_Wyll_

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If you ever bring your kids over to Virtue, I'd love to team with them. They're awesome.

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We pop on Virtue once in a while. Flame likes to play on Freedom, Virtue and Guardian (I think we're redside on Virtue).

Congrats on the level 35, LoveGoneCold. Flame is bopping along and just dinged 25. We only play about two hours a week right now and I made a mistake of introducing NBA Jam to Flame, so she has a new distraction now.

The user made content is looking pretty interesting. I know my eldest has some serious ideas about story lines and at a fresh 11, I think she has some serious potential as a creative director or something.

As for Flame, she is on a "let's get a big group" kick right now. So, I try to get us on a big team when we pop on Freedom. I hate leading, so I won't form one myself. i am also not sure where Flame wants to head next. She's very much a creature of habit and would prefer to stick to Pocket D, Atlas Park or Steel Canyon.

She is looking forward to the Halloween event. When that rolls around, all three of my daughters go into serious CoX mode and trick-or-treat constantly. That is probally their favorite event, next to monster "arresting".

More when I got the time. Flame and the others want to take a logn bike ride.

Sister Flame says thanks for the comments to you all and is a little embarrassed by the attention.

Right now, we are pushing ourselves to 25. I broke down and told her about the Flashback missions, so we're planning to do Frostfire a few times when we hit the big 2-5. The gears temp power has peeked her interest, but she's lerned there are other villain groups in the game and she thinks they only get cooler as you level up.

I tossed the video idea at her and she says that her favorite songs are Picture by Kid Rock and the Numa Numa song.

Off to make the oldest a t-shirt.

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I love the shirt! I can only imagine the excitement around seeing that for the first time.

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It's pretty impossible to describe the excitement she had, not only at having a picture of Sister Flame to show her friends, but also having a way to show people one of her favorite games. She's still going on about it and throwing it in her other sibling's faces.

This also gave me chance to explain to her what the User Agreement was and why we couldn't sell T-shirts or make them for her friends (or stickers with screenshots from the game, as she suggested). Being an IT Security professional, we also talked about downloading copyrighted music and images. Chalk up another one to CoX for helping me teach another life lesson to my daughter.

This experience also got all of my daughters and I talking about what else we could make that (a) we would enjoy and (b) could help promote the game without breaking any rules. My oldest suggested making temporary tatoos for us of the AT symbols found in the Fan Site kit. You can buy transfers that you can print on with your inkjet. Sister Flame said she would like a whole sheet of little AT symbol stickers so she could decorate birthday cards for her grandparents.

I won't even go down the fan art lane. My oldest has it in her head I could do little art cards of our heroes so she could show them off to her friend.

I'll leave you with one last idea from Sister Flame: CoX Go Fish. I made a Doctor Who version with stickers and a pack of playing cards. Now, she would like a CoX version and if I was super nice, I could make her a Crazy Eight deck.

Maybe I should have called the thread "How Do You Promote CoX?"

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Go Sister Flame! Kudos for showing your CoX street cred off in school.

Is she going to go as Sister Flame for Halloween?

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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She almost decided to go as her villain "Takes Care Of Pets" and I would be one of her soldiers (Named "Dog", of coruse), but she has firmly decided that a witch is what is in this year... and no, she doesn't know about Katie or doing a speed Katie to trick-or-treat the block in ten minutes.

Sorry for not adding this to my other thread, but Sister Flame really wanted to show off her new geekwear.

Recently, I showed my darling Sister Flame the FREEM T-shirts, thinking she'd geek out like I did a bit. She was pretty "meh" on the idea and I was a bit disappointed. However, she did ask me if I could make her a CoX T-shirt using Sister Flame. I sat down and using my crude skills, managed to produce this little number.

Da Front
Da Back

Thankfully, Sister Flame geeked out a lot over the T-Shirt. She plans on wearing it to school on the second or third day because her Mom says she has to wear her nice clothes for the first day of school. It also looks like her and I may be doing a small presentation to her Grade 2 class about the game as a public speaking exercise. We've all ready wrote a five minute speech (Flame wanted to go longer, of course).

