How much for the little girl?

[Chrissy]

Maybe if the children were inanimate until the age of ten, then people were born into them, and you kind of find out then if they're good or bad. Kind of like real life, except what you invest doesn't count. Since it is a game after all.

[SekoETC]

Though the idea of ending up being a mother (or father, well possible in game world) of a rude little bastard, I still think children should be played by people. Otherwise it just wouldn't make any sense. You would have an object that you might be able to show around, it could have automated functions such as crying but other than that, nothing. Since this is I text based game, I doubt watching it would bring you much joy. Ten years is definately too long. I think ten years could be the limit of adulthood, as it was in some primitive cultures. Who knows how Cantrians age... No, if there is automation, three years is the longest I can accept. You cannot expect to form a bond to a soulless creature.

Besides I think the kind of people that just gather resources like robots or go around hacking people with sabres aren't the ones to make babies, not in real life and not in Cantr. You must admit there are two kinds of players, the emotional ones and the... hmm others. The others are needed for hunting thieves and such, and for playing the bad guys to make the world challenging and interesting.

[Chrissy]

I think ten years could be the limit of adulthood, as it was in some primitive cultures.

Exactly, that way if they're not so nice you can let them go at the age of 10.

You cannot expect to form a bond to a soulless creature.

I can, but that's just me.

Besides I think the kind of people that just gather resources like robots or go around hacking people with sabres aren't the ones to make babies, not in real life and not in Cantr. You must admit there are two kinds of players, the emotional ones and the... hmm others. The others are needed for hunting thieves and such, and for playing the bad guys to make the world challenging and interesting.

I play the game for both of those descriptions, so you never know.

[SekoETC]

Well actually I have kinda formed a bond to a soulless child, it was an NPC child for my rp character, but then again I could rp his reactions too and nobody complained. If babies were implemented as objects, it would probably be against the rules to set any actions for them.

[Chrissy]

I have a miniature gizmo, and a laura croft, that stand on my t.v. that I'm quite fond of. lol. I'm not sure I love them but if they fall down I get supersticious and pick them up.

I think I'd want it to be set by the programers. If people set their baby to cry mode I'd lock them and the baby up, together, until they learned how to deal with it. I'm not dealing with it. That sounds mean, but my son will be 11 soon so I don't have any false illusions about raising a baby.

[colonel]

I love laura croft, hmmmmm, ahhhh

[Agar]

I'm just getting thrilled every time I look at the poll results and see how few people who have kids actually want them in Cantr. That, to me, speaks the loudest on if kids should be in Cantr. Then there's the other option, the people who don't have kids but want kids in Cantr. To me, that seems like a pack of ignorant fools who have no idea what they would be getting into.

Cantr is too slow paced to be able to represent the amount of upkeep a child requires. Cantrians can eat 40g of carrots a day and not think twice about it. Children will want and need more food a day, and at the beginning that will be from mom, but there's a stage there where you'll need oatmeal and things. Or, true to history, you get to chew the food up and the spit it out onto a spoon or something, then feed it to your child that's too young for solid food. Around then they're eating like 6 meals a day. Daipers. That will be a great use of cotton. Potty training! Ahh, that's going to be amusing. I mean, why have kids if there's no potties or reason to use them. We need a new building: An Outhouse!

Look into how children have been raised, historically and such, then try to imagine ever being able to implement any of that. Forget it.

[SekoETC]

What is your problem Agar? Somebody must have taken care of you when you were a child, otherwise you'd be dead. Do they come tell you that every day, saying do this and do that because I had so much trouble giving birth to you and waking up ten times a night when you were crying and all... People have no need to reproduce iRL, there is far too much people already, and cheap condoms available, and still most people have kids in some point of their life.

And besides, at the moment people who want kids in Cantr have one point lead so ha!

[Oasis]

Make that two ahead.

I have wanted babies in this game since forever. Well, since I had my first married character, which has been many Cantr years now. And now I have two who would definitely want children, possibly more. Maybe it's an ooc thing, getting married and wanting a family, but I can't help that. You know how a couple feels who want children desperately and can't have them? Well, my two would be like that if children existed, but they don't, so their lives are somehow emptier than they should be, and they don't know why.

Sex exists in Cantr. If you don't know that, then it's being kept nicely private, as it should be. I don't see why that would change, just because the couple clicks on a project to procreate.

I do believe that having children grow at the normal rate, thus taking over a year rl to mature to twenty, will ultimately ruin the entire concept. Either automation at the beginning, which I don't think I like, or exelerated growth, the best being four times the normal rate imo. If this were the case, I would think they should be played by players, thus having a soul.

And if babies are crying a lot in a town, I can see daycare centres and/or laws prohibiting the noise being put into place very quickly. Cantr societies have a way of dealing with troublesome problems they don't like. I don't see why that would be any different with children. They might get some flack when they try, however. I also foresee parent advocacy groups springing up in the more oppressive towns.

