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Patent points to possible Kinect-based parental controls
Tech blog Geekwire recently uncovered a U.S. patent for software which uses the Kinect to scan a potential player's body size, and restrict mature content based on their estimated age. It does so not just by examining their height, but the proportions of their body parts -- still, we think it would have an awfully difficult time detecting the age of a little person, or an unnaturally, horrifyingly gigantic teenager. According to the filing, "output content can be replaced by substitute content when a person in a lower age group enters the field of view." This could mean that if an adult was playing Rise of Nightmares, and then their child walks into the room, the console would temporarily switch over to Kinectimals until junior left the room, returning the player to adult time. "Don't look at that, Johnny," the father would say to his curious offspring. "That's grown-up Kinectimals."
Kinect has no qualms about guessing a woman's age
Did you know that Microsoft's Kinect can measure your bodily proportions in 3D and hence ontogenetically estimate your age? Well grandma, it can. Aside from being incredibly impolite, a recent patent application from Redmond also highlights a more beneficial function: to prevent kids from watching or playing age-restricted media. The proposed system could even shut down inappropriate material automatically when an offending minor steps in the room and then resume it when they leave. On the other hand, we give it five minutes before some scheming rugrat with a distorting lens tweets a workaround.
Drama Mamas: Should minors hide their age?
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. I don't know if the letter writer is American; I just like the song. We normally edit our letters a little for clarity, but the way this one is written is important to this week's topic. hello I'm a tank in turmoil I'm a main tank for a small social, levelling guild we recently got teamspeak so we could progress through content at a faster pace, my problem is this I'm not the most aged player in my group and Ive not quiet hit the point in my life were my voice doesn't so sound young, i the main tank for my guild any they rely heavily on me, my guild leader is my best in game friend and i don't want to ruin my friendship with him but when he finds out I'm a minor it will ruin our friendship and il be laugh out of my guild. i have had 2 sever transfers because of this problem which has been really annoying and i don't want to leave my guild because i grown attached to them. want should i do? sincerely tank in turmoil
Younger audiences play more freemium games, but 25-34 year-olds pay for them
Flurry's latest post is yet another interesting read on freemium games on the App Store, specifically which age groups are playing them, and which age groups are paying for them. They've used consumer spending data across over 1.4 billion sessions, which means this information is as accurate as you're going to get outside of Apple's own databases. As you can see above, the patterns are interesting. Younger players are the primary users of freemium games, and that's not really surprising -- we've known for a while that the younger generation is downloading and playing more games than anyone else. But that third blue bar is the really interesting one: The people actually paying for freemium games are primarily in the 25-34 age group, right in the middle of the demographics. Sure, they're playing their share of the games, but freemium titles are almost completely funded by that stripe of the age demographic. And when you consider that the average freemium title only really pulls in-app purchases from a small percentage of its audience anyway, that age group becomes even more important. This seems logical, as most successful in-app purchase items are for convenience and time-saving. The 25-34 age group has more money but not as much free time as the younger audience, and thus are willing to shell out for items that help them in the game. But the big question is whether this will change as the years go by. As the younger audience gets older, will they become the main payers for these titles, or just stay the main players? We've only been playing with this model for a few years, and if the younger audience keeps playing without paying, freemium could be a short-lived trend.