I've also been tasked with making a matching shirt for me and one for Flame's older sister. The youngest one is also making noises fo a shirt so we can all dress the same when we go to theme parks and such... but the wife has politely declined a shirt of her own.

Keep on geeking, people.

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yes, and now is a level 24 /kin... and can only handle duos for teams as he gets overwhelmed keeping up with the buffs otherwise.

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I found it took Flame about a year before she got the hang of buffing, but it really isn't her playstyle. She'll take Aid Other once in a while or use a heal with her Mastermind if I remind her, but she's very much a "smash and blast" type of player. What I have found is playing with her has helped me master the art of buffing. I usually take a support role to her offence role and I like to think I am pretty handy at the best of times.

One thing I really like about her is that she has the idea of giving away extra Inspirations at the right time. She'll drop greens on me if I am "turning red" or pass me a few blues if she notices that I am running out of gas. She's saved my bacon a few times with her inspiration gifts. She thinks that light blues are the most valuable inspriations in the game and hoards two or three of them if she can. Again, this has paid off for me and our teammates.

I have to mention one cute thing she does with her Insipirations. Like any good player, when I call out "Boss" near the end of a mission, she begins to furiously click everything in her Inspriation tray and then say "Ready!". She forgets what most of the other inspriations do, but she knows that she needs to "juice up" before big battles.

Maybe one day, I'll get my main account back from her. I got a 50 on the secondary account so she and her sisters could start with flying aliens, but that was short lived. As soon as she saw the Veteran Reward buffing fairy pet I had, I've been regulated to the second account ever since.

Greetings all:

I know I've been answering post in this thread on a regular baiss, but I thought you would all like a quick update on Flame and her CoX experiences.

Now that she is seven and a bit, Flame's reading has much improved (thanks in part to CoX). In the past, she's needed me to read the contact's text and the mission text, but now she can do it pretty mucb by herself. It takes her a while to get through a paragraph, but she is pretty proud when she does it.

Flame is starting to realize there are stories in CoX. I tell her most of the background based upon the story arcs in the game and she thinks most of them are pretty cool. She's starting to realize that there are motivations for the NPC in the game and she finds that concept interesting.

With summer here, Flame spends most of her time outside. We still manage to play CoX about twice a week for an hour or two. This means it is slow going for levels (I think Flame is 23 now), but she is in no hurry. She really gets excited when she encounters a new villain group. Clockworks are still her favorite, but she thinks the Circle of Throns spirits are pretty neat. She still likes to go back and visit the Hollows. She keeps hoping she gets invited to a Frostfire team because she loves the Ice Slides. I've taken her to Perez Park lately to show her what it is like. She thinks the forest is okay, but a little confusing to get around in. She really likes being able to mow down piles of grey conned Skulls and Hellions. She's learned that she can use her Rain of Fire to slow their escape while to cuts them down with the rest of her powers.

I think our levels would go faster if Flame didn't split her time with CoH and CoV. There is also the "Chushwah" factor. "Chushwah" is the name of my youngest daughter's first serious toon. At 4, Princess S has decided that she would like to play CoX as well. Right now, she plays just like Flame did at her age: sitting on my lap with me steering and her firing the powres. She's gettting to the point now where her and Flame will play as a duo and do missions in Atlas Park over and over, rerolling toons as needed. It's nice to see CoX bringing siblings together.

I don't know what the future will hold for Flame and CoX. She doesn't play it as much as she use to, but she has a lot more hobbies now then she did 3 years ago. Don't takeher lack of playing time as a lack of love for CoX: Flame still loves CoX like a favorite toy and being able to fly is probally the biggest thrill for her right now.

CoX will be one of Flame's special childhood memories. Her meeting War Witch and getting a letter from her favorite hero ranks right up there with being able to ride a two wheeler and going to Disney world for the first time.

Until next time, keep it real.

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i think it's perverse that uve got your kid hooked on video games already.

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Just a quick note to people not feed the trolls or goldfarmers. Espcially ones whose archenemies are Captain Grammar, Lord Spelling and Queen Misinformation (based unbiasly on the user's highly informative past posts).

