Guild Minimum Age Req

[jezekat]

Speaking of guilds for adults does anyone know of any 25+plus in shii -cho

[Royth]

I turned 18 last October and to be honest I have still came across guilds that have said, "Sorry we have a 21+ requirement.". I may not know the full maturity or wisdom of being 20, 30, 40, or 50. But one thing I do know is that the best thing to do in that situation is to say, "Well thanks for your time and have a nice day."

 

I understand that people probably in that guild want to talk and discuss things I don't know yet, or just don't have an intrest in. Likewise they probably won't have much intrest in what my intrests are, but thats happened with guilds that would or have accepted me. I find that it just takes time to find that guild you fit in and in the end in maybe some 18+ guild or one without a restriction.

 

I have ran into those immature kids who "troll" and "hate" people because they didn't get what they want. The best way to show you arn't like that is to just continue saying, "Well I guess that wasn't the guild for me." and move on to the next one!

Edited April 13, 2012 by Royth

[MastaZannah]

The ESRB doesn't regulate content out-of-game, but if it did then even the M games would be appropriate for someone my age. Being a 17 year old I'm considered old enough for exposure to this content.

 

Rated "M" games- Titles in this category may contain more blood and gore than the Teen rating would accommodate, sexual themes/content/references and vulgar language. This content is strong in impact. Most retailers do stock games with this rating, but have a policy of not selling them to people under 17 without parental approval.

 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_Software_Rating_Board

[Tareel]

That's a legitimate reason. However, could there be an alternative to filtering that way? Why not in the guild application, just give a warning that the conversations that may or may not occur could contain adult language?

 

Just as an example, children choose to watch TV-MA shows (South Park, Tosh.0, etc). They can't blame the show for ruining their innocence, it was their choice to watch it. The simple fact that there was a warning about it (even in fine print- it wouldn't matter) would protect if not justify the adults responsible for the content.

 

Yes, I realize that for many people, it just isn't acceptable no matter what the circumstances to do something you consider to be unethical.

 

So I have one question. What difference is there between a 17 year old with under 2 months to go till 18, and 18 itself? (keeping in mind that the 18 years of age= adult law does not exist world-wide).

 

Sorry was afk for a while. My point was not about knowing who is on the other end, it was about not having to worry about it all. If I am an a adult guild, I usually don't have to worry about what I say in vent/guild chat (within reason of course). I like that, I have two little kids at home (stay at home Dad) and I have to watch what I say/do around them, I don't need to do it in my downtime as well. Also as other people have said, children cannot legally make a choice about what they do, it is ultimatly their parents responsiblity. I don't need to worry if vent is going to be monitored by your Dad/Mom and I am going to get chewed out. I have a 17 year old son, in fact almost exactly your age and I would most certainly, to borrow a secruity term, "vet" any guild he wanted to be a part of, because quite frankly I wouldn't want him in any that I have been in.

[MastaZannah]

Sorry was afk for a while. My point was not about knowing who is on the other end, it was about not having to worry about it all. If I am an a adult guild, I usually don't have to worry about what I say in vent/guild chat (within reason of course). I like that, I have two little kids at home (stay at home Dad) and I have to watch what I say/do around them, I don't need to do it in my downtime as well. Also as other people have said, children cannot legally make a choice about what they do, it is ultimatly their parents responsiblity. I don't need to worry if vent is going to be monitored by your Dad/Mom and I am going to get chewed out. I have a 17 year old son, in fact almost exactly your age and I would most certainly, to borrow a secruity term, "vet" any guild he wanted to be a part of, because quite frankly I wouldn't want him in any that I have been in.

 

At some point though, no matter how sheltered, a 17 year old WILL be exposed to any number of things. The ability to purchase rated M games and R movies alone would be as compromising or potentially worse than anything one could listen to or read about, as those are joined by visual aids. The very worst rating for a movie is NR-17, which contains strong and graphic sexual content, alcohol abuse, drug abuse... you name it... is still available to 17 year olds.

 

So why isn't the line to join a guild 17+? I've been in quite a few adult guilds with quite a few "tipsy", "high", "flirtatious", and downright "potty-mouthed" members. Even the incredibly sexual conversation was nothing I had not heard or seen before, thanks to the media and other resources available to me.

