Discusion on how players of children should be selected

[KVZ]

Players should be screened be fore being allowed to play children. Some people will play children simply to exploit the fact thier character is a child. Stealing, assaulting, disrupting the lives of characters and societies in game, just because they can. If players are screened with a survey of some sorts to deterimine if they can behave within reasonable limits, this will help curtail outlandish children. Children would be have with some manners, but still whine, beg, throw tantrums and pout. Much like real life.

I think that players should be screened even before allowing him/her creation of each next char with surveys with more difficult question after each next char. There are too much suicidal newspawns last time in Polish Zone.

[glitterdown]

Don't be conter-productive, suggest something else then.

No. I'm solidly against the whole concept of procreation on Cantr. I like the current system (albeit very Greek) of springing fully grown into the world from the aether. I foresee nothing but problems and inane drama, and there's quite enough of that already thank you.

[Racetyme]

See, that is productive criticism, and I agree. But of the choices, getting to choose to be a child is the best for me, so I never have to do it.

[chadpants]

I suppose I'm of two minds on this one...

On one side, I can see the overwhelming cry for players' choice regarding spawning as a child. As this game belongs to the players, it should be molded (as much as possible, but not exclusively) to the players' wishes. Where would the game be without the players?

On the other hand, I'm looking at the reason people feel they want child spawning to be players' choice. The majority of the reason people are stating is due to the fact that players throw temper tantrums if they are not spawned the way they want to be, and they don't want them ruining the game for everyone else.

Personally, I voted for random child spawning. I have never killed off a character because I didn't *waaah* like the place where I spawned... *waaah* there's no food or hematite here! Lots of things have happened to my characters that I didn't like... hmm, seems to resemble, what is that thing? Life? Yeah, that's it. I guess these people who have pushed the mass consensus in the direction of child-spawning being players' choice are the same people who tossed the Monopoly board because they landed on Oriental Avenue on their first turn.

<sarcasm>How about we design Cantr so everyone gets all the iron and food they could ever want, add djinn as a resource so people could wish for things and have them appear? </sarcasm> Half the fun is the challenge of making the best of a not-so-desirable situation. Get over it.

[BlueNine]

I voted for it being a character creation choice, but I got thinking about names etc. Who would choose that? would the child spawn nameless, waiting for its parents to name it or would they have their own name regardless of what there parents want...so I thought: when 2 chars decide to have a child have a request put out with the name/location/parents and then when creating a child character the player can choose who to be...Would solve the problem with suicidal newspawns as they'd start where they wanted.

[Blackdeath]

of course then there will be those who only want to spawn in a certain spot so they sit there and wait and wait and wait, leaving a long list like a town with too many abandoned projects

[chadpants]

.Would solve the problem with suicidal newspawns as they'd start where they wanted.

Isn't that cowtailing to petulant behavior?

[Racetyme]

Also, towns that people didn't want to spawn in would become stagnant, with no growth, because no one would spawn there, and large areas of the world would die.

[BlueNine]

Also, towns that people didn't want to spawn in would become stagnant, with no growth, because no one would spawn there, and large areas of the world would die.

Not neccesarily, the normal people spawning would still be randomly placed (unless everyone starts as a child aswell).

Isn't that cowtailing to petulant behavior?

I like to call it compromise

of course then there will be those who only want to spawn in a certain spot so they sit there and wait and wait and wait, leaving a long list like a town with too many abandoned projects

Yeah but its either that or suicidal newspawns, every diamond has its flaw...

[Racetyme]

I would rather have suicidal newspawns than have 200 people in Kwor. Besides, some people would not be a suicidal newspawn, but would wait to spawn in a particular place. The problems would just get worse.

[Russell of Los Angeles]

I feel I'm somewhere between the two choices of:
* Players should be screened before being allowed to play a child
* Players should be nominated by other players to play a child

I think children should only be played when there is agreement among three players who will be the father, mother, and child. So, although the secrecy of who the player of a character is is lost, in this case it is appropriate. I think players with characters in a family probably want to be sure that their other family members can play the role. How the agreements might be devised could be informally, as just discussing it on the boards, a family board, perhaps.

