Halo

okgirl

Hi, just looking for a little advice. My 10 yr ol is wrecking my head to get an Xbox. He is saving very hard and I know it is normal for boys his age to start gaming. We have been careful up until now and have only allowed him play with a DS console and we have always vetted the games. the Xbox world is scaring me as he is talking about Xbox live and all his friends have it. He is obsessed wiht Halo at the moment. He played it in his friends. Am I correct in being cautious? I know nothing about these consoles or games. I believe the xbox live is leaving it open to him to engage with people on the internet and the Halo game is not age appropriate. I am looking for guidance. A friend has suggested getting PS3 as the parent control is better. Advice please.

rizzla

The parental controls on the xbox are very good. If his friends have xbox live too you can limit his communication to just his firends, so he won't recieve messages or hear any other people online while playing.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/familysettings/

That link should give you alot of information you may need. I reckon the PS3 would be similar. There's alot of people online you wouldn't want your son talking too, so you are right to be cautious but there are security measure put into both consoles.

Mr E

Not a review. Moving to Games forum.

Cuddlesworth

rizzla wrote: »

The parental controls on the xbox are very good. If his friends have xbox live too you can limit his communication to just his firends, so he won't recieve messages or hear any other people online while playing.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/familysettings/

That link should give you alot of information you may need. I reckon the PS3 would be similar. There's alot of people online you wouldn't want your son talking too, so you are right to be cautious but there are security measure put into both consoles.

I would have said no at first but after reading the above it might not be a bad idea. You can get some real assholes on xbox live, especially with Halo.

Overheal

Gaming, 10 year old, Internet....

These things just dont mix that well. Speaking as a former 10 year old it can become unhealthy.

There is no substitute for Parental Supervision, and when it cam down to it, I had little or no supervision when I went online.

As far as the Xbox itself goes - its a very unstable piece of hardware. About 2/3rds of all Xbox 360's break down and require being sent off for repairs for a problem known infamously as the Red Rings of Death. There are better consoles out there for that, and for a 10 year old: such as the Wii, which is a Very family friendly console with a wide array of family friendly games.

But being utmost pragmatic I dont think any 10 year old belongs on the internet in any shape or form without a strong showing of Parental Guidance and Supervision, with a clear distinction of Both.

Stercus Accidit

Xbox's don't fail any more, and if they do they are covered by a three year warranty, thats hardly an issue.

Halo is shooting aliens and things, fine for a 10yo mostly, but do vet the online play and who he can talk to, the type of adults who play halo are absolute eejits and fond of giving dogs abuse to kids.

robby^5

Consoles have parental controls so you can limit who he communicates with, I assume this would be relatively similar on both the XBox and PS3, although if he is obsessed with Halo I doubt he'd be impressed if you bought him a PS3 since Halo is exclusive to the XBox.

As for an idea of the content of the game. The violence of the gameplay is relatively tame compared to the likes of Call of Duty or Gears of War which sometimes show humans being realistically killed with human blood effects etc which would definitely not be suitable for a 10 year old imo. In Halo your character in the game shoots aliens who bleed purple/green/blue blood (bright, neon and cartoony tbh), there's no cursing in the game itself and there are no adult themes either.

With the parental controls you can control who can contact and communicate with him online (the console comes with a headset that has a microphone) so you can limit him to only talking and receiving messages from the people he knows in real life.

Jazzy

on the plus side, if i was 10 years old and playing halo i would be soooo happy. gaming is not as bad and scary as its been made out to be. it can be fun and challenging and gives the mind a good workout. just make sure he doesnt become a zombie. a reward scheme works well... i.e if he does all his homework before dinner he can play for an hour and a bit or something. that way he will appreciate it more when he does play and he'll gain his own responsibility.

halo would be grand for a 10 year old imo.. its nothing that you wouldnt see in cartoons or the like. just dont let him play 18's games and always keep an eye if he borrows games from mates

cherryghost

Jazzy wrote: »

on the plus side, if i was 10 years old and playing halo i would be soooo happy. gaming is not as bad and scary as its been made out to be. it can be fun and challenging and gives the mind a good workout. just make sure he doesnt become a zombie. a reward scheme works well... i.e if he does all his homework before dinner he can play for an hour and a bit or something. that way he will appreciate it more when he does play and he'll gain his own responsibility.

halo would be grand for a 10 year old imo.. its nothing that you wouldnt see in cartoons or the like. just dont let him play 18's games and always keep an eye if he borrows games from mates

sometimes you talk sense jazzy... only sometimes though :pac:

grizzly

PEGI rating of 16+

cherryghost

grizzly wrote: »

PEGI rating of 16+

PEGIs a load of balls tbh.

Atlas_IRL

I think it is fine to a certain extent but i would keep an eye on it and only let him play for a certain amount of time. When i was a kid all there was to do was play football and games, now kids spend HOURS on the internet its unhealthy.

Let him play for a certain amount of time a day half an hr or an hr and its fine. The internet is a different kettle of fish. Playing with his friends on x box is grand.

Dunjohn

If you're worried about the violence in Halo, check out some videos on YouTube or something, that'll give you a good idea of how it plays. Just make sure it's Halo 3, that's probably the one he's raving about.

Also, probably a fairly dumb question, but did you get a chance to ask the other kids' parents about their experience? Not sure how many people here would be in the exact situation you are, and they're probably better for the parent viewpoint.

Overheal

cherryghost wrote: »

PEGIs a load of balls tbh.

I dunno about that. But online interaction isnt rated by any Body. Youre basically at the mercy of what people say over voice chat. Though to be honest in Halo this will probably amount to simple obscenities, sexual subject matter ("Oh you got raped", etc), Racism, etc. etc.

Chairman Meow

cherryghost wrote: »

PEGIs a load of balls tbh.

Ratings are there for a reason. Gamers are far too quick to hide behind games ratings when parents come crying saying 'videogames turned my little jimmy into a monster', they'll be the first to say 'well Grand Theft Auto is 18's rated, so little jimmy shouldnt have been playing it in the first place'. So you cant just go saying 'PEGI is a load of balls, give that 10yr old a copy of Halo 3 which is rated 16's'.

The violence is fairly cartoonish in Halo, its all bright colours and not particularly graphic, but tbh i wouldnt want a 10 year old playing it, single player maybe, online co-op with friends, maybe, but online multiplayer, for a 10yr old?? No chance.

Helix

okgirl wrote: »

Hi, just looking for a little advice. My 10 yr ol is wrecking my head to get an Xbox. He is saving very hard and I know it is normal for boys his age to start gaming. We have been careful up until now and have only allowed him play with a DS console and we have always vetted the games. the Xbox world is scaring me as he is talking about Xbox live and all his friends have it. He is obsessed wiht Halo at the moment. He played it in his friends. Am I correct in being cautious? I know nothing about these consoles or games. I believe the xbox live is leaving it open to him to engage with people on the internet and the Halo game is not age appropriate. I am looking for guidance. A friend has suggested getting PS3 as the parent control is better. Advice please.

bottom line depends on what you as a parent deems suitable for a kid

what ill say is cast your mind back to when you were ten... we're you playing super violent imaginary "i shot you youre dead" cops and robbers, or "oh everyone is super, lets love everyone" barney the dinosaur stuff?

kids need to learn whats real and whats not, thats your job. if you want him to be allowed to play halo at 10 (which is all well and good, no problems with it here except maybe the language on xbox live, tho he prob hears worse in the playground) or you want to let him avoid that for now, its all your call

the facts are that its your kid and your parental decision

but you also need to ask, did cowboys and indians do you any harm? where else do kids learn limits of whats right and wrong. once youre there to provide reassurance and guidance whatever you pick, he'll be fine

L31mr0d

Online gaming is addictive. Far more addictive than the old 32bit era of pass-the-controller. I don't know if I'd be a functioning adult if I had the accessibility of high speed internet and online gaming as a kid :pac:

It actually reminds of when I used to play Poker for a fair amount in college. You get addicted to that feeling of winning, and the lows from the losses just accentuate the want to win. For the same reasons that gambling becomes addictive I think online gaming does also to a certain extent.

That being said it may spark the creative side in your child. You may end up with the next Halo Kid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e45J0SCXO5s

Helix

L31mr0d wrote: »

the old 32bit era

i REALLY feel bleedin ancient now

the old era was 8bit for me

Vegeta

Overheal wrote: »

I dunno about that. But online interaction isnt rated by any Body. Youre basically at the mercy of what people say over voice chat. Though to be honest in Halo this will probably amount to simple obscenities, sexual subject matter ("Oh you got raped", etc), Racism, etc. etc.

Chairman Meow wrote: »

but online multiplayer, for a 10yr old?? No chance.

Did you guys not notice the post outlining the feature which allows you to block all communications (voice and text).

There's a block all function OR allow friends.

And friend requests can be set up that they need approval from the parents.

So if a parent wishes there will be no exposure to the things you both outline. So I wouldn't let Live put a parent off when it comes to their kids gaming.

okgirl

thanks for all the contributions. there are some real valid points. I am so in the dark as we have never encouraged this before ( not that we are now) but as all his mates have been using consoles for ages he is begining to feel left out, which is not what I want. I can remember not having the same things as my friends as a child and it is hard.

At the end of the day, I think we will leave the live(online) bit off until we have established our boundaries regarding time limits and attitude towards it. I am glad to hear that Halo 3 is more cartoonish. After all all the cartoon we watched as kids were violent but we learned the difference between make believe and real life through this.

And sure if we feel there is a negative slant on behaviour due to the console, its only a plug away from being switched off.

His behaviour and attitude will dictate to us the access to it. He is aware that once told to finish up and switch off means his response decides the next session. When he got carried away wiht his DS before I have had a total ban in operation for a given lenght of time and this works.

So in away it is giving him the choice and the responsibility. He learns his own discipline from it, i hope.

Helix

okgirl wrote: »

His behaviour and attitude will dictate to us the access to it

congratulations, youve got more sense than 99% of parents who let their kids use adult only games without supervision

coz remember, halo is an adult game

Chairman Meow

Vegeta wrote: »

Did you guys not notice the post outlining the feature which allows you to block all communications (voice and text).

There's a block all function OR allow friends.

And friend requests can be set up that they need approval from the parents.

So if a parent wishes there will be no exposure to the things you both outline. So I wouldn't let Live put a parent off when it comes to their kids gaming.

And did you not notice that online gaming is pretty addictive, and can genuinely alter your moods? A bad night of playing Battlefield Vietnam, or recently, Street Fighter 4 used to put me, a grown man, into a shocking bad mood. Yet youd keep coming back for the 'one more go' factor. Now give that to a 10yr old, and its a recipie for disaster.
competitive online gaming is not somemthing a 10yr old should be playing.

OKGirl you could buy Halo: ODST instead, its multiplayer is a cooperative game only, not competitive.

robby^5

Chairman Meow wrote: »

And did you not notice that online gaming is pretty addictive, and can genuinely alter your moods? A bad night of playing Battlefield Vietnam, or recently, Street Fighter 4 used to put me, a grown man, into a shocking bad mood. Yet youd keep coming back for the 'one more go' factor. Now give that to a 10yr old, and its a recipie for disaster.
competitive online gaming is not somemthing a 10yr old should be playing.

OKGirl you could buy Halo: ODST instead, its multiplayer is a cooperative game only, not competitive.

Hold on, just because you consider all online gaming to be competitive and take it too seriously does not mean everyone else does.

Plenty of people can play a game and not have it affect their mood negatively, I for one never get unhappy or angry if I'm playing badly at a game...not even when I'm playing a competitive match. It's just a game to me, I might be somewhat disappointed if I lose but that would affect me for all of a few minutes until I get up and walk away from the computer and get on with real life. In the context of a 10 year old playing Halo, I hardly think he'll be playing any clan matches anytime soon :rolleyes: I have young cousins 10-13 who have XBoxes and I've never seen them become depressed because they're losing. They react to doing well and doing badly, but the whole experience is just fun to them, win or lose.

You say online gaming is addictive as if it has a unique property that makes it addictive, like crack. It doesn't. Some people just cant control themselves is all...which can be said for anything really.

Overheal

more and more frequently though keep in mind games are becoming more of an adult genre. Just google Mass Effect 2 sex scenes. Sorry if I spoiled that for anybody.

Its been a while since mario shooting fireballs at a turtle or Megazord's blowing up giant monsters was the most violent thing your kid knew in life.

L31mr0d

Overheal wrote: »

more and more frequently though keep in mind games are becoming more of an adult genre.

Biggest issue I've found seems to be regarding Anime. Plenty of sites stream full episodes of every kind of Anime and kids know about them. When parents see them watching it they think they are just watching Cartoons.

I remember my jaw dropping talking to this 12 y/o who was asking me had I seen Elfin Lied :eek: Even Naruto deals with some fairly heavy stuff that a parent should be aware of, just because it has bright colours and the cast is mainly children does not mean the anime is going to be aimed at children.

