Am I old enough?

[Kayle's godless sodomite]

Hi,
Thanks for coming to help me. I need some help, I am 11 years old, my mum is pretty strict (eg. No cod, halo or 16's plus but have been allowed to watch my older brother play things like Half Life) and I REALLY want ark. I am pretty confused as I watch iBallisticSquid and he has a kids channel but most people I have seen said it was a 16/17/18 years :/ . I realise the reason I couldn't play was online. I play minecraft and I have since beta, I am allowed to play on servers, and yes, I am used to grieving thanks to factions... It has got to the stage that when I get raided I just don't care at all ):
Well, if you can help me that would be amazing, I would be the happiest 11 year old kid in the world.
I am just not sure if I should ask... What would she say? Or more important, what should I do?

Thank you for your help in my dilemma!

[BeerMonster]

The game itself is fine for somebody your age, your post is very well writen and you seem more mature than most of the 18+ year olds I have seen in this game :)

As many of the people here have suggested the only problem you will have is with other players being rude. For this reason I would stay a milliion miles away from the official pvp servers....They are the devil :)

My advice woulld be to play in single player mode or else get yourself a private server to play with your friends. Also make sure you have a decent spec PC to run this game, it wont work on an old computer.

Good luck

[Itsatrap]

The only part of this game that you might be to young for is the killing of animals because it's violent. BUT, you are not killing them for fun, you are killing them in order to survive. Like hunters and gatherers that still exist today in tribes in order to SURVIVE. You learn about cultures with hunters and gatherers in school at your age. So I think this game should be fine for you. There is no swearing and no nudity/sexuality. No where in the bible or church does it say it's immoral to kill an animal for food to survive if you are stranded in a jungle.

[Thickfurr]

If you're that worried about your mom, you can just show her the youtubers videos. As a mom myself i see no real issues as long as you find a good server or play singleplayer. My kids are still to young to play any game really but i would let them if they were older. I guess it helps if i play the game myself but eh. Wish you the best of luck!

[Itsatrap]

Just tell here this game is a great opportunity for you to learn about history/dinosaurs and survival skills just in case you are stranded on an island by yourself with dinosaurs. You will have all the skills necessary to survive a trex attack and get off alive. What kind of mom wouldn't want those kinds of skills for her child.

[Khaarxen]

Messaggio originale di Itsatrap:

Just tell here this game is a great opportunity for you to learn about history/dinosaurs and survival skills just in case you are stranded on an island by yourself with dinosaurs. You will have all the skills necessary to survive a trex attack and get off alive. What kind of mom wouldn't want those kinds of skills for her child.

lmao this will definitely convince her! :P

[The_Pastmaster]

Messaggio originale di Xander:

Messaggio originale di The_Pastmaster:

If this game get rated over 12+ I will be surprised. Also: ESRB and PEGI never rates online interactions, only the game itself and the content of it.

Blood, drug use, realistic not cartoony violence, ect..

Blood and violence, sure, I get that. Drug use on the other hand? I don't know if the generally termed "narcotic" which makes you tired and "stimmulant" which perks you up would count. For all we know, stimmulant may just be a gene-modded coffee bean. :P

[TritonXCVII]

Messaggio originale di altairwolf:

Messaggio originale di ThePenetrator:

Well, I still think it would be at least irresponsible of a parent to let its child play a game with adults who will be cursing in many vulgar ways. The game DOES contain blood which is essentially a type of gore. His parents haven't allowed him to play call of duty, what makes you think they'll be okay with a game that's main purpose is slaying and captivating other living beings? You're oblivious to straight forward facts, both of you.

This shows that you know very little to nothing of the game. You have not researched it very much either. Many of the private servers do not have the cursing as you claim. The blood and gore can be disabled in the user settings. You are oblivious to the fact that, the OP is not your child and you should have no say so in the matter. You are spewing misinformation, for some odd reason. Just because you could not have a game like this when you were young, does not mean that no kids should have that option.

You also lied in your first post. There is no age setting for this game. There is no nudity in this game. As I said, and others have said the gore and blood can be disabled. You comment that single player promotes animal killing. I would guess that you live in the city, and have never been hunting before? Do you know where the meat comes from that is in your local store? That meat has to come from some animal. Have you ever been fishing? Catching fish, well unless you release them, you are killing them. That is something I've done since I was 4 years old. I was cleaning fish by 9 years old.

Sorry, but your posts make you seem like you are a very controlling person, and the OP is not your responsibility to control.

Now, thank you for your attention, please go back, and comment on games you actually own.

