Ok, so it's been awhile since I reported my daughter's continuing adventures and my reflections on them. Its been a few weeks since Julie and I were able to play because since then we've been deluged with her third grade homework and my own busy schedule this month.
The funny thing is that Julie is really into pirates for some reason. Maybe her friends at school are too because of the Pirates of the Carribbean movies. but anyway there it is. So she has been reading about pirates and pestering me for more pirate adventures. When last I wrote about this stuff she was sailing upriver back to her character Ruby's homeland when some pirates tried to waylay them. With the help of her giant eagle and some spells she managed to burn down three of the pirate ships so that her ship could slip past the others.
The next thing to happen is that I had the eagle spy out the pirates base - a small village with an inn. The pirates were spotted bringing all their loot into the inn. So I gave Julie a choice to leave the pirates alone and keep heading north, or to sneak into the pirate village and loot their loot. Julie opted for the latter. So her character Ruby, the captain of her ship the White Goose, the first mate, and another crewmen rowed up to the village under cover of night. Ruby then sneaked up to the inn to find all the pirates inside sleeping. She tiptoed past them (her elf-princess can be stealthy esp. due to her spiritual link to her cat familiar) and then unlocked the back door.
Actually unlocking the back door took some argument. Ruby/Julie found a trapdoor to the basement and wanted to check it out herself, but I reminded her that she had agreed to open the door for the captain. I knew if she went down there alone she would be killed by the various guards and traps, so I had the captain whispering through the door to convince Ruby/Julie that she would need help and that she needed to keep up her end of the bargain. It seems that my daughter needed a little lesson in cooperating with others and teamwork as opposed to hogging all the gold and glory for herself. So it seems like 13 year old boys aren't the only ones who act like this.
Anyway, they went down into the cellar and Ruby used a spell to seal the trapdoor behind them so no more pirates could come down. Then they were attacked by a pack of pitbulls. Now here is a funny thing - in going through the Monster Manual I discovered that some of the more threatening threats are from real life monsters. And as anyone who has lived in San Francisco for the last few years know - pitbulls are scary and deadly (esp. when raised to kill by unscrupulous lawyers who have secret deals with prison inmates). Anyway, once again Ruby knocked out just about the whole pack with her Color Spray except for one that the half-orc first mate had to put down with his cutlass. Then I had the captain and first mate cut all the dogs throats before they woke up again. This made Julie sad (to her credit) but it had to be done. I am running this game more or less realistically and there is no way you can leave a bunch of savage pitbulls loose. Then a pirate came down the corridor from further into the basement tunnels to see what all the noise was about. I had the captain sneak up behind him and stab him in the back.
Alright, here is where, looking back on this, I feel kind of bad. I realized later that I could have had the dogs hauled into the room they came from and locked up. The captain could just as easily have knocked out the pirate and also locked him in a room. Sure the dogs might have woken up and the pirate might have gotten loose - but am I needlessly making this game rutheless and bloody? Sure, they are pirates and pitbulls, but do I really want my daughter to learn that the best way to deal with dangerous people and animals is to just slaughter them? Of course by raising her this way she will not grow up to be some hippy pacifist who might vote Democrat and will oppose war, torture, and capital punishment. In fact, by raising her with the idea that you should kill things that are a threat I am introducing her to the American Way. But I really don't want her to be adjusted to our societies values like that. And I am a little disconcerted over how easily, in the game world, I think that way myself. In the game world it is ok to just kill anything that's a threat - or even to torture the bad guys for information. So I think in the future I am going to stop and think if there is a way to model a less rutheless means of dealing with threats. I am pleased that Julie/Ruby's spells are still mostly of a non-harming nature. Though as she gains in levels/firepower it will interest me to see how Julie picks her spells and uses them. Will she continue to opt for harmless solutions, or will she go for the quick kill?
Fortunately, Julie seems to have retained her sensitivity. She was telling me that a girl at school (who always seems to be doing something dishonest and/or mean according to Julie's reports) caught a butterfly and then squashed it. Julie told me that she said, "You shouldn't do that. Would you want someone to do that to you? You shouldn't hurt nature like that." I am proud of her for saying this. Maybe she will grow up to be more Buddhist than Navy Seal afterall. All gaming aside, I would much rather that Julie grow up to be a Park Ranger than an Army Ranger. Let someone else do all the rutheless killing and torturing that needs to be done to protect the American Way. I would prefer my daughter follow the Buddha Way.
I also have to give credit to Julie's teachers who are the one's that taught her not to "hurt nature" because I am sure that phrase came from them. I fully intend to incorporate that attitude into the elven civilization that Julie/Ruby will eventually reach upriver. I am already planning on how to portray them: the way I see it the elves are a bunch of all but eternally youthful Celtic anarchist eco-guerilla medieval utopians (they are all Chaotic Good keepers of the forest according the D&D game). I am going to model their enemies, the evil emperor Iuz and his demonic minions after Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter.
Anyway, more on Julie's adventures later. That's enough ruminating for now.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
don't forget, part of why children love fantasy-based games so much is because they recognize that rules are different there and actions have entirely different consequences.
Sometimes when I am playing EQ2, I feel a little uncomfortable about the fact that I can simply reach out and kill some "innocent" orc who happens to be standing in my way, but then I always remember that that is why the game is fun - because I can do that and it is "meaningless"
Something psychologists failed to understand was that children appreciate fantasy better than adults because they can see the deliniation between it and the "real world" more clearly and therefore tip the balance of power without consequence or conscience. Adults sometimes have difficulty tossing their morality away for fantasy-based enterprises because in order to HAVE their morality they must justify it beyond reason and hold it tightly, else their morality slip a tad and run away with them. Children feel more secure with their morality (usually because it's so black-and-white) and can genuinely enjoy turning everything on its head for a bit. Psychologists originally thought children could not discriminate between fantasy and reality and therefore discouraged the creators of "sesame street" from having the muppets interact with real people. How ludicrous! It is the preposterousness of the juxtaposition that makes the situation so enjoyable for children: certain rules (like gravity and politeness) are still in place, yet others (like flesh and breating) are allowed to be suspended. How delightful!
I am amused at how often people express worry about children "learning" from fantasy-based endeavors; children do not assume that a character without flesh and blood is anything to base their actions on at the very least because even a child can look at themselves and realize they have not one jot of similarity between themselves and the character in reality. They do, however, learn quite a lot with the interaction of characters and real-life ones. If you were to comment upon how Ruby plays out a scene, Julie could very well take what you say to heart, but if you have a character talk to Ruby, Julie is more likely to assume it's all part of the story and not let it assume "life learning" proportions.
Killing characters in a game actually seems to underscore the UNreality of said actions; even a child can see that you do this BECAUSE it is a game and not to be done IRL.
*hugs to you and the family*