Just A Few Words

[Guest]

[Shaon]

[Panther385]

[Mrs Ward]

Hello, I am the single parent of 11 year old child, and I must say that this place is an extremly bad influence. My daughter has been begging me to register for her for some time now. I eventually got the time to sit down and look at the site and what do I see? Demons, violence and aliens! I understand the idea of roleplaying, but whta you do here is ludacris. Can't children play in a safe zone, perhaps roleplay as characters of the classic, all ages friendly, Sesame Street? I thought so as I saw the user you call 'Addman''s icon, but apparently he's a swearing addict! I'd applaud and be happy if this site was taken down.

[Jent]

*Trot finally has got the courage to say something.*

I'm not being mean, but if you read this whole page and parts you are ably to go to "Mrs Ward". That this website can't be turned into a Sesame Street RPG place, and stuff like this is been going on for a long time. At least a couple of years, and this website is only a few months old. Then people want it down? I'm sorry, but something of this greatness can't fall down of a few people that disagree with us, if you don't like it then you can leave.

And that's what I'm going to say. I'm a American 12 year old boy, who likes RPGs.

[Mag]

[Leporidae]

[Liofin]

Mr. Paige, as a child that has been abused all her life I would like to say: You are abusing your son! You don't deserve that kid. He deserves a better place to live.

Mrs. Ward: This place is not that bad. Trust me. Even after being here for just a day I've seen a lot better. If your child needs you to register for her then she is obviously too young to be here anyways.

Trot: I agree. This cannot be turned into a Sesame Street RPG, It wouldn't be fair towards the older people registered on this forum.

Leporidae: I agree with you as well. He's punishing his child in such a way that it's probably causing him to want revenge against his father.

[Danikat]

Until I read this topic I never, ever believed problems like the ones you've described actually existed. I find it extremely hard to believe that several similar cases could occur in the same place at the same time after 21 years of never having experienced it at all.

I've been roleplaying in one way or another my entire life (I'm now 21). Most of my earliest childhood games consisted of pretending to be characters from TV shows I watched; He-Man, Bucky O'Hare, Transformers, Thunder Cats, Power Rangers, Gladiators, the list is endless.
When my friends and I got older we'd make up our own characters, helped by ideas from TV, movies and science-fiction and fantasy books and games. In addition we moved onto more standardised forms of role-play such as Dungeons and Dragons, war gaming and the Magic the Gathering card game.

As I'm sure you can imagine from the list of TV shows and games I just gave most, if not all, of these games included a degree of violence or other 'adult' subject matter which you seem to consider inappropriate for children.

And yet in all this time I have neither experienced personally or heard from a reliable source about any of these activities leading to a child getting hurt, either physically or mentally. And over the years I must have role-played in one form or another with hundreds of other children, teenagers and young adults, both online and in real life.
And yet I've never met anyone who didn't know when the game ended, when to stop playing, come out of character and be themselves again. Role-play actions and reactions end when the game ends, its as simple as that.

For that matter I've never known anyone who actually hurt someone else during the game itself either. 'Fights' generally consisted of mime. For example instead of actually punching someone you would wave your arm in their general direction and tell them you had punched them and count on them to act accordingly, either ducking or pretending to be hit. I'm sure you'll assume this sort of behaviour was limited to my friendship group, or my school, or prehaps choose to believe that I'm making this up entirely. I can't do much about the latter but I can assure you that these 'rules' were so well known and accepted that I can't remember a single time they ever had t be discussed or explained to a participant, even when I had just moved to a new school.

Conversley I would argue that role-play can actually be extremely beneficial to a childs development by providing an environment where children can experience new situations and practice their decision making skills without the risk of serious repurcussions if they do make a mistake.

Role-play can never be a solo activity. Any role-player will encounter a wide range of other people, esspecially online. And no matter who or what they claim to be within the game they are all people and will ultimately act like people.
Therefore any role-player is expected to treat them like people and to act accordingly. Anyone who is consistently rude, aggresive or unnessesarily threatening to other players will quickly find themselves without friends or allies and soon after will discover that it is virtually impossible to survive in all but the most benign of role-play environments without them.

