Guild Wars 2

I’m pretty sure I saw in the ToS that no one under 13 is supposed to be playing but I’ve read threads here and elsewhere about 8, 6, and 5 year olds having their own toons and in some cases, their own accounts given to them by their parents. Is this chill with Anet or are these parents willfully breaking ToS?

User agreement does say this.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-user-agreement/

You acknowledge that the Game is not intended for minors under age 13, and You will not allow access to the Game, or the viewing of any display thereof, by any minor under age 13.

I remember when SAB was last in game there was some thread in SAB forum where some person show young child play. Arena net post in that thread about how they like the thread. So I do not think they care.

are you seriously questioning if kids are allowed to play video games????

lmfao

According to the ToS it is forbidden but Anet can’t really do anything to enforce that.

No, I’m questioning if kids are allowed in GW2 considering it’s rated T and the ToS says stuff about no one under 13.

If there is a rule, it’s probably more to cover their own backs (in legal-terms) rather than to be able to ban childrens’ accounts.

Moreover, A-net to some degree would have to prove if a child was owning the account which is pretty difficult.

Giving your log-in details to other people is apparently an infringement in itself, which is bound to happen between parents and children who own accounts. The reason why the rule exists is to stop people paying another person to level their character, etc.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-user-agreement/

Found a relevant section of the EULA- find section 9.

I’ll comment back/edit my post once I’ve read it more closely.

EDIT:

Ok, the break-down is this. If a 13-17 year old plays the game, all responsibility is on the shoulders of the adult allowing the child to play the game (i.e. parent or guardian).

Under section 9d it says:
“You acknowledge that the Game is not intended for minors under age 13, and You will not allow access to the Game, or the viewing of any display thereof, by any minor under age 13.”

So, as an adult giving consent to the child who is playing the game, the adult will apparently be held accountable for the account.

I’m no lawyer, but section 9d doesn’t have any “consequence-talk” about violating this particular section, like the other ones do. In other words, I would suspect that they advise that this game shouldn’t be played by children under 13, but there isn’t anything they’ll do about it.

If i remember correctly i saw a drawing a 7 year old sent to rubi for the awesome game anet has made. So yes children under the age of 10 are allowed to play.

Thank you everyone (aside from the troll).

That ToS rule is more a legal way of letting anet avoid getting sued over anything inapropriet for minors age 13 or below.

Imagine a kid playing your game, then imitating something from said game and getting in trouble, then some irresponsible parents deciding to sue the company running the game. I’m sure anet will not mind kids lower ages with proper parental supervision playing guild wars 2.

Condoning something is not the same as legally allowing it.

Cyninja.2954:

That ToS rule is more a legal way of letting anet avoid getting sued over anything inapropriet for minors age 13 or below.

Imagine a kid playing your game, then imitating something from said game and getting in trouble, then some irresponsible parents deciding to sue the company running the game. I’m sure anet will not mind kids lower ages with proper parental supervision playing guild wars 2.

Condoning something is not the same as legally allowing it.

This entirely.

It’s a “Children under 13 shouldn’t play this game and if yours does and you don’t like it, that’s your problem” clause.

Cyninja and Crimson said it all! It’s to cover.
That being said…

I personally allow my son to play. My 4 year old has his own account and plays regularly on his level 80, Asuran necro who he lovingly calls “My little”.

He loves to follow me and his Nona (Grandma) round in PvE and we have taken him in dungeons. He gets excited to do the same story missions over and over, calling them “Talks”. He has been known to go into WvW and help build siege while running round in random tonic forms. Our server seems to get a kick out of it as have other players who encounter the little guy. I’ve been known to inform people of him being only 4, so he won’t be a big help or might die a lot. The response? It caused a zerg to follow him to see what in the world a 4 year old can do in GW2! Many LOL’s were had by all. He calls anyone in game that helps him his friends and remembers every toon of nearly half our server members in WvW, he can tell us the names of each toon by looking. (He can’t read yet…as far as we know……dun dun duuun) It’s great fun for him and all of us as well.

That said, knowing there are older teens/adults in the game and some people can be mean and down right vulgar…He can’t see Team/map/say/emotes/whispers/party as I have disabled them. He only has guild chat enabled because it is our family guild.

:)

Lol. That’s funny. A 4 year old in WvW.

Personally I see nothing wrong with allowing younger children, properly supervised and chat restricted, to play the game. It’s a great way to do something with your child that you both enjoy. The part from the ToS is an obvious C.Y.A (Cover Your “behinderparts”) to avoid legal problems.

