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OK. I recorder this screencast 2 minutes ago.
I messed up the Mic volume.. so Turn up your Speakers! ;)
Also, play in Fullscreen at 720P to see more details.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcn6QhLNLVg
Video shows what it might look like if we use Morph Target Sets to change the physique of a character.
software for MAC's... HTML5 based Flash like animation for devices that cant run SWF's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnckD7Auy-Y
Might be able to use this for iPAD version of the Hero Designer or Newspaper, or whatever else will be needed for mobile, or web.
What I really want is the ability to have truly FAT characters and children. I know a lot of people will want to see more feral options unlike just swaping out the legs at the knee. They should be beast like in their stance from head to toe.
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This summarizes my hopes and dreams for CoT. Check it out if you'd like.
Agreed on the body changing, but for both genders. In many character creators I've seen you have every choice you could ever want for men, but for women you have the choice of being thin or curvy while still being thing. What I wanted for the characters was to be tall and muscular (and not just toned, but actually thick and powerful) or alternatively rather fat, but nether could be achieved. When I saw that the first thing you could alter on your video was Belly Fat (as silly as it might sound) I was very happy XD but I would hope that carries over for both genders.
What I mean is that in heroic fiction we had a good set of scales; they range from the ridiculously muscled (the Hulk) to the hugely obese (The blob) and back down to the tiny and thin (Jumping companies to the Teen Titans for this one), but it all generally falls on Men to have every shape under the sun. For women the shapes tend to be more...restrictive. If they are "Heavy", we have to generally be informed on this because they don't look much different to anyone else stood around them (I believe this is referred to as Hollywood Plump, where they're not actually big at all). What I hoping to see is that if there is a "HUGE" Size, that it applies to both men and women. If there is a "Fat" option (fat bellies, necks, hips, etc) it applies to both genders as well. If you can be Petite and tiny, then it can work both ways too.
What height are we getting for this, as well? Are we able to go from 4ft to 7ft or can we actually have the full on gamit of 2ft to 10ft? (That would be amazing, by the way.)
As for the bestial features, I agree as well, but the main problem with Bestial features is that it doesn't run on the changeable animation rig that would govern the movement of everything else, you would need a new rig for Snake-tails. Of course running on all fours is just new animation (Which is a shame because I'd love to have Snake tails, squid tails, spider legs and more as mods of transport). I'm sure I was the only person but I wanted to be able to play a Tarantula from Arachnos back in the day XD
Please; do not see this post as "Do this or your not good enough", it was not the intention. The intention was to highlight some limitations in other systems that I hope can be altered and changed so that you guys can continue the legacy of "Yes, you can build it" in your character creator. The character creator is always the thing I love most about a game, but it's always the thing that tests me the most as I realize I'm limited to creating either a bodybuilding man or a fashion model woman. Heroes offered me a chance to create more, and now you have a chance to broaden the options further!
Thanks again for the time!
DocSyonide
"With Knowledge comes Power, but Power corrupts; so study hard and be Evil!"
I do not want to see children available as playable characters, and used scarcely (if at all) as NPCs.
Crowd Control Enthusiast
Why? Especially for NPCs, why shouldn't there be a playground full of children, or kids walking down the street with their parents? The lack of children hurt the verisimilitude of Paragon city, why wouldn't we strive to fix that in Titan City?
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I never set anything on fire accidentally!
The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
Some parents view Fighting games as being violent. If we do add children, it has to be done with the utmost sensitivity. PEGI 12? T for Teen?
Why not? Kids as super-heroes are well-founded in the genre (Power Pack, Franklin Richards, Beast Boy in his Doom Patrol days, Captain Marvel in his Billy Batson form, and so on). I think it's an important option that should be available, just as having obese or extremely old heroes should be available.
I once had a character that was a child, gave a story and everything where it made sense. I might not of role played or anything but I liked being able to do pretty much almost anything my imagination came up with when it came to concept of a character. Sadly I never got that character to 50, but they were a blast to play, since they were so short and using stone melee, it looked like they were punching and using the mallet to smack them in the groin, gave me a giant smile on my face as it looked very painfull.
I think having child size possible is fine, as long as it's not too small and obviously so young that it might be uncomfortable for others, hard part is deciding where to draw the line.
