Armageddon's community really should have taken a lesson away from all this, and Bebop is making her argument really well.
Its an easy argument to make.
Much as I'd hate to say so, because typically when I think of Bebop posting, I think 'I wish they would fuck off, and die, instead', but I'd have posted my agreement, were the thread not currently locked. I'm more moderate, but I was also one of those 'bad kids' that had sex early, and did things that would make good people feel bad for me because oh that poor dear, but I'm also making six figures a year, now, and enjoying life, with few regrets.
Exposure to bad things irl, nevermind in some game, aren't the instant destroyer of futures people make them out to be, especially in the west.
It isn't quite as dire, as Bebop makes it out to be.
However, while 'won't someone please think of the children?!' was implied heavily, that is not the core of the point. We have barely-checked adult themes, some of them are extreme, exacerbated further by a community that aggressively shuts down any kind of discussion (check out the locked thread, and the sociopathic gdb regs arguing vs Bebop, wtf people), and the game is easily in 16+ recommended territory.
Not 18+ required.
Not 17+ required.
16+ RECOMMENDED.
Nothing you see in Arm, cannot be seen in movies and TV, in most of the functional world. You can read it in books, you can see it on the news, by the time you are in your middle teens, even in the most sheltered cradles in America, you've been exposed to the gist of it, in some way or another. No matter how protective the parent, in this day and age, you will know about lots of bad things by your early teens.
I don't know, maybe, people live with the idea that teenagers don't know what sex is? Or violence, or drugs? It's bullshit, they know. I knew more about sex at 16 than my mother EVER did. It's the times we live in. Drugs, alcohol, rape, murder, all of these things you learn about early, unless you're a Monnonite, or something.
Its all out there, but even the news warns you in advance, before airing especially graphic news. Games, movies, magazines, if it has adult themed content, or extreme situation content, like torture or rape, they warn you. You can be 'surprised' by it on the internet, but the internet is its own self-presented warning, because you will know about the dangers of the internet long before you're able to curiously look for 'big dicks in small chicks', on google.
ArmageddonMUD is exceptional, in that it handwaves its content in favor off the broadest possible pool to draw players from, even when those themes tend towards the extreme. I don't know, I wouldn't tell my family I play a game where I pretend to be an elf sometimes. Certainly, I wouldn't tell them I play a game where I pretend to torture an elf by cutting off their testicles. I think that deserves at least a warning, no?
(I do not actually rp torture/consent to torture rp, but for dramatic purposes...)
16+ recommended is reasonable, without assuming the negative stigmas that came with 17 & 18+ ratings. Both make most people think 'porn', or worse. They're both more negative than they need to be, and I understand why different media types try to bring their content down below them, to avoid those negative stigmas.
We cannot REQUIRE an age to play, because people lie. The staff already play shady games, and spin lies, and bullshit, to punish players for nothing, and adding an age requirement where they can 'suspect' you of being too young, is just one more. How long until some cheeky staff says, 'you're too immature, clearly you lie about being 18!'.
How do you prove them wrong? Provide them your RL PII? No, I think not, no thanks. I'd never advocate a rule, where some pervert on a power trip, and I don't feel I need to name names here, can start pressing players into situations where they need to somehow prove their age with PII. How many female players already complain, about being harassed, or sexually pressured? Just IMAGINE it in a game, where you have to prove your age, at staff request?
No, absolutely not, it's ridiculous.
16+ recommended, is reasonable. If you're there too young, or easily offended, you were warned already, and have no excuses if you dive in anyway. Send it to all currently registered account e-mail addresses, and make it a bullet in all future outgoing account-creation e-mails, as well as an easily located place on the front page and not buried in some obscure helpful. There is no shame is being open, and honest, about what content is available. It's no mark of shame, to market anything with adult themes. It's what we want, because adults are horny and despicable.
It is, however, shameful to have this degree of uncontrolled content, much of it unavoidable even with the current consent rules, without taking responsibility for it, by providing fair warning.
16+ recommended, make it known, and done.
Sorry to shit up your forums, with a GDB sort of post.
