Topic

Annoying

Im getting really annoyed and angry, you out there may be feeling the same but its really really annoying some of the older players on this game saying about Children ruine this game and that there should be a age limit. Well i do not Agree in this world there is good and bad (Kids & Adults) And same for Virtual             I want your opinions and what you think      I Aree or Disagree ?   

Posted 20 months ago by Big Mamma Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • Personally, I love children....couldn't eat a whole one though.
    Posted 20 months ago by Bob Apple Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Bob Apple, I love you!
    Posted 20 months ago by RM Subscriber! | Permalink
  • IM BACK BABY!!!!

    Isle of Wight was nice - apart from the in-breeding and lack of any internet connection - I asked a woman in the local shop if she had wi-fi....she said it was just the way she was sitting.
    Posted 20 months ago by Bob Apple Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Did you go to the Isle of Wight Music Festival, Bob, or was this a "just because" visit?

    I recall that I didn't mind not having internet access on Iona when I visited there a few years ago but after the 5-day stay I was starting to get serious withdrawal pains. Sadly, though, my fantasy baseball team prospered in my absence.
    Posted 20 months ago by Hank Tudor Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Without wanting to hijack the thread - It was a family holiday for a week as the kids were off school Hank and we had a brilliant time.  Naffed off that I missed the test but thats the way the mankini turns! - seriously lack of access though although strangely there is a connection halfway across the water back to the mainland which was kinda spooky!
    Posted 20 months ago by Bob Apple Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Bob Apple, please hijack this thread. Please. ;)
    Posted 20 months ago by en Subscriber! | Permalink
  • LOL, I'm a big practitioner of thread drift. 

    Sounds like a fun time. One of these days I want the missus (RascalMom) and the young 'un and I to take a vacation on South Padre Island, which is in the Gulf of Mexico on the Texas coast. About a 4 hour drive for us.
    Posted 20 months ago by Hank Tudor Subscriber! | Permalink
  • hmmm lets see....I like the Isle of Wight in the UK (southern most point and stuck in the 1950s) but I also like the sound of South Padre Island in the Gulf of Mexico (As a BP shareholder I refuse to admit anything!)....but which one is better?  theres only one way to find out.............
    Posted 20 months ago by Bob Apple Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I wouldnt say that children ruin this game, some children can spoil things just as some adults can. What I can say though is that children did ruin large aspects of the game in faunasphere where many of us have migrated from. the begging and hounding when in the worlds often meant many of us didn't venture out of our or our friends spheres into the worlds. you couldnt go to the shops in the game without a barrage of gimme, gimme, gimme.

    The forums became utter drivel, endless threads completely unrelated to the game were posted. several times I posted things about the game and they would drop down the forum so fast with all the crap that they never got answered. We lost many long standing players who previously spent large amounts of real money on the game. 

    FS also had a bizare banning system which they refused to explain the rational behind and there was no appeal process if you were unfairly banned. For most of us paying players we would never dare confront the problems with players as it could have got us banned, so many just drifted away. Several paying players we banned because of vindictive unjustified reports against them. meaning they lost access to the accounts and wasted whatever they had spent on the game. 


    There were times when FS became a horrible place to be and that way normally at the weekend or during the holidays. 


    Saying all this I believe it was the marketing of the game once it joined Facebook and not the children that were the problem. I think this is where Glitch will succeed where FS failed. To me Glitch seems to be a game aimed at adults which doesn't mind if children join in. FS  was a game specifically aimed at adults which suddenly became advertised in a childish way, and all the new developments were aimed at the kiddie aspect ant the long term players and payers were neglected. 


    Once we get into beta the game will evolve its own unspoken rules and as long as glitch continues to work and develop for its intended demographic then most of the children that choose to play and stick around will fit into the unspoken rules and if the community is strong and has the support of the development team the adult/child conflict should not be a big problem. 


