Quote:
Originally Posted by Rufus
Graal has an age requirement in order for you to register. You need to be 13 years old, or you need to get your parents consent before registering. It can be argued that nobody would actually go through the trouble of actively seeking consent to play a game like Graal, but to then register and need to prove your age in order to access content? It's a stupid idea.
I doubt that there is a professional game around (though I could be wrong here) that does not boast a general target age range. Mix n' Match doesn't really work with games in that way, hence why you'll never see a game that has been double rated. It would come across as an unprofessional fallacy and would be an extremely disjointed game, because it is limiting and excluding players based on their age while trying to create an overall inclusion.
|
You are describing Graal like it's a single, uniform game, but it is actually just a platform for developers to create their own games. There's no way that Graal can be described as a game in and of itself, and as such, it can't be prescribed to preconceived notions of how a
game should be organized.
But, if we do consider Graal as a single game, then is it not already disjointed? We have traditional RPG servers, we have PK servers, we have arcade games, and we even have a completely text-based roleplaying server. It's the last part of that group that makes the case of how some servers are already exclusive of the 'target' Graal audience.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rufus
Do you honestly believe that by channeling mature content through servers via restricted access is going to keep all of the mature material off the rest of Graal by putting it in one spot? If you want to create an age divide like that, then it's going to get messy, but this isn't even the reality of Graal anyway because there isn't 5 year olds walking around. Everything on Graal suggests that it is a game of light-hearted fun.
|
There are plenty of existing online games that restrict access to certain areas based on age. Take Neopets, for example. Clearly a game for kids, yet there are areas targeted to the 18+ age group, though not in any kind of 'mature content' way, based on the connotation 'mature content' has.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rufus
I don't believe gore is necessary, because it just wouldn't fit in with any consistency Graal has or promotes.
|
You are clearly only thinking of the "classic Graal" servers -- PK, Kingdoms, etc. Graal does not promote the brutal killing of characters, yet it happens on Valikorlia. Graal also does not promote the torture, kidnapping, and leagues of not-so-underage-friendly things that have happened over Valikorlia's ten year history.
I could easily argue that Valikorlia is an adult-oriented server. Not only is the content adult-oriented, but the players themselves are largely adults, and they don't tend to inconvenience their gameplay by catering to Graal's 'target audience'. The PWAs themselves have repeatedly said that Valikorlia is a unique case, and have been quite lenient on regulating it.
So, in the event that some parents have an uproar over what their children are doing on Valikorlia, should the server be penalized for being blatant about its adult orientation, for not watering-down its content to fit with what Graal is trying to promote? What if a large group of parents complain? Would it not be better for a server like Valikorlia to protect itself by saying, "Hey, we're not kid-friendly. Parental discretion is advised for those under 16"?
While I'm not suggesting that Valikorlia use this, because I do not entirely think that the amount of adult-oriented content is great enough to warrant it, there could be servers that would benefit from this. If those servers are successfully catering to an adult audience, then isn't that, in turn a success for Graal? I realize that PWAs can't change the 'target audience', but they do wield a certain amount of respect in the eyes of the people that can.