"Rated Teen."

[Nazo]

Well, in Japan anyway. Or rather, 12. That's right, I'm talking about PSO.

But today I don't want to talk about the rating system; its fair enough. I'm going to talk about my brother.

My brother- at 8 years old- is not actually the kind that you hear in cliches, or see every day. He plays piano, he speaks Konglish (:wacko:) often, and has a strict diet of meat. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_nono.gif When I first let him touch the N64 controller at his first birthday, I believe he saw a holy light... unfortunately the wrong one.

Still not satisfied? OK, sure- he's annoying, he eats too much, is a brat most of the time and doesn't listen to me when he's supposed to. He's recently learned the convinience of lying and cheating, which has upset me very much... But he's done more than learn that; he's developed a skill for games. How? Let me see:

-Beat every Pokemon cartridge by himself at the age of 6~7, including Ruby and Sapphire. (Though he didn't catch 'em all)

-He's beaten Zelda: the Ocarina of Time without my help, which is in Japanese.

-He's finished over 5 cartridges that I didn't have time for or lost interested in on the 64.

-He's figured out how to master the cables for each system.


I'm not sure how exactly to respond to this. A normal mom would've been thrilled at the technological manuever with cables, though not so much with the gaming (he might have to recieve glasses next year, at this rate). I'm rather the opposite; awed by his intelligence in gaming, while disappointed with his rather sly development as a child.

Here's where it starts to get rather awkward. He came up to me today while I was playing PSO on GC and BB simultaenously (yes, I have a rather ravenous appetite for PSO these days.. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif ) He asks if he could play, and as a rather patriarchal person, I say no. He asks why, and I say "because, it says so on the cartridge." Gullible as he is, he went out dejected, once again overpowered by the potency of gaming companies. He's really intent on playing it though, and argued at dinner: "I'm not scared! Why not?"


I'm starting to wonder this too. Why not? Should I let him play? Or are there things that don't belong in a child's mind as his in PSO? Sure, there's the rather scanty costumes, but he's awed by the looks of the RAcast.


I just don't know how to respond to this kid sometimes.

[Aredhel]

Wow, you regard your brother with a lot of... erm, regard! More so than many siblings, is what I'm saying. It almost seemes as though you're his father or mother - in that respect, come to your parents for the answer. They are his keeper, after all.

Are you your brother's keeper? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Aredhel on 2004-07-21 07:50 ]</font>

[anwserman]

Well, the game itself would probably be fine but... keep him from not playing it to make sure his life hours aren't wasted like yours. Or mine.

Or the vast majority of people on this website. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

Pets my 9 characters.

[Superguppie]

Kids and computers. What a nice combination. I have a colleague that has a son of six. They have a program that is meant to help the parents keep an eye on what the kids are doing, with an emphasis on web-surfing and chatting. It turned out to be too comples to work with. So now, instead of the parents keeping an eye on the kid, the kid is using it to keep an eye on the parents. Because to him, it's a piece of cake!

Apart from the anecdote, the rating system is not meant to keep kids from playing games (or watching movies) It is there to help parents raise their kids well, and keeping things that might be unsuitable from them until the moment they should be able to make up their own minds. In order to ensure that parents won't get nasty surprises when the kids turn out to be playing things that are rated for an older group, shops can't sell below the advised age.
It is entirely up to your parents to decide what is acceptable and what isn't. So, as Aradhel says, they are the ones to answer the question.

[SpikeOtacon]

It all depends on his mindset. If he's advanced that much, that quickly, he may be 'mature' enough to handle it. It all depends on how well you think he'd handle the subject matter. My brother (Who happens to be 8. What a difference between him and I, huh? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif ) is in no way ready for anything above EC. Despite my best efforts to get him into the classics and GOOD games, my parents get him the absolute worst games ever. I mean, they get him all the licenced crap, just because it's got a face that he can recognize. What a way to go, mom and dad. On his various visits over, i've shown him some games i'm sure he's not ready for (like Wind Waker, Robotech, and PSO). Now that he's seen them, he wishes to try them. But do I think he's ready? Nope. Why?

1.) His gaming experience is almost only platformers, and Super Smash Brothers.

2.) He takes horrible care of his games. His gamecube has a record of failing to start up because of the odd things that appear in it. The games look like the disk met it's match with a tile of sandpaper. He even takes time away from the console to cut up the instruction manuals.

3.) His intelligence. Sure, when I was his age I was scrambling to not do my homework, but he takes that to a new level. If it requires thinking of any kind, he won't do it.

4.) He's too damn impressionable. I had nightmares of the grinch, when I was 5. He's been having them year after year after year. It's not entirely his fault, but having nightmares from watching me play Jet Grind Radio Future, I know he's not mentally stable enough yet.

If your brother is anything like that above, then i'd say no. If he's nothing like that above, then let him have at it!

[darthsaber9x9]

just keep him offline whatever you do!

[navci]

I guess the main concern here, is also not as much as the game content itself, but rather the time that he might spend on the game.