Cheers.

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And think of it, _Wyll_ - in ten years or so, when Flame starts bringing home the boys, she's not gonna care what kind of car he drives or if he's got tattoos, it's gonna be:

"Can you keep up with me on an 8-man Invincible team with no buffs? No? Pshaw, you're not the guy for me."

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Well, I often wonder what she will be like when she gets older. I did worry for a while that she was getting too much technology time, but she's shown me she that she is just like me as a child.

As a youth, I ate up early morning television like it was candy before spending the afternoon outside. Then, as I hit my independent years, I played video games on my Atari 2600 for a few hours before going biking all afternoon. Even after I hours in the arcades in the 80s, I was still fond of walking all afternoon just for the heck of it. Today, I still like to play video games, but more than 2 hours is enough for me. Gone are my all nighters from my teenage years and Final Fantasy for the NES.

I wouldn't call Flame weird compared to other kids her age; just unique. She'll spend an hour or two playing on the computer with me easilly, but you mention "outside" and she is gone in a flash. We spend most of the weekends outside doing archiac things like climibing trees, going to nature walks or playing at the park. She's quite content to watch two hours of television as much as she is to read all afternoon (with some help, of course). I listen to her friends (7 years old, don't forget) how they played their WII or PS3 until it was 10 o'clock and they had to go to bed. It just made me boggle (and no, we don't anything newer than a Gamecube, which we use for some Mario Party goodness once in a while).

I like to think that Flame's well-balanced attitude towards technology and the outdoors comes from my wife and I taking an active part in all our daughters' activities, but I could be wrong. All I know if I like playing video and boardgames with the kids as much as I enjoy our family nature walks and outings... and I know my daughters do to.

So, as a father, I often wonder what kind of a person she'll be when she goes up and what kind of people she'll bring home. Will she turn out to be a hardcore gamer who knows all the latest stuff about MMPOGs? Will she be an athlete who prefers to be outside and active (she's fast, strong and clever)? Will she be an artist and a writer like her imaginative older sister? Flame's imagiantion is pretty strong, much like mine. All ready, she plays superheroes with her Barbie dolls and tells me short stories of heroes she has made up in her head. The villains always appear to be either Clockwork-like enemies (because "you can't call them Clockworks because you can't steal other people's stuff" Flame tells me) or generic thugs.

In the end, I take comfort that all my daughters are comfortable with technology and love the outdoors. Flame may not want much to do with me when she gets older, but for now we have our City of Heroes time... that we split with our boardgame time and our bike riding time and our reading time and our Doctor Who time.... you get the idea.

P.S. Flame has encountered the CoT ghosts and wonders why they are always white and not green like on 'Scooby Doo'. I tend to shout "It's old man Smithers!" when I see one because that gets her giggling. I hope she doesn't get the idea for short-term tribute characters because I am not weaing an ascot.

VEAT Comment - I've kept Flame ignorant to VEAT because I spend four months getting a level 50 hero on my second account so her and her sisters could fly at level 1 as an alien. If you think "Are we there yet?" is annoying on a car trip, try these on for size:

"Are you 50 yet?"

"Did you find all the glowies yet?"

"Are they all defeated yet?"

"Have you got my next level for me yet?"

"Are we in a big team yet?"

Or having to go to Pocket D and see War Witch just about everytime we login together.

Now, do those about a hundred times in a row and see if you start mumbling "Cthulhu fhtagn" under your breath like I do.

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And you can bet that when the players get to start creating their own content, someone had BETTER create Sister Flame's Task Force. It may be the shortest one in the game, but probably the funniest.

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Thanks for the idea. I explained what a task force was to Sister Flame and asked if she had any story ideas for the game. Currently, she's into Doctor Who and the Goosebumps books, so anything slightly spooky is a treat for her.

Her idea for a task force was a haunted house that was controlled by aliens. She said the idea was the heroes had to save people while defeating the aliens.

I asked her about the haunted house part of the task force and she told me that the house was "to make it scary and exciting".

Her mind is pretty sharp for a seven year old. So sharp, she has her four year old sister playing with her while her dad sits and watches on the sidelines.