[nitefyre]

Make that two ahead.

I have wanted babies in this game since forever. Well, since I had my first married character, which has been many Cantr years now. And now I have two who would definitely want children, possibly more. Maybe it's an ooc thing, getting married and wanting a family, but I can't help that. You know how a couple feels who want children desperately and can't have them? Well, my two would be like that if children existed, but they don't, so their lives are somehow emptier than they should be, and they don't know why.

Sex exists in Cantr. If you don't know that, then it's being kept nicely private, as it should be. I don't see why that would change, just because the couple clicks on a project to procreate.

I do believe that having children grow at the normal rate, thus taking over a year rl to mature to twenty, will ultimately ruin the entire concept. Either automation at the beginning, which I don't think I like, or exelerated growth, the best being four times the normal rate imo. If this were the case, I would think they should be played by players, thus having a soul.

And if babies are crying a lot in a town, I can see daycare centres and/or laws prohibiting the noise being put into place very quickly. Cantr societies have a way of dealing with troublesome problems they don't like. I don't see why that would be any different with children. They might get some flack when they try, however. I also foresee parent advocacy groups springing up in the more oppressive towns.

I haven't read thoroughly through the pages of words-but in direct response- I'm sure your married characters are up there in age, so ever thought about adopting a new spawn? And since characters may be up their in age, is there going to be a cantr viagra?

Children in cantr definitely has its drawbacks, and I think its a very tight rope to walk. You need responsible players out there- and as Oasis made the point, there are many out there who keep that private stuff private. But implementing children at any age, is subject to abuses, which can turn out right disgusting, and ruin cantr.

[colonel]

That is a good point. Why can married couples not just take in a newspawn who has nothing. I mean it is the same thing as a child. they know nothing yet, don't know what to expect and do need help to grow.
Sorry maybe I am way off but I mean it would really help new players out if they had someone like that to help out. And I think instead of having the programmers work very hard to bring in kids why not try something like this first. I mean they can still be like your children. Call you mom and borrow the car for the weekend.
Just a thought.

[Pirog]

I think children will be a vital part of creating more interesting traditions, religions etc. by indoctrination. Much of how our real life society works is through indoctrination from school etc.

It is perhaps hard for a 20 y/o newpawn without roots to buy into a religion, but if you have religious parents who have been bringing you up with religious beliefs the chance of following on in their faith is much bigger.

And then we will of course have government systems that is passed on to family, family feuds that are nurtured through generations and a lot of other interesting things that will spice up the game.
Many people have asked for more history in Cantr, and when all the old geezers have young ones to pass their history on to the motivation for oral or written history will go up too.

Agar>

You seem extremly grumpy about ideas like this.
Since you pointed out yourself that adult Cantrians have a simplified living process with just eating a small amount of food each day there will be no need to have child care being anywhere close as demanding as IRL.

[SekoETC]

Why don't we start an adopting agency? Old people who want kids could post their location and if someone who wants to play a person with parents (no matter how twenty) happens to notice he/she has luckily spawned in their location then no problem. Mommy, daddy, it's me! My characters are childish half the time so no trouble playing a total kid. The only problem is you cannot thrust one on the shoulders of a random caretaker, they have no duty to look after such creature. But hey... what difference does it make being a child or a retard? At the moment I have one half-wit and one blind, why can't I have a child character as well?

[The Industriallist]

Why don't we start an adopting agency? Old people who want kids could post their location and if someone who wants to play a person with parents (no matter how twenty) happens to notice he/she has luckily spawned in their location then no problem. Mommy, daddy, it's me! My characters are childish half the time so no trouble playing a total kid. The only problem is you cannot thrust one on the shoulders of a random caretaker, they have no duty to look after such creature. But hey... what difference does it make being a child or a retard? At the moment I have one half-wit and one blind, why can't I have a child character as well?

You keep looking for non-systemic solutions to this...I'd much rather have a systemic, built in children system than something so blatantly OOC.

In fact, with Oasis' suggestion of 5 years to maturity, I would say that I could almost see this working. At least, I would be willing to add characters that way, though I'd be tempted to add some spawns before it changed.
I still think you'd have underpopulation problems, and you ought to be allowed spawns instead anytime you have less than two mature characters, so no one gets stuck with all children.

[Psycho Pixie]

has it been pointed out yet that even though we may not admit it... cyber sex does happen on Cantr, AND in some cases adults players are allowing their "charrys" to have cyber sex with other "charrys" that they KNOW are played by minors????

the whole "someone will have issues about us introducing sex to minors" arguement just doesnt really work when you think about that.

I said no I dont want kids in Cantr for reasons I have stated before in other arguements on these forums. So I wont bother with those here. I just wanted to point out the truth about cyber in this game... it happens, and sometimes it happens when it shouldn't... theres nothing that will change that.


Psycho Pixie being sane.