I'm putting together a bunch of Questions for the Avatar Builder Survey at:
http://izzy.limequery.net/index.php/228873/lang-en :)
The results can be seen by anyone at:
http://izzy.limequery.net/index.php/statistics_user/action/surveyid/228873/language/en
Having teens and even children in the supers genre is a staple of the genre especially since for such a long time, comic books were for a juvenile market. And as such, the story line was written to be child-friendly. The story didn't put children into the same situation that you can with adults.
E.g., for a mature audience, you can have an adult hero who has to decide between the life of their child or the life of millions, if not the whole world. Now, would you put a twelve year old into that same story arc? Making the twelve year old decide between the life of their parents or saving millions/world?
Once you include children as avatars or characters, you have to change the story to account for them. You have to make the danger very cartoony. If a steamroller is heading towards a child, there should be no real doubt that they won't be saved in the nick of time. If you go with a more gritty world where steamrollers do indeed crush the bones and splatter brain guts everywhere... well, you can't put children in that world and still have a T for Teen rating.
Former Online Community Manager & Forum Moderator
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
I can understand your concern about this and can sympathize for those who do not want to see children in violent situations in a game.
But I hope your opinion on this matter doesn't (once again) keep people from being able to create adult female characters who are essentially "flat-chested". There was ongoing debate back in CoH that the main reason they did not allow females to have anything less than roughly a C-Cup chest was the supposed "fear" that such characters would look too childlike. Frankly I have no problem with the typical "huge chested" superheroine meme - but it was a constant annoyance to a number of people that they couldn't alternatively make a modestly chested female with the tools at hand.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Flat chested will be an option on the female rigs. Both the male and female rigs will be able to create androgynous characters. Not only suitable for youthful females but for non-human characters like the fae.
Former Online Community Manager & Forum Moderator
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
This is very good news! Like you say this will allow not only for younger and/or modestly-endowed adult females but also for all sorts of appropriate looking "non-human" females as well. It always seemed strange to me whenever I tried to create a lizard/dragon female in CoH and had to accept obvious mammalian "breast-bumps" on a reptilian body.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I'm working in UDK, trying to figure out how stuff works.
I got as far as this:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/P107BPx.png[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/b7Foqi5.png[/img]
It shows the user controlling a Texture Mouse Cursor,
and It also shows Mouse Hovering over possible Targets on screen (red Outline is draw over the Target).
To Do next:
- I would like to extend on the Muscle Tone example... and have UI buttons and Scrollbars that Increase or decrease a certain part of the body in realtime.
- Also, A very crude example of having Clothes (baggy clothes maybe, that dont fit over the existing verts Exactly) and be Morphed to match a body part that's been changed in realtime with the scrollbar.
This also means multiple Morphs could be needed for one piece of clothing. Ex: Jeans go over the whole legs, so Hips Morph, plus Glutes Morph, plus Calves Morph will need to be added to the Jeans.
That's where I kind of disagree with you ZM. While I do agree that excessive blood and gore should be nowhere near entertainment that has children as a primary audience, violence in that kind of media doesn't need to be "Overly cartoony". Children aren't really as stupid or naïve as most people tend to think they are, at least not the current generation of children as far as I know. I like to go to a weekly magic the gathering tournament, and while there are a lot of adults there, there are also children there. A lot of them already know a lot of swears, and quite a few of them are actually pretty smart, they often know meaning to words that I don't, one of them even likes to read Frankenstein, not a dumbed down version where they changed the meaning of the book to something like "don't judge a book by it's cover" or something like that, like the actual book Frankenstein that touched upon themes like how much a life is actually worth and the implications of actually creating life. Heck in a lot of children's movies there where actual life and death situations. In "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" we see a cartoon shoe melt to death in paint thinner. In the movie "Frozen" (spoilers ahead by the way) there is a real threat that Hanna might turn into ice while a deranged prince is trying to murder Elsa with a sword while she's having a heroic BSOD over potentially creating a permanent winter. Sure maybe a situation where a child has to choose between a loved one or the life of millions, but those weren't the sort of choices you made in CoX either. The closest we got was a time trial where we had to go save someone from a fire, and as for the description of bone crushing gore from being crushed by a steamroller, in CoX I could make someone with a sword or a gun and no matter how much I used either one there would never be an animation where my target would split in half in a fountain of blood, or would desperately hold down his bleeding jugular as he slowly bled to death on the floor. I'm sorry but these are really poor excuses for not letting the players create younger heroes.
