Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: Suitability for children

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Posts
    1

    Default Suitability for children

    My son is a high functioning autistic boy aged 11, he has been playing your game at a friends house and has become obsessed with it (he gets obsessed with lots of things).

    I just wanted to ask if you think the game is suitable for his age?

    I used to play dungeons and dragons when I started out in the computer industry in 1981, so I am tempted to put this on my own PC but then I know I will get no work done!!

    Appreciate your advice.
    Last edited by zappo; 11-01-2011 at 10:53 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Esslingen, Germany
    Posts
    3,973

    Default

    I started playing ADOM when I was 12 myself and haven't noticed any negative effects. (It helped teach me English, to boot.)

    I'm no expert on violence in video games, but the violence in ADOM is so abstracted, and the setting so clearly fantastic, that I think an eleven-year-old would have no issues separating his own behaviour in real life from the @ running around eviscerating monsters. The draw of the game, to me, was being an adventurer, exploring all these places, collecting all these items, and so on, with a level of diversity I hadn't seen in any of the RPGs I'd played before. It also challenged me on strategy and tactics. It took me years to even grasp the multitude of things you can do. It also teaches lessons in evaluation of dangers. In some ways, ADOM and other roguelikes are the chess of RPG. It's very easy to get obsessed with the game for anybody, because it is so engaging and replayable, and they rely heavily on abstraction.

    It is possible to attack and kill NPCs in peaceful environments like Dwarftown and Terinyo, but if you do, the inhabitants turn hostile and try to kill you in return. There are some powerful evil beings in the game who reward you with power if you fulfill their quests, but that power literally corrupts. The corruptions will eventually transform you into a writhing mass of primal chaos - game over, you lose. ADOM places a high emphasis in its lore on the fact that while evil has its rewards, these rewards are double-edged at best. And some especially despicable acts - like killing and eating children - are possible (but in no way encouraged, since trying to harm a child incurs the wrath of all other townspeople), but doom your PC, i. e. nudge all rolls towards bad results, cause more dangerous monsters to appear faster and in general lead to your death by karmic retribution down the road. (I was a bit of a goody two shoes 12 year old; I didn't even want to kill people in towns, and even if I had, they would have killed me back. I still don't attack people in towns.)

    ADOM relies on the player's own imagination. The player can read descriptions of the many creatures they face and I can only imagine some could look pretty gruesome if done in Doom III quality 3D - but that's just it, I can only imagine. At most you will suffer a slight shiver as you read one of the more well-written descriptions, and around Halloween especially we are reminded that kids don't mind being scared as long as the danger isn't real, and there could not be any less confusion about that than in ADOM. The game has atmosphere - similar to a well-narrated D&D game.



    So yeah, I'm pretty damned sure the game is suitable. Free, too. What other games does your son play?
    ADOM Guides - whatever you wanted to know about playing a certain class, but have been afraid to ask!

    Check out my youtube channel to see my ADOM videos, including a completed playthrough of the game. I try to give instructions, so if you want to see some place you haven't been before and get some hints on how to deal with it, this might help! There's also some other games featured there that you might find interesting.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Kentucky
    Posts
    5,067

    Default

    Adom has 'gods', and the player can even become one. This seems to irritate more parents than children, in my exp.

    Adom doesn't have graphic violence, as there are no graphics.

    Adom has magic, text violence, possibility of alcohol consumption, prophecy, no sexual content, assassination quests,
    thievery quests, possibility of gambling, mythological monsters, and no bad language.

    I honestly can't remember if Adom has curse words or not, and I've played for years... so it's safe to say that if there
    are any, they are few and far between.

    Adom has corpses, which the player is supposed to eat for nutrition/powers. One does have the *possibility* of
    wielding/throwing/kicking said corpses, but as silfer said, this is more a result of player's immagination than
    the way the game was designed to be played.

    I'd say my mom would have let me play it at age 12, if it were around then, that is, and I'm from the bible belt.

    Adom should be OK, in my opinion.
    "Whip me!" pleads the adom player. The rng replies... "No."

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    US, formerly Argentina
    Posts
    33

    Default

    there is one instance where a character says damn, i think his name is bart right? the guy who asks for the golden gladius. but your son won't reach that for another year or so hahahah

  5. #5

    Default

    wow seets, thats a lot of spam.


    Anyway, I remember playing D&D when I was about that age. As well as a lot of other RPG's. I let my 11 year old niece play.

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •