families posts

Study finds explicit material for minors in virtual worlds

by Eliot Lefebvre Dec 11th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Culture, Second Life, Runescape, Legal, Academic, Virtual worlds, Kids

Along with violence and game addiction, inappropriate content is one of the bugbears that video games in general and MMOs in specific can't get away from. A recent FTC study took a look at the general safety available in twenty-seven different virtual worlds, including Second Life and Runescape, and their findings were... well, if you're at all familiar with Second Life, you can kind of guess at the results. Nineteen of the worlds surveyed featured some sort of inappropriate content. The worlds targeted explicitly at minors didn't fare a great deal better, with a full half of the fourteen kid-oriented worlds having some explicit content.

The report goes on to suggest certain approaches to better handle gating content for younger children, including further prevention of children from fraudulently registering in worlds that are supposed to be exclusive to adults. However, some elements of the study's methodology are a bit questionable, especially as their list of explicit material included words common to anyone with a history of playing video games. (Or cable television.) The full report is worth looking at if you're a parent or if you're interested in the findings, and we'd be remiss not to mention our own ongoing series about playing MMOs in a family setting.

Tags: explicit-content, families, ftc, kids, runescape, second-life, sl, study, virtual-worlds

Ancient Gaming Noob talks to WorldIV about how far we've come

by Mike Schramm Dec 19th 2007 at 6:30PM

Filed under: Culture, Guides, Interviews

One of the things I love about being a gamer (and especially an MMO gamer in particular) is that we're here to see history in the making right now. We were around when Ultima was being played, and when World of Warcraft was being formed and becoming known as the first mainstream MMO. The guys writing on blogs right now and the players playing in game at this very moment are literally the pioneers of the field. And so it's exciting to see what we gamers have to say-- that's why this interview with Ancient Gaming Noob is such a great read.

Not only does he talk about some of the great MMOs he's played since 1985, but you can get a real sense of how far gamers and games have come. Just thirty years ago, they were the realm of arcade games and quarters, and now, AGN is finding time for them among his family, and picking LEGO Universe as a game he and his daughter can play together. He also has some great insights on blogging about MMO gaming, and it's completely true: "more than crickets" is all you can really hope for.

Nice read. So exciting to think that for all the progress and evolution online games and gaming has made, we're still living in the first generation of gamers. Us kids playing MUDs and Asteroids are grown with families of our own now, and it's amazing to look back at all the different audiences playing games nowadays and realize that it's still only the beginning.

Tags: ancient-gaming-noob, families, interview, mmo-history, more-than-crickets, muds, ultima, world-iv