Personally I don't think I'd have a problem with Halo 3, but the likes of Modern Warfare (1 & 2) I wouldn't let my kid play till they are older. I remember feeling slightly uneasy in 1 killing people asleep in their beds, then in 2 participating in a massacre in the airport (I know it's skippable)

okgirl

Chairman Meow,
Thanks for that. Would you believe he has just told me that is the game he wants.

rizzla

Halo ODST comes with a second disc that has the entire competitive online component of Halo 3. So there's hardly no competitve online. They devoted an entire disc to it, you can just take the second disc away though.

Overheal

Chairman Meow wrote: »

And did you not notice that online gaming is pretty addictive, and can genuinely alter your moods? A bad night of playing Battlefield Vietnam, or recently, Street Fighter 4 used to put me, a grown man, into a shocking bad mood. Yet youd keep coming back for the 'one more go' factor. Now give that to a 10yr old, and its a recipie for disaster.
competitive online gaming is not somemthing a 10yr old should be playing.

OKGirl you could buy Halo: ODST instead, its multiplayer is a cooperative game only, not competitive.

Yeah after a while my Step Brother's Dresser Drawers all were completely kicked in because he couldn't control his temper while playing FIFA with his little brother. He was 16. Otherwise he's the nicest guy youd ever know but dont catch him losing at a video game.

Its critically important to reinforce good gaming habits like handling defeat etc. - some people never learn. Usually it just comes back as people swearing and shouting over chat channels but other times - it manifests in the real world

Its important to reinforce acceptance in losing and learning from mistakes and not gloating. Thats sounds cliche but because its a cliche too many people gloss over it and never really grasp the lesson. The end result is the elitist pricks that make gaming a horrible experience for the rest of us.

Nevyn

Both my kids use the xbox and my son is getting 3 months xbox live as part of his upcoming 12th birthday present.

I would say there are two issues here, 1 getting a child play console games and 2 letting a child play online.

Being a good player is something which children have to be taught, I would suggest allotting X amount of game time which is only available after homework and chores and can be revoked if there is bad behaviour, it's a privilege not a right.

If his behaviour is bad when he is playing or afterwords or if he is becoming to enraged or frustrated then you have to deal with it, I would suggest that you talk about this and set ground rules.
If I hear or see either of mine getting too worked up they are told to take a break and do something else on the spot.
If they pitch a fit or sulk after they have been told thier time is up they may not get to play the next time or time they get may be reduced.
Positive gaming behaviour needs to be taught.

I would say that teaching your children about the internet and interactive game space and staying safe online needs to be done before you ever let them connect online.

I know the passwords to their xboxlive and will check the messages and see how they are friends with and whom they have been playing with and talk to them about who they are interacting with.

My son will get messages to set up a play date on xbox live with other kids in his class and it's good to see him having fun and playing.

Like TV or anything else discussing ahead of time, having a plan of action, ground rules, supervising and participating in their game play goes a long way to teaching them to be good players and stay safe online.

Fnz

I'd be most concerned over what other Xbox Live users may be saying to him - but as the second poster pointed out, Microsoft provides you with the tools to help ensure this is no longer an issue.

Halo 3 is rated as 16+ by PEGI but I feel that whenever this fact is brought up (on gaming podcasts and whatnot) the prevailing thought is that the game seems fairly tame for this rating. Whether it's suitable for your 10-year-old is for you to judge.

What They Play is a website that pitches itself as "the family guide to video games" and may be useful to you. They have a short review of Halo 3 here. In case you would like to keep abreast of new games your son may be interested in, there's the What They Play podcast. A new episode is released weekly.

Gamer Dad's review of Halo 3 also may be of interest to you. [Link]

Chairman Meow

okgirl wrote: »

Chairman Meow,
Thanks for that. Would you believe he has just told me that is the game he wants.

Well i think youll be okay with that.
Id set strict limits on gaming time like you did with the DS, and use the tools other have mentioned to make sure he can only recieve messages from/speak to his friends.

Gaming isnt some big evil, in fact if it wasnt for me getting my first computer at age 12, i probably wouldnt be in the job im in right now (which is a pretty good IT job!), but just make sure you monitor him and dont let the gaming get out of hand. Kids still need to read books/play with lego/go outside!