    I am happy to play with younger players who have the maturity to join in an adult game. Travs post made perfect sense, shes doesn't have to accept an apology and shouldn't be made to feel bad about it. I am glad that this game gives the opportunity for both sides of the story to be told and I have to say I would have hit block too in that situation.
    Posted 20 months ago by Sherbert Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 Sherbert, especially the last paragraph.  In any game or chat, if I learn an aquantance is underaged, I don't change the way I relate to them, I think on the internet we're all equal.  But if they start being confrontational or disruptive, I'm apt to start avoiding them.  I'm sorry, but publicly posting about a tiff with someone is particularly childish.  Its not something we'd tolerate in an adult.
    Posted 20 months ago by Phoebe Springback Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Honestly, it would be nice to to find a game that was 16+.

    Sure, I was one of those weird kids who people thought was 18+ at age 14 IRL, but I know myself to be in the minority.
    I could have easily pretended to be over 16 online by age 12 if I had REALLY wanted to play a 16+ game. And no, the teasing and flirting and innuendo wouldn't have offended me then. I would have simply not participated more than what I felt comfortable with. I would not have made a big deal out of it or griped about someone's language.
     
    But then, I could also type coherently and use spellcheck by that age, and had the vocabulary of a college freshman at the start of third grade according to the guy the school hired to do the IQ tests of kids headed into the Gifted program.
    (I scored a 135 and haven't bothered to test since. I also started homeschooling that semester.)

    Not to be a total bitch here, but has anyone noticed that Gem's and Lycan's spelling and grammar are the same?

    But back on the subject at hand- As far as the original incident goes, I'm with Trav here.
    And not just because of the grabby hands. It's more the fact that Gem did not respond to an IM that makes me think she was trying to see how much she could get away with.
    If the stuff was "presents from the devs", it would not have been polite to take more than one thing. It would certainly be out of bounds to be greedy and drop stuff off at home and go back for more in a public space. If the devs meant such hypothetical gifts for just you, they would leave them in your house. If such a thing was left in public, it would be for everyone. When I have found things people left on a street in the game, if there were multiples, I only took part of what was there, and left things I did not need alone for others to pick up.

    Do children ruin games?
    Depends on the children, but there is a reason the driving age in the US is 16 with supervised Learner's Permit at 15. It's the same reason that the Age of Consent is 16 in most of the states that don't have antiquated laws allowing marriage at 12.
    Most kids under 16 aren't really competent to make reasoned choices that affect others.

    Also, I'm with Phoebe about that last bit.
    I would avoid an adult who publicly posted about a tiff they had in game, as I would feel they were being childish.
    Posted 20 months ago by Murri Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Sherbert, I agree that this may have been one of the fatal problems of FS: I absolutely loved the game, but in the end the people in control seemed to care more about doing whatever it took to make a large profit as quickly as possible (and when that didn't happen fast enough, just abandon it all together). Everything they initially said about what the game was all about changed drastically as time went on, which is an indicator that the money was more important than the game's vision (it's heart and soul, and the fact that it was a living work of art). I feel sorry for the people that initially created the game, who must have been excited about their baby at the beginning, only to have it canned before it barely had a chance to get started...

    Anyway, I have high hopes that this will NOT happen to Glitch, because the situation is totally different, and I think everyone involved in all aspects of it see it as the work of art it is and think of it as something special that has its own identity, which will (hopefully) not be compromised for the sake of higher profits. Also, this game is already way more popular than FS (staggering numbers of people waiting in line to get into beta), and the game isn't even live yet! So, I think it will do well.

    Back to something closer to the theme of the thread: I wouldn't want to see the feel of the game changed to cater to a specific audience (like children). This game DOES have mature themes in it that aren't appropriate for young children, and that may anger parents (even of teenagers). Glitch will have to protect itself legally because of this: I'm sure they don't want to get sued because a parent of a 15 year old found out they were playing a game with alcohol references in it (or drugs, or sex, or foul language from players). Thus, unless the tone of the game changes (please don't do that), I assume there WILL be an age cap, and also a "parental permission required" rule for kids older than the hard cap.
    Posted 20 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 to what Sheperdmoon just posted.
    I do NOT want to see this game turned into a politically correct and socially neutered chunk of the Disney franchise so that kids can't get offended.