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
[CENTER][URL=http://www.nodiatis.com/personality.htm][IMG]http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/24.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/CENTER]
Wow... way to necropost a six month old thread. Well, I don't know if this thread will get locked for that or not but I'll throw in a quick comment about child characters involved in potentially "mature/violent" stories.
To start there's a fundamental difference between "violent" media content where adult characters are involved versus violent content where child characters are involved. When children are involved in the danger it tends to ramp up OTHER people's concerns about how those situations might affect the comsumers of that content, especially if those comsumers are real life children themselves.
The true problem is not that today's children might be exposed to (or in this case playing through) violent content. I'm quite sure there are plenty of kids out there who'd be "mature" enough to handle seeing children or child characters in danger in CoT. The real problem is all the ADULTS out there who are overly worried about kids being exposed to that sort of thing. You have all sorts of parents and other (perhaps) overly protective people who have a frankly naive (narrow-minded?) idea of what things like comic books and video games are and/or should be. I can totally assure you that the people who wrote the laws to "protect" children from violent and/or mature content were not the kind of people who regularly go to MtG tournaments or who thought that the average Looney Toon cartoons were "harmless fun".
I'm not trying to say that having laws on the books to protect children from mental harm are inherently bad or useless. I'm just saying there are a large number of people who don't see comic books or video games the same way you or I might and the laws in this area tend to reflect the view of society in general. Unfortunately (perhaps in our case) society tends to be fairly "overtly protective" when it comes to perceived threats to the wellbeing of children.
This is why CoT will need to try to live up to the spirit of what "T for Teen" implies. It's not just for all us happy gamers - it'll have to satisfy all the parents and other people who "worry" about this sort of thing as well.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
also, the links to the survey are now at:
Take the Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/19n0ScDQXOcbtOlVD5KgWeht6_y3TSGM_-EpZj4_pqdM/viewform
See Survey Results: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/19n0ScDQXOcbtOlVD5KgWeht6_y3TSGM_-EpZj4_pqdM/viewanalytics
Well, you know how some parents are Soooo adamant about installing Parental Blocking on their kids computers... why not look into having a section in the Options that only Parents can Manage for their kids. Things like certain costumes pieces by maturity rating, or language or this or that.. whatever might raise a flag for them. Most of these options will exist in some form so why not make it seem like CoT is the 1st MMO that has Parental Blocking, so allot less excuses can be made why NOT to play Violent games. ;)
Of course, just like there are different rating sites like Rotten Tomatoes, MWM might have to allow 3rd parties like the.. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Scientology, or others.. to label content (TF's Trials, costume pieces, etc...) on their value system. Of course the default rating system that ships with CoT will comply with the ESRB or PEGI or such... but parents can switch to one of the Other ones in the listing(s).
Also, if anyone was wondering.. im no longer using UDK since i Rage Quit on it. Now im working in Unity3D on a simple Plugin.
screenshot of the 9 Slice UI window i made so far:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/aDyANdj.png[/img]
This argument is akin to one that was discussed on this forum a few months ago for why there can't be an "adults only zone" in the game. As soon as you put something like that in a game it becomes very hard to control whether or not "kids" are staying out of such a zone or not. Basically at that point the whole game would have to have its rating upgraded to "adults only".
I think the folks at MWM will tell you that it'll just be far, far easier to keep this entire game at the "T for Teen" rating so that we won't have to worry about semi-ineffective "parental blocking" controls. Drawing attention to something like that would be the surest way to have a bunch of kids break/hack those controls and see the "naughty" stuff regardless.
I think organizations like the ESRB or PEGI already barely do an effective job at their appointed tasks and they are supposedly purpose built to deal with media like video games. The very thought other third party groups would get directly involved to muck around with their own agendas and restrictions for video games just makes me almost tremble with fear.
You'd want to legitimize people like Scientologists by caring what they think players at large should do or not do with video games? Gods I almost can't think of anything creepier than that. The day we start seeing stickers on boxes saying "This game approved by the Church of LDS" will likely be the day I stop playing video games.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I agree with you. But there are MORE and MORE such holy games being worked on, though nothing so big as a MMO.. yet! ;D
PARVE, K Kosher Labels.. you must be boycotting too!