That reminds me. I have to go change some of my passwords. She's memorized the ones for my main computer system and the last thing I want her figuring out is how to brute force my Ebay or Paypal accounts.

Just a quick update before we head down to Florida on Wensday to Disney for a vacation.

Now, being the typical 7 year old, I figured Sister Flame would be overjoyed to return to Disney World (this would be her 3rd trip in 3 years... probally the second she can remember). As I proudly announced to the family we were going, there were cheers... and on questions from Sister Flame:

"Will I be able to play City of Heroes while we're in Florida?"

*cue Wyll rubbing his face with his hands and pondering what is going on in Flame's head*

This also ranks up with her question when we spend 3 hours on the highway going to Grandma's house.

Flame: Can I play CoH on your laptop?

Wyll: There is no Internet out here.

Flame: Why not?

Wyll: We're too far from the wires.

Flame: Your laptop at home works without wires why not in the car.

*cue Wyll cranking up the radio and sighing*

Keep it warm for us.

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I have this image of a run down and exhausted father hero trying to keep the little sidekicks under control as he goes shopping at Icon.

"Honey, don't touch that. . .*sigh* . .Sorry about the mess Serge. . .Go get your sisters. . .*turns and looks* Before they cause another mess. . .*CRASH!* I will pay for that Serge. . ."



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A better image goes something like this...

Eldest daughter finds out about the extra costume slow during the Halloween event. Cue father playing her toon after her bedtime to get her a second costume slot. Cue father again playing Flame's to get a second costume slot.

Next, Flame discovers you get a free costume slot at 20. Cue father playing in a "big team" with Sister Flame powering our way to 20 so she can have THREE slots and her sister only has two.

Cue father refusing to play eldest daughter's toon to 20 so she can have three slots as well.

Cue mother asking what all the crying and whinign is about and cue Wyll explaining that he is crying because he wants to play his toon.

Seriously, Flame loves the extra slots and I haven't told her she gets another one at 30.

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With any luck the new ability to move things around on the UI and have more visible trays out might help there

This thread is still so full of awesome.

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I guess I should make a comment on Sister Flame's attitude towards I12. I told her all the things that was going to happen and you know what she was most excited about?

The Hollows.

Apart from being a War Witch thing (that gets a +10 on the cool factor from Flame), I told her how they were going to move mobs and change some of them.

Flame: So it will be easier to move around?

Wyll: It should be and they'll be a few different mobs there.

Flame: They gonna keep Frostfire?

Wyll: Ayep.

Flame: Sweet! When is it going to happen?

Wyll: Soon!!!

So, the Romans and Power Proliferation get a "meh" from Flame, but the Hollow's redesign and the costume creator get a big "yay" from her. In fact, all three of the daughters are double keen on the costume creator overhaul.

"It's like playing Barbie dressup, but it is on the computer" as described by my eldest.

Yes, our dear City of X has been summed up as "playing Barbie dressup".

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This is such an adorable and inspiring story.

My baby girl is only 3 months old... but i can't wait to share daddy/kiddo time with her when she's ready!

Thanks Wyll (and Sister Flame) for sharing!

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It'll come faster than you know it, trust me.

Just thought I'd comment on something I noticed with dear Sister Flame. She is close to level 23, but she has a tendency to not use powers in her second tray slot. Most precisely: if it doesn't shoot, she doesn't fire it. Now, she knows how to use all of her powers, but she seems to not understand the concept of using holds. Thankyfully, I can tell her when to fire off Rain of Fire and she will (or she'll ask me if it gets a little tight in certain situations).

Does it impact her effectiveness? Not really . I've lined up her powers so that she can click through them in a nice attack chain and she knows which color of mob to go after fisrt. Maybe I'll work on haveing her use her holds more... or maybe not. She's done so well up until now, why should I mess with happiness?

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Sister Flame is rapidly and inexplicably becoming something of an icon for appreciating this game for the pure joy it and its creators bring.

I like that.

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I often think that. Sister Flame doesn't care about power prolif, min/maxing or PVP. She just cares that she can log on, fly around and defeat bad guys while doing it with her dad or her little sister.