 

I did indeed become uncomfortable with the situation, so I left the vent channel. I did not bring up that I was underage and that the conversation was wildly unacceptable, and if my guardians had overheard any part of the conversation and reacted poorly, they still couldn't do anything about it.

 

First amendment.

 

I understand being chewed out is annoying, so a suggestion would be to take the time to find out more about a person's situation than just ask "are you 18 or older?".

 

Like myself, there are SOME* 17 year olds who do not live with a guardian. I have total control over what offends me and what does not.

[SeismicShock]

The ESRB doesn't regulate content out-of-game, but if it did then even the M games would be appropriate for someone my age. Being a 17 year old I'm considered old enough for exposure to this content.

 

Rated "M" games- Titles in this category may contain more blood and gore than the Teen rating would accommodate, sexual themes/content/references and vulgar language. This content is strong in impact. Most retailers do stock games with this rating, but have a policy of not selling them to people under 17 without parental approval.

 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_Software_Rating_Board

 

Have to remember my point towards the general idea, people under 18 in age restricted guilds. You may be 17 but where's the line? 13? 15? 16? 17 year olds still have to legally live at home unless emancipated and because of this it's easiest to just cut the line at 18. We cant cuss or talk about various parts of people's bodies in a vulgar humor because someone's parent is going to freak out if Timmy age 14 sees it. Their parent can then report our guild and try to get us disbanded for sexually explicit activity.

 

You can become a sexual offender for the stupidest crap these days, not saying that'd happen but a parent could get just about anything passed these days and it's just too much drama to deal with them and these stupid ratings.

[Tareel]

First off, not all guild have age requirements. Second, the age requirement varies by guild. I have seen 18+, I have seen 35+ and everything in between. You are just going to have to accept that requirements exist and either wait until you are 18 or find another guild. Any restrictions a guild has is just that, their restrictions and maybe they will be flexible and maybe not, if I was GM, I would not be, for reasons I and most others have stated on here already.

Do you seem like a good kid(aside from lying to join a guild and a lack of patience) yes, you do. Do I care? Nope not one bit. You are still a child according to US law (which is where I live) thus I don't want to have any responsibility towards you for myself or my guild. Does this suck? Yep. Do I feel bad for you? Nope, you have MANY years of gaming as an adult ahead of you.

[LupieZero]

First amendment.

^ Does not apply on a private server (TeamSpeak / Vent).

 

I understand being chewed out is annoying, so a suggestion would be to take the time to find out more about a person's situation than just ask "are you 18 or older?".

 

Like myself, there are SOME* 17 year olds who do not live with a guardian. I have total control over what offends me and what does not.

If the guild has a proper recruiting process, then they usually will find out name, age etc... if there are loopholes to allow someone under 18, then you can expect a guild of that nature to expect proof. (Faxing a copy of your emancipation order to the guild leader or what have you. Parental consent etc...) However... if there is the slightest chance that a law could be broken by your mere presence, I for one wouldn't let you in.

[SeismicShock]

...if my guardians had overheard any part of the conversation and reacted poorly, they still couldn't do anything about it.

 

First amendment.

 

I understand being chewed out is annoying, so a suggestion would be to take the time to find out more about a person's situation than just ask "are you 18 or older?".

 

Like myself, there are SOME* 17 year olds who do not live with a guardian. I have total control over what offends me and what does not.

 

First part, yes... yes your parents can do something about it, not to legal extents but they sure as heck can get someone punished by the Devs. The player is under 18 for one and have been subjected to possible ELUA violations whether intended as a joke or not.

 

Two, What's to keep someone from lying about not living with an adult? People as you've stated have now started lying about their age it's only the next logical step. They'd be doing to us (Guilds with 18+ restrictions) what we're doing to Devs.

 

What's the solution? Lie, we do. It's the turn of the wheel, we have to lie to Devs in the form of hiding out conversations, so while I dont think many people care if a 17y/o is listening to some of the stuff we can't just take you in and act like it doesnt have potentially serious penalties.

[MastaZannah]

Have to remember my point towards the general idea, people under 18 in age restricted guilds. You may be 17 but where's the line? 13? 15? 16? 17 year olds still have to legally live at home unless emancipated and because of this it's easiest to just cut the line at 18. We cant cuss or talk about various parts of people's bodies in a vulgar humor because someone's parent is going to freak out if Timmy age 14 sees it. Their parent can then report our guild and try to get us disbanded for sexually explicit activity.