Bad Lothic, BAD! ;D
Just to be clear I don't really care if churches start making their own religious-based computer games or even if those kinds of organizations want to get into the business of directly reviewing/recommending/restricting video games for their own audiences.
I just don't want to deal with so-called "official" review boards representing overtly specific political or religious biases trying to present themselves as an "alternative" to something like an ERSB for EVERYONE. If you're a Scientologist and want to pay attention to what they have to say about playing game X or Y then have fun with that. But if I'm not one of those I don't want to have to even pretend to care (or have anyone else fooled into caring) they have any relevance in video game media at large.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Look through the logic of deploying such a system:
If any minor can purchase the game, set up the master account, and play the game, then they could bypass any parentally-assigned controls easily.
Thus, if you were going to have a parental-blocking system in place that was truly effective, you'd have to make sure that the parents were the ones that bought the product, managed the master account, and kept it separate from the kids. If a kid could buy the game and install it himself, then we've bypassed the system. That would suggest that you'd want to rate the product in a way that would guarantee that responsible retailers would only sell to an adult ("M" rating), which, once you have it, kinda defeats the purpose of tagging content to protect minors.
That's assuming an in-store distribution. A digital distribution model makes this even more problematic, as it assumes the company would subscribe to some form of adult verification service to assure that the person initiating and setting up the account was indeed an adult that could then be a reliable resource.
That may not sound bad, but when dealing with content and kids, a partial solution is still no solution when it comes to protecting yourself as a publisher from possible legal and socially-hot-button issues. The law's always been a bit sloppy here when it deals with others' responsibility when it comes to minors- even if those minors falsely claimed to be adult.
Also, since you're a web developer, keep in mind that the kind of proposed content tagging has been available for the web for well over a decade (I recall reviewing the slider settings in IIS and MSIE back pre-Y2k and it looks like its still there). That system gives developers the ability to voluntarily tag their content for various extremes (rate nudity 1-5, violence 1-5, etc) and people could set their browsers with thresholds of their own acceptable levels. Over a decade, and the adoption rate of that system probably doesn't even reach 1%. For many reasons, it never gained the teeth that would allow it to function effectively. Many of those same reasons (but not all of them) would follow anything the devs developmed.
Rotten Tomatoes is a film review aggregation site, so the equivalent for computer games would be Metacritic.
Ironically there is NOTHING (as far as I am aware) stopping a store from using stickers like you have suggested there Lothic. Sure, chain stores might not carry the game if that happened, but the game publishers are (as far as I am aware) allowed to do this.
A slip case for the game might be needed though, so that this gets covered up with a version that doesn't show this (Hey, they have done this with album covers before).
The one thing to remember (at least for PEGI) is that rating is meant to be done by an *INDEPENDENT* group of people, and also typically not just by one or two people per game. Just like the BBFC (and other film rating companies around the world).
Also, there is *nothing* to stop other groups giving games an "unofficial" rating, but both PEGI and ESRB carry a lot of weight in the industry, so retailers will be more inclined to use these systems rather than the "unofficial" ratings.
I know that in the UK, a PEGI rating is now *legally* binding as to who it can be sold to. If it gets sold to a minor, then the retailer/check out person is at fault.[1] Other EU countries have their own standards and penalties as well.
Personally speaking, I believe that the PEGI ratings have been *generally* correct over the years, and considering the number of games that have been rated overall, there were not all that many (if any) that I would view as incorrect. If anything, the only problem that PEGI can have is that not all EU countries *enforce* the rating (in terms that a minor can buy a PEGI 18 rated game), but that is down to the countries laws on retail.
[1] The also goes for the BBFC rating on films as well. The penalty/fine can hit both the retailer and the person who completed the sale.
The only reason I think organizations like ESRB or PEGI are "barely effective" at all (instead of being completely useless/pointless) is precisely because they are at least theoretically independent and review items by committee instead of only by one or two people pronouncing arbitrary judgments.
And while it might technically be "legal" for publishers to allow "This game approved by the Church of LDS" type stickers on games I would hardly consider the pronouncements of an organization like that authoritative or binding in the area of video games in any way, especially if I wasn't Mormon myself.
