What My Six Year Old Has Learned From CoX
By
2Negative,
Posted on: 2008-02-19 08:05 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
That's SO adorable...
You don't hit smiling monsters - Sister Flame
I mourn for your wallet, and at the same time celebrate the teamwork your daughters are showing.
OMG!!!
This has to be the most wonderful thing I've read (and I read every single post to this thread). Sister Flame and Brother Frost..... I'm at a loss for words (which believe me is a rare thing). I laughed as I felt profound sadness that I couldn't share stories about me and my son (won't go into why here). I do hope that you two make an appearance on Virtue, I would love to meet you "in person" as-it-were. Heck, I may come to Freedom just to do that.
Anyway, keep the stories coming. This thread is now permanetly on my favorites list.
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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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.
The Elementals - Brother Frost and Sister Flame
Who Is Sister Flame?
Arc 118690 - Sibling Rivalry (Sister Flame) Tweaked 09/15/09
Part of that experience for the Teen rating is for the language that is typed out. 
I have now as of this weekend started to play with my 8yo daughter. Made her Defender, a Bubble/Nrg. Now she is lvl 12 and slotted out with the newest DO's. She keeps asking how she is doing daddy. 
I will make her a great player yet! 
Just gotta keep reminding her to always click on the person she want's to follow and keep up. 
"every defender needs to fight. I don't care if you have to use BRAWL!"
What an inspiring and excellent thread....gonna get my 7 year old set up if she wants.
if he has another good week, he gets his CoH account back! I'm so proud of my little alt-itis-monster!
The kid made more toons in 1 hour than I thought physically possible. Random button till he liked it.
This thread needs more Hite-Hite.
Hite-Hite is my little seven year old brother. Seriously. He IS my little brother. Or so my brother thought until he was about five, anyway.
When he was around three, nearing four, he was playing around on a little plastic playground when he randomly said, "I'm Hite-Hite."
Of course, my family wanted to know who Hite-Hite was. We say "What's hite-Hite like?"
"He has big blue hair, an' a big blue sword, an' a big blue body. He's blue. His blue sword is stwong."
So yes, he was blue. For awhile, he, as well as my other little brother (then two) had watched my father and I play. They had even pretended to BE the characters, and usually did the power sounds perfectly. But this was the first time he had MADE UP a character! Intrigued, I delved in deeper, and eventually invited him to sit in my lap and make Hite-Hite. he was ecstatic.
He sat there, and I obviously gave him a katana. Unfortunately, it was not blue. But at the time, he was too happy to notice. We then gave him regeneration secondary. His costume was very simple. Just a plain, bright blue tights with robotic gloves, a grinning face, and SUPER TALL blue hair. Oh, and a number four on his chest. Can't forget that all-important costume part.
We got him in, and he "played." Mostly, I played for him, but slowly (painfully slowly) he learned how to do it by himself. I even played with him, using his counterpart, Pak-Pak (whom my other, non-CoH playing little brother invented). It was a blast.
One day he decided he needed a costume change. Being level five,m I just decided to delete him and start over again. This time around, he realized you could get a BIGGER sword (broadsword, of course!) and gleefully shouted that he wanted "da big one!" We then gave him regen again, and went to the costume creator. This time, on a whim, he said he wanted his arm to be a robot arm. He immediately decided on the "skeletal" robotic arm. Another new addition was a new robotic glove, and tech boots. Everything else was the same.
This continued many times. Every time he re-made, more and more robotic parts were added. Finally, he struck gold. Tall, blue, and covered from head-to-toe in tech armor (but still having the robotic arm!), he was quite imposing. To top it off, he had large (iron man) helmet (we can thank Power Rangers for that inspiration!). And he has stayed that way to this day.
Now level 19 on the "First Hite-Hite," my now-growing-to-be-not-so-little brother has made DOZENS of versions of Hite-Hite, all following the robotic scrapper theme. He often plays other characters, but every once in awhile, he still uses his namesake. The original.
Hite-Hite.
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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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In that case you should probably also mention Peter Themari in Cap au Diable and Mako's ("I can't wait to rip his heart out and eat it") Patron Arc.
EDIT: and for your own sanity I advise avoiding the Shadow Shard content. "Daddy are we there yet Daddy are we there yet Daddy are we there yet Daddy are we there yet Daddy..."
Oh yeah. My bad, I forgot. Still, the idea here is important to note... but I bet it'd be hard to do...
I had a little session with my 4.98 year old nephew. He had a lot of funn bashin' Contaminated with Flyingman, the white haired, purple costumed and winged hero of archery and ice blastingness.
(mash, mash, mash on the 1 key)
"No, E, you gotta pick another one after you do that one.
(mash mash mash on the 2 key)
sigh.
"3"
(mashing 3)
"1"
(mashing 1)
"ooh, he's dead now, right?"
"No, E, he's defeated. Not dead. Go get another one."
"Ok!"
(hunt for 'w', then mash it to the next guy, 'tab'...)
"I'm gonna jump on him"
(Stops... hunts for the 'w' again, and then the spacebar...)
*Flyingman is bunched and hit with a rock by now*
(Mashes 'w' and spacebar, and swoopes in on the other guy.)
(Mashing 1)
"2"
repeat. Fun. His dad's gonna love me.
"Hey E, tell your dad 'City of Heroes' over and over when you get home, k?"
"Ciddyo Hewoes!!!"
/can't wait.
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012
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"Hey E, tell your dad 'City of Heroes' over and over when you get home, k?"
"Ciddyo Hewoes!!!"
/can't wait.
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The sign of a true villain.
You are an evil-evil man!
heh.
Ok, I was thinking on my daughters toon Pinky Gal. While she likes it... but she saw another toon I made a few weeks ago. An AR/Nrg Blaster. (Sigh) I thought, ok she might not like it and move on. WRONG!!! She took it out, solo I might add and started to blast things. She was at first yelling from the other room "Dadddd!!! Help me!!" She thought she was gonna get smooshed from the Hellions. You know, the normal 2-3 mobs of em hanging around Atlas. I yelled back "You are ok, just use all of your attacks!!" "Ok daddy!!" Then I hear a gleeful peal of maniacle laughter coming from my sweet 8yo daughter. .... "what have I created now??"
I think I've created another Blaster in the family!! 
LMAO She loves this toon more! Ah well. If you see LifeOfTheParty running around Atlas on Triumph sometime... stand back and watch her.
"every defender needs to fight. I don't care if you have to use BRAWL!"
Reading these joyous parental tales gives me the urge to have a child of my own.
*glances at firm, upright Emerald Chesticles of DOOOM! and stretch-mark free, flat belly*
Well...maybe I'll adopt.
I have to honestly say this has been the singlularly most enjoyable 29 pages (and climbing, I'm sure) I have ever had the enjoyment to read.
I'm not a parent, but to say this made me grin from ear to ear was a small understatement. Sister Flame I think is possibly the greatest hero to ever have been created in CoH history (though she shares equal billing with all the other kid heroes out there) and made me so incredibly glad to be a part of this game.
I don't care about the doomsayers on this game or people who go on about what needs to be fixed about this game anymore.
Sister Flame and her parents and everyone like her are the heart and soul of this game and I am genuinely honored to put the now-famous Sister Flame Fan Club sig into my own.
Wyll, if the amazingly cool Sister Flame and co. stop by Virtue one day, I would be honored to go for a swim in the pool or play tag anytime at all.
S.
Part of Sister Flame's Clickey-Clack Posse
I've played CoX for about to be nine months and I was able to quickly catch on and figure out how things work. Up to this point I had never really paid attention to the forums. Well a co-worker and friend of mine who also plays walked up to me today and hands me a print out. After reading it I nearly melted. It was the story of Sister Flame. It was such a cute story that I had to make my forum account just so I could say how it was such a cute and beautiful story (although I'll probably be on for more than that from now on). Hmm...now to making a heroic Clickey Clack...
I'll always be a "Champion" at heart. My server away from home.
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson
"With great moustache comes great responsibility" - Zee Captain
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As I sit here to wait for the servers to come back up, it struck me that I could write a little post about Sister Flame.
Sister Flame is the online handle of my middle daughter, currently six years old. She's been playing City of Heroes since she was 4 and 1/2. It was only over the last year we began to team together with my two accounts and have a lot of fun. I thought I let you know what Sister Flame has learned from CoX.
(1) Flame Learned To Read
At the tender age of five, I let Flame play on my second account on my laptop beside me. For a while, I had to tell her what the train destiantions were, what the NPCs were saying and what the villains name were.
It was only mere months before Flame didn't need my help anymore. We were playing one summer evening and I noticed that she wasn't asking me to read things. I looked over at her screen and watched her for a bit. I was intrigued she knew where to go.
"Need any help reading, honey?" I asked.
"Nope. I can read nope. That says Atlas Park and that says Steel Canyon. Those are Clockworks, but I like calling them Clickey Clacks." she replied quite happilly.
Her teacher was quite surprised at the headstart she had on her reading skills. When I informed the teacher that Flame's headstart was the result of playing a superhero online game, I got the weirdest look. Oh well.
Now, at six, I can hear Flame reading slowly over the mission text and the NPC dialogue. She cannot type yet, but if we get on a team together, I usually do the talking for both of us.
(2) Attitude Matters; Not Age.
From time to time, I get a little impatient with my daughters. I do recall the one evening I was unwell, but Flame wanted to play CoH and wanted to get on a big team.
"I'm too sick to play, so you'll have to do it by yourself." I told her, thinking that she'd never figure it out or get booted quickly if she did get invited to a team.
I laid down on the bed and closed my eyes to rest. Twenty minutes later, I stretched and asked Flame how she was doing.
"Good. I am in a big team." she told me.
"Oh yeah?" I asked.
"Yep. People keep joinging, but I think they're playing soccer." she says.
"Why is that?"