Do you want an 8 years old spend 5000 hours on this game? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

It does seem like your brother is very smart! http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif Congratulations! He will should start fighting with you and out-argue you! http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

You do seem like a very nice big bro. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[Nazo]

On 2004-07-21 08:34, SpikeOtacon wrote:

1.) His gaming experience is almost only platformers, and Super Smash Brothers.


Well.... I listed above. He's beaten WW too btw... *shrugs*


2.) He takes horrible care of his games. His gamecube has a record of failing to start up because of the odd things that appear in it.

Your parents got you TWO CUBES?! Holy moly Batman!


3.) His intelligence. Sure, when I was his age I was scrambling to not do my homework, but he takes that to a new level. If it requires thinking of any kind, he won't do it.

http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif That made me crack up. Well, again, my brother really is at his own choice. He can decide to use his noodles if he wants to due to enough interest, he does. But I mean, come on. PSO is the casual A, A, A, with the occasional recovery. Force may perhaps be more of a challenge (especially that of a FOmar or FOmarl, seeing they can entwine with weapons and techs), and I think my brother isn't ready for that yet. But he is smart enough to go around hitting Boomas with a h00mar.


4.) He's too damn impressionable... etc. etc.

He actually watches stuff like Law & Order (without understanding it) and actually gets excited... http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_confused.gif ..?


I'm just worried about why the Japanese rated it TEEN. I'd say E makes sense in America, but the other way around in Japan?! I mean, *cough*raphy is rated 15 there! There's got to be some sort of catch... but the only thing I can say unsuitable right now is the blood...

[DruidMettool]

Can we switch siblings? ... please?

[space_butler]

if you ever intend to do multimode, watch him in single player first...my brother almost erased my highest level character because i picked up a buster and he wanted it...

[Nazo]

@deh Fairy ( http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif )- thanks... that's a good point that you make too. But the thing is, I strictly limit him to 1 hour of gaming a day, so that should be no problem... or so I'd say. I'm afraid he might have game addiction... so I've kept him off RPGs pretty much.

@Druid- all I can say is, http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

@Butler- tried exactly ONCE, but that was near 1~2 yrs ago. Not a very successful manuever.. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif

[AUTO_]

I mean no offense, but there shouldn't be any reason content wise your brother can't handle PSO.

-It's not realistic.

-The blood is basically cartoonish

-etc.



The only reason I would tell you to object is because of online play.

If you decide to let him play online you might want to be around when he does--or he'll learn a lot of cool, exciting words that he's never heard before.

As far as offline goes I see no problem with it--if he gets "scarred" from PSO then it's going to be a lot harder to swallow more mature forms of entertainment in the years to come.

You can't become 12 and jump from Pokemon to Doom without a little shock value.



Easiest way to swim in the deep end is get pushed in http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[navci]

On 2004-07-21 11:57, Nazo wrote:
@deh Fairy ( http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif )


You wanna suffer a horrible fate of geoduck stabbing in the face? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_disapprove.gif

[Mattacon]

Offline would be fine, but online would be a bad idea.

[darthsaber9x9]

On 2004-07-21 14:06, Mattacon wrote:
Offline would be fine, but online would be a bad idea.



for our sake http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_disapprove.gif

[InfinityXXX]

My sister is 6(shes turning 7 this saturday) and i let her play pso. I guess my sis can handle it due to the fact that she watches rated R movies. She use to watch me watch R movies and play "M" games when i was about 10 so she wasn't all that shock when she killed a booma and watched it soak in the ground leaving a puddle of fake blood on the ground. (*tear falls from eye*)When your sibling first plays watch and guide him, he'll probably get nervous on certain stages and will run around the screen trying to find a way out of a boss battle and end up getting killed. He'll probably be scared of certain bosses, my sister refuses to fight olga flow on single mode. If you let your bro play i wouldn't worry that much about it unless he goes online. Your brother sounds really smart and cool and i wish i can have him as a little bro.(My brother is a freakin asshole who thinks his 12 year old ass can beat me in every game he sees)

[Zzzzzz]

Ah, the rating system.Just be glad SEGA doesn't handle the rating system. I still have Mortal Kombat for the Genesis, with only the blood edited out, rated K(ids)-A(dults). And a fairly easy code turns the blood on anyways.

I am still scarred when I heard my little sister said she knows what the f-word means. She could be wrong, but still, It's kinda hard for her to have heard it since nobody says it around here.
Where has thy innocience gone? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_cry.gif

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

Advice time!:
Get him his own memory card to himself for his characters.
That way you have peace of mind and he can store up as many as he wants. He said he's not scared but he may not enjoy it as much as you do anyway so give him a shot and maybe he'll be turned off by the game.

My lil' brother just straight started playing on his own on my DC PSO. He went straight online and was a cheating little bugger.

Imagine my dismay at someone arguing with me over simple mail because I wasn't my cheating little brother, since Guild Card searches find the console and not the mem cards.
When your sibling's playing affects your daily play like it did mine, then be warned and take the necessary precautions.

Get him his own memory card if he doesn't have one already, and keep him Offline. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[LeRoy_G]

should make him do some piping for him. see how long he can take it until he's bored.