What My Six Year Old Has Learned From CoX
By
2Negative,
Posted on: 2008-02-19 08:05 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
If you were on Virtue I'd put you both on my friends list. It would give me a great line for if I had to kick an idiot from my group or leave a group led by an idiot.
"Sorry, I'd rather play with a 6 year old I know. She's more mature."
Great story and great attitude from both of you.
Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!
Loved the post, my son (also 6 going on 7) plays on Freedom also. His main is Man Of Time (Illusion/Emp troller) look us up anytime. I will agree the comments here 100%, my son's reading has greatly improved and his teaming skills are pretty good, I only wish I had another computer so that I could team with him. As it is now I just look over his shoulder and make sure things are going good.
We played him a lot over the 2X weekend and got him to level 27, he loves the Phantom Army, but I think he was expecting them to be like the MM pets.
Anyway great post, maybe we should start a 7 and under SG called the Mini Heros.
This is great. There should be a "Clickey Clacks" Badge! 
(My 8-year old plays as well. His MM hit 20 yesterday and he got a cape. He was very excited.)
Ideally, the tank will die precisely as everyone else starts fighting, allowing aggro to be spread evenly among the blaster. -seebs, "How to Suck at CoH/CoV" Guide
Loved this post. Clickey Clacks made me laugh. It made both my Bill Paxton side and my Michael Biehn side happy. 
High Beam - 50 Blaster Energy/Ice - 1228 Badges
Munitions Mistress - 50 Mercs/Traps
Many Other 50's, Too Many Alts, All On Freedom
Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should!
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I wish my 5 year old would learn to play herself.. she just forces me to make tons of bizarre lookin characters with embarrassing names (skywalkr? puuke? meowgirl?) and then I have to run around and actually play them for her. *shiver*
8 foot tall neon green/red/purple/blue/yellow zombie catgirl archery blasters named rosabelle ftl. FTL!!
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/signed
LOL, my daughter Little V(she's 5) makes these...glad to hear im not alone and boy do those tall toons seem to run slow!
Little V has learned alot also...she learned that there are some truly wonderful people in the world that we can only see thru a game interface and yet they do exist! My friends have helped reinforce that manners count and its always good thing to say "aloha or hi or hola" to everyone...and when they wave back she goes crazy
Its funny that a game which you could be very anonymous and impersonal...she's learning the opposite!
Great thread also and thx for sharing!!!
Good stories and a nice reminder to be polite and nice to a player that might seem a little random or unfocused. Odds are they are just a bit young and you need just a little patience to help them out.
I like teaming with kids because they remind me there is a level of enjoyment in these games that us old folks just don't get anymore. They take powers because they are neat and they really want a missile launcher from their epic because that looks really cool. While we might be passed that phase it's a nice reminder to see someone else have that kind of moment.
Heroes : Angrem (50 Stone tank), Exo Inferis (50 Fire blaster), Exo Proteus (50 ill/emp), IceVengance (50 cold defender)
Villains : AtomBomb (50 Rad/Kin corruptor), Aleks (50 SS/Inv brute), StoneLethal (50 EM/Stone brute), Davroz (50 Bots/Dark mastermind)
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This thread gives me baby fever...
... please don't tell my fiancé.
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This is great. There should be a "Clickey Clacks" Badge!
(My 8-year old plays as well. His MM hit 20 yesterday and he got a cape. He was very excited.)
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Pass along the Gratz!!
What a wonderful story. These are the kind of things that just make my day!
1. I teamed with someone a few months back (maybe last Summer) who was clearly a young kid. He had a couple of us join his team but didn't seem to know how to run a team, how to set missions, etc. His character was something like "Super Dog!" -- had a beast head and feet, etc. We ran a mission with him, and he kept yelling, "A computer!" and then "I'll try and hack it!" It took me a few moments to realize that, at every stage where something resembling a computer terminal appeared in the hallways and rooms, he was pausing to do the emote that has you typing at a laptop computer so that he could attempt to "hack" the villain's computer system for information.
Each of these hacking attempts took 20 or 30 seconds, but the other person on the team was as willing to wait around as I was, and it was an awful lot of fun seeing someone really role playing the part of a hero infiltrating a villain's hideout like that. Kids don't have to think about role playing, they do it naturally.
