Rule 6 - Removing under 16s

[azza]

5 hours ago, Ibragimov said:

This game is not for kids.

Russell Yang (your friend) would not exist if this rule came into effect bro ...

[Astralsomnia]

3 hours ago, Coburn said:

Who in their right mind would bring a child into the GTA:W ecosystem where there's more crime than people.

 

So what, pretend they don't exist? Completely shelter them and lock them away in the basement their entire lives until they turn 18? And for the record, I'm talking about teens here, not tiny naive children. Teens are close enough to adulthood that we've only pushed the age of majority from 13 to 19 in the past few hundred years or so in first world countries; and plenty of lawmakers want to push it to 25 since there isn't a big difference mentally between 16 and 18. The only real difference between a teen and full grown adult (at 25) is maturity and experience, which you can't get if you're sheltered your entire life.

 

8 hours ago, Ibragimov said:

This game is not for kids.

 

I can't say I'm a big fan of how people love to coddle minors and treat all of them like they're 4 years old globally, until they turn 18; at which point they completely drop them and say "Good luck in the real world! At 18 we think you're magically ready to handle literally everything at once, and thought that even 17 was too young to learn all of this nasty adult stuff, like violence, relationships, or taxes."

Meanwhile, at my school: there's gangs, teen pregnancies, and the janitor was stabbed a few weeks ago cuz he "snitched." Even the rich white kids school has a huge hard drugs issue, ecstasy, cocaine, heroine, pretty much all of your "rich person" drugs. But sure, seeing this shit in person is ok, but god forbid you play a game which depicts what a bunch of Europeans think American gang culture is like in a majority text format.

 

 

[Cocaine Capital]

While I understand some people have the want to live a fantasy as a teenager joining a gang, or roleplaying a homeless child or any of the other countless reasons that would drive an adult to portray a child (This taking into account, this game should really be played by 18 according to most countries respective ratings board). The portrayal of a child in this game leads to more trouble than it's worth. 16 years of age for factions, would be a great push in the right direction, because that's normally when a person will engage in the hyperinflated actions that we have on this server, versus a 13-14 year old for example. The age of 16 opens up freedom in the real world for many people due to the invention of drivers licenses and most commonly the minimum age to work a job to experience a less sheltered life. 

 

For non faction related characters, we've seen countless times poor portrayals of underage people, as well as the unfortunate oversexualization of said characters. This is why I say it leads to more trouble than it's worth. Most of the time, at least according to the reports section and the constant bans we see IG, those playing under the age of 16 are banned for oversexualization, or other players are punished due to their own oversexualization of said characters. We've already got a no tolerance policy on this type of roleplay, so why not, just nip it in the butt for lack of better term, and get rid of minors in it's entirety except for when it's necessary for a gang, and at that point keep it at the age of 16, to avoid unrealistic actions and oversexualization of minor characters. 

[Astralsomnia]

1 minute ago, Cocaine Capital said:

Most of the time, at least according to the reports section and the constant bans we see IG, those playing under the age of 16 are banned for oversexualization

 

I honestly haven't ran into any of it, my month playing here. I'm sure it does happen from time to time, but I wouldn't call it "constant." When you have thousands of players daily you're bound to run into a few cases, and judging by the reports section they're pretty rare as well; a single cast in the past 2 months and it was just a guy using 18+ animations to troll people as a (M).

 

8 minutes ago, Cocaine Capital said:

(This taking into account, this game should really be played by 18 according to most countries respective ratings board).

ESRB and other ratings are guidelines. It'll forbid the sell of M rated games to anyone under 17, but most clerks do not care and I've bought a ton of games while being "underaged." There's also no EULA or anything that forbids it either for MMOs which are M rated (unless you're under 13). Its not illegal for minors to play a mature video games.

 

 

[Coburn]

38 minutes ago, Suraru said:

So what, pretend they don't exist?

Why do you think you don't see any kids in GTA?

[Cocaine Capital]

2 minutes ago, Suraru said:

 

I honestly haven't ran into any of it, my month playing here. I'm sure it does happen from time to time, but I wouldn't call it "constant." When you have thousands of players daily you're bound to run into a few cases, and judging by the reports section they're pretty rare as well; a single cast in the past 2 months and it was just a guy using 18+ animations to troll people as a (M).

 

ESRB and other ratings are guidelines. It'll forbid the sell of M rated games to anyone under 17, but most clerks do not care and I've bought a ton of games while being "underaged." There's also no EULA or anything that forbids it either for MMOs which are M rated (unless you're under 13). Its not illegal for minors to play a mature video games.

 

 

The course of my, 4ish?? years here, I've seen it countless times. Enough that a majority of the individuals I know refuse to even engage with minors, knowing they'll bait a confrontation, then it'll end up in the report section. I'd even point to a report you were recently apart of, where your 14 year old character was the victim of the gross oversexualization regarding insults. It's disgusting, and most people prefer to not see anything like that in the game. Unfortunately, you can't control people and their actions, only the consequences of their actions. That's why I say, these types of characters should be eliminated. 

 

And exactly, they're guidelines. These guidelines have been backed by the government multiple times, at least in America I know for a fact. Many senators, especially in the early 2000's, have targeted video games and their ESRB rating and the violence and content of said games. Many times have unfortunate instances of loss of life in real life, been accounted to rated M games being played by minors. 

[Astralsomnia]

2 minutes ago, Coburn said:

Why do you think you don't see any kids in GTA?

 

Budget. Creating a unique ped model that doesn't follow the same skeleton rig can be a waste of time and resources in a game that's already huge.

I imagine it was planned at some point, there is a high school in Los Santos (although no middle or elementary), and they've existed in previous titles by Rockstar.

 

Plenty of other M rated games haven't cared though, I watched my boyfriend accidentally run over a kid in Cyberpunk last night during a car chase, you can adopt kids in Skyrim, and Buldur's Gate lets you punt goblin children off cliffs.

[Astralsomnia]

4 minutes ago, Cocaine Capital said:

It's disgusting, and most people prefer to not see anything like that in the game. Unfortunately, you can't control people and their actions, only the consequences of their actions.

 

Its also disgusting to see the rest of the r9 breaches, like bestiality which has been reported a few times. Should we remove dogs from the game too? Or, should we just keep banning creeps when they crop up.

 

6 minutes ago, Cocaine Capital said:

And exactly, they're guidelines. These guidelines have been backed by the government multiple times, at least in America I know for a fact. Many senators, especially in the early 2000's, have targeted video games and their ESRB rating and the violence and content of said games. Many times have unfortunate instances of loss of life in real life, been accounted to rated M games being played by minors. 

 

Its been proven time and time again that most senators are out of touch, senile morons who think violence in video games makes kids more violent, despite countless studies disproving that fact. Hell, my single digit years were spent playing Halo with my dad, a very violent video game, yet I'm borderline pacifist.

[Prophet]

The whole 12-year-old character thing is just a bit odd to me. Why does anyone wanna play a child? I can get sixteen in a gang. But playing a prepubescent character to force your way into gunfights is beyond tacky. Played out, couldn't agree more, +1.

[Astralsomnia]

Just now, Prophet said:

The whole 12-year-old character thing is just a bit odd to me. Why does anyone wanna play a child? I can get sixteen in a gang. But playing a prepubescent character to force your way into gunfights is beyond tacky. Played out, couldn't agree more, +1.

 

12 isn't prepubescent, but yeah I do agree. Should be pushed up to 14, high school age.