description is like, what Harry Potter Star Wars LOTR level? ESO genuinely is 10+ or PG13 outside of the excessive gore.

First off, there is a reason that it got a ESRB rating: Mature .
And besides gore there is same sex relationships, sexual references and mature situations, drug and alcohol use, and if you want to count them, gambling with Crown Crates.
Elder Scrolls has always been mature themed. Lets keep it that way.
My 2 drakes... Huzzah!

Those things are loosely alluded to and would be easy to take out and not be losing anything fun or awesome in the game. as for crown crates it would be as simple as they're not purchasable by under 18 players. But is that any more gambling than buying Pokemon or magic the gathering cards? also the quest that deal with drugs make it really clear that it's not good stuff. kids kind of do need to be talking about this stuff and nothing is traditionally better than stories and fables. And even though I'm down with getting rid of zone chat for them, I actually think adding a bunch of kids would improve the maturity and insightfulness of zone chat from what I've seen well at least it couldn't make it any worse

You just need to find a different game. No trolling intended, but changing all the stuff that would have to be changed would mean redesigning the game from the ground up. Contrary to your earlier post, it has nothing to do with "hurt feelings". I'm sitting here thinking that the feelings hurt here are your own. Most of us are fine with the game the way it is, and don't see the need to enable it for 10 year old children.

Every zone with NPCs in it would have to have every line of ambient dialog evaluated and removed/edited. Any quest that dealt with things like slavery, or Skooma, would have to be removed/altered. One of the main quests in Kenarthi's Roost is all about that Moonsugar/skooma. So no, it's not all "loosely alluded to". The game is adult themed because it's intended for adults. There is no cost/profit benefit when one considers how much it's going to cost to "fix it for kids".

Joelthas

No, this game is not for kids and never will be. They can play WoW or something.

max_only

The Elder Scrolls franchise is not for “children”.




in game npc prostitution from the previous titles, in game drug abuse, in game murder for hire, in game human sacrifice, cannibalism, etc etc.

You could always try to instill in the children a sense of personal values, the ability to determine fact from fiction, and coping mechanisms so they aren’t unduly disturbed. That’s how I was able to watch horror movies and play video games under 13. ie: It’s not real. What is acceptable in Tamriel is unacceptable in today’s society etc. But I guess that requires some homework prior to the video game.

Feindrah

Nestor wrote: »

The Violence in this game is cartoonish. Only Blade of Woe kills have any real gore. Most attacks are done with Ranged Spells or Skills, even the Melee ones. Played in Third Person, which is recommended for this game, the game is mild.

Dialog in this game, even that which touches on Sex is milder than PG13.

So, that leaves the sometimes cesspool that is Zone Chat. That is easy to disable on the PC. Quite frankly, Zone Chat is 99% OK, and when it is not, I just go to another zone.

100% This. I don't think this game has much gore at all except for the brotherhood stuff, which you can always just not buy that DLC for the child until they get older. It's a very mild game in my opinion. Most of the stuff will go over the kids head too. I mean I grew up playing Unreal tournament as a kid and watching horror movies so maybe my opinion is a lil skewed, but out of other games a child could be playing ESO is pretty mild.

I'm sure there is some mod that you can use to disable zone chat. Also for the person saying taking away zone chat will make it so the child has a hard time grouping, i'm under the assumption they won't be doing groups stuff without their parents anyways. Basically OP, I think it would be safe for a child (Im assuming pre-teen age, not like 7. Please don't let young children play) to play ESO as it is now with zone chat turned off and parental supervision.

Danikat

I'm not sure about other places but in Europe the game was rated 18+ only because you can murder innocents and (potentially) get away with it. It's nothing to do with how gory it is, it's the action they object to.

So to lower the age rating it would have to remove entire sections of the game - basically the whole Dark Brotherhood DLC, all the violence related aspects of the Justice system, any quest options where you can kill someone who isn't clearly guilty and so on.

RefLiberty

Hiro_Kintsugi wrote: »

What if you could click "I am under 18" and you would not be able to see or type in zone chat.
The game could simply edit out the more gnarly gore or whatever makes it over 18 when your character comes in contact with it. They would just not be able to participate in certain quest. In fact I think it would be super cool if those quest were replaced with more "saturday morning cartoon" like quest storylines if you will. You could add a lot more players and families could play together during the quarantine.

I researched and play tested so many games trying to find the best game for family and friends to join in together online. Elder scrolls is from my research the most well put together game with diverse options by a long shot. So I think it would be great if we could have a 10+ setting. Honestly would be great if adults could choose it because I could care less about the gore and all the things that make it over 18 myself. I would much prefer more creative high fantasy quest and I often mute zone chat anyway... But seriously what do you think?

Ideas? Thoughts?
Cheers!

Yes I have the idea.
The ESo is having Mature rating and that is one of the reasons why we play it.

Your younglings needs to play hello kitty online or whatever don't mess with our M rated game here.

There so no bussines for minors in M rated content, you will need to find something else.

Katahdin

I dont think this game should be modified to be a "hello kitty, or my little pony game".
Its not that and I hope it will never be that because at that point, I will lose interest and me and my money will leave.

Honestly the "gore" in this game is barely more than a little bit of blood spatter.
The sexual themes, while mature are not overly overt or explicative.
Zone chat, well its zone chat and I cant see that being much different than what many kids are exposed to in groups of their peers these days.

I prefer that it remains as is and that parents need to be parents and participate in thier children's activities.
If a parent decides that their child is mature enough to handle ESO's content, then I am fine with that.

Whatever the rating may be, it is a suggestion. I see no reason why a mature and responsible teen cant play ESO.
It really the parent's responsibility to monitor and decide what thier childern are exposed to.


.

newtinmpls

1-No.

If cussing in zone chat was the only 'adult' thing in game, that would be simple. But this game touches on ethics, spirituality, dieties, stealing souls, cross species and cross gender marriage and many many other concepts much more "adult" than language.

2-Do you seriously think that no person under 18 is playing this game? Using zone chat and character names as an example; I would guess there are a lot of players with real or emotional ages around 6-13.

Deathlord92

No.

DamenAJ

newtinmpls wrote: »

1-No.

If cussing in zone chat was the only 'adult' thing in game, that would be simple. But this game touches on ethics, spirituality, dieties, stealing souls, cross species and cross gender marriage and many many other concepts much more "adult" than language.

2-Do you seriously think that no person under 18 is playing this game? Using zone chat and character names as an example; I would guess there are a lot of players with real or emotional ages around 6-13.

I think drug and alcohol reference is an issue too. Like, literally everyone drinks alcohol. I'm pretty sure that affects the ratings.

Darkenarlol

we have enough immature and infantile adults here allready

no need for real kids ty