    On the upside, I asked Kevin if there was a way I could donate, and he firmly told me they had it covered, money-wise, so here's to hoping! *raises a glass of mead*
    Posted 20 months ago by Murri Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I fully agree with Murri. I'm a young player and don't think I've proved a nuisance to the adults; in fact, when I told people this, they were surprised. I think that if younger players can behave politely and be treated the same as adults, everything should be fine. (hope this doesn't seem annoying--just my opinion)
    Posted 20 months ago by Cupcake Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ok - my serious 2 cents here

    I personally love the fact that I can play this game with a huge range of people and the humour (yes thats how you spell humour, we invented English you know) is spot on for me.  Kids will undoubtedly play this and some will be brilliant and some will be annoying - just the same as the adults.  Ultimately this is entertainment and perhaps that perspective is best kept when playing.  So lets put all this bad feeling and bad spelling behind us and concentrate on testing this remarkable and, dare i say, revolutionary new gaming experience.

    I thank you all.
    Posted 20 months ago by Bob Apple Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 Bob
    Posted 20 months ago by tweetypie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • *throws money at Bob*
    Posted 20 months ago by Hburger Subscriber! | Permalink
  • :)
    Bob, you do know that the English language was invented by a couple of drunk fellows with a German dictionary and a fragmentary knowledge of several other languages, right?

     
    Posted 20 months ago by Murri Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Murri - If it wasn't for the fact that I am a total coward I would challenge you to a duel....or is it dual?.....for slandering my mother tounge
    Posted 20 months ago by Bob Apple Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm not trying to be rude, but I can't even take half of these responses seriously. People go on and on about rude behavior, but it happens. We're on the internet, PLAYING A GAME. Again, this is NOT REAL LIFE. All of the responses in this thread are backhanded- you say children aren't ruining the game, yet go on to give countless reasons how they are.

    What's starting to ruin the game is all of these complaints. I'm not just talking about this thread either. And yes Devs, I'm getting so frustrated that it's getting hard to enjoy the game. Honestly, I barely enjoy playing glitch anymore. I've thought about stopping but I enjoy the actual concept of the game, and do my best to ignore the chats and forums, but just as you are allowed to speak your opinions, so am I.

    There's not even a lot of content "inappropriate" for children. So what- they have the options to drink alcohol in the game. It's not like children are like "OMG let's use this cocktail shaker recipe to make an alcoholic drink!". It's not like children are like "OMG I just used no-no powder, now I need to go do some drugs." Being 20 years old, and much closer in age to these "children" then most of you, I can tell you they're playing the game and only that, not getting inspired by the game to go out and drink alcohol and do drugs. And if it's the interactions with adults you're referring to, I think many of the "adults" (who in my opinion are acting like children) think that this game is just for them. It's really not, that was the point of my last post. It's for everyone above the "age limit" (which is not even existent at this point) I get the impression from many people's posts that this is an "escape from the children". Maybe you should go somewhere else, because this is a GAME.

    I don't mean to offend anyone, I'm just trying to speak up for myself and others who feel this way (and I know it is not only me).
    Posted 20 months ago by ganjaprincess Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Bob,
    You must know that I'm a native speaker of this battered language, albeit one from America. Only my love of it allows me to take such liberties with it's honor and nonexistent virtue. 

    Besides, you wouldn't hit a girl, would you? :D

    And..er...what you do with your mother's tongue when I'm not here is of course up to you.
    But please don't tell me about it.
    Posted 20 months ago by Murri Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I just realized something...this thread is so long that my scroll button is tiny and hasn't been closed.  How great is that??   Haha, FSers will know what I'm talking about. 
    Posted 20 months ago by Phoebe Springback Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Phoebe -
    Right you are! And it is glorious to not feel as though we are about to be liberally censored.
    The mods on FS were generally nice people, but the reason I rarely posted in the forums was that I generally felt like I was posting under the eyes of the Chinese Government.
    Post something they didn't agree with completely, and be shut down.
    Posted 20 months ago by Murri Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Bows in surrender to Murri ;-)
    Posted 20 months ago by Bob Apple Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Could I just add a foot note here. I do get a little touchy about this so you will have to forgive my off topic.
     Please, please do NOT judge someone's intelligence buy how they spell! :)
    Posted 20 months ago by Misha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • *tickles Bob while he's busy bowing, and runs off*

    I do believe this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. :P
    Posted 20 months ago by Murri Subscriber! | Permalink
  • good point Misha and well made
    Posted 20 months ago by Bob Apple Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Misha - When I see someone TRYING to spell, or showing signs of the type of spelling dyslexics frequently display, I don't think them stupid or ignorant. Same goes for those who are obviously dealing with a language barrier. I make allowances most of the time.

    When I see someone make no pretense of capitalization, punctuation or similar, I must assume that they are being lazy or are not very bright, or that they are too young to have knowledge of such things. Also, chat speech drives me nuts. Even when I post while using my smartphone, I go to the effort to type properly.
    Posted 20 months ago by Murri Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree Murri. I'm also finding the non censorship liberating. Having said that, I have also been on forums with no moderation, which turned into a flaming war. I hope we get a happy medium here that keeps us all feeling valued and welcomed. 
    Posted 20 months ago by tweetypie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Just popping in to welcome Bob Apple back from holiday!

    Your humor (humour) and name are much admired! <g>
    Posted 20 months ago by Pirate Apples Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @ganjaprincess: I agree that lots of complaints can ruin gameplay to some extent, but I also think that some of that is needed for people to vent so they feel better, and it can spark some good discussions. Also, just like you, I have a really high tolerance for stuff that others may find risque, and wouldn't have the same problems with my daughter seeing potentially questionable content as others, since I would hope that I would have raised her well enough to make good life decisions despite any temptations that may come her way (she's not even 3 years old yet, so maybe that will change with time, but that's how I feel based off of my experience as a child). HOWEVER: there are ALOT of adults out there that are extremely personally offended by all sorts of things that you would consider to be mundane, and they will make it their mission to shut down this game (or anything else that crosses their own personal lines) because of it. All forms of art have struggled with these types for a very long time, and the struggle continues. There are still people out there trying to ban everything that isn't totally "g' rated, and we really don't want to have to tango with them.

    So, I don't think it's the kids that we have to worry about, so much as their parents: there may be some that disapprove once they find out what their kids are up to (regardless of the reality of any impact it will actually have on their children), and take action accordingly.
    Posted 20 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I just think what ever has happened between two gamers here, the topic header is ONLY 14 years old. As a Mother of a 14 year old I think I have read enough.  Questioning the girls intelligence/laziness  is enough already. Its about time this thread was put to bed. 

    @Murri Just to add as a Dyslexic I could not give a rats arse if your making allowances "most of the time"
    and yes I have my arse in my hands, my prerogative :)
    Posted 20 months ago by Misha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm curious: what is this about forum censoring?
    Posted 20 months ago by Cupcake Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Cupcake. In FS our forum was moderated. We were not allowed to discuss politics, religion, anything sexual and not moderated decisions.  
    Posted 20 months ago by tweetypie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Misha, cool down a bit, please.

    There is a big difference between the kind of casual mistakes that we all make in spelling, grammar, etc. and someone not trying at all.
    My father is dyslexic, and I have problem with mostly numbers based dyslexia myself. When I say that I make allowances most of the time, I mean that as long as the rest of the context doesn't merit a conclusion that someone isn't very bright, I won't use spelling to determine intelligence.

    And I was never questioning the girl's intelligence or laziness.
    I did include "they are too young to have knowledge of such things" as one of my possible conclusions.

    What I think you missed completely is that the comment you seemingly responded to in my earlier post was not a critique of her spelling at all, really.
    She's 14, and most of the normal 14yr old kids I've met could really care less how they present themselves online and so don't bother to spell or use good sentence structure.
    However, I have rarely talked to a parent and child online who displayed the same type of spelling and sentence formation errors on a regular basis, so I'm somewhat inclined to doubt that there are two players involved. I've been on other games where underage players invented parents to give permission for them to play, even going so far as to spend time playing as the "parent" part of the time, and they were usually found out because they made slips like using childish language and such. I don't know for sure that that is what is going on here, but I have doubts.