Role-playing is one of very few activities, esspecially online activites, which offers children the oppertunity to work alone but invariably teaches them the benefits and joys of teamwork as an alternative.

In addition it teaches them to develop their problem solving and decision making skills and the imagination required to use both. Game Masters are always working to create new and interesting challenges for players to face. Which leaves the players constantly working to find ways to overcome them. Again team work will be an important element in this. Game Masters will frequently customise situations to be protected against a players individual skills and abilities. Meaning that the obvious solution is to request the use of someone else's abilities, or a combination of yours and theirs in order to overcome it.

These same skills can then be transfered into real life, generally in an abstract way but sometimes more directly (for example if a player finds themselves forced to choose between keeping a secret to protect a friend from their mistakes or sharing the secret to allow someone to fix the resulting problem, whilst exposing their friend to the consequences of their actions.)

I doubt you're still reading this but if you are then thank you for taking the time to listen to me.
Ultimately I think its far too simple an explaination for you to say that all the problems you have experienced with your children are our fault and the fault of our hobby. Just as its too much of a quick fix for us to turn the finger back at you and suggest that your parenting techniques are entirely to blame.

Mr. Paige has admitted that he has had trouble disiplining his child in the past and that these problems have gotten worse as the child grew up. So much so that he has resorted to what I, as both a teacher and part-time community care giver would consider extreme measures in an effort to solve the problem. This suggests that the child may be more inclinded towards bad behaviour, either of his own invention or aquired from other sources. I can't comment on the other children though as I have no idea who they are or what they are like but in Mr. Paige's case I would suggest its more likely to be an individual problem their child is facing, rather than a universal result of role-playing.

In my experience there is no realistic way to shelter a child forever. Violence, bad language and other anti-social behaviour is unfortunately a part of our world and sooner or later children will discover that.
In the worst case senario they'll do so only when they reach adulthood themsleves, leave your shelter and care and are forced to deal with these situations with no guidance and no past experience to fall back on.

Far better is to allow them the freedom to explore the world around them, the good and the bad, and then to take the time to discuss with them what they've found, what it means and WHY they can do or say some things and not others. If you explain the reasons behind your rules so they understand the situation it'll be easier for them to accept it and obey you.

Finally please, please, please don't assume your children are unable to understand the world around them. Sometimes I think they understand it better than we do because they're not limited by taught concepts of what is and what isn't, what can and can't be done.

[Liofin]

Danikat: Well said! I read all of that, long but good. As s student and a big sister of 8 children, I'd agree with you. You can't protect your children for ever. And if they go out into the world on their own with no knowledge of what might happen, then they'll have quite a few problems.

Mr. Paige: I read your post to one of my family members. They agree with me, this is child abuse. I've had this family member look over the site and she agrees with me that it is a fine place.

She doesn't think it's satanist or a bad influence. I'm a 15 year old female, my family knows and realizes they can't protect me from the world forever.

[GBE]

I'm over here in merry old England, and I'm not exactly a religious person, I have my own beliefs but I don't run around spouting them to every other person to indicate that they are wrong or something.

I have roleplayed for many a year now, and if there has ever been a problem, it has been discussed, or argued as the case may be in a civil manner within a discussion thread as to come to some kind of agreement if it was major.

If its minor, it can be discussed within the original thread. As it is, the majority of under 15 year old roleplayers on this website seem to be able to miraculously discern the absolute difference between the worlds of real and make-believe.

As a religious person, does this not shock you? I mean, if I were on your side, I would most certainly be shocked, it would be a miracle. But I am not one for using religion as a mean to an ends. So I apologise for using it, but you must see that if there are many who do not have a problem discerning the difference, then it must be one of those highly individual cases that your child has.

Take this not as an insult, but as a fact.

As for the treatment of your child, well, my word. Your child will grow up resenting and hating the way that you punished him. It has been prooven time and time again that the way your child is brought up will affect the way they learn, react to things and ultmately shapes their personality.