2. Some friends of mine who play WoW know a 5 year old girl (she's probably 6 now) who plays. She likes my friend's computer setup because she has one of those special WoW-specific keyboards with emotes and such built in so you can just hit one key to do them. She wasn't able to read or write, but she understood how to duel other players and she was pretty good at it. My friend loved to tell other players that they'd just been pwned by a 5 year old. ^_^
3. I've heard the story from an old EQ friend of having to play bizaare-looking female characters that his daughter created for him in Star Wars Online, so there's more than one guy out there being directed by his young daughter. ^_^
4. I also loved the story of another EQ friend who used to let his very young son watch him play. He played a lizard necromancer in EQ and spent a great deal of time in the Karanas hunting treants. At some point, his son started demanding he kill the "bad trees" every time a tree of any kind appeared on the screen... he decided maybe that was enough of watching dad play for a while. ^_^
my lil RWZ Challenge vid
The hacking story is hilarious.
Heroes : Angrem (50 Stone tank), Exo Inferis (50 Fire blaster), Exo Proteus (50 ill/emp), IceVengance (50 cold defender)
Villains : AtomBomb (50 Rad/Kin corruptor), Aleks (50 SS/Inv brute), StoneLethal (50 EM/Stone brute), Davroz (50 Bots/Dark mastermind)
I am book marking this and showing my partner as soon as she gets back from work. Adorable story, thank you for sharing.
Crime of Fashion Level 50 Rad/Rad Corrupter
My Toons
My Rad/Rad Corrupters Guide
Mindscape - Reworking
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This thread gives me baby fever...
... please don't tell my fiancé.
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My partner has baby fever..... maybe I shouldn't show her the thread? 
Crime of Fashion Level 50 Rad/Rad Corrupter
My Toons
My Rad/Rad Corrupters Guide
Mindscape - Reworking
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"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?"
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She should be lead dev for this game.
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That's Hero 1's job (the new story bible guy). He just had a baby, so he should be a sucker for these questions...
Okay, Hero 1 (if you do vanity searches for your name like the other Devs, you'll see this), would you please answer the child's questions? If you can't, then she can rightfully claim your job.
Speeding Through New DA Repeatables || Spreadsheet o' Enhancements || Zombie Skins: better skins for these forums || Guide to Guides
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"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?"
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She should be lead dev for this game.
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That's Hero 1's job (the new story bible guy). He just had a baby, so he should be a sucker for these questions...
Okay, Hero 1 (if you do vanity searches for your name like the other Devs, you'll see this), would you please answer the child's questions? If you can't, then she can rightfully claim your job.
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Actually you could be onto something here. Every company should have a couple kids in the office for meetings. Kids have a great talent for grasping those little logical loopholes and just ASKING the question. It could be a whole new management style!
Heroes : Angrem (50 Stone tank), Exo Inferis (50 Fire blaster), Exo Proteus (50 ill/emp), IceVengance (50 cold defender)
Villains : AtomBomb (50 Rad/Kin corruptor), Aleks (50 SS/Inv brute), StoneLethal (50 EM/Stone brute), Davroz (50 Bots/Dark mastermind)
Poor Sister Flame. She erally doesn't know what the fuss is about. All she wants to do is Go. Kill. Skulls.
I've been reading the patch notes and past flames a bit. It's all water off a duck's back to me, but I can see how it gets a lot of people worked up.
Then, I see why I am glad to play with Sister Flame.
She doesn't care about TFs. The inventions are cool and so is salavage, but Flame is ho-hum on the idea. Power levelling? Bridging? Right over Flame's head. The only Min Maxing she does is 3 damage or 3 endurance reducers. Plus, she picks powers that she likes the sounds off.
I guess what I am trying to say is that playing CoX with Flame (or any young child) really makes you see the best, core parts of the game:
I can make a hero or villain.
I can save people or blow stuff up.
I can laugh and have a little fun for a small monthly fee.
That's Flame's description of the game. I remember one time when I started Manticore's TF and she was about to go to bed. She asked me what I was doing.
"A task force." I explained.
"What's that?" she asked.
"A series of missions that are a bit hard at times you do with a group of people for nice rewards."
"Can I do one?"
"Sorry, honey. They take at least two hours to do."
