Question,
Why the 18 year old restriction? That seems a bit... well...
Derogatory. I mean, I was in my XI LS when I was 14, and while I wasn't the most mature of persons, I definitely wasn't the -most- immature.
^ There's a few guilds that have an 18+ age restriction for legal reasons. As adults, when minors are in our guilds we become responsible for them and some guilds have had very bad experiences with that. My guild has a 16+ age restriction, but even then it's iffy, as 16-17 year olds are still considered minors.
Remember, most of the time it's not a question of maturity, it's really just if a parent wants to press charges THEY CAN.
I can't speak for anyone else, but to me it's not derogatory, it's a simple choice.
I wouldn't join a guild that wasn't 18+ personally, simply because I enjoy playing with people who are around the same point in life as I am. While I RP freely with everyone no matter their age (as long as they're decent RPers), I prefer to hang out with fellow adults OOC-ly, just as I prefer to hang out with fellow adults in RL.
As when I was a teenager, I preferred to hang out and RP and play with fellow teenagers. I think it's perfectly natural.
And yes, there's also the legal issues.
Ah, LOLsuits.
However, putting a sticker like that on your guild is just going to imply that you're having raunchy e-sex and stuff like that, if you'll pardon my reach. Saving your ass is all well and good, but "18+" ain't gonna save your ass. Stupid parents have been getting their way past their stupid kids like they do.
While it's mentioned that public ERP isn't tolerated and no one cares what is done in private in the requirement, someone who thinks that every 18+ guild is 18+ because they engage in raunchy e-sex is probably not the kind of person the guild wants anyway.
Asyria Wrote:While it's mentioned that public ERP isn't tolerated and no one cares what is done in private in the requirement, someone who thinks that every 18+ guild is 18+ because they engage in raunchy e-sex is probably not the kind of person the guild wants anyway.
Quoted for Maximum Truthiness.
I think age requirements are perfectly valid. I'm sure there are some family-friendly guilds out there that would be happy to accept minors without complaint.
I don't think it's particularly appropriate to complain about a guild's rules, however. The leaders of Baltazar's may have their own reasons for their choices, but they shouldn't need to defend them.
Like voice communications, age limitations are one of those topics that we'll all have to agree to disagree and choose a guild that reflects what we personally want and need.
I'm not complaining, just questioning. Curiousity only kills cats, remember?
... OH NO, FLUFFY! WHAT DID I DO?!?!
...
But, no, seriously, it was just a question. Ignore me. Good luck with the hunt for members.
Hoh wow, sorry, I wasn't around yesterday, so didn't get a chance to answer the question before now.
As ArmaichA pointed out, it has nothing to do with maturity, it's a question of not wanting to deal with legal problems in case someone makes an innuendo or something like that. While we're a relatively mature bunch, so it shouldn't be too bad, we don't want to have to censure our guildchat. That's all.
And I completely agree with Asyria, believing that every guild that is +18 are about ERP is rather silly.
The fact that we don't care what people do in private is hardly the same as being an ERP guild either.
So yes, I'm sorry to disappoint you people, Baltazar's Favor is NOT an ERP guild, so you won't be getting any hawt Vahsyl action
Don't judge me...
But when I was bored a few years back I decided to join a 18+ ERP guild. Apparently, it was really popular on that WoW server. Ravenholt I think.
I thought I might find some mature players. I was in the guild for about a week before I went MIA.
Three months later I was suspended from WoW for a day because my character was in the guild (which I hadn't played since going MIA). Said guild's second-in-command was actually 14. It was in the news, USA Today or something like that, too. It made me laugh.
Sadly, there's no way for anyone to be sure someone's really 18+.
True, there's absolutely no way.
You're not 18 and want in? You lie.
However I think it's reasonable to trust people will be honest and what 18+ says is the guild requires a degree of maturity.
As for judging you, well... I l-led- ERP guilds in the past. My first experience in such a guild involved people who actually worked in erotic litterature for a living and others who were simply mature and, shall we say, very adult. All in all, it was a fantastic experience, and outside of the E we had tons of great quality RP, so I've wanted to repeat the experience. Of course I never quite found that same quality and abandoned.
Nowadays I don't seek that kind of guild anymore but I still seek more mature roleplayers, for various reasons.
As for that 14 years old.. I haven't heard of that one. I only heard of one who was 16.
It begs the question.. What were her parents doing???
Maybe she was 16, I'm not quite sure. Abbort Tabboo it was called or something... can't remember...
But yes, there is a good amount of fun RP among ERP. And I'm sure a lot of it goes on beyond ERP guilds. Um, guess that's obvious. Hee hee.
Oh Wow, you were in the Ravenholt guild? That was infamous for awhile and Blizz started cracking down on all sorts of ERP guilds. One of my server (It pretended it was a school, school days ERP) got shut down about a week after that, they tried to restart as a different school (...) but Blizzard promptly shut them down.
Yeah, people can lie. But what counts is that the guild looks like it's at least trying.
Stormguard has the 18+ requirement for the reasons listed in this thread; we don't place a limit on violent or sexual content (within reason), or profanity.
If someone under 18 joins, their parents find out and contact us (as happened to us back in FFXI once), at least we can say, 'Hey, your kid signed an agreement saying they were over 18. What else were we supposed to do?'
Jakky Wrote:Yeah, people can lie. But what counts is that the guild looks like it's at least trying.
Stormguard has the 18+ requirement for the reasons listed in this thread; we don't place a limit on violent or sexual content (within reason), or profanity.
If someone under 18 joins, their parents find out and contact us (as happened to us back in FFXI once), at least we can say, 'Hey, your kid signed an agreement saying they were over 18. What else were we supposed to do?'
Exactly! When you give a +18 restrictions, you've set a warning that themes might be mature, and that we're not responsible if you decide to lie to get in.
One thing I just realized, or... Thought about anyway... I think there might be some misunderstandings too, due to differences in cultures (I might be wrong though). As far as I know, Mature ratings in USA is often given due to nudity or sexual content. In Europe, or in Denmark at least, it has much more to do with violence and blood showing. So when I for instance call our guild mature, it would probably have more to do with the possibility of violence, whereas it seems like some people think that a +18 must be an ERP guild.
I might be completely wrong, it was just a thought I had ^^
Anyway, I think an important thing to note is, that while a guild has a rule saying that you must be 18 or older to join, it doesn't mean that "mature" things WILL happen, that there'll be sex and hardcore violence everywhere. It's just a sort of safety net for many, I think, a way to say that IF it happens, we're in the clear. Yeah.