However, I also like this idea:

Actually, I'd like to change my vote to every character spawns as a child.
If you don't like it, don't let your characters die. There has always been no real motivation to keep your crappy 20 year olds alive. This would give one.

But I also see something in positions like this:

No. I'm solidly against the whole concept of procreation on Cantr. I like the current system (albeit very Greek) of springing fully grown into the world from the aether. I foresee nothing but problems and inane drama, and there's quite enough of that already thank you.

It would cause such a split among the player base that the best thing to do would be to have a whole new continent, or even a whole new world, where everybody starts as a child. Leave the old world the same. I imagine there'd be some seeded adult characters (the Adams and Eves) but thereafter you'd have to arrange to start a child on the OOC family board. Then there would be bloodlines, brothers, sisters, cousins, grandparents. And everybody would be connected to someone somehow. Totally radical. A different world. For those who want that sort of thing.

[HoH]

Oh the horror!!!

We already have plenty of suicidal newspawns running around (or shall I say sleeping?)! Plus, think of resource gathering. I have hard enough times getting food for my own characters, thank you very much, than to have to feed some useless person who follows me around. I'd probably end up ditching them at an orphanage somewhere.

Or, I'd just not have a kid.

And another thing, there's enough drama already just from people getting married. (I admit, I create some of that drama.) Plus, we'd have to clothe them, give them homes, just no. I don't even have a home for all but one of my characters. And it's not even really her house. It's her fiance's.

But, if it did happen, I'd probably end up enslaving about 20 of the little boogers and force them to work for little food in a tiny living space that is locked so they couldn't escape. What are they gonna do? Bite me?

[Nixit]

Haha, I expect the parents would do something. Unless you have twenty children... which is crazy. Plus, once they grow up, they're going to hate you and kill you then. And if you kill them, it would most likely be breaking the law.

[Russell of Los Angeles]

I think children should only be played when there is agreement among three players who will be the father, mother, and child. So, although the secrecy of who the player of a character is is lost, in this case it is appropriate. I think players with characters in a family probably want to be sure that their other family members can play the role. How the agreements might be devised could be informally, as just discussing it on the boards, a family board, perhaps.

It would cause such a split among the player base that the best thing to do would be to have a whole new continent, or even a whole new world, where everybody starts as a child. Leave the old world the same. I imagine there'd be some seeded adult characters (the Adams and Eves) but thereafter you'd have to arrange to start a child on the OOC family board. Then there would be bloodlines, brothers, sisters, cousins, grandparents. And everybody would be connected to someone somehow. Totally radical. A different world. For those who want that sort of thing.

Sorry if quoting myself is a faux pas, but I just realized some things to add to this.

If there is a new continent or world created especially for players who want to play children, then players would, of course, have playing a child as a character creation option. However, because all children would land on the same continent/world described above, then it would confer some of the benefits to that region of the first poll option: all characters in those regions begin as children (and with parents, I would add). Furthermore, the familial arrangements decided on an OOC family board (as I imagined above) would be something like nomination or screening.

Does anybody have an idea how many players are interested in playing children or parents of children? Would it be enough players to populate a continent?

Initially, every player interested could have some number of slots assigned for spawning an adult (an Adam or an Eve) on the new continent. After some period of game time, say, a few years, the option to spawn an adult might be closed, and thereafter all newspawns must begin as children with parents as agreed upon on the OOC family boards.

Yes, there'd probably be more males than females. This could be worked around or balanced somehow, or it could simply be allowed to play out, letting the chips fall where they may.

Yes, the entire population might die out or dwindle to a small amount of people unable to meet the demands of players wanting to spawn children. That would be very interesting and dramatic, wouldn't it? We'd all learn something, but hopefully not be discouraged. Just try again with less rhinoceroses. Or more likely the solution will be to be more peaceful with your neighbors.

Anyway, it sounds kind of fun. I'd give it a shot. But I'm also worried about messing up the current Cantr world and driving off other players (myself included, if I don't like how people play children.) That's why I think it's important that it be a different world/continent. Like a test tube experiment, observe a pure solution to discover it's unique properties.