 

You can become a sexual offender for the stupidest crap these days, not saying that'd happen but a parent could get just about anything passed these days and it's just too much drama to deal with them and these stupid ratings.

 

Based on that view, would you say there could be a "don't ask don't tell" policy that would effectively ensure plausible deniability?

 

expanding on that idea, have a more vague set of requirements to join? The US government for example has an entire third of it's power invested in "interpreting the law". As a leader of a guild however, it is only a democracy if you say it is (no matter what happens you're still the one with all the buttons). Therefore, you're the entire government if you so choose to be. You interpret the rules. Basically, this would mean that for no reason whatsoever you may decline a request to join, kick, or otherwise manage every aspect of the guild.

 

Obviously how you choose to utilize that power will determine how many members you actually have in the guild, but with absolute power comes absolutely no responsibility.

 

Wait... I think I may have misremembered that last sentence.

[SeismicShock]

Based on that view, would you say there could be a "don't ask don't tell" policy that would effectively ensure plausible deniability?

 

Absolutely, if someone tells me they're 18+ in a forum app then by all means I've made the attempt to cover my ***. What am I going to do anyways? Make members fax me copies of their IDs? That's just silly.

 

So yes, if you lied to me out of need to route a restriction and no one suspected you of being underage then I'd honestly not see where the problem is. If a parent got upset I'd just tell them you told us you were over 18.

 

Like I said before... not your fault, our fault or the Devs. It's just how we have to roll with the punches on these things. I can say that I've known a number of players who are 12 - 14 and vastly more mature than any 26y/o I've seen.

[dbacon]

I usually just lurk on the forums, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents:

 

I'm in an 18+ guild, but most of our members are older than that. It isn't so much that we don't like or trust young people and don't want anything to do with them, it is more that we are in a different place in our lives. Someone that was in high school would feel pretty out of place I think, and not find a whole lot in common outside of the game. I think the most important thing with guildmates is that you feel comfortable, and I don't think a high schooler would feel comfortable spending their online social time with older folks, and I don't want to spend my online social time with high schoolers. No offense to younger people, I just would rather spend my time with people I have more in common with...just like anybody else.

 

As to the OPs other point asking how being 17 and 10 months old is different than being 18...the same reason you cannot buy alcohol in the US if you are 20 years and 364 days old. It is against the law, and a guild with an 18+ policy should only allow 18+ people, because it is their choice to make their guild that way.

[Angel_of_Cain]

you can join our guild as long as your are not offended by foul language.

 

The reason people only let adults into thier guild is not because of the player, it is because of the parent or legal guardian. let's say a 15 or 17 (like yourself) is in an OP or WZ with a guild, and a guild member gets caught in the moment and vents through voice chat and says something like: ***** those ******* , that little ***** ******* ******, ***** me running, that was ***** ****** *******. and the parent or guardian happens to walk by and hear that, then WE are the ones held liable and will get the punishment from BW. I read one thread awhile ago about a wedding (with the entire guild present) in SWG and the player got banned because the character he married was played by an under age girl (which he didn't know) and her mom found out and about had the FBI at his doorstep. The whole point of most age requirments is CYA and nothing more.

[ciociosan]

I think the OP missed what somebody else tried to point out about the First Amendment comment. Many Americans misinterpret what the First Amendment is about. It only protects us from the government making laws to restrict our free speech. Private companies and individuals may restrict speech all they want within the confines of their own property/home/business. It also has limitations regarding (among other things) inflammatory or obscene language. And things get even stickier when minors are involved. First Amendment freedom of speech does not apply to cussing or flirting in a private vent server, sorry.

 

That said, I've been guilded with sub-18s who were very cool. But in general, I'm not comfortable with the idea of their parents getting up in arms should I say something that they consider inappropriate. And I've gotten into guilds that were mostly made up of under 25 males that were just the wrong fit for me. We had nothing to talk about. I mother one 18 year old of my own, don't want to be guilded with him even though I love him to pieces and he's a great kid.

[JessieColt]

First, a little about me. Contrary to some of my other posts (at this point, lying about my age is just what I'm used to... and has become a bad habit) I'm a 17 year old guy who wants to meet like-minded people around the world. I have no problem behaving like a mature adult, because honestly my experiences so far in life have added up (in my own and others' opinions) to a maturity beyond my age.

 

Now, I totally understand that there ARE some very young kids who like to game, and that some are rather annoying (trust me, I played Runescape for 9 years).