Those who have had fear used against them or have been physically punished will, later in life have an undesirable 'addiction' of sorts or vice if you will. I'm not a psychologist, I will never claim to be one, but this is referenced to all the time in books, television, films and real media like newspapers.

I suggest that you hunt out copies of SuperNanny as presented by Jo Frost, and take her excellent and well prooven advice, as it does work in a way much better than your attempts at parenthood. If you were my parent, I would be ashamed of you in most respects.

You may love your child, but spanking and fear is not the ultimate way of showing it. Would you want God smiting you every time you had a bad thought or did something wrong? Would that make you love God or fear God?

As for the world of roleplay - like Mag pointed out, roleplay is used in every day of our society for learning, for play and for demonstration.

To highlight one of Mag's points, do your children watch cartoons and play games such as pokemon, fighting games like Tekken and other games like this?

If so, then why do you not condemn cartoon violence? Is that not just as bad?

In everyday of life almost, someone will reference to a form of violence, whether it be slight and humerous, or serious and vengeful. I'd appreciate it if you did YOUR homework first, before coming here, and blaming us all.

3Kul, not to go against you or anything, but how can we be held responsible gfor someone else's actions? Did we command them to say pick up a knife, and stab someone? Did we put that knife in their hand?

No, we did not, they made that choice. And children from a young age know the difference between right and wrong if they are brought up properly, and if at 14 years old, they cannot discern this difference, then they clearly have a learning difficulty. No offence intended to anyone.

GBE

[Till Doyle]

Do you have no zhame zpouting religiouz abuze you freak of a parent? Even I have higher ztandardz zan you, zpanking and zpooking! Vhat, iz zis zome kind of zick perverze vice zat you enjoy? Uou dizguzt me!

Az for religion! Religion?! Christianity ztemmed from Juddaism! Jesus alzo appearz in ze Qu'ran (zis being an Islamic text)

Zo, outrightly zaying any other religion vill lead you to hell, or iz vrong, iz incredulouzly zhort zighted, and lozing track of vhere your damned beliefz came from in ze firzt place!

If you really vant to bring religion into it! Vould Germany ztill have gone into World War 2 if it vere not for Hitler, or more correctly Adolf Heitler?! Or did he juzt bring out an emotion zat vas already there?

You decide zis fact, but I have never, ever layed a hand on my children az zo to harm zem. Ok, zo I rough and tumble vith zem occazionally for a little humour, but hit zem to punizh zem, or harm them?! I could not do zuch a zing, it vould make me phyzically ill!

I allow my children to occazionally have zome input on my repliez to zis zite. i have taught zem ze difference between Roleplay and real-life. Zey are young, and do occazionally do zings vrong. But I punizh zem in a zuitable manner, grounding, banning, or even making zem zit zomevhere to zink about zere actionz and vhy zey vere vrong.

Zey zink zome of ze zings zey have zeen are funny, and regularly pretend to be characterz from here. It alzo amuzez me. But I know vhat and vhat von't affect zem. Zey have very rarely had nightmarez, and zey vere only becauze zere friendz are not az vell learnt az my children are vith ze difference between roleplay and real-life and made zomezing out to be real vhen it iz not real.

Az for religion in my childrenz lifez, I have had them Christened, but I do not force any beliefz upon zem, zo zat zey can put their own views forwards vhen zey are old enough.

Az a parent, I zink you zhould be punizhed for your failure to correctly bring up your child. And if indeed zey have learning difficultiez, zen if you zpend zo much vith zem, vhy have you not attempted to have it checked at an earlier date?! I vould mozt certainly notice if my children had anyzing odd about zem!

[Liofin]

Goliath: True. My dad hurt me all the time, still does sometimes, and it has brought me to bad terms with him. I hate my father, and the way he punished me and quite a bit more. I had multiple addictions, most of which were caused by the ways I was punished.

Mr. Paige, if I were you I'd watch out. Your kid might some day realize that you were and/are abusing him and press charges against you. Not all parents and/or grandparents agree with your feelings towards this forum. If you do not agree with how this forum works, then I advise that you should probably leave and just block it. Your children are going to be rebellious no matter what you do. It's a part of life. I'm sure you did it to.