Breakfast Topic: Is a guild leader's age just a number?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. The issue of age in WoW has been debated in this column before. Some guilds have age requirements. Some do not. We have discussed whether it matters that the progression raid you find yourself in is led by a 15-year-old or a 25-year-old. For some, it does. Maturity and language are the usual reasons given for age restrictions. For others, if the person does his job, who cares if he is 13 or 33? A 33-year-old can be more immature than a 13-year-old. As this topic has been debated before, that's not what I'm going to explore. What I'm curious about is, does the age of your guild leader matter? Leading a guild is, I believe, first and foremost, a labor of love. Essentially, you get very few thanks and an awful lot of "waaaaah." It's not unlike being the leader of a small country. No one thanks you for spending four hours putting together a schedule for the month, but they are quick to complain when the right complement of people doesn't log on, so a raid has to be postponed. You find yourself dealing with inappropriate behavior from all levels. You have to call people on the carpet for something they are or are not doing. They pitch a fit and leave in the most drama-provoking manner they can. You look at what you, personally, would like to do and schedule one event to, say, get that last Burning Crusade raid done for the meta -- only no one shows up. There are all sorts of people online, but they are off doing their own thing. Three days later, someone says, "Hey, how come we never run X?" ... which just happens to be the raid you wanted to run. Bang your head on the desk much?
The Daily Grind: Have you ever hooked your parents on an MMO?
MMOs may be intended for kids of all ages, but that doesn't mean kids of all ages are actually playing. While we've all read about that great-grandma guild leader and the eight-year-old boy who raids alongside his father, in practice those cases seem like outliers. The stereotype, at least, is that gamers can barely keep their older relatives on the cutting edge of technology, nevermind get their parents to indulge in online gaming. My mother may have pwned my kid brother and me at Seaquest back in the '80s, but nowadays I just can't convince her to look past FarmVille for her gaming fix. So what about you, Massively readers? You seem to be an age-diverse group. Have you had any success getting your parents -- or any older relatives -- into your MMOs of choice? And how did you pull it off? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: Would you play a game for kids?
Most MMOs released in the US get a Teen label slapped on the front of the box, and for good reason. MMOs generally aim at players heading in to college or older, with a certain degree of assumed maturity in the setting and language used. But that's by no means the only target age group -- games such as Wizard101, Free Realms, and Clone Wars Adventures all target a much younger age bracket, aiming squarely at the pre-teen crowd while still offering a solid play experience. For some players, of course, playing in a brightly-colored world can feel like a step backwards. For other players, the idea of enjoying a simple light-hearted romp is to be celebrated, which is why there's no shortage of adult players in Wizard101. Or perhaps you want a game that you can play with your child, and you don't feel comfortable exposing your youngster to the environment of a game like RIFT. So today we ask -- would you be willing to play a game aimed at children? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: How long have you been playing MMOs?
Here on Massively, we've got a staff with a widely varying set of tastes. Some of us prefer open-ended sandboxes, some prefer straightforward themeparks, and some like a mix of both. But if there's one point of commonality that's come up when the question has been asked of late, it's the fact that most of us have been playing in our virtual worlds for a while now. In fact, the most recent game on our "first game played" list was Guild Wars, a game swiftly approaching its six-year anniversary. As much as we'd like to pretend that age is nothing but a number, we all know that there's a certain added weight to saying that you've been playing since Ultima Online was launched. So today, we'd like to know just how long our readers have been playing MMOs. Have you been around since the launch of Ultima Online? EverQuest? World of Warcraft? Or are you even more recent, having just started in the near-past -- or planning on starting when an upcoming game is released? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Opera browser gets an over-17 rating in Mac App Store, reacts in good humor
You might not yet be aware of this, but Apple's policy towards web browsers is to treat the entire internet as their content. As a result, all browsers on the iOS App Store come with a minimum age requirement of 17 and the same rule will apply to them on the Mac App Store. Opera, the first non-native web explorer to make it in Apple's new desktop app repository, is taking a humorous approach to things, with VP Jan Standal saying he's "not sure if, at that age, people are ready to use such an application. It's very fast, you know, and it has a lot of features." All that said, Opera's willing to be reckless if you are, and will totally let you download its Mac software through its homepage -- no age or credit card checks required, though you might want to ask for your parents' permission first. [Thanks, Ian]
Wizard101 has a banner year amidst chat issues
Wizard101 isn't at the top of everyone's list for free-to-play games, but that seems to be an odd oversight. Sure, the game isn't going to appeal to everyone with its highly stylized and kid-friendly atmosphere, but 2010 has apparently turned out to be a high-water mark for the title. According to an official release from KingsIsle Entertainment, the site's visitors were high enough to rank it at number eight out of the top 250 sites gaining in visitors over December, and the US registrations alone soared to over 15 million players (not counting European registrations). And let's not forget that the game was voted as the best family game of the decade by our readers. The success isn't without the occasional misstep, however, with the game's recent 18+ chat troubles as a prime example. Several players mature enough to take part in unfiltered chat found themselves locked out of the chat by an unannounced change to the way chat systems work, one that filtered out players who had stopped paying a monthly subscription. A full rundown of the situation has been posted by company representatives, with the announcement that accounts verified as being eligible for chat will be allowed to chat once again. Wizard101 players who've moved to a free-to-play account should be happy -- as should anyone cheering for the game's success moving into 2011.