If (again for example) the Church of LDS wanted to make a Church of LDS oriented game intended for its members then by all means let them put a "This game approved by the Church of LDS" sticker on it. But we all know this kind of thing (e.g. a non-impartial endorsement prominently displayed on a box) would never fly for a "mass market" product intended for the general consumer. It's ironically the same reason some movie makers will cut out "R-rated" content to save their movies from being rated "R" - they want to sell as many tickets as possible and that rating would restrict their potential audience. If it was seen that the Church of LDS seemed to favor a generic game more than any other organization (via their box sticker) everyone would automatically assume that it was designed to be enjoyed ONLY by Church of LDS members instead of being taken as a general product for everyone. In this case the Church of LDS sticker would be for the game the equivalent of the dreaded "R-rating" the movie people were trying to avoid.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
If I were a parent, I wouldn't be so worried about the game's content - rather the subjects other players themselves introduce into the game via conversation, costumes, emotes etc. A step further, such as joining a TeamSpeak channel, can open an entire new world of threatening content.
Those alone should be enough to question whether or not your child should be playing [u]any[/u] MMO for that matter.
[i]I have met some sick, twisted folks throughout my years of playing MMOs.[/i]
hmm.. is it really true that Not Even One Software Application of any sort has ever required a user to Prove they are an Adult via any type of verification method?
I dont know... err.. a kind of Background check to see what age they were. Maybe using their Drivers License ID... or social security number... or Bank Account/Credit Card randomly chosen deposit amount of $0.01 to $0.20 cents? Any one of Real Word business that will Only create an account with adults, in person.
Anything really, that a minor would not have access to if Real Word conditions needed to be met for validation. I know, some those real world checks might be circumvent-able, but you have to wonder why isnt there a standard. Why cant you demand the user go to an establishment in person and be seen by another adult and you would have to show some type of ID to get a randomly generated code, like if you were validating a newly established account through email.
Hmm... but I guess, this wouldn't exist in every country, or be agreed by all how it should work, be operated. and what AGE an Adult really was. :/
Has any one tried something of the sort? How do Software Companies that deal with Student Discounted software make sure its really the college student that made a Xerox of their own Diverse License and sent it in? Do they get in touch with the College that you stated in the form, or do they Send a separate letter via snail mail with an Validation Code to activate the Student Licensed software? and until they activate it, the software runs in a Trial-ware Mode? :/
I agree with Lothic
True Female Characters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1qndga6SNU
edit
Extra Credits: Minority https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suf0Jdt2Hpo
whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster and when you look into the abyss, the abyss also look into you, -Friedrich
[img]http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm106/hinata1032/Kitsune.jpg[/img]
There are age verification services online, but they do require $ and they are imperfect (IIRC, they used the existence of a credit card number at one time, assuming that THOSE were adult-issued, but given that anyone can buy a temp credit card or banks now make special debit cards available to non-adults that operate just like credit cards, that's a rather unreliable method that serves most as an unreliable revenue stream.) Additionaly, as you noted, different regions have different standards on what's considered "adult" when it comes to protection from content or substances, which would complicate matters. There's also a certain stigma for using such verification processes, also, as it implies a certain level of "adultness" is going on behind those closed doors, and that itself can lead to some rather self-fulfilling prophecies.
Note also that even this kind of age verification may not provide the legal protection desired. In many states in the US, there are cases where people were found guilty of statutory assault after picking up dates in clubs that "carded at the door." Their defenses often claimed that they operated under the assumption that if their partner was old enough to get in they were old enough for ...other things... That logic didn't work, which suggests that even age verification may not protect you if a minor uses deception to get past it and access areas that they shouldn't...
That kind of reality gives developers valid concerns on targeting a niche that would require the exclusion of any "protected age group." It is often just safer to develop with that protected group in consideration.
Now granted, there are niche games out there that do profit on catering to more mature topics, and they haven't been sued to oblivion and back due to these transgressions... that I know of, at least... but that's a risk you figure into your business model
Extra Credits: Toxicity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9A8VJBh_Yc
whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster and when you look into the abyss, the abyss also look into you, -Friedrich
[img]http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm106/hinata1032/Kitsune.jpg[/img]
Yep yep... When in Doubt, Check it Out. (and by check it out, i mean you have to prove that you did your due diligence, asked her age with others present, etc etc etc...)