"I keep seeing the word 'kick'."
I rolled off the bed and scrolled back through the chat. Apart from several comments about Flame's excellent control and attack with her Fire Blaster, I see several conversations/arguments with some idiots who joined the team and did something really stupid. Most of them wound up being kicked by the leader. I also notice that every so often, Flame has written 'ty'.
"What's the 'ty' for?" I asked.
"Thank you. You type it sometimes. Everytime I see 'Flame', I type it. They like it."
I watched Flame play for another twenty minutes. No one in the group had a clue to her age and she played her role as any good team member should: waiting for 'Go' or 'Ready' before attacking, saving her Rain of Fire for large groups and giving inspirations to thoes that needed it.
Finally, I had to type a message for Flame.
"Thank you all for the team. This is Flame's dad. She has to get up for Grade 1 tomorrow and needs to go to bed. She says you were all great."
I still love typing that message and watching the responses. Most are 'lol' or 'what?!'. One time, a player typed 'Wow. I wonder if my poodle could play.'. All in good fun.
(3) Playing Coh Is Just Like Playing House a.k.a Imagination Is Power.
Flame has always had a decent imagination, but it has improved a lot since she has been playing Coh. She likes to spin stories about her toons and give them a backstory. This has translated well to her schoolwork when she has been asked to do creative writing assignments. She has also developed a healthy curiousity into some of the groups in CoH. Some of the things she has asked me are:
"Why do Skulls hang out in Perez Park?"
"How come the Clockworks don't attack cars or make nasty cars to attack people?"
"Why are Trolls green?"
"Where do the Outcasts get their power?"
Now, she makes up toons with funny names (to us anyways), but good backgrounds. Among some of her mains are Takes Care Of Pets (A MM with two mercenaries: Cat, Dog), Takes Care Of Bats (A PB with Bat Wings) and of course, Sister Flame (a Fire Blaster with her partner, Brother Frost [me]).
So, if you ever run across a Fire Blaster named Sister Flame on Freedom, chances are its my daughter havign fun, but learning many things at the same time. Feel free to team with her, but don't be a "poopyhead" (her words, not mind).
Ciao!
P.S. She is working on her typing skills, so if you see her say "Go", "Go", "Go" about twenty times, don't worry. It's only 1 of about 100 words she can spell.
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Great post. Very similar to my own experiences with my [now] 9 and 7 year olds when they started playing a couple of years ago (and still do).
It's also why I am a huge supporter of "Families Who Game Together!" (Even in our own PnP RPG Publishing company).
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Sister Flame, Hero 2 and BabyMage, COH:The Next Generation?
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You left out Positot.
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And BAB (back alley baby)
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That sounds....wrong....
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Ok we are leaving out Synapse. So how about
Takesnaps?
And even tho I don't have any kids of my own (hubby has 6 thankfully all grown up), this thread is indeed AWESOMESAUCE!
Pinnacle-Pale Spectre 50 Kat/Regen/Dark Scrapper
Spectre of the Gun 50 Thugs/Dark/Soul Mastery MM
MA Story Spectre of the Gun's Search" ID #352424
Spectral Darque 50 Dark/Dark Scrapper
BadStorm wrote:
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*glances at firm, upright Emerald Chesticles of DOOOM! and stretch-mark free, flat belly*
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I'll bet you're not the only one glanci... er, thinking of adoption.
--NT
They all laughed at me when I said I wanted to be a comedian.
But I showed them, and nobody's laughing at me now!
If I became a red name, I would be all "and what would you mere mortals like to entertain me with today, mu hu ha ha ha!" ~Arcanaville
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Sister Flame, Hero 2 and BabyMage, COH:The Next Generation?
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You left out Positot.
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And BAB (back alley baby)
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That sounds....wrong....
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Ok we are leaving out Synapse. So how about
Takesnaps?
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Ritalin Runner?
"OK, first of all... Shut Up." - My 13-Year-Old Daughter
29973 "The Running of the Bulls" [SFMA] - WINNER of the Mighty Big Story Arc Contest !
- The Stellar Wind Orbital Space Platform
I had to pass through Atlas Park last night. As I flew over the lake near the train station, I noticed a couple of Hellions lounging on the statue base in the middle of the lake. I yelled out loud "Get out of Sister Flame's pool!!!!" and let loose with a level 50 fireball.
Arc ID#30821, A Clean Break
The only problem with defeating the Tsoo is that an hour later, you want to defeat them again!
"Life is just better boosted!" -- LadyMage
"I'm a big believer in Personal Force Field on a blaster. ... It's your happy place." -- Fulmens
So I'm not the only one who does that now. I cleared Sister Flame's Pool the other day while waiting for my team to catch up. It just had to be done, even if she'll probably never play on Virtue
Part of Sister Flame's Clickey-Clack Posse
The English language is an intricate high-speed precision tool.Stop using it to bang open coconuts. ~Tokamak
Dark_Respite's Video page
nice post, i needed a good smile
I lament today's post-modern culture