Harvard scientists reverse aging in mice, laugh maniacally at human possibilities
The reversal of aging has been one of the great dreams of humanity, but it seems like our rodent overlords have beat us to it. The Harvard Medical School has demonstrated "a dramatic reversal" in the aging process when reintroducing the enzyme telomerase into old and feeble mice. What happened was that their naturally worn out organs started to regenerate, instead of degenerating further, bringing them back to a youthful state of health. Sadly, while the results of this study are hugely important, there are a couple of caveats to make: firstly, the mice in question were genetically modified to suffer from a lack of telomerase, which might have inflated the results of the tests relative to regular mice, but more importantly, an increase in telomerase in humans is "a hallmark of most human cancers." So, if you want a shot of Benjamin Button brew, you'll have to be very patient indeed. For now, let's just be happy that Algernon and his buddies have found their fountain of youth. [Thanks, Vygantas]
The Anvil of Crom: Class guide #1 - The Demonologist
This week I'd like to kick off something a little bit different. Thus far The Anvil of Crom has been somewhat reactionary, meaning things happen in the Age of Conan game world that make for good discussion, or things happen in the community surrounding the game that do likewise. Aside from my semi-regular Hyborian travelogue series (and an occasional guide or two), the column has basically reflected the current game-related news. Initially that was by design, as I didn't want it to be yet another gaming blog that talked about more of the same stuff you'd find at 100 other destinations. The problem is, Age of Conan doesn't feature a large internet presence, and every time I look for a guide, I'm reminded of the fact that I should write one. Beginning today, I'm going to embark on a series of class guides designed to give newbs and vets alike the information they need to determine whether a particular archetype is right for them. My initial thought is to offer three guides per class: a 1 - 40 examination, a 40 - 80 synopsis, and a look at the class at endgame. Obviously this will be an ongoing experiment, since Age of Conan boasts a hefty complement of classes (12 as of this writing), each of them fairly unique from the others and their conventional MMORPG counterparts. Join me after the break for a look at the life and times of a young Demonologist, as well as a brief gameplay video of the class in action.
15 Minutes of Fame: Couple levels up together in raids and real life
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft personalities of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, from the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about. Age is relative. I'm not quite sure about the whole "dog years" thing, but in WoW terms, I'd be clearing my calendar this week for Sunken Temple -- surely a respectable shot past the so-called "mature" players who are still frolicking about in Scarlet Monastery, Uldaman and Zul'Farrak. So when people write in to ask me to write about "older" players and then suggest someone who's, well, my age ... the eyeballs, they start a-rollin'. An "older" player? Try 76-year-old Loyal Leitgen. Still, I'd have to admit that players older than, say, the mid-40s aren't your typical dungeon finder fare. And an older couple who raids ICC together? Now you're talking -- and so are the gregarious Qryztal and Poli of Silvermoon (US-A), brought together by the might and magic of games across an entire ocean (and still gaming after all these years), in this week's 15 Minutes of Fame.
The Daily Grind: Should your characters age?