Till: I like your way of typing, even though I got confused once and awhile reading it. Mr. Paige is hiding behind religion thinking that he can get away with it. Punishing your children by sending them to their rooms for a bit to think about what they've done is different, That's a punishment I agree with, but harming your children would make most parents feel ill. All kids do things wrong, it's part of life, you have to learn from your mistakes, and some kids learn the hard way.

As for myself, I babysit kids from the ages of basically a month old to the ages of about 9. Whenever a kid I babysit misbehaves, I send them to their room to think about what they've done. Especially if they are old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. If the parents have a specific way of punishing their child (my cousin for instance isn't allowed a bedtime snack or to play her computer games unless it's educational, when she gets in trouble) then I follow their rules as well as I can.

[Falhado]

Oh, what a shame that a man such as yourself would take the Lords name in vain and use it in the name of punishment and derisement of my fellow roleplayers.

The only person allowed to have vengeance is God himself, against those that do not follow the 10 Comandments. He does not promote violence for man to go against man. That includes your children.

Yes, he wants children to respect their elders and their parents. But you do not deserve such respect. I am ashamed to believe in many faiths, and have someone like you spank their child, in the name of God.

You are not a religious man. If any man were to be a satanist, it would be you. I do not throw names around easily, it takes a lot for a man such as myself to say such harsh words, and be assured, I will be praying for forgiveness after typing this, but I do not care for religions being used as a weapon against any others.

Why do people do such things. People take their religious texts, and exagerate meanings, and hide others in order to use it as a weapon. This is unacceptable.

Go and tell your fellow perishners how you punish your children. If you do, and they accept it, shame on you all. But if you cannot, then this is a sign of guilt, and may you be judged when the day comes. I shall certainly be waiting.

Yes, I do find some subjects not to my particular tastes, but as website, I hold no complete religious truck with it, as it is outside the realms of reality. Anything outside the realms of reality can be subject to moral standards, but you cannot dictate it with religious rule.

So I have resigned myself to being able to relax myself to having limited constraints on myself, and only using my beliefs in the briefest sense of the word. I do not impose my views upon others, but welcome them to come and talk or discuss with me.

I agree with an aforementioned post, that not all religions are unlinked, and that no one true religion is the true religion. That would be arrogant. Yes, I have my strong beliefs, but until it is proven that one religion is right above another, then I will not discount all religions.

I would like to speak with the minister of your parish, and see what he says about your actions, both in your personal life, and on this site. You have made several youngsters feel threatened, and as the case may be, this is my parish in essence outside of real life, and you will not invade it.

If you do not produce someone I can speak with, I will ask for the administrator of this site to find your IP address, and contact the local law enforcement in that area. In essence, you have admitted to bullying your child mentally and physically, and have left the evidence on this site. There are many witnesses. I am sure they would be interested to speak to you.

I bid thee a good day, and I hope you reflect upon your sins, before you continue harassing these innocent people trying to escape for a few moments a day from real life, which you have brought crashing into this site.

[Liofin]

Well said, Father Mac Said a lot more than I could. Considering Mr. Paige probably lives in a part of the world that I am not allowed to phone. The authorities need to know what this man does to his child(ren). It's not right.

Many people have witnessed that he hurts his child from what he just told us. Apparently those are good parenting skills, I disagree with him on that. Those are horrible parenting skills. Teaching your kid that hitting and scaring them is not right.

Stuff like that is what drives a child to bully other people. Because it's how they've been taught to deal with things. What kind of parent is Mr. Paige? Not a very good one from what I've read that he does to his son. No kid deserves to be treated like that. Trust me.

Mr. Paige, I advise you stop using your religion as a protection. It's not going to help you. You can't honestly say "I'm a Christian but I abuse my son." What kind of Christian are you? Honestly. You are just like my father. I'm not kidding. And that's not a compliment either.

Yes, If you read further into the bible, I'm not sure of where it is, it says that parents should not hit their children either. Mr. Paige doesn't deserve respect from anyone, not even his son. I wouldn't blame his son if he has problems, it seems like his father hasn't been raising him as a good parent should.