DDO, Parental Control, Kid suitability

Xgya

Xgya

Well-known member
Alrik Fassbauer said:
To anyone, and especially to kids, this game - like too many others - gives the impression that conflicts can ONLY be solved via violence.
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Unless solving things through diplomacy is the main draw of the game, or a character build the developers can specifically build around, you won't see it implemented in a videogame.
D&D isn't that.
You can do it at a table, while among other players, because you can go around the rules and ad hoc nonviolent solutions. (You'll notice some of the best non-combat solutions at a table you'll hear of involved more of player originality and improvisation than they ever really did dice rolls)
The system though? If you want to use the system that is D&D, violence is pretty much the only thing this system knows.
"Diplomacy" and "Deception" are mere footnotes, there to shorthand people that want to go back what the system was actually made for faster.

Diplomacy in 3.5 has been thoroughly demonstrated as utterly broken to the point most DMs will ad hoc their own rules and entirely ignore the book the skills come from. The skill is an afterthought, trying to use it as-is leads to nonsense.

There's whole games where diplomacy and violence are both available solutions. (I personally love Griftlands as a deckbuilder). DDO just cannot be that because of the system it uses.
 
I

Igognito

Well-known member
Thank you for all the extra input.
Fyi, it is not my kid but my nephew. So I can't really monitor him in real life. Let's see if he manages to exit the protected area of Korthos ☺️ first which should be super cool for him.
Harbor will be a bit more tricky at it is less guided. So I might need to direct him to keep after ☺️.
 
Enir

Enir

Active member
In my experience, DDO takes great pains to ensure the game is PG-13. (rated 'T' for Teen).
Years ago, they moved one questionable NPC from 3BC to inside the Delirium quest.
The evil / scary quests are tame compared to a commercial haunted house.
I would monitor the voice chat for age-appropriate language. I have reported several over the years. DDO seems to respond as I don't encounter those people ever again.
 
I

Igognito

Well-known member
Dear all,
I wanted to give you an update on my DDO session with my 2 nephews.

It was a BLAST! Both kids had a great time, and I have to admit I enjoyed it too.

First of all, I need to thank everyone who contributed ideas on how to pull it through!

I blocked guild invites as was suggested here:
Nebless said:
No, there's a general chat that only covers that area (no world chat) and the help and trade channels I think are world wide. What you could probably do is totally turn OFF chat and in the options when you first start playing disable the 'accept party, guild, challenge etc....' requests so he's not getting any 'pop up's' on the screen.
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And also, for the start, I hosted a 2 day LAN party with my nephews so I could monitor them in real life.

I found out that the game is more than suitable for kids. It promotes critical thinking, cooperation, and many other skills that are hard to give to kids these days.

I want to point out that I was choosing the adventures and used:
Korthos, Keep, Harbor, and the 4 gatekeeper quests.

My nephews "disliked" the sewer quests but really loved the rest of the game.
I want to point out that Normal was easy even for my nephews, as long as they collaborated, having deaths only from getting drawn or burned by lava :-D

Elite were killing them if I did not intervene.

They found that the game lacks "training and explanations" of some mechanics. For example: swimming and figuring out which item is better.

Our youngesters saving Korthos:
https://imgur.com/jOxMl1d

Our youngsters are doing a puzzle:
https://imgur.com/s6p4TPS

Our youngeters trying Reaper:
https://imgur.com/N8V9in8

Finally, after long questing it was time to have a nap at harbor:
https://imgur.com/tGqDBNR
 
Xgya

Xgya

Well-known member
Igognito said:
Dear all,
I wanted to give you an update on my DDO session with my 2 nephews.

It was a BLAST! Both kids had a great time, and I have to admit I enjoyed it too.
Click to expand...
Awesome!
Thanks for the update. Wasn't expecting it, but I'm very happy everything went well and everyone had fun!
(and, yeah, DDO *does* have a thing for sewers. A lot. Friend of mine - much older than your kids - complained about that one, and the devs are on the know about it to the point they joke about it in some instances, like the Anniversary Party)
 
Buddha5440

Buddha5440

"There are some who call me...Tim"
Igognito said:
Dear all,
I wanted to give you an update on my DDO session with my 2 nephews.

It was a BLAST! Both kids had a great time, and I have to admit I enjoyed it too.

First of all, I need to thank everyone who contributed ideas on how to pull it through!

I blocked guild invites as was suggested here:

And also, for the start, I hosted a 2 day LAN party with my nephews so I could monitor them in real life.

