~Children as Avatars?~

~Children as Avatars~
I know that NPC children are coming, but now this raises the other question "what about Playable Children as Player Avatars?"

~Possible Disabilities and Advantages~
That would be a bold step. The jumping all over the mountains could prove to be difficult for such a player character, but they could also go into small places where an adult Avatar could not. The reach of such a playable avatar would also scale down?

~We've Talked About What This Subject Before~

~NPC Children, Pro & Con~
It's been a great while back when we first began our discussions on having NPC children in the game. Here's the oldest thread I know of... it's important because it lists many of our player concerns within the possible implementation of children... many pro's, cons, pitfalls and other strange ideas... so check it out because it's such a thought provoking question that went about 3 pages before being seen as totally out of the question... "yet now, they are coming" and I think this deserves some current player comment that could enhance or add content from our many more posting members we now have.

(children dead thread linked below)
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...d-orphanage-the-reminders-of-compassion.7467/



~Richard ~LB~ Garriott, Says, More NPC Children are Coming~

2:45: when will we start seeing children in the game? See minute 12:38
(A big thanks to @Solstar for taking the minutes https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/spring-telethon-minutes.50201/#post-550336 ) <---<<< Like it!


Sorry kids, we are not talking about you...
our game is PG-13, so we are talking about teens...
"What are you doing on your parents computer anyway?"
This game is not for you "now go watch Barney"

~Children's Anonymity While Playing Our Game~
To have the ability to play as such a small character, is a very thought provoking subject which would open the RP of dwarves as well as, "what avatar would we want our children to play?"... but would we then wish to play a small avatar ourselves?

Into such a future's distant looking glass... I could see some problems with stalkers, yet that may be in an unreasonable paranoia. "Who here would leave a child playing our game on your computer?" That question would seem quite slim that any actual child would be able to interact wisely in the computer skills it takes to play in our game... much less being left alone to bang away on some parents computer key board.

~The Fellowship Guild (TFS) of UO's SP Shard~
I have in my past guilds had guild members that were of as young as 13. One such player was one of our very dedicated players who logged on, on the weekends (I believe he was Belgium and an extremely bright young man. Our (TFS) was the most combat active guild, and was that shards first guild, and a PvP (Order) Guild.

When the guild disbanded because our leader was selling his account, the guild's stone fell to me to decide it's fate. Many strong characters desperately wanted the stone, yet it's founder "Thunderlips" had seen some of these players as taking our guild into a bad direction as role models, and thus it fell to me to decide who would thereafter take the stone. After deep thought with Thunderlips words ringing in my ear, I decided to de-guild most of it's more radical members and allow this very bright young man of 13 who was most well mannered, to take the stone, along with a few choice great members, who secreted it away, never to be seen again by me. It became a newbie non-combat guild for a time... yet that's where my connection left it, as I was busy invading the Japans and their UO shards in PvP with our western, Euro and Russian players (aka "all those radicles").

Throughout the above story, and in regard to what we are building here, I can't see any way of possibly having any child (that could play an advanced "computer") that would ever be in danger in any way. Most all of the bad stories that come from some strange chat room where children are connecting on laptops or cell phones while predators actively hunt them for manipulation, would seem far from the usage of anything we have here, "but then that's just my own view" from having interacted with UO players that were 13-18+...

Whenever children are web connected, "there is always that possibility in every social media". They've been gaming in all games, yet mostly as full adult sized characters. The friends they have are mostly adults or of great learning ability as teens. In the face of what I see as facts here within our discussion, I don't see where it would be any danger to have playable short childlike avatars, because I see no danger in it, because they've always played our games, and in very small number when it comes to computers and games...

"I also feel that extremely few actual children of 13+ would ever wish to play as a childlike Avatar"
But just remember, we are talking about PG-13 and not this little guy...



I hope all that spurs some thinking...
Because childlike avatars are in our future, it's only the ability to RP as one that becomes a very provocative question. From a gaming industry standpoint such as D&D and other games following in it's footsteps, we've all seen how...
"What is Provocative, Sells!~
~Time Lord~

 

Having children NPCs in game would be very nice! Lively childs would make their habitats more merry and alive.
Good to know it's actually coming. However, playing child as Avatar? That's a whole new level of consideration.
What role can a child take in New Britannia as adventurers?
Should they wield sword and shield to kill zombies, dragons and such?(I know it's not, as you mentioned )

I'd be very thankful to see childs NPC running around town merrily and saying fancy things to me, a few quests might be better, like Hobbits.

Maybe we can implement playable child NPC through quest instance, like LOTRO;
Following the questline, may lead to questgiver's past, and re-living that moment by maneuvering NPC's younger-self, seeking truth in the past.

 

~That Quest is a Good One!~
And "yes", we are talking also about actually fighting and killing monsters as any other playable character would. Possibly some sizing down issues could be avoided by just keeping the weapons full size, yet the wearable would then need to... umm, "sort of spandex stretchable to fit?

I love that reflection quest! @Max Bendis
It's thoughts like that that turn wondering into gaming gold
I love mining for good ideas such as that
~Time Lord~

 

Children should:
Travel in packs
Wander at random
Chase nearby animals (on some cooldown)
Fish if they wander near water.
Go home at night.

Be pretty sweet to place two in Rift's End and find them randomly around the map fishing in the ocean or wandering.

 

I'm kind of against of the idea child swinging greatsword beheading skeletons and forming a defensive line against dragon breath.
That's just...unnatural. Probably it's just my prejudice, but I think child should behave as a child should.

↑ This is something I expect to see from children of New Britannia.

Oh, @Time Lord , you're such a poet

 

That's what I was implying. The bit about Rift's End was just wishful thinking. I'd assume the tech would be written for all of Britannia.

 

I would buy a LOTM pledge right now if it came with a Stymie child avatar.

No wait. Spanky. Suits me better.

 

Children npcs in game = good. It would be an unconvincing world without 'em.

Hopefully they can be slain.

 

~It is Provocative to the Point of Disturbing People~
Yet this is a very exact reason being able to play a child avatar should be included. Our real world is changing there's no doubt about it, we have become those prudish parental figures who say all those nasty things such as "turn that music down!"

When some first heard the idea of NPC children, some of our posting members shuttered to think that we may see dead children's bodies laying on the ground during some attack on the town. In UO, much of it's press coverage never missed the chance tyo state that in UO player's could mutilate each others bodies after murdering them.

~Provocative and Disturbing Sells~
Here's a modern example. A nice innocent child goes on Britain's Got Talent and becomes a star with her beautiful sweet singing voice. He career there after could be good continuing to sing sweet songs, yet for the big bucks, one must make a splash and thus she did in a very provocative, brutal, disgusting, torturous, disturbing and "highly successful way". Remember that Ozzy Osborne was not as huge as he then became after biting a live bat's head off...

~Example~
Look at this contrast of how our real world has changed this innocent girl into a success;

In the above example, raging crowds of people that spent just as much as it would cost to play our game to watch that single performance. "What is provocative sells" and all those fans of Babymetal would make a great target audience to include within our game's kaleidoscope of players. That single room full of people are more than currently actually play our game while in development. Those 5000~ people at $45.00 a head are $225,000.00 collectively. In order to break into the Metal crowd, one must be provocative, "and we are a heavy metal game" so we cannot exclude such thoughts of pushing the limits and raising the bar as UO did with it's body mutilations (among many other very provocative at the time, "things"). Body mutalations and murder were UO's Ozzy Osborn biting a bat's head off moment in gaming history.

Here's one of Babymetal's more common songs they sing... (which is still provocative and featured on the Late Show with Steven Colbert)

Our Richard Garriott has a history with Steven Colbert when he took Steven's DNA into space with him. I could just hear Steven asking Richard; "So I hear your killing children in your game, why do you hate them so much?" Richard; we don't actually kill them, they are just able to be played with by our players Steven; "OooooKaaay... then let me ask you this, how many children have you played with so far? Richard; "It's just a world where the player of the game can decide to do or be any type of person they want to become...



Such provocative and comedy rich advertisement could cause a flood of metal heads to come.
Provocative to the point of allowing players to play as children size avatars and, yes, at times, also kill them... but not be able to kill the NPCs... This allows separation from the game lending any encouragement to actively hunt them.
We all know or remember what being provocative did for D&D...
~Time Lord~

 

I'll go ahead and cast my vote as a VERY STRONGLY AGAINST being able to play a child character.

 

.I think children should be Avatars too.

 

I have no issues with people playing what they want to, but I probably wouldn't play as a child character or with one due to my annoyance with short people and their napoleon syndrome (yes I'm just kidding). 8^p

I enjoy games where I can play a kid and grow up (fable series and fallout 3 jumps to mind). Being permanently stuck as a kid would annoy me to no end. It could be fun to have kids in game and watch them grow up in 6 months to a year, and then be full fledged adults in game (not holding out any sorta hope for this as age isn't really a thing in most MMOs).

As for random people getting sucked into Novia, it only stands to reason that some of them would be young.

 

I Agree also, and after a few year you can make your Avatar grow up, like in real life.
But I think there should have some Lower stats in some areas and higher in others; like Low strength, higher stamina, average intel = so having a Lower Hps and higher mana pool

Just to keep the game balanced

 

~To All of the Above~ Pay attention all because this is one of those ideas we all fish for...
Well said and "great ideas!" @(Blood0men) !!!


~The Spirit of Harry Potter Meets SOTA~
We have a classless game where there's few dividing lines between paths. You either learn it all or your character is weak when faced with other challenges. And speaking of challenges, the character changes you mention would provide a more challenging game. But I do find it interesting... "most interesting!"... that the character you are describing seems like a sort of Harry Potter... which makes such an idea fantastic because of the spin while weaving the Harry Potter Spirit here into our SOTA.
In the Spirit of Harry Potter, is the Spirit of Money $$$ in new player attraction...
Well said indeed (Bloodomen)!
~Time Lord~

 

beasts with no nation

 

+1. Just like in Ultima 7.
It's sad that Fallout 3 needed a mod to be able to kill the annoying children NPCs. Invincible NPCs are as frustrating as items that can't be picked up.

 

Please no kids. . my plan in SOTA is to kill everyone and while I am evil I don't really want to kill children haha.

 

Aside from the story concerns, they mentioned the kids would be completely different models and not scaled down versions of adult models. Because of that, none of the clothing or armor for adult player characters would work. So extremely unlikely.

 

Let's see... "all my founder armor and weapons are bugged, so I'm not using them"...

~How Much Cloths Do You Think I'm Fighting With Now?~



I'm a SOTA Man...

The idea of having NPC children in our game was thought to be outrageous when I first brought it up in a thread because no one wanted to see dead children anywhere. I just brought up the fact that there were no children here and that wasn't very much how normal life was. I didn't think myself, that if they were to come, that it would be happening so soon. I was thinking maybe a few years into 24/7 operation before we could see such. But they are here and more are coming as Richard clearly said in the telethon. He probably had planned it all along well before it was ever mentioned. He's twisted that way you know, because no one could ever tell what he's bound to do next.

Then it's only a small step to the possibility of having playable avatars as young people, or smaller ones...
We're in a niche market, like a fat man trying to sit in a filled up church pew, we either expand where other games have not, or we must remain in that skinny little sitting space.

That Dragon Ball Z kid seems to be doing very well in the Nintendo style market and I guarantee you that there's adults playing that game too as that little guy, and Harry Potter's got his customers as well... so this is nothing new, "it's only new to this niche we're stuck in". And in those games mentioned, those little avatars are sure enough dying in those games, there's no doubting that.

Those early discussions of children lead to the cannibal threads where almost everyone on our forums objected to, yet now we see many things coming down the pipe from those ideas that were presents. We may not have cannibals, but we may see NPC cannibals from that.

So who truly knows what could happen, unless we explore what could happen, "because that is what is possible".
We have what I think have been 2 great ideas coming from this thread, one being the traveling back through time thing and the other describing what a Harry Potter might look like in stat restriction...both of which are very cool thinking
And I like that growing part too, where time tics by and they grow... wow that's cool too.

I haven't come up with much... so here goes...
Maybe two actual playing female and male avatars could decide to create that kid for one or the other account to be able to play/portray.

There's allot of possibilities we haven't broached yet... Many bad ideas often provide the sounding board for good ideas...
~Time Lord~

 

IMHO, children NPCs, yes. Children Avatars, no. I don't think that would be a good idea at all.