 

But the responses of the Adult community, while understandable, are not all the fair in my opinion.

 

I find myself having to constantly lie about my age to get into an "adult only" guild setting because over the course of 4-5 different MMOs I've been denied access to the most prestigious guilds for being honest.

 

I'll be the first to say I have my immature moments, just like every other young adult... but I'm here to 1, have fun (which doesn't involve immaturity per say), 2, meet new people, and 3, make progress in-game with friends.

 

I'm dedicated, loyal, and active. I try my best to be myself while at the same time expanding my awareness of how my actions affect others.

 

It's... frustrating and makes me feel guilty to have to lie to people I want to become friends with in order to be accepted by them.

 

MMOs are all about being social! Hence the name.

 

,.~^~.,

 

I dislike complaining as well, so just so everyone knows, this thread was created purely for responses from the 18+ community on my opinions and thoughts. I would love to hear constructive feedback on my predicament and whatever else comes to mind.

 

I will be 18 in less than 2 months, but I was recently told to wait the remaining time before I could apply to a guild I've wanted to join.

 

I am 42 years old. I do not hang around 17 year olds in Real Life, no matter how "mature" they are.

 

I am not about to start hanging out with 17 year olds in a game just because they don't think it is "fair" that they are excluded for not being over XXX years of old.

 

And if you lie to me, you are kicked. Immediately. No Warning. No Forgiveness. No Coming back after you meet the age requirements.

 

I deal with enough drama in real life. I don't need a lying teenager nipping at my heels in a game I pay to play.

Edited April 13, 2012 by JessieColt

[Aedrith]

To MastaZannah, I feel for you as I can understand where you're coming from.

 

[P.S. (That means Post-script) For those of you who don't like reading long post... Just skip this.]

 

I'm 27 now and I've been playing mmorpgs since I was 14.

Like yourself, my elders had no clue as to how young I was unless my friends from school told them, but then things were different back then. People had more patience. Getting anything in game was obviously (and logically) attained through one's own two (digital) hands.

 

MMO communities were small and people generally behaved with more respect and maturity. Of course, it was common to see people using vulgarities and what-nots, however, it was not considered an issue. The real world laws were more lax and people just behaved as themselves or simply just how they wanted to be perceived. Furthermore, there were no such things as ventrilo, teamspeak, etc. People had to type what they wanted to "say" and as such, generally self-corrected what they were saying before it came out.

 

It's not like raiding in WoW was like, where people would let slip curses and swearing. People generally didn't have time to stop and type during the heat of the moment.

 

I like you enjoyed getting to meet various people from around the world from all walks of life. I'm Singaporean and although Singapore is one of the few developed nations in Asia, Asian society causes life to be very different from that of a European or an American or an Australian. I was also a teenager and to people such as I, the wisdom of our elders is not to be dismissed.

 

At your age, I started playing a now long forgotten game called Shadowbane. I knew that I was the youngest in our guild, but didn't know the ages of most of my friends. Only the ones closer to my own age disclosed it openly and readily. Amongst ourselves, we discussed topics like girlfriend issues, drinking, clubbing... typical school kid topics. When the older members were around, we talked about (what I consider to be) more interesting topics like politics, the news, various adult-like related issues and drinking (well, that's bound to come up somewhere isn't it? haha~).

 

I learnt a lot of things and was exposed to a lot of things I had never considered before. An Australian friend was telling me that he had been living with his girlfriend for a while and they had kids. His girlfriend worked and he took care of the kids and the house. He even talked to me nervously one day about how he was going to propose to her later that night. Another time, he took time to explain to me about how he grows his own marijuana and how he planned to (illegally) sell a plant and that it would probably net him enough to take the family on a holiday.

 

Another person, from Sweden would often come online in the wee hours of the Swedish morning, where upon he would "report" that he was going to the gym and then later, to work. How often he went to the gym was pretty darn humorous since that made us think that he might really look like his avatar in real life (his avatar was an extremely muscular half-giant).

 

Everyone made me feel a proper part of the guild and never "talked" to me in a condescending manner and I know that I had won some respect by taking a supposedly broken build and showed them that if done right, it would actually work beautifully (it was still the age of mmorpgs where you cracked numbers and manually added stats and skill points). I was also allowed to gather intelligence for the guild as well as spying on enemies.