I found out that the game is more than suitable for kids. It promotes critical thinking, cooperation, and many other skills that are hard to give to kids these days.

I want to point out that I was choosing the adventures and used:
Korthos, Keep, Harbor, and the 4 gatekeeper quests.

My nephews "disliked" the sewer quests but really loved the rest of the game.
I want to point out that Normal was easy even for my nephews, as long as they collaborated, having deaths only from getting drawn or burned by lava :-D

Elite were killing them if I did not intervene.

They found that the game lacks "training and explanations" of some mechanics. For example: swimming and figuring out which item is better.

Our youngesters saving Korthos:
https://imgur.com/jOxMl1d

Our youngsters are doing a puzzle:
https://imgur.com/s6p4TPS

Our youngeters trying Reaper:
https://imgur.com/N8V9in8

Finally, after long questing it was time to have a nap at harbor:
https://imgur.com/tGqDBNR
Click to expand...
Sounds like they are lucky to have you in their lives...good on ya and keep up the good work. :) :) :) I have 2 nieces and 2 nephews and love them as much as my own child...It's a great feeling.

Also, keep them away from LFM's. There's a lot of stuff that goes on in them (at times) that would not be good for them.
 
Buddha5440

Buddha5440

"There are some who call me...Tim"
Xgya said:
Awesome!
Thanks for the update. Wasn't expecting it, but I'm very happy everything went well and everyone had fun!
(and, yeah, DDO *does* have a thing for sewers. A lot. Friend of mine - much older than your kids - complained about that one, and the devs are on the know about it to the point they joke about it in some instances, like the Anniversary Party)
Click to expand...
It's all those dang kobolds... :) Regardless of what we do...they still hate us!
 
C

cmgamer

Well-known member
Post a note to the devs about the stuff the kids could not figure out with in game instructions and you had to tell tell them. They need to revamp the training given in Korthos and that would help them.
 
Grimscore_Riffstorm

Grimscore_Riffstorm

Shreds Licks Way Beyond His Capabilities
The DDO ESRB rating is T for teen because of alcohol reference, blood, suggestive themes, and violence. Keep in mind DDO gives players the option (albeit fantasy) to make heinous and unethical decisions including killing innocent people and allowing slavery. Most of us might be on the grind and not always pay attention to these things. I'd recommend parental guidance at all times for anyone younger.
 
norriskwondo

norriskwondo

Well-known member
Igognito said:
Dear all,

I would like to know what options DDO has for young kids to play, and from what age the game is considered suitable for a kid to play unsupervised.

Thank you
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make sure message setting are set to not accept and so on. The game is teen rated, so game content is what it is. Player behavior is mostly positive between players, not so friendly with players and the drop rate, and lag problems. If there's an issue with a player and a minor, I'm sure the game would take the report seriously and handle it appropriately.
 
norriskwondo

norriskwondo

Well-known member
Igognito said:
They found that the game lacks "training and explanations" of some mechanics. For example: swimming and figuring out which item is better.
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I've been saying this for the last year, the entire time I've been playing. They need to have better published information on the game mechanics, that is easy to find and use.
 
I

Igognito

Well-known member
Buddha5440 said:
Sounds like they are lucky to have you in their lives...good on ya and keep up the good work. :) :) :) I have 2 nieces and 2 nephews and love them as much as my own child...It's a great feeling.

Also, keep them away from LFM's. There's a lot of stuff that goes on in them (at times) that would not be good for them.
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The ideal is too keep them in a static group. Maybe with some of their friends and some of mine.
But I can't avoid them playing by themselves.
 
paddymaxson

paddymaxson

Deliberately obtuse
The game was rated T for Teen by the ESRB on release. Apart from some slightly spookier/more horror themed content I cant think of anything that is more extreme now than it was on release.

It has adult themes:
Alcohol use (but not abuse off the top of my head)
Blood/violence - There is blood and gore even if it's not necessarily in the combat, there's quite a lot of mangled corpses lying around some quests.
Relatively little strong language
Relatively little sexuality of any kind unless (though there are succubi, but it's never implied that their power actually derives from sexiness, I guess Malicia is a racy design for DDO).

It's up to you if you think your pre-teen is ready for a game whose primary form of gameplay is killing many monsters with some blood and gore involved I suppose.

But no, there's no way in game to limit play time/quest interactions/seeing specific quests beyond simply not owning the content. I guess if you were to try to limit that stuff by content ownership I'd recommend skipping ravenloft and the catacombs/necropolis as those are definitely the more gory/deal with more adult/horror themes.
 
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