I am 48. My husband is 50. Both the sons play, one is 30 and the other is 28. We also have an 8 yr old granddaughter. She may be playing games online but right now her dad (the 30 yr old) allows her to play online MMO’s like Wizard101 but not GW2 …. yet. She can read at a much higher grade level than her actual grade. She may play later but right now her dad (and I) think that it just is not the game for her.

It is up to the parents/guardians of the child and no one else. The clause is more for ANet to cover themselves in case someone decides that it is too violent or whatever by what the child might see or read or hear. Some adults have problems with some parts of the game already ….. ie killing Skritt in a heart ….. There could be one parent who does not know (because of divorce) that the allows them to play and could try to pin it on ANet that they should’ve killed the account because the one playing is under the age limit. There are quite a few reasons like that for that clause to be there. It puts the onus on the one that agrees for the child about the TOS since a child cannot legally enter into an agreement like this.

You have to be 13 or older to use Cortana in Windows. Did you know that? Weird restrictions…

Dunno, but i’m glad my dad let me play diablo 2 when i was 7 :P Not even death can save you from me – Diablo

Don’t let your kid play this game or they’ll turn into those little monsters in the Wayfarer Foothills.

You know, the ones that throw snowballs and irritate adults so you can get a heart quest.

Aerlen.5326:

No, I’m questioning if kids are allowed in GW2 considering it’s rated T and the ToS says stuff about no one under 13.

When I was younger if you played anything T and up you were praised as a god xD, while the same isnt true today cause parents and stores have gotten alot more lenient regulating this policy one thing hasnt changed.These limits dont stop underage people from playing haha, smart kids lie about their age when that portion comes up regarding MMO’s and to a degree subscription based services xD

The short version is ANet can’t “officially” support people under 13 playing the game, as GW2 has an ESRB rating of Teen, but in the end it’s down to parental discretion.

I highly doubt anyone will get banned just because someone at ANet finds out they are under 13.

Children under the age of 13 aren’t allowed to register accounts for anything within the united states. The parent has to register for them. I would assume the clause in the ToS is simply rephrasing that rule.

ie. If you (a parent) register the account for someone under the age of 13, that’s fine. But you take full responsibility as the account owner.

It’s like a PG-13 thing with the movies. Comes down to parental discretion. The parents are the ones who buy / approve these things, it’s nothing new.

I bought a second about for my daughter who is currently 8. She was 7 at the time when we both attended the first PAX HoT presentation (thanks again Gaile). She’s not very dedicated when it comes to leveling, her highest is 50+. But she likes making characters. Norn Ranger ladies mostly, because for some reason, one isn’t enough. She plays other games too. If I have an account in a game, I often set her up with one too. Then someday when I get her a pc of her own, we can actually be on at the same time and battle the force of evil together.

Are you sure it’s appropriate for a 10-year old to play a game with BLC gambling… where the interface is literally a slot machine?

Reminds me of a player on City of Heroes who would recount his young daughter’s play sessions. They constructed a mission, the game allowed players to design instanced “missions” other could play, which his daughter’s main Sister Flame appeared as an NPC helper. Fantastic mission featuring Disco Trolls, but everyone who ran it took a screenshot of them with the daughter’s character and posted them in a thread for her. Devs loved it too and sent her a bunch of game swag. Turned all of it into a show and tell for her elementary school class.

When the game closed her younger brother and sister were also playing and she was like 12 at that point.

Edit: Seems like the story of Sister Flame pops up in other NCSOFT game forums. A copy of her father’s original post is in a thread on the Wildstar forum last year.

https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/77295-what-my-6-year-old-has-learned-from-cox/

And when that 12 year old gets told by his/her parents that GW2 is not allowed because its too mature for them, they get bored and go google for readily available bdsm pr0n, 10 ways to buy a shotgun or 20th floor balcony parkour for dummies instead. Or far worse, play a f2p game on their iFone.

The age line is mostly for legal purposes. If you are okay with a kid playing gw2 there is no problem. They just are not allowed to purchase it.

And I see 7 yrs old playing call of duty xD

So, OP, the answer seems pretty plain. Ask their parents.

Honestly, isn’t that the way it should be? I remember when I was a kid having my dad march in to the local library and tear in to the librarian for attempting to censor what books I could check out. I was eight years old, I couldn’t have an “adult” library card without him acquiring it for me, had no way of getting to the library without him to take me there, and as a responsible parent it was his job and pleasure to review every book selection I made. Beyond the warnings he had to agree to so I could have an unrestricted library card in the first place it was simply none of her business. That was his responsibility.

well in the end it is up to the parents or guardians of said children, what they let their children play. A-net can not clearly control who’s behind the keyboard.
I have seen grandmas buying their 6-year-olds GTAV and the seller can’t do anything, because the grandmother was clearly over 18 years old… I think GW2 is not such a bad choice for a child in comparison.
being fantasy, the setting is a lot more like traditional fairytales than more realistic games. fairytales can be kittening creepy (ever read “the Juniper tree” from the grimm brothers?) and a lot of children love them.
Generally with every videogame, the parents and/or guardians should check what the little ones are playing and talk and explain things they don’t understand and just keep an eye on them, so they don’t get into trouble.

imsoenthused.1634:

So, OP, the answer seems pretty plain. Ask their parents.