 

It was however, a little incident that made me realize just how young I was compared to most of the members. One afternoon, I helped a young boy (probably pre-teens) and followed him around for over an hour, to make sure that he wasn't killed by mobs and stuff. Shortly after he had logged, my friend came online and thanked me for looking after his son. Oh the shock.

 

I really loved that guild as I had formed bonds with them. I have since not been able to form bonds in other guilds that felt as strong. Even nowadays, I miss the almost pointless guild banter, drunken raid nights (every Thursday... and yes, I drank while being underaged) and all the other crazy stuff we did. (Like getting so drunk that the entire party got lost for over an hour.)

 

Forgive me for deviating from the point, but I wished to illustrate to some of the others, what "meeting new and different people through the internet" truly is and from the viewpoint of a teenager. Perhaps I may have misunderstood you, but I think this is what you mean. I can sympathize how you must feel being denied such experiences.

 

The times as I mentioned earlier have changed. Gamers these days are generally of the "new breeds", who spend a lot of time complaining, who want gear for free or with little effort, who find the tormenting of other players to be fun or watching people arguing to be funny. Yes, the "new breed" "infects" ALL age groups. The mmorpg gaming community used to be a lot smaller than it currently is. (Thanks for all the crap WoW.) Along with the good, so too come the bad.

 

HOWEVER, in the case of young gamers, especially those who are under 18, maturity is the exception, not the rule.

 

Allow me to put it this way. If there's a particularly annoying and troublesome adult in a guild, people WILL bring up the issue and confront him/her. If the matter cannot be resolved, said person will eventually be kicked from the guild. Being adults, they had better behave like adults... Of course, when they're kicked, most of such people won't blame themselves... if they had that capacity, they probably wouldn't have been kicked in the first place.

 

Now if there's a particularly annoying and troublesome teenager/kid, things are a little more complicated. Do we close an eye and cite the person's age as the reason? Doing so however, doesn't solve the matter. How about we talk to the person? Being that young, most of them won't understand... and the ones who do are generally going through that rebellious stage in teenage life. Good luck to you dealing with that. Ultimately, if the teenager/kid is unable to "grow up", they'll get kicked and for those of us who are doing the kicking, that leaves a unpleasant taste in our mouths.

 

Image a teenager who suddenly finds a grade school kid mocking and swearing at him/her. The teenager will be surprised and unable to react. If the teen gets angry, he/she can't hit the kid like they would another teen......... It's just distasteful dealing with such situations. Now imagine how an adult must feel dealing with someone who's still a minor.

 

Another issue is parents! Parents are tech savvy nowadays. The IRC usuage of the term PAW (Parents Are Watching) doesn't really work anymore. Imagine trying to use that in Ventrilo... guilds might find themselves in situations (like raiding), where they are not going to suddenly play nice and behave as if they are having a tea party while watching horse racing...

 

I've heard stories of parents hijacking ventrilo communications during raids, but I scarcely believed it until I heard an angry Mom screaming and shouting at us for keeping her son awake... this went on for a few minutes with my poor guild leader trying to calm her down... needless to say, we wiped on that attempt...

 

Now, I must say that I am NOT an advocate of over 18 or whatever guilds, but there are good reasons for such guilds.

 

You have to realize that individuals such as you are special and rare. Maturity is an issue for any age group, but as I mentioned earlier, in your age group, it is the exception, not the rule. Truly mature teenagers, who can fit in with ANY adult age group, are extremely rare. This is not a matter of 1 out of 10, but probably that of 1 in 50... or perhaps even rarer than that.

 

For recruiters, going through over 50 applicants to find that 1 person would be too much of a hassle. We're not talking about finding a person who is good dps, healer or tank... We're just talking about maturity level. For guilds with a more strict recruitment criteria, they still have to determine whether you're up to the task... Their work gets a lot easier if they just ignore the under X demograph. (where X = minimal recruitment age... okay, sorry, bad joke)

 

Now then, there's the matter of why they are telling you to reapply in 2 months' time.

Perhaps it's due to legal reasons? It could also be due to a lot of other reasons too. The baseline is this. If they ignore their own 18 and above rule for you, they'll ignore that same rule again and again. With a rule relaxed, more and more under 18s will get in and I believe that we've already established that the average teen can bring more problems than solutions. The rule will either collapse... or they will get fed up and put their "house in order" before strictly enforcing the rule again.