She reminds me what all games should be about: fun.

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Well in the Massively article about War Witch being in England over easter weekend, it mentions War Witch ran with Sister Flame a while back. I was just wondering how much fun Sister Flame had running w/one of the Devs?

Thank you for the time...

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I was wondering if someone was going to find out about it. I didn't want to say anything in case _everyone_ wanted War Witch to run with them.

Bottom Line: Sister Flame was over the moon and wouldn't stop babbling about.

It all began when our dear War Witch sent me a PM about Flame. She offered to send along some sweet things and Flame loved them. Nothing means more to my little girl than getting a letter in the mail. Getting one from her favorite hero really made her year.

I sent pictures to War Witch of Sister Flame with her comics and one of her standing in front of our huge snowbank. In her reply, War Witch also offered to pop by and meet Sister Flame in game. I didn't want to be an inconvience, so I was reluctant to accept. Afterall, dropping by in game to meet a six year old seems kind of less important thatn working on I12 and stuff like that.

Still, I accept her offer and dropped the Witch a quick line before Flame and I entered the game. I told Flame that War Wtich might meet her in the game and the exchange went a little something like this:

Wyll: "Hey Flame. Would you like to meet War Witch in the game?"

Flame: "You mean stand by her at Pocket D while she drinks?"

Wyll: "No. The real War Witch might pop by, but it is only a maybe."

Flame: "REALLY? To Pocket D! Go go go!"

So, with Flame leading the way, we hit Pocket D and find War Witch with her mug. Flame buzzes around her and clicks on her, which causes an automated response.

Flame: "She's talking to me! Cool! Look at her go!"

Wyll: "Uh honey? That's just an automated process. The real War Witch isn't here."

Flame: "Oh... are you sure?"

I chuckled and went to grab a quick glass of water. As I come back into the computer room, I am greeted to Sister Flame turning into the Tazmania Devil.

Flame: "She's here for real! There are two of them! Come see! Come see Princess S! Come see Jem!"

Flame begins spinning around the room, bouncing on computer chairs and shouting at the top of her lungs. Her two sisters come running into the computer room and stare in amazement as the real War Witch pops by.

With me at the keyboard, Flame, War Witch and I all have a little chat. Flame was so excited, I knew she wasn't going to go to sleep that night. The oldest sister was susprised and a bit jealous that a "real hero" came to visit her younger sister and my youngest (Princess S) sat in the computer chair with Flame and watched the exchange like it was one of the best kids flicks she had ever seen.

It was only a five to ten minute visit (quite generous given the devs busy schedule and deadlines), but I know Flame will remember it for a life time. She was beaming as War Wtich commented on her costume and we had to head to Steel Canyon after she was told that War Witch use to have a place there. I think that Flame's teacher would like her to tell the class about "City of Heroes" for show and tell sometime.

Just wanted to say the interview was fun and looks great.

Sister Flame had to show all her friends at school (I don't think they understood, but they got the idea of "i'm popular") as well as her gramps and grandmas.

The City Scoop looks great, as it does always.

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Clickey Clacks

Was running a new tech hero from Rick Davis in Atlas and the third mission I got was defeat that guy. Gave me a chuckle

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Okay, that is going in Flame's treasure box.

Yes, all my daughter's have a treasure box. It is a large white plastic bin where we keep all their important childhood memories. You know, their coming home outfits from the hospital. Special ornaments. Stuff like that.

I'll add this to the other CoX stuff in Flame's box such as a Ghost Widow heroclix, a CoV DVD and some special comics that War Witch sent her (they had to go to school for show and tell). I also put a screen shot of her toon in a folder in her box too.

Pretty funny, eh? Imagine her being an adult and pulling out her memory box. Then, she has to explain what this CoX was and why it was speical.

There is a goot advertising phrase: City of Heroes. Creating childhood memories today!

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I had a random thought today regarding parents and their very young kid gamers. Do you let them play using your regular mouse or did you get them a small, travel sized mouse to fit their hand better?