    Please stop jumping on me because you think I'm saying something I'm not. Also, I'm really not sure how I could possibly have insulted your daughter in this, and I'm puzzled that you sound as though you think I have.
    Nor do I care where your arse is.
    Posted 20 months ago by Murri Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I find the notion that a game isn't real life a bit strange...we play lots of games (card games, board games, sports) in "real life," and they have rules and conventions, even though they are for fun. Ever played a card game that has a trump system and watched someone renege on a suit? They get an earful! Professional athletes can be censured and fined for poor behavior. The people behind our avatars are real people, with whom we can and often do make real friendships through games such as this. 

    I think as the virtual world evolves and changes, we're all learning to navigate what behavior is appropriate and how lifelike we choose to act while in a virtual space playing a game together. Of course there is a lot of role playing, during which you might choose to behave somewhat differently than you do while not online. For example, in real life I don't drink nor do drugs...but I certainly do in Glitch! :D I think part of what guides my online behavior is how it affects those around me. Drinking hooch or using no-no powder in Glitch doesn't affect others. Letting my avatar run around in censor bars doesn't hurt anyone else. Grabbing someone's belongings from right beside them/at their feet, on the other hand, does affect that person negatively, even if the game convention is that dropped items can be picked up. Going into someone's home and taking their items without permission, same. Even, to an extent, mining on someone else's rock without asking can affect the other player negatively...perhaps they have that quest to mine a certain number of rocks in a certain time period or they really, really need more sparkly for elements. Refusing to use manners is upsetting to others.


    Play is a major way that small children learn and continues to be extremely important for adults as well...or games wouldn't exist in any sense. Is an online game part of real life? I think it is.
    Posted 20 months ago by RM Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Murri, I noticed the lack of punctuation, capital letters, and bad grammar in the "parent's" posts before I saw yours as well, but my initial conclusion was that they might not be native English speakers (I've seen intelligent adults whith English as their second language post in exactly the same way before). You brought up an interesting alternate possibility that I hadn't considered, but may be true... I don't know--I don't want to accuse anyone of anything without all the facts. It could also be a very young parent, who is part of the "internet age" where it is acceptable to ignore the rules of written English because it apparently wastes too much of their precious time to hit the "shift" key to get a capital letter or the "period" key to end a sentence... sorry, I'm grumpy about that too...
    Posted 20 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Amen, Rascalmom.

    And just like real world types games, there are games meant for adults, and ones for children.
    I would not expect to see a toddler up on a horse playing polo, and there should be online games that are the same. A game doesn't have to have blatant sexual content to be designed for adults, and it's not "unfair" to limit children from playing, with or without parental consent.

    Or society has gotten far too hung up on this sense of entitlement that we've developed. When we make the choice to play a game, we are not actually owed the right to play regardless of age. It's their game. The devs can restrict it however they want.
    Posted 20 months ago by Murri Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 Rascalmom.  I have never understood that "It's only a game" thing, either.  "Bad" behaviour is usually considered bad because it hurts someone else, whatever the surroundings.  Taking stuff that isn't yours is probably not a good idea if you don't want to upset people, wherever it happens.
    In Glitch that is probably the only "bad" thing a player can do, since everything else is a personal choice which actually hurts no-one.
    Posted 20 months ago by Cassandria Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Shepherdmoon- I had thought about the idea of non-native speakers, but their vocabulary suggests native to me, and I do have a lot of non-native speaker friends on FB.