 

I am sad to say that their following their own set rules strictly is admirable. They probably understand what they are doing and also understand what they stand to lose if they start breaking their own rules. (If you don't follow your own rules, who will?)

 

It's late... I might have ranted a lot... Guess I better wrap this up... (5.52am over here)

 

Before I go, I'll tell you to keep your head up. The 2 months will soon pass. Keep yourself to your own standards. Don't let others bog you down and don't let other people's stereotypes become you either. Good luck.

 

Damn... There was so much more I wanted to type earlier, but sleep deprivation is getting to me.

Edited April 13, 2012 by Aedrith
Late night grammar mistakes. Too sleepy to fix the rest.

[MastaZannah]

you can join our guild as long as your are not offended by foul language.

 

The reason people only let adults into thier guild is not because of the player, it is because of the parent or legal guardian. let's say a 15 or 17 (like yourself) is in an OP or WZ with a guild, and a guild member gets caught in the moment and vents through voice chat and says something like: ***** those ******* , that little ***** ******* ******, ***** me running, that was ***** ****** *******. and the parent or guardian happens to walk by and hear that, then WE are the ones held liable and will get the punishment from BW. I read one thread awhile ago about a wedding (with the entire guild present) in SWG and the player got banned because the character he married was played by an under age girl (which he didn't know) and her mom found out and about had the FBI at his doorstep. The whole point of most age requirments is CYA and nothing more.

 

I very much appreciate that invitation, but I'm sticking with my 50 Sorc on Iron Citadel. Rated War Hero gear is too much work to just abandon your quest to gear in it, and restart somewhere else.

 

I honestly feel terrible about the lying on my application about my age, so I left that guild after apologizing (people were SHOCKED to find out how young I am) and owning up to my actions. I'm now in Lethal Logic, with people of all ages who accept each other for who they are. No, they don't put up with immature BS. I found this guild to be the embodiment of what I'm trying to communicate in the thread. The requirements to join are limited to level, gear, schedule freedom, and general maturity/responsibility. We recognize that guildies can become upset and talk some trash (I do it too), therefore we communicate that it's the responsibility of the members to leave the vent room or hide the chat window if they or their guardians become uncomfortable. (though regardless of the lack of age-specific requirement, I think I'm the only minor anyway).

 

Yes, that's a huge amount of responsibility especially for an outsider who just wants to "fit in", but that's part of what being an Adult truly is. It's all about choosing the appropriate response for a situation, and if you don't have one, then remain silent.

[MastaZannah]

I am 42 years old. I do not hang around 17 year olds in Real Life, no matter how "mature" they are.

 

I am not about to start hanging out with 17 year olds in a game just because they don't think it is "fair" that they are excluded for not being over XXX years of old.

 

And if you lie to me, you are kicked. Immediately. No Warning. No Forgiveness. No Coming back after you meet the age requirements.

 

I deal with enough drama in real life. I don't need a lying teenager nipping at my heels in a game I pay to play.

 

That's a personal decision that I respect.

 

This thread is about the exceptions, whether you personally have come to know one or not.

 

Personally, most of my RL friends are in their mid-twenties; but I also like to listen to and learn from older adults. I choose to spend time with older people than I in an honest effort to learn from them and gain a little more insight on what life is like for people so drastically different from myself. I consider it a personal achievement to be accepted by them, not necessarily as one of their own, but as a friend nonetheless. More than that, my biggest source of satisfaction is when I can be a friend to someone else.

 

Again, your personal decision is your own, and I respect that.

[Bladedakoda]

There is a reason and need for adult guilds, it has nothing to do with maturity belive me, most of as act very immature. (In a fun way). The reason most people ask for over 18 is so they can say what they want without thinking about it. You know, old people like myself don't think before we type.

 

On a serious note though, i can understand why some people under 18 would take offence. But i think in alot of cases they would take more offence being in some of these guilds.

 

Anyway just my two cents on the matter.

[Prenavo]

A long time ago...in a game far far away...EQ1 I was a guild leader. We made friends with someone much like yourself. He was sixteen at the time and was also mature for his age. We made him a guild officer because he was so capable of handling himself. That said, the key words there were "capable of handling himself." Some younger players have a tendency to run off at the mouth and some guild leaders make not having anyone in their guild under 18 a general rule. I myself believe in the if they do it kick em method. Meaning if your cool your cool, if not your gone.