Wait I necroposted? Sorry, I didn't mean to... I recently discovered the dev diary and I was looking through it for things for the upcoming game. I honestly didn't know how old the thread was... sorry...
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
[CENTER][URL=http://www.nodiatis.com/personality.htm][IMG]http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/24.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/CENTER]
:o
[img]http://a.wattpad.com/cover/1435930-256-k548994.jpg[/img]
This is why I believe the regulatory organizations (ERSB, PEGI, etc.) can only go so far in making sure any online game is "safe" for kids. Sure they can do a pretty good job when it comes to single-player games and the digital content directly provided by an online game itself. But when you add the chaotic and uncontrollable mix of what other players will add to the environment as far as their chat and actions go you really don't know what could happen from minute to minute.
The ultimate responsibility falls on the parents themselves to judge whether their kids are "mature" enough to handle online games regardless of their chronological age. Some kids can easily handle the realities of what they might see or hear in online games at earlier ages than others. Heck as far as I'm concerned for every 12 year old that's totally mature enough for online games I still think there's a 25 year old out there who probably should be restricted from playing because they act like 5 year olds when they're online. ;)
The US DoD widely uses what they call [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Access_Card]CACs[/url] (Common Access Cards) which helps them control access to computers via card readers that read the integrated chips in the cards that store your ID creds. It's a fairly workable way to makes sure only those who are trusted are allowed the access that they need.
I mention this only to serve as a real world example of an effective way to "identify" users for computer systems. The obvious downside to applying something like this universally for something like age restricted access to MMO games is that it'd require any potential game player to have some kind of global common ID card regulated by some global agency. Until we start living in the 23rd century under the united world government of Star Trek's Federation that's not likely going to be a viable option anytime soon. *shrugs*
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Have a look over in South Korea... to sign up for MMO's over there and this is IF I remember correctly, you have to input in their equivalent of the social security/National Insurance number over there when you sign up.
So that means that EACH account of the game gets *linked* directly to a person in Real Life; This system also allows the "auto kick off after Midnight" system that they have recently (as in past couple of years) introduced for MMO's running there.
This doesn't necessarily stop the "black market" of SSN's though being used for Western people to sign up to Korean only MMO's.
Compared to the Western Method, where you can (pretty much) input ANY details you want, and as long as they are "correct" (ie a valid address, and valid payment details) the company doesn't really care. Hell, those details *don't* even have to be your own.
But interestingly, even consoles nowadays have parental controls which can be utilised to minimize play time on the console/what games can be played by children on the console. So we *are* getting there, but the responsibility is most definitely on the parents to enforce this.
Just like the responsibility for games getting into children's hands are both on the retailer (if no parent present) and the parent.
For me, I view both ESRB and PEGI as having the same problems/responsibilities as Film rating organisations around the world. They rate the films, give them a rating. What happens in the house hold though is PURELY on the parents though.
*Edit* and with more and more children having their own computer/laptop in their own room, it gets even harder to manage what they are consuming content wise.
It's not surprising that South Korea would be at the forefront of something like this given the number of people per capita who play online games there. But it's hard to see that kind of thing as a possible solution anytime soon for most other countries.
For example even though the USA has the CACs for the military the idea of issuing nationwide "federal ID cards" for all citizens for the purposes of validating things like age actually has a huge amount of political will dead-set against it. IIRC, our Social Security cards are technically not allowed to be used for "ID" purposes by law, even if they would be of any use for validating age because you can get one at -any- age. The inertia against having federally-issued ID cards is not just a Republican versus Democrat thing - it's a core "states rights" issue that would require an almost impossibly radical shift in the mindsets of most people to even be considered a possibility.
So for the foreseeable future (in most of the world) we'll be left with a patchwork of "parental responsibility" and whatever hurdles individual software developers want to put in place to make it harder for kids to get access to adult/mature content.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
An aside, Social Security numbers are recycled. My own number belonged to a man who died in 1952 and another man from Micronesia, for example, before I had it
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
That COULD be the case...
... or your SSN stays with you when you regenerate... Mister... err... DOCTOR... Time Lord.
LOL
Spurn all ye kindle.