    Your idea of a very young mother is possible too, and I must admit that I had forgotten that there are a growing number of the people in my own age range (25yrs) who have forgotten that the shift key exists and that the rules of grammar and spelling are not just vague guidelines.
    I grew up with a mother who majored in English in college, so I was taught to see proper use of our native tongue as normal at a VERY early age.
    (She's still appalled that I never learned to touch type, but I hunt and peck fast enough that she must allow that I'm at least functional on a keyboard.)
    I also grew up in the world of art, and any artist who wishes to really succeed in selling their work must learn to express themselves eloquently, so sentence structure and word usage were also learned early.
    (The other option is to be VERY eccentric and have work that is at least vaguely offensive. Then it doesn't matter if you can't express yourself. Needless to say, I'm not in that crowd. Might be richer if I was, in hindsight.)
    Posted 20 months ago by Murri Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I have raised three boys, all different in maturity. Taking the game ethics and content into consideration and I'm a very nosy mum. Much to the annoyance of the boys. Two out of the three I would have allowed them to play at around 15. The other, no, he wasn't ready for the birds and bees talk, never mind the no no powder.  
    Posted 20 months ago by tweetypie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Murri: I'm shocked that you can't touch type! ;)  ... Taking me to a continuing adult education class for typing when I was a kid was one of the best thing my mother ever did for me... My brother went too, but wasn't interested in it, so he stopped there. I LOVED it, and insisted on taking all the more advanced classes. Now, I boggle everyone's mind that witnesses my lightning-fast typing in action. But it's not only a good way to impress people: I spend a good chunk of my life typing, in both work and play, so it's an extremely useful skill to have. It's very nice not to have to watch the keyboard, but to have your eyes on the screen looking for typos, or on some other thing that you are trying to copy down. I think it should be mandatory for everyone to learn, in this age of computers....

    OK, off my soap box for now.
    Posted 20 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Maybe you guys don't understand "it's not real life" because (again, no offense) you haven't been using computers your whole life. I'm 20 years old and have been on a computer for as long as I can remember. I remember playing games (and not, not because I had bad parents) with some amounts of "mature" material (which again, glitch has minimal amount sof). It's not like I ended up being a bad person- I'm 20 years old and consider myself very successful and go to a top ranked university in the US. I don't know how else you don't understand...because this ISN'T real life. You make a character and play however you want to play. There really are no rules to glitch (which may be why I think the "unofficial rules" are ridiculous, you play how you want to play, which is what I've seen the devs say many tiems). No one should be expected to follow any rules that other players create. I just think it's a bit ridiculous that some players think they have power over other because of age. Even if you all don't say this, that's really how it's rubbing off on me.

    "Bad behavior" is expected in a game. It's different than card games and board games and sports because you don't personally know the other players, and because you act as characters rather than yourselves. You can do whatever you want to do, regardless if it pisses people off or not.

    I don't know... I just think people are taking this game way too seriously. It's meant to be for fun, and it's not really fun for me anymore. I hear too many adults trying to make "rules" they think should be, and it makes me not want to play. No one should be able to tell me how to play my game...it makes it less fun.
    Posted 20 months ago by ganjaprincess Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Murri I don't think for one instance your insulting my daughter at all. sorry if that's how it came across. I meant as a mom of someone the same age as GemGem I think she has been talked about enough. It's making me feel a little rattled. She is only a kid.

    People are now talking about her like she is no longer in the room. Plus this whole thread is now so off topic by the time someone has read down to hear they can't even remember what the topic question was about in the first place.
    Posted 20 months ago by Misha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Whoa, so you think you can behave anyway it pleases you, regardless, of any other player? Am i correct in assuming this? We live life around rules, If we didn't have them live would be un-livable..yes?. This is why the generation gap will never be understood till you LIVE It! 
    Posted 20 months ago by tweetypie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • My post was in response to ganjaprincess.
    Posted 20 months ago by tweetypie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Misha, you raise another good issue. We should let off because 'she's just a kid'... just as age should not define bad behavior, it should also not be granted as an excuse. Part of the consequences of putting something out in the public digital world for everyone to comment on is - the comments! Having to self-censor so as not to offend either children (or parents of the children) is part of the complaint many have. 

    So we should give the kid a pass because she brought up the topic of age and is young? What if she brought up the age issue and was 40? Go back and re-read it with that assumption and see if it changes your opinion on giving a pass. Either they're mature enough to play and interact with the adults, or they get a pass because they're kids... can't have it both ways.