 

Another reason some leaders don't want folks under 18 is due to the fact that while you may be "almost" an adult, your legally not. If the guild is very adult in language for instance, they do not want to get into a predicament where they become liable for having a minor in the guild. Last thing anyone guild leader wants is to have someones mom telling them they can't play the game anymore because it is to crude for them. I can see the point. A guild leader could lose a valuable player in just such ways. There all sorts of reasons not to let someone in a guild. It could even be that they want more people like themselves that can relate to them on more social topics like kids or jobs and being a younger person, you may not have that much in common with them.

 

I'm not saying their reasons are right or wrong, I'm just saying that it could be anything and that you shouldn't get too worked up over it. There are other guilds out there and I'm sure you'll find one that suits you just fine.

[MastaZannah]

Yes, I actually did my research on this point as I may or may not have too much time on my hands...

 

After talking to a 42 year old friend of mine, who happens to be a criminal defense lawyer, it's arguable in court (and therefore a plausible and reasonable "not guilty" plea) that a minor's negative experience in a mature guild is a decision that was not upon the minor themselves, but their parents/guardians. It is, simply put, negligence on the parents' part if they let their son/daughter participate in something they don't approve of.

 

To sum it up? Hypothetically if a minor's guardians happened to hear something they disapprove of, it's their fault. They're responsible for choosing which environments their children are allowed to become part of.

 

My opinion on this=

Yes, kids defy their parents all the time.

 

If a minor obtains a fake ID and uses it to purchase age-specific substances, the business owner is not liable for the result. The guardians' inability to control their child is entirely to blame.

 

EDIT: Depending on the maturity shown by the child, they can be adjudicated and judged as adults for the crimes committed.

Edited April 14, 2012 by MastaZannah

[Bladedakoda]

Yes, I actually did my research on this point as I may or may not have too much time on my hands...

 

After talking to a 42 year old friend of mine, who happens to be a criminal defense lawyer, it's arguable in court (and therefore a plausible and reasonable "not guilty" plea) that a minor's negative experience in a mature guild is a decision that was not upon the minor themselves, but their parents/guardians. It is, simply put, negligence on the parents' part if they let their son/daughter participate in something they don't approve of.

 

To sum it up? Hypothetically if a minor's guardians happened to hear something they disapprove of, it's their fault. They're responsible for choosing which environments their children are allowed to become part of.

 

My opinion on this=

Yes, kids defy their parents all the time.

 

If a minor obtains a fake ID and uses it to purchase age-specific substances, the business owner is not liable for the result. The guardians' inability to control their child is entirely to blame.

 

EDIT: Depending on the maturity shown by the child, they can be adjudicated and judged as adults for the crimes committed.

 

The biggest problem i see in a mature guild (everyone above 25 or so). Is that a 16-17 yo has nothing in common with most of the people in the guild. If you are talking about a guild where almost everyone is just over 18 then it's a little hadrer to justify. In the end it comes down to the GM of that guild. Honestly though i would think a 17 yo would want to play the game with people their own age.

Edited April 14, 2012 by Bladedakoda

[bahdasz]

lying about my age is just what I'm used to... I'm a 17 year old

 

STOPPED LISTENING at this point.

 

Hint, little kid... if you have to tell everyone how mature you think you are.... you're not

[Kimyrielle]

There is absolutely no way to lie yourself into a guild and remain undetected in the long run, for the exact reason why I am pro age requirements - kids don't have a lot of clue/experience in mature topics like work life, parenting etc. Which is why I used to dig into those exact topics back then when I still ran a guild and interviewed recruits. I am mean like that.

[boldee]

I have my own guild in this game and have had in others, I have had no restrictions on age in one game and there have been problems caused by younger members and then no problems in other games, unfortunately its usually a youngster falling out with and older member but to be fair not aways the youngster at fault.

 

In SWTOR i decided to have a loose age restriction of 20+ only, however we do have younger members, we dont have an open invite policy as such so its sort of by invite only or recommendation, if you pug with someone who is looking for a guild and they seem like a good sort and accept what our guild stands for as what they are looking for then fine.

 

We have two members in particular who came to the guild due to one of their parents being with us, as they are both under 18 I expect their parent to have a certain amount of responsibilty for their behaviour but there has been no need as they get on with the game are polite and fun to be with and valued members of our little community.

 

So it can work