Honestly, isn’t that the way it should be? I remember when I was a kid having my dad march in to the local library and tear in to the librarian for attempting to censor what books I could check out. I was eight years old, I couldn’t have an “adult” library card without him acquiring it for me, had no way of getting to the library without him to take me there, and as a responsible parent it was his job and pleasure to review every book selection I made. Beyond the warnings he had to agree to so I could have an unrestricted library card in the first place it was simply none of her business. That was his responsibility.

you know, I was under 10 when I read time documents of Mengele in the Library, I wish the librarian would have stopped me… had bad dreams for years about that. I think it is totally okay for them to keep an eye on children. Sadly a lot of parents don’t check what their offspring is reading.

I think it’s impossible for companies like Anet to enforce or to police age limits, but they have to put it in the user agreement if the game contains material that isn’t suitable for under 13s. I guess it’s intended to absolve them of blame, should a parent try to complain about anything their pre-teen might encounter in-game that they find offensive, or difficult to deal with. Not sure where they’d stand with the chat, some of which I feel too young to read, at the tender age of 50…

There will always be parents that would rather see their child sitting behind a screen all day, then spending few hours in actual work/play/conversation with them. It’s usually the ones that say “It’s MY child!”. Like they are talking about a piece of furniture.

Crimson Clouds.4853:

If there is a rule, it’s probably more to cover their own backs (in legal-terms) rather than to be able to ban childrens’ accounts.

Exactly. In second life when they need ‘proof’ of your age to view all the content they have a system that is about one step above a web site asking if you are over 18. It is to view stuff that they deem ‘adult’, which they decide solely with an automatic keyword filter, so everyone signs up anyway to avoid its kitten ups. Even with the best test you can imagine there would still be kids playing. Making it more complex, the age of majority varies so you need to come up with some arbitrary number for everyone.

The best that you can do is to have a policy against it and maybe some minimal verification process. It is a move to cover themselves if some adult complains “will someone think of the children” to a lawmaker or a lawyer.

WuGzaGenius.5684:

are you seriously questioning if kids are allowed to play video games????

lmfao

Believe or not, laws and rules apply to digital products. You may disagree with them, I may disagree with them. But as for the “lmfao”-situation: Only one person in this thread has made a fool of himself. And it hasn´t been OP…

OP, what is your concern? That somehow a GM will find out that an 8 year old is playing and then they ban your account?

How would they know the age of the person playing in the first place?

The whole point of the ToS and age restriction is to limit their liability. It’s so some uptight mom won’t walk in on their 8yr old playing this game, that they allowed in the first place, and see someone in map chat speaking profanity or something else they find offensive, then turn around and raise hell with Anet about exposing their impressionable child to such horrible things.

Anet is basically saying. You aren’t allowed to have kids under 13 play. If you do, then you’ve agreed to risk them seeing content that is designed for teens+. They don’t police it. It just frees them of any liability as you’ve been warned ahead of time.

my 4 year old sits on my lap when I pay sometimes, but when he’s sitting on my lap I just gather from nodes, he also likes the windmills in Queensdale, and my level 80’s can just out run anything I aggro, so it’s not like he sees any violence. we just look at the pretty sights.

My daughters ranger just had her three year birthday a few weeks ago. She was 8 when GW2 came out. She many only put about 15 hours in the game on the weekends I have her. She likes Minecraft much more. Funny thing is she plays the game better than some of you!

They are (legally) forced to close an account if they find out someone younger than 13 plays on it. So just make sure they do not find out.

BrotherBelial.3094:

my 4 year old sits on my lap when I pay sometimes, but when he’s sitting on my lap I just gather from nodes, he also likes the windmills in Queensdale, and my level 80’s can just out run anything I aggro, so it’s not like he sees any violence. we just look at the pretty sights.

Yeah I can just imagine the horror of a parent when their child runs in crying that the other mean kids in the playground kept tossing anchors at them and knocking them back all the time.

Really, all you need to explain to your kid is that no, they dont drop precursors if you hit them repeatedly. RNGJesus in the real world is dead.