Protecting Your Children While Playing Games Online

Parents have long accepted the fact that playing video games is part of their children’s daily activities. After the school bell rings, children make a mad dash to their rooms to play their video game of choice. Television has since taken a backseat and handed the new pastime crown to gaming consoles like PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii. The Internet-savvy kids usually ditch the console games, but spend many hours in front of the computer playing various online games. This is when parents tend to become a little bit nervous – and with good reasons. With the increasing number of online predators, kids who spend many hours online are easy targets.

Children who play online games are especially vulnerable because these online predators can easily blend with the online surroundings and sometimes mimic the kids that they plan to victimize or take advantage of. Games that require kids to interact with other people are usually the playground for online fiends. MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) are quite popular virtual hangout for kids and teens. These games have built text and voice chat channels that makes interaction easier while immersing in the game. Other online games may not be as complex as the MMORPGs, but they still attract kids and teens because the games are user-friendly and have a rather cartoon-ish feel about the games. But as long as there is a way to mingle with other players, there is always a threat.

Parents don’t need to be constantly babysitting their kids while playing as long as they set ground rules in using the Internet.  The basic rule is that the children should inform their parents when they are online or planning to go online. This way, parents will know when to check on them once in a while. Parents can list down kid-friendly websites that their kids can visit. Any deviation from that list will have to be checked by the parents.

The “don’t talk to strangers” rule should still apply in the virtual world, but it’s very tempting to interact since there is a feeling of anonymity when you are not talking to the other person face to face. All that needs to be done in this case is to tweak the rule a bit and allow kids to chat with others, but they are not allowed to divulge any personal information. This includes real name, age, email address, home address, and other confidential information. Children who are aware of this rule will be very cautious and are less vulnerable to online predators.

The next thing that parents can do is use parental control tools that are readily available online. There are online sites that serve as “cyber nannies” which can monitor the sites that your children visit. There are also tools that automatically ban questionable websites from showing up on the browsers. These are measures if the children insist on doing things their way. There really is no need for such control if they are responsible enough to know their limitations.

Parents should not be too worried when their children start learning the wonders of the Internet. If the children are given a set of ground rules and they are made to become aware of the bad things that lurk online, then the Internet will become a safer place for them.

What Is a MMORPG?

You may not know it but you may already be participating in MMORPG by playing EverQuest or World of Warcraft. What the gaming jargon actually means is Massive (or massively) multiplayer online role-playing game, wherein a large number of gamers play online, connected through a server. These games are called massive online because in one server, there can be up to 5000 gamers connected and that is only one server.

But where do the gamers play? What do they play? Well, that depends on the type of MMORPG but the usual theme are fantasy themes, either of a medieval world, a sci-fi world where dragons, robots, intergalactic travel and monsters exist or normal, real life human world. The gamers are usually represented by a computer generated character that the player chooses before he or she actually participates in the game. These characters are usually called as avatars. These avatars, depending on the game, can be humans, elves, robots, etcetera and the player can choose their stats. This means that you can choose how strong your character will be, how much magic he or she can perform and what type of character will he be if placed in a guild. Usually, if you chose an extremely strong character, then the pay off will be lesser intelligence or agility. It really is basically with the decision of the player on how to balance things off.

After choosing a character, the game begins. Your ultimate goal is to gain as much experience points as you can so as to make your avatar stronger and allow it to be more able to go and finish quests. Aside form this, you will also have to earn virtual money in your online world to buy nourishment, healing potions and items that your character will use as you go through your quests.

Aside of the playability of MMORPG’s, the most important feature of this type of game is the fact that you play it online with other players. Social interactions occur depending on the communications allowed by the game. But more commonly players can chat up and introduce themselves to each other. They can chat with everyone able to see their message or to specific players only. Some games will also allow you to build guilds or groups with other players so you can go through quests together and experience points together.

When you are in a formal online group, you will usually have a specialized role. Like some players will be the ranged attackers and some will be the melee ones that can absorb the attacks of the enemies. One or two will be healers, restoring health to those melee “tankers.” There will also be some players that will provide the immobilization of the enemy either by “trapping” them or “stunning” them making the enemy lose control even for a few seconds.

Due to these features, massive (or massively) multiplayer online role-playing gaming can become very addicting to some players, some even forking a monthly subscription of $10 per month.