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This is a pretty good question. All of my daughters got "early mouse training" by playing Toddler Reader Rabbitt. While the program got them use to moving the mouse around, clicking the proper buttons was hard because of its size.

Up until the age of 5 1/2, Flame had problems using a normal sized mouse. Her little fingers would accidentally right click when she wanted to left click. She worked around it by using the keyboard as much as possible (numerics for powers, arrows for direction). At 6 7/8s. Flame is old pro with the mouse now.

Princess S, my little fresh 4 year old, is now having the mouse button problem. She tries really hard to left click, but the mouse is just too big and winds up clicking both buttons. I usually work the mouse at critical moments for her, just to keep things easy. I think investing in a little notebook mouse might be a good idea for her (if I can find one on the cheap).

All of my girls know how to use the touchpad on my laptop, but they still prefer a mouse.

On the plus side of being forced to use the keyboard, all of my daughters know most of the keyboard shortcuts for CoX now (Mpa, chat, target, etc.). If you want to put it in gameterms, I find CoX very keyboard friendly, especially with binds.

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_Wyll_ ,

Has Sister Flame experienced the winter event any? I would think that she would get a big kick out of the ski slope or the mission against snaptooth where you have to fight on a fair sized frozen lake. I'ld set my scrapper on follow to a target and then just click away. Lots of fun.

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Oh yes. She has experienced most of the major events. She really enjoys the Ski Hill and _loves_ Trick or Treating during Halloween. The Valentine Event doesn't really turn her crank, but she was looking forward to the Ski Lodge openning last December and she was in like a dirty shirt when it did finally open.

I'd have to say the Winter Event is her favorite event based on the Ski Hill alone. The Snowball temp power is also her other favorite thing and she is not happy until she gets it.

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I'm just going to suggest that if any of you parents have younger kids playing CoX, specifically CoV, don't let your children play Westin Phipps missions. The guy is truly sick and disturbed. Not something younger kids should be exposed to.

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Good point, Chaos Commander. Again, I always read/watch/experience something first before I turn it loose on my kids and it is a good lesson for parents. Most of the stuff in CoX is all right, but there are a few things you may not want your young kids experiencing (depends on the family, of course).

I have very hearty kids, so nothing really scares them in CoX. In comparrission, I have friends whose children cannot watch "The Wizard Of Oz". Now, there are mometns that cause the kdis to jump, but in a good "Goosebumps" sort of way.

I was helping Princess S and Flame run a lowbiw mission that required them to search a warehouse for glowies. They thought they had defeat all of the Clockworks and Princess S clicked on the glory to search it. The next thing she hears and sees is the sudden burst of Clockworks blasting and Princess S almost jumps off my lap with a "AHHHHHH!". Then, she began to madly pound random keys on the keyboard to "shoot". Flame starts yelling "2! 3! 4! 2! 3!" and then Flame dispatches the last two Clockworks. Needless to say, my heart was beating a mile a minute.

Yes, the low game is not too bad, but do not forget: It is rated T for "Teen" and the experience may change during gameplay.

Well, I got this urge to relive the early days with Sister Flame and her first steps into CoX, so I thought I try my youngest, Princess S on Friday afternoon.

When I asked my just four year old daughter if she would like to play CoX, her eyes lit up like she had won the candy lottery.

"You mean like Flame?" she asked.

I nodded and we got set up. Her on my lap and my fingers ready to steer her around this great big wonderful.

Except... she didn't need me to steer.

After I explained how to move around with the arrow keys, I was told to "keep my fingers back" and Princess S went to work teaming with Flame on Guardian as lowbies. I felt like a third wheel as my two daughters whizzed around Atlas Park, working as a dynamic duo at defeating threats. Flame was doing a great job of directing her sister with her attacks.

"2... 3... 4... 2!" Flame would call out the buttons for Princess S to push.

Pricness S would look over the keyboard, find the 2 and hold it down until the attack was fully executed. What I found funny about the routine was that she had to hunt for the "2" button each time it was called out... even though it didn't change positions.