For a genre that prides itself on creating a virtual life for imaginary characters, many elements of real life are conspicuously absent. Like bathrooms. Why don't your characters ever need to go? What would be so wrong about having a third bar under "health" and "mana" titled "bladder?" Okay, bad example, but you get the gist. Seeing as how MMOs attempt to convey the journey of life and accumulation of knowledge and experience through leveling, it isn't hard to imagine a game in which your characters age as you progress. In strategy games like The Sims and some RPGs like Fable, aging is built in to the system, adding a layer of immersion as you see your characters grow older as time goes by. When you contrast this with the stuck-in-amber preservation of MMO characters, forever beautiful and flawless, a possible missed opportunity beckons. When developing Warhammer Online, Mythic got players excited about a "character growth system" where your avatar would gain size, facial hair and scars with age. While this got the axe, it also got players thinking and talking about the subject. So should characters age in MMOs? Would the immersion be worth the difficulty and debate over how such a system would function?
Study: Average social gamer age is only 29 in the US
If you think that those silly social games like Farmville and Mafia Wars are full of teenagers, you're only half right. The average player of social games is actually younger than previously believed, according to a new study, but a little older than teenage: 29 in the US and 27 in the EU. That's an interesting conclusion, especially since the average gamer is actually a little older than that (s/he was 30 a few years ago and has been getting steadily older since then), and most people believe that social gamers on Facebook tend to skew even older. This survey by GamesIndustry.com, however, goes against that grain, and claims that while there are more females playing these games than males, they tend to be younger than expected. Peter Warman of that site says that the reason for this is that most such surveys don't poll any lower than age 18: "It is therefore not at all surprising that their average age is extraordinarily high ... Data from kids and teens is vital and should always be taken into account." If these surveys aren't representing anyone below age 18, then it's possible gamers, especially those playing social games on Facebook and elsewhere, are even younger than anyone's guessed previously.
Japanese 'age prediction machine' is really just a mosquito tone test
And this, folks, is yet another reason why the Land of the Rising Sun is truly one of the world's greatest places. Japan, which is famous for having ridiculously polite citizens and some of the zaniest toys known to man, has just delivered its latest gem: the Age Prediction Machine. As you might expect, the device simply emits the now-famed "mosquito tone," which is an exceptionally high pitched frequency that can't typically be heard by older humans. Depending on the intensity of the sound, you're able to determine where the cutoff is between hearing it and not, thus discovering the age of whoever would be gullible enough to stand around and actually engage in this sort of lunacy. But seriously, don't use this the day before your mother's birthday -- just ask pops which number she's about to celebrate / not celebrate, cool?
Breakfast Topic: Do you know where your children are?
Lately, I've been writing a series of articles on playing with your children. First, I talked about playing with preschoolers, like my own daughter, and then about reading age children. Though both articles are about playing with young children and I recommend not letting them play WoW by themselves, many readers complained in the comments that I was encouraging children to run amok in Azeroth. I certainly understand their concerns, because encountering rude and/or needy young ones while playing can really reduce your enjoyment.The other night, I started a gnome mage and came across a couple of other gnomes while entering the noobie troll cave. We grouped up to get to Grik'nir the Cold and the leader of the group, we'll call him Goodkid asked our ages. I said my ancient age, Goodkid said he was 11 and the other kid, we'll call him Juvie, said "U R GAY UR 44". Now, I'm not completely hip on the cool talk of today, but I think that translates into English as: "Excuse me, but I think you are lying about your age." Juvie then stated he was 10.
WoW, Casually: Playing with your reading-age child
Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. Of course, you people with lots of playtime can read this too, but you may get annoyed by the fact that we are unashamed, even proud, of the fact that beating WoW isn't our highest priority. Take solace in the fact that your gear is better than ours, but if that doesn't work, remember that we outnumber you. Not that that's a threat, after all, we don't have time to do anything about it. But if WoW were a democracy, we'd win. Since I last wrote about playing with preschoolers, I have been having an extremely rewarding time playing Itchee with The Spawn. The benefits to both of us are even greater than I originally wrote about. I find that my Itchee time is making me appreciate all of my WoW time even more. Nurturing my child while enjoying my limited playtime is a win-win situation.It's particularly nice to have this indoor activity to do together with the nasty heatwave we are having in the real world. And that leads me to something I want to address before we get into the guide for playing with reading-age children:These guides are for parents who have made the educated decision to include WoW as one of the indoor activities to participate in with their children.
Drama Mamas: Let the drama begin!
Let the Drama Mamas guide you through the sticky business of dodging drama, toward becoming that player everyone wants in their group. Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are taking your questions at DramaMamas (at) WoW (dot) com. Getting your own 15 Minutes of Fame is not a bad thing – except when it's for all the wrong reasons. Leave the drama, Dear Reader, to the denizens of GuildWatch. Introducing WoW.com's Drama Mamas, here to help you stay out of the wrong kind of spotlight. Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players. And just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. What to do, what to say? Let the Drama Mamas guide you: The polite way to share quest monsters When someone "accidentally" ninjas your loot When you accidentally ninja someone else's loot Handling the (nice but annoying) pest When your friend's significant other is an awful player What's your dilemma? Send your questions to the Drama Mamas at DramaMamas (at) WoW (dot) com. And now, on to the matters at hand ...
Anti-Aliased: Virtual worlds as the great equalizer pt. 2
Social situations shattered How many times do we have a young player in our guild who act more like a 30-year-old than the 30-year-olds do? How often do we cross cultural boundaries and forget that we're speaking with someone who might be across the world, in a completely different time zone? To us, they're simply standing in the same room as us, and that puts them in the same place we are.I know that I don't consciously think about where someone lives or who they really are when I meet them in Second Life or Metaplace. I'm too busy chatting with them about shared interests, because obviously if we're meeting one another while standing inside of a fantasy roleplaying simulation, then we both enjoy fantasy roleplaying.This is doubly true when I'm playing something like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XI. Not only do we now have something in common, but we can be united with our goals as well. You're here to run Nexus? So am I! Let's work together to get through this dungeon. I don't question where you come from, who you are, or how old you are. I may question you if you're not pulling your weight or bringing down the party, but even then I'm going to help you so we can get through the task together. "In a weird sort of way, virtual worlds humanize us more than the real world is able to. In a weird sort of way, virtual worlds humanize us more than the real world is able to. While the condition of anonymity can lead to some really destructive individuals, it can also lead to being able to connect to one another without the hangups of social barriers that exist in real life. We can meet individuals who are very different from ourselves, find common ground quickly, and then learn from one another, rather than avoiding those who are different because it scares us.Beyond that, the experiences we gain from being in virtual worlds do not exist in a vacuum. We take what we learn and we apply it to what we do in everyday life. With enough time, I have no doubt that this too will help melt some of the social stigmas that we carry in real life, simply because we can come in contact with others in a more controlled online environment.If you want evidence, look at the decreasing age barrier. We let younger kids and teenagers into positions of power and responsibility in our guilds and online activities, and that in turn has slowly lead to more adults listening to kids when they have something to say. We use to completely bar kids from offering advice to us "more knowledgeable, older adults" but it's been slowly changing. While it may not be the only factor that has lead to this, it certainly is one of them.So I think it's time to give credit where credit is due. Virtual worlds, online games, and the Internet are bringing us together, and many of us are slowly finding out that we're really not so different from one another after all. We're learning about culture, gender, age, and sexuality, and it's certainly about damn time. Colin Seraphina Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased isn't that different from anyone else and is darn proud of it. When she's not writing here for Massively, she's rambling on her personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message her, send her an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow her on Twitter through Massively, or through her personal feed, @sera_brennan.
