Age and (Lack of) Maturity
Every once in a while on MMO message boards, someone makes a post asking for adult-only servers. They do this under the belief that if somehow an age restriction could actually be enforced in such a way to keep those under 18 from playing there, the server would be a more pleasant place.
I don’t buy it.
Age isn’t even close to being a reliable signpost of maturity. While I will grant that younger players (especially those in their early teens) may be somewhat more likely to be immature in a general sort of way, I’ve found that most of the real jerks I’ve encountered have been well into adulthood. Perhaps it takes years of practice to grow into a genuine ass; I’m evidence of that as much as anybody.
As further proof, I offer the movie theater. I cringe every time I see a group of high-school kids making their way to seats near me, especially if they’re goofing around during the previews. But the interesting thing I’ve noticed is that it’s almost never the kids who I find disruptive during the film. On the contrary, it’s usually a middle-aged couple that can’t seem to whisper as they discuss what they’re seeing but somehow don’t understand. It drives me freaking crazy.
One of the worst times I had lately was when I went to see Munich. It’s a very somber film that creates a mood of hopelessness and loss. Just down the row from me was a man and a woman who had brought a whole grocery bag of food into the theater with them, and every few minutes they would dig around loudly inside the bag and remove some new kind of snack. This food, of course, would be wrapped in plastic as well, which would crackle obnoxiously as they ripped it open. It was unbelievable.
Once in a while, when I encounter a particularly idiotic driver, I understand why someone would feel road rage. Well, just about every time I go to a movie, I have at least one moment of theater rage, where my mind races as I picture rampaging all over some complete moron(s) who can’t seem to be considerate enough to shut the hell up for two hours and discuss the movie after it’s over.
An MMO server that keeps those under 18 off it wouldn’t be any less likely to attract jerks than another. Whether online or in a movie theater, inconsiderate creeps will always find ways to be inconsiderate creeps. I guess the anonymity of the Internet is a little bit like that afforded by a darkened theater… only without the benefit of hot buttered popcorn.
I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I’d argue that any “adults only” server would quickly become filled with more offensive- even obscene behavior, as people argue against moderation with a “why? we’re all adults here.”
“adult” doesn’t equal “mature”
“adult” seems to equal “sophmoric humor” and “no restriction on language, sexual openness, or graphic violence needed.”
How true it is. Usually it’s the teenagers, and younger adults that play games to play games, not make someone’s life miserable. But once you get into the 23-29 age, UGH. Wait, i hear that monk on blackburrow is like 29!
mmmm…Hot buttered popcorn =P
I’ve seen some strange justifications for adult-server requests — from people who don’t like their 3 year old being exposed to the foul language that people use on regular servers, to folks who are interpret the swear filter as an insipid violation of their rights.
Back in EQ1 a large portion of my guild upped and moved during the first big server migration from Bertox, citing an over-population of “kids” on the server. 3 out of 40 were over 21. 10 of them were under 16. 2 of them were 12.
Across a vast swathe of MMOs, it seems that adult cliques form and “kids” are the in-game cultural equivalent of aliens. Everyone’s convinced they exist and they’re a great reason to move along or be losing interest in your guild.
what’s funny about the swear filter is sometimes I will type a bunch of symbols to represent an expletive. With the filter though some people will believe I really did swear and I’ll get a warning from my guildies !
The EQ2 profanity filters can interfere with perfectly innocent text. Late last year I told a guild mate OOC that I would be away for two weeks, the filter blanked out the name of the country that I was visiting. I had to clarify by telling them that the country’s capital was Lagos.