There has been one fatal flaw in my dream to re-live the young days of Flame. I have two accounts and four people that like to play. Needless to say, Pricness S and Sister Flame pretty much "hogged" CoX for most of the weekend. Even this morning, just as the sun was cracking through the windows, I heard the pitter patter of little feet on the floor of my bedroom. I cracked a sleepy eye and saw Princess S standing there. She smiled and said "City of Heroes? Can I play now?".

I glanced over at my clock, saw the numbers "7:27" and groaned something about sleeping in until 8:00.

Devs, I fear I have another hardcore CoX fan in my house who will have a level 50 before she can vote, drive or graduate from grade school.

Well, time for another Flame comment. It's addictive talking about your kids, isn't it?

People asked me when Flame started to play and I have to say at 4 1/2. She'd sit on my lap and I do the "I'll drive, you shoot" thing with her. After about 8 weeks, she was ready to take the wheel and could get around by herself.

That's when I found out one account for three people really limits the person who _pays_ for the acount's playing time (but I am a pushover, so my girls could play and I would sit and watch).

Flame really got to learn how to move around the CoX world by goign swimming. In Atlas Park, there is the small lake near the train station. Flame's favorite past time was to head there and swim around. She'd spend pretty much all her time doing that.

One day, she learned that the Devs have a tendency to update the game. She headed to the pool with her proud level 10 toon and prepared to splash around. I'm sitting on the bed reading a comic when I hear this.

"There are theifers in my pool." Flame growls. "I'm gonna take them down!"

"What's that honey?" I asked.

I looked at the screen and sure enough there are two or three Hellions sitting around the base of the statue.

"Those are Hellions, honey." I tell her.

Flame thinks for a minute and looks up at me. "Are they bad guys?"

"Yep." I answered.

The next sounds I heard was Flame cutting lose with her flame based powers and yelling for the Hellions to "Get out of her pool." and "I am gonna fire you!". I cheered her on and her other two sisters came to see what the commotion was (in case they were missing out on something). She was such an excitable child at 5 1/2.

Hard to believe she is going to be the big 7 in a few weeks. Also hard to believe she's got a level 20 hero and a level 9 villian.

You should hear about the time her and the ten year old spent the better part of an hour in Pocket D "betting" on the monkey fights. You could have swore I was watching a million dollar horse race.

Keep on truckin...

I gotta say I am surprised by the feedback of the thread so far.

It seems to be that CoX is a pretty "family fun" MMPOG. Like I said, I've played quite a few, but not one where various family members and ages found equal enjoyment in it.

I like the idea of using CoX as a reward and yes, I have taken it away as punishment. Forget about allowance. Not being able to do Frostfire just breaks Flame's heart.

She's quite proud she dinged 20 and has her cape now. Today, she was teasing her older sister about her two costume slots (plus her SG colors). Her older sister (10 years old) was _not_ impressed. However, they get along pretty good. One time, the eldest even tried to draw Sister Flame for her sister.

Thanks to all who gave us a shout out on Freedom today. Flame thought it was funny to see all the yellow text.

The family that plays together, stays together.

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I know you didnt mention the server but I dont really think you should mention our daughters characters name. Im sorry, and I know I always get the "SOME people need to lighten up", but I dont think this is that smart.

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That's very considerite it you to be worried about "our" daughter, but I'll assume you forgot the 'y'.

For the past 14 years, I have worked as a senior IT Security Analyst. One of my primary duties is to educate and spread awareness in my organization, particuarilly with families and what they surf at home. Needless to say, my daughters help me with my work and also help me practice what they preach.

Letting people know what name my child plays as? Pretty harmless in CoH (since I am always with her). Think of it as taking you child for a walk through a familiar neighbourhood with a few new people living on the block you aren't sure off (yes, street smarts translate well to Internet smarts).

Now, you talk about letting people know what my kids e-mail address is or what their MSN handle is and I could tell you stories that would make you throw out your computer and never get back on the Internet... but that's off topic.

And yes, I do use CoX in some my awareness presentations as an example of a moderated virtual environment with a strong ToS and good enforcement of violations/complaints. And no, I won't tell you what games I use as my 'naughty' place.

Okay, kids. Schools out and Professor Wyll says everyone back into the CoX sandbox.