First of all, at no point did I imply that I have a saying in what the parents should do. I am simply giving them my opinion, as requested from the OP. If the OP wanted an asskissing thread or was looking for people to advocate against his mother, then he chose the wrong forum to do so. I am not spewing misinformation, nor was I not allowed to have games like those when I was young. When I was young those games simply did not exist or were not as popular as they are now. Even being given access to freely surf the net and communicate with strangers is more than enough for his age.
The age setting I was wrong about. Seeing as lying is considered malicious, I must deny that claim since my reply was everything but malicious.
Your parallelism regarding killing animals and where meat comes from further displays your age or obliviousness to common logic. The meat in supermarkets etc, is not meat of animals that have been hunted down in the jungle. In fact, coming from a family filled with "hunters" ( thus why I hate it as a sport/activity ), I know that when an animal gets stressed out, its muscled get stiff and the meat tastes bitter. This is a fact that is well known among hunters, therefore the way animals are killed varies. For instance, one of the ways they're killed is through a very powerful electrical current directly on their brain or heart, which renders them completely unconscious and thus they're painlessly executed. This has nothing to do with the savage sport of hunting so get your facts straight.
Moreover, the fish has no ability of rational thinking, therefore it is very different to dogs, cats or dinosaurs for that matter ( seeing as researches claim that they have emotions so to speak ). In the end, the game will always be a game for mature gamers. If not for the community and the gameplay itself, simply because an eleven year old will spoil the fun of the game. Having played numerous games throughout my life, I can safely state that the majority of younger games are irrational, completely and utterly annoying ( aka squeekers ) and simply no fun at all. So, instead of having an eleven year old ( or any underage person for that matter ) complain that his/her base got raided, spam the chat or the voice chat for that matter and talking ♥♥♥♥ behind a computer, I'd much rather play with someone who will brush it off by saying " Oh well, that's how the game's supposed to be played. ".
Overall, your opinion may as well differ from mine, but I consider your offensive tone and obnoxiously aggressive attitude to be uncalled for. That is not how an adult would speak, hence I'm assuming that you're either
a) Not an adult.
b) An adult with the mind of a child.
Have a wonderful day.

P.S: Inb4 you claim that the child is mature for its age etc, just look at the way he replies to my post. Instead of calmly trying to debate the reasons why I'm wrong, he started mouthing off and taking cover behind claims that OTHERS made and were simply beneficial to his position. That is not the response of a mature child. The latter would have debated as to why I'm wrong, and valued my input as we all have the right to an opinion.

[TritonXCVII]

Messaggio originale di Itsatrap:

Messaggio originale di ThePenetrator:

You can pretty much tell that it's going to be 16+ or 18+

Hey, no body cares what you think if you haven't already noticed. You seem to think admitting to hacking doesn't matter. Might be something wrong with you.

Is there a reason I should hide it? I did what I wanted, faced the consequences. Why would I be hiding behind my finger?

[RLeeErmey]

There is blood and gore... other then that its pretty acceptable.

[yegor40]

Oh my god, what is your mom doing to you?
What the freaking hell, the kid writes like he's literally ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ himself in fear of his mom.
He talks like he's brainwashed,
dude #1 write "you can turn the blood and gore off"
op answers >"YIPPEE! Now I know what to turn off! Thanks SOOOOOO much! Better be quick after buying it to turn it on!

Like, god forbid, what kind of mental scars do you have?

[Khaarxen]

Messaggio originale di yegor40:

Oh my god, what is your mom doing to you?
What the freaking hell, the kid writes like he's literally ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ himself in fear of his mom.
He talks like he's brainwashed,
dude #1 write "you can turn the blood and gore off"
op answers >"YIPPEE! Now I know what to turn off! Thanks SOOOOOO much! Better be quick after buying it to turn it on!

Like, what kind of mental scars do you possess?

Dude, he's 11, respects his mother's word and is just happy he might be able to convince her to buy him the game. Chill.

[Sistermatic™]

Having read this entire thread (some funny responses guys!) I'm going to call this is a troll post. OP is not 11 and you've all been sucked into playing mom and dad.

I'm a parent of a very bright 11 year old son (seriously, his maths teacher calls him genius).

There are responses here that do not fit. A lad with that kind of well educated literary gymnastic ability would have no need to post a Steam thread seeking how best to ask his mom, he would already have an open and honest relationship.

The very fact he is on Steam forums makes a mockery of moms apparent parental regime. What mum doesn't check who/were he communicates... the FIRST concern I have about my kids being online, long before I worry about game suitability.

It does not stack. Played. Sorry.

[Chiika]

You seem very mature and bright for an eleven-year-old. I'm sure the game would be alright for you, but you would want to definitely ask your mother anyway. My suggestion would be to stay off of online servers and maybe just stick to single-player, because the community is not always the greatest online, PvE or PvP.
I've only ever played on PvE but I have encountered both kinds of communities on them. One server was very kind, always helpful, and never rude. The other one was the exact opposite.
I'd hate to see someone like you get involved in some of the awful communities that exist on the internet. You seem very respectful, intelligent, mature, a lot of things you don't normally see from someone your age who partakes in online games...

[EightSeven6]

hdunno doods, i think if he doesnt go craizy by playing six hours a day and he only plays around 2 it should be good, and killing stuff is not your biggest goeal in this game, the biggest goal is to advance and survive.

Youd be better of with a tamed, trusty helper rather than a dead dino so i think thatll learn him that most of things are not worth killing and youd be better off ,,cooperting,, with them

[Q.]

You should play on the ibalisticsquid server, there is child friendly rules enforced by the admin and alot of people your age.