    EDIT: Not picking on you Mish, I too feel bad in a way because there's no way she could have predicted the firestorm. That *is* youthful innocence. It's a hard lesson to learn, but this is a much more gentle way to learn it than a massive flame war or a Facebook smear campaign that High Schoolers are getting known for... losing a college scholarship or job offer because they found your Facebook and didn't like what they saw.  At least here we're civilized and that's a much more gentle space than most of the internet. 
    Posted 20 months ago by Travinara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I have dyslexia an as most of the older generation will know i had no help in school,at the adge of 47 they thought i was stupid thick and so on . I do not post a lot on the forum's because of this but call me all the names you like ,i cant take it I do hope you get my drift,oh and do please correct my spelling and grammer .I,m going to act out of carecter know (AM I BOTHERD)nooooooooooooooo love glitch.
    Posted 20 months ago by lycan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Amen Trav.
    My grandmother has Alzheimer's, but it doesn't really make it acceptable when she's occasionally really rude to people. We still gently chide her to be polite, even when she doesn't remember who she is.

    My parents expected me to behave in public and not take other people's stuff or be really rude before the age at which I started attending kindergarten. (age 5)
    I was never allowed to get away with running around making a nuisance of myself and bothering others at the grocery store either, and screaming at the top of my lungs in a public place NEVER got me what I wanted. (Quite the contrary.) I was also expected to respond when spoken to, either by a family member or stranger, and respond politely. It was never ok to ignore someone when they asked me a question, and I was taught to ALWAYS say thank you for any gift, even if I didn't like it.

    EDIT: Lycan, no one has called you any names.
    A piece of advice though that has really helped my dad with his typing and dealing with dyslexia in general: Don't rush yourself. Either in reading, writing or typing. Dyslexia is worse when you hurry.
    My dad's typing is nearly unreadable when he gets stressed and tries to type fast, but very good if he takes the time to slow down and reads back over something to catch his mistakes.
    Posted 20 months ago by Murri Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I apologize in advance for the length of this post... I felt the need to vent some important issues, but feel free to skip over this if it's too annoyingly long...

    @ganjaprincess: I am past my mid-30's, and have been using computers since I was around 6 or 7 years old. Is this close enough to "my whole life" to please you? Yes, I started using them when they first became publically available, and were NOT yet mainstream. I was around on the internet when everything was text-based and the world wide web wasn't even invented yet.

    I also grasped the concept of "it's not real life" at an extremely early age, and not just in the context of computers/video games. I read fantasy books from grade school onwards (and some books with mature situations or violence in them), and watched horror movies (without my parent's knowledge) in my later grade school years. I also listened to music in my early teenage years that at the time was considered by general society to be morally wrong, and not appropriate for children. I also played plenty of violent video games. None of this caused me to go insane, grab a gun, and shoot up my highschool (as some would even today suggest it would), and I have gone through my entire life without trying any illegal drugs. I didn't have sex until I was 18, despite being bombarded with sexual situations in the media. My experimentation with alcohol didn't start until I was in college, and I have never inhaled a cigarette, despite seeing plenty of "Joe Camel" commercials when I was young.

    From my experience, media does not cause bad behavior ("media" includes TV, movies, music, books, video games, etc.). Bad behavior is caused by one or more of the following: bad parenting,  life situations that the person is unable to handle emotionally, natural chemical imbalances/abnormal brain functions/psychological diseases/etc.. The vast majority of people understand the difference between fantasy and reality (those that can't have something medically wrong with them).

    That said, there is a large number of people that disagree with everything I just said, regardless of how many scientific studies there are to back it up. Every time a kid does something bad enough to make it into the media, people jump on it searching for something that must have caused this innocent child to suddenly go stir-crazy (it must have been the Marilyn Manson they were listening to, or the HALO they were playing). Of course, there's no attention paid to the 99.999% of people that partake in the same thing but don't commit any crimes.

    Hmmm... I have to go read back up again to figure out what all this was about. I guess my point is that you (@ganjaprincess), or anyone else who is feeling the same way, shouldn't make sweeping accusations or assumptions about people that are older than you. Your post had a hostile tone to it, so I felt the need to respond. I also took issue with the "not being on the computer your whole life", partially because I have been on one most of my life, and additionally because there are LOTS of other ways to learn the difference between fantasy and reality than being on a computer.

    Even though I'm older than you, I agree that people take games too seriously overall, and should try to brush off things that annoy them rather than adding more stress to their lives (hay, it all piles up with time and ends with a heart-attack or some other nasty thing, and you don't want to give those people the satisfaction of doing that to you, do you?)
    Posted 20 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink