It also depends on the MMO. Toon Town, Puzzle Pirates, Clone Wars Adventures, Free Realms, and many others are made to be kid and family-friendly.

My opinion is that it has nothing to do with age, However if somone is gonna ask a million questions in General Chat constantly (ingame that is) then maybe its to early. That being said i have met people in their mid 20's that do this. i wish they would ban anyone who says "whats the best type of weapon"

Originally posted by Loktofeit

It also depends on the MMO. Toon Town, Puzzle Pirates, Clone Wars Adventures, Free Realms, and many others are made to be kid and family-friendly.

 

 

^ This is indeed very true and some are worth taking a look at.

I started playing Asheron's Call in 1999 when I got it for my birthday, which put me at 11 years old. I wasn't supervised, but I also don't think my guardians at the time realized probably exactly how the game worked and that it was strictly online. That, and, the MMO landscape was quite different back then in terms of the chat content in the game and whatnot. There was still the off-topic, random, and rude people, but they weren't as frequent.

On an MMO like WOW, I wouldn't let my daughter player unsupervised. But that's just from the content of the chats and how abrasive the community can be. To each their own, tho.

wizard 101 is a good choice for a kid that age, its non threatening and great place to spend some of that extra allowance.

Originally posted by memphis12

My son is 10 years old. He's on the gifted register at school for his intelligence. He has recently gotten into RPGs and I gave him my copy of Skyrim which he has now mastered. He knows every towns name, everybodys name in the game (nearly) theire stories etc and is better at it than I am lol. He plays it on the difficulty you start at, I play on expert.. but he still is good.

 

Anyway.. he has seen me on MMO's before and we were talking before about if he bought a laptop with money he has been saving. I said he could maybe go on a server I was on with my gf supervising him.

 

I think he could be to young. Was just wondering what you guys thought?

Your 10 year old has saved enough money to buy a laptop capable of playing MMOs? Mind. Blown.

Basically the maturity issue of MMOs comes from other players. I would suggest playing something like ATITD or Wurm where the community is much better. Plus they are virtual worlds. However if he really wants lots of fighting and killing that may not work. I think maybe Guild Wars 1 would be good. Less douchebags.

What MMO are you playing?

Originally posted by memphis12

My son is 10 years old. He's on the gifted register at school for his intelligence. He has recently gotten into RPGs and I gave him my copy of Skyrim which he has now mastered. He knows every towns name, everybodys name in the game (nearly) theire stories etc and is better at it than I am lol. He plays it on the difficulty you start at, I play on expert.. but he still is good.

 

Anyway.. he has seen me on MMO's before and we were talking before about if he bought a laptop with money he has been saving. I said he could maybe go on a server I was on with my gf supervising him.

 

I think he could be to young. Was just wondering what you guys thought?

    I have a couple digiKids as well, nine and ten. They'll both be playing GW2 with me. It's up to the parent to be able to see if the maturity is there to handle a potential rectum-head that decides to grief them in chat. That happened to my son recently in GW2, some guy started giving him crap simply because he's young. A quick hit of the tab key and I was able to tell the guy that before he started to pick on a kid he may want to be ahead of him on the leaderboard.

    He shut up. My son was getting visibly upset at first, but that got him laughing and we had a chat about what to expect from some people on the internet. It actually served as a good way to break into a conversation about other things to worry about, namely the predation thing, so in the long run I think it helped him understand things a little better, shake things off better and be more aware of things.

    The important part though was that he was playing with me at the time as well. They're too young to leave alone in the basement with nothing but the computer and internet in my opinion. But, as family time (rather than planting in front of the TV) I think it's ok.

Originally posted by TheMinn

my sperm

I'll take "Things No Woman Will Ever See" for $1000.00 please Alex.

Its not so much your son's age or intelligence thats in question as much as his maturity and naivety.

If you feel he's mature enough to handle a little cyber-bullying, and people not treating him like he's special he's good.

If he's not naive enough to believe everything everyone tells him, and to watch out for cyber predators and isn't phased by foul/suggestive language, then he's ok as well.

If he fails either of these checks, you might want to reconsider letting him play.

Originally posted by memphis12

My son is 10 years old. He's on the gifted register at school for his intelligence. He has recently gotten into RPGs and I gave him my copy of Skyrim which he has now mastered. He knows every towns name, everybodys name in the game (nearly) theire stories etc and is better at it than I am lol. He plays it on the difficulty you start at, I play on expert.. but he still is good.

 

Anyway.. he has seen me on MMO's before and we were talking before about if he bought a laptop with money he has been saving. I said he could maybe go on a server I was on with my gf supervising him.

 

I think he could be to young. Was just wondering what you guys thought?

 I don't think there is an age or maturity that will open the doors of Mmorpgs to a child. Instead I would ask how much time can you spend supervising his play time? Remember we have parents who failed to properly supervise their children to thank for the state of gaming currently. My son's 20 now , he was gaming before I married his mother ... he wasn't supervised and is a typical immature internet troll. He was completely shell shocked when I started removing his internet connection every time I caught him trolling or behaving in a manner he wouldn't pull in the real world.

Supervision from you or your significant other will also make the gaming a family event, its much more enjoyable.

Originally posted by Volkon

Originally posted by TheMinn

my sperm

I'll take "Things No Woman Will Ever See" for $1000.00 please Alex.

hahaha! funny

Originally posted by FrostWyrm

Its not so much your son's age or intelligence thats in question as much as his maturity and naivety.

If you feel he's mature enough to handle a little cyber-bullying, and people not treating him like he's special he's good.

If he's not naive enough to believe everything everyone tells him, and to watch out for cyber predators and isn't phased by foul/suggestive language, then he's ok as well.

If he fails either of these checks, you might want to reconsider letting him play.

Cant say more betetr than that

My ex-gf let her 5yo daughter play World of Warcraft. At that age I didn't worry about the chat channel as she could not read sentences from what I recall and she knew not to bring what she saw in the game to reality with friends. I was opposed to her playing though as she started to obsess over the game and get upset when she had to go to school, eat supper, go to bed etc... It got pretty bad.

The best was when my gf logged in to find all her raid gear gone. The daughter chucked it all because it didn't look nice =)

Edit: More to the original topic, I think 10 is okay but you know your son best. Is he mature enough to handle gaming and the community.

I began playing MMO's at the age of 10, my little brother started messing around on them at the age of 8....Granted we probably saw some language that was inapropriate for our ages, it was nothing we hadn't heard in the real world. Just watch him play for a few hours, see for yourself if it's apropriate for your son.

Originally posted by angerbeaver

My ex-gf let her 5yo daughter play World of Warcraft. At that age I didn't worry about the chat channel as she could not read sentences from what I recall and she knew not to bring what she saw in the game to reality with friends. I was opposed to her playing though as she started to obsess over the game and get upset when she had to go to school, eat supper, go to bed etc... It got pretty bad.

The best was when my gf logged in to find all her raid gear gone. The daughter chucked it all because it didn't look nice =)

Edit: More to the original topic, I think 10 is okay but you know your son best. Is he mature enough to handle gaming and the community.

I'm sorry but I find this adorable, devious, and hilarious all at the same time!

Originally posted by Volkon

Originally posted by TheMinn

my sperm

I'll take "Things No Woman Will Ever See" for $1000.00 please Alex.

That made me LOL.

Needed that on a monday morning =)

Originally posted by memphis12

Anyway.. he has seen me on MMO's before and we were talking before about if he bought a laptop with money he has been saving. I said he could maybe go on a server I was on with my gf supervising him.

Wait--is your girlfriend aware she's about the inherit the supervision of someone else's child?

Might be a dealbreaker.

Originally posted by memphis12

My son is 10 years old. He's on the gifted register at school for his intelligence. He has recently gotten into RPGs and I gave him my copy of Skyrim which he has now mastered. He knows every towns name, everybodys name in the game (nearly) theire stories etc and is better at it than I am lol. He plays it on the difficulty you start at, I play on expert.. but he still is good.

 

Anyway.. he has seen me on MMO's before and we were talking before about if he bought a laptop with money he has been saving. I said he could maybe go on a server I was on with my gf supervising him.

 

I think he could be to young. Was just wondering what you guys thought?

As a parent of 3, this part of your post is what stood out most to me. The fact that you recognize the need for parental supervision (and are willing to provide it) should be lauded.

No age is too young when the parental units are involved with the younglings.

The family that plays together, slays together. (or some such).

i dont want anyone younger than 15 in my mmo

As has been mentioned by other posters, check out Wizard 101.  I play it with my 9 & 10 year old kids and we have a blast.  IMO, it is a very well done MMO and is family based.  You can even get a family account for a discount.  You can try it F2P as well.  It is turn based and easy to pick up.

it isn't about age so much as maturity level. A gifted, mature acting 10 year old is better than a 30+ year old with no maturity. Just my opinion.