"People play for that long doing the same thing?!" Flame remarked. "They must be bored."
I love her. I love her to pieces. She still thinks War Witch is the coolest toon in the game because she talks (or so Flame thinks). When I tried to explain about Statesmen and the others as well as the marriage, she was a bit confused.
"Two heroes got married?" she asked.
"Yeah." I said.
"Why?"
"Um... *explaination about events and real-life love*"
Sister Flame wrinkled up her eyebrows. "But, doesn't that mean Mannacore has to get a job and she has to have babies now? They can't be heroes if they got no money."
Words of wisdom, my friends. Words of wisdom.
The Elementals - Brother Frost and Sister Flame
Who Is Sister Flame?
Arc 118690 - Sibling Rivalry (Sister Flame) Tweaked 09/15/09
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Actually you could be onto something here. Every company should have a couple kids in the office for meetings. Kids have a great talent for grasping those little logical loopholes and just ASKING the question. It could be a whole new management style!
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What?!? The Emperor has no clothes you say? Inconceivable!!!
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"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?"
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She should be lead dev for this game.
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That's Hero 1's job (the new story bible guy). He just had a baby, so he should be a sucker for these questions...
Okay, Hero 1 (if you do vanity searches for your name like the other Devs, you'll see this), would you please answer the child's questions? If you can't, then she can rightfully claim your job.
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Actually you could be onto something here. Every company should have a couple kids in the office for meetings. Kids have a great talent for grasping those little logical loopholes and just ASKING the question. It could be a whole new management style!
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Item #12 from Peter's Evil Overlord list:
"One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation."
This thread is great. I love Sister Flame! Where's Jack Thompson when you need him? Oh wait, this thread undercuts his ambulance-chasing...
--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
We've got a guy in our SG who uses CoH as a reward for his kids. If one of his 7 kids has done particularly well at something, they get to team with Dad that night. Occasionally, some of us from the SG get to team with them too. We have to watch our language, but it's more than a fair trade to team with someone who is obviously just having a ball playing and being teamed with adults.
@IronHoss
@Payamma Gurl
I'm sorry that your crew was stupid enough to fire on a station filled with a quarter million civilians, including your own people. And I'm sorry I waited as long as I did before I blew them all straight to hell. ~Sheridan, The Fall of Night
All I can say is wow. What a great story and thanks for sharing. My daughter (she's 8) and I play together once in a while. She's like me though and likes to solo. I do find it very fun to sit next to her and play though.
My 8-year-old son plays occasionally. Mostly all he does is make up a new character and play it through Outbreak/Breakout (or not, he'll log off in the middle of the tutorial).
When I first let him play with me, he would actually team with me and run missions and such. Then one day he and I teamed with some of my friends and SKd up to their level. I think my son got frightened by the Freakshow (he was 7 then). He wasn't prepared for them, and I think he got into a place where his back was to a wall so the camera zoomed in to full-screen. Then a huge, spike-covered cyborg with an evil scowl on its face ran up and hit him.
Now when he's naughty I tell him to straighten up or I'll give him to the Freakshow!
Just kidding.
Or am I....?
My five year old doesn't play (yet), but he does like to sit in my lap and watch me play. And he's a stickler for details; like why did I use my base to go to Perigrine Island instead of taking the boat (I was in Talos already).
When he was younger he was largely engaged by all the numbers on the screen.... then he sat in on a hami raid and I was part of the healing blanket. I thought his head was going to explode trying to keep up with all the numbers (old hami raid).
Obviously the profanity filter is a must. On a STF I had to apologize to everyone on Vent because his "commentary" on the mission was getting picked up by my mic. He kept insisting I use my "clock circle" power (Gaes accolade power.. looks like a clock in a circle), and trying to explain that was quite amusing.
While probably not the best "father-child" bonding expereience, CoX does have its high points.
Tanker Tuesday #72 Oct 5 @Champion
"I am not sure if my portrayal of being insane is accurate, but damn its fun all the same."
I almost cried when I read the OP. Thats SO cute. Dont tell anyone I almost cried. I'll deny it.
I dont have any kids yet. Think I'll try to teach my cat to play.
Awesomesauce! Thanks for posting this story, and tell Flame she's doing a great job. Sounds like she's a better player than some folks four or five times her age.
TheScooter
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