Bloodlines has no age requirements
January 12th, 2011 by Lyle MaeterlinckWe’ve received a few reports of “underage” people playing Bloodlines. We just wanted to clarify that we do not enforce a minimum age. Linden Labs has age requirements that you can review in section 3.1 of the second life terms of service. Everyone in Second Life must comply with the Second Life Terms of Service.
If you want to enforce a minimum real-life age to be in your clan, that’s up to you, but the official Bloodlines policy is that we welcome everyone who complies with the bloodlines terms of service, which has no age requirements.
January 18th, 2011 at 9:50 pm
Ok thanks for clarifying that, I was always under the impression you had to be at least 18 or over to play bloodlines
January 19th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
psst u have to be 16 to be on SL sooooo. Leaf if thier not 16+ then report them to linden labs. As far as my clan goes we restrict it to 18+ becuase we dont wqant player x16 to walk in find their kid on some pose balls or vampire sim with player z18+ and they throw a fit and have LL cancle or caln members accounts and maybee a few others.
January 21st, 2011 at 5:47 pm
So BL is a mature sim, yet underage kids are not permitted there due to the mature rating (yet we all know they still appear there on a daily basis running around asking for Lindens from any available avie). But, they are allowed to be part of Bloodlines. Isn’t that kinda like a contrdiction to the game of Bloodlines? Does this mean Bloodlines will be changing the rating of their sim to accomadate those minors so that they can play the game and be seduced by clans? If you can have a clan member that is of any age..ok lets say 16. Wouldnt’t that mean that they would be mingling with older adults that you have in your clan. Wouldn’t that mean that the sim that your clan meets at would have to be down graded from mature to PG in order for them to be able to join in on clan activities? So, who is going to monitor the clans to make sure that they have and keep to the rules that Second Life has put out there for age verification and monitoring those that are under age and those sims that say they are PG from having adult items or even adult pose balls on their sims where these kids wil be meeting at? I realize from the statemnt that Bloodlines posted that they really do not care as long as their butts are covered. For that reson and many more Bloodlines is now a doomed game in Second Life. What is the enjoyment of playing it now knowing that minors are allowed into this part of the game that is not only a seductive game but..
With that said, will big brother be watching over the minors, or the adults…….you can’t have this both ways. So Long Bloodlines, it was fun while it lasted.
January 22nd, 2011 at 12:49 pm
@ Zeus – I’m sorry to hear you don’t value teens in your RP. In my experience, young people often have active imaginations, and get very into roleplaying. I myself was into RP from 15 onwards, and I like to think I was a thoughtful, intelligent, creative player. I’ve spoken to a few teens in SL already, and so far they’ve comported themselves with more tact than many of the immature, scamming, embarrassing adults running around SL. If I were a clan leader, I’d focus on the actual maturity level of my minions, rather than their ages. Who knows, if someone had been prejudiced against me at 16 and prevented me from joining in roleplaying games, later in life I might not have created Bloodlines in the first place.
January 23rd, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Mars,
I am pleased to see your response to my posting. But, let me say that you still have missed the point that was being made. It is not that I am prejudice against minors in second life. I have met several of the new teens in the game. And you are right, some can be more mature and interesting than some adults in the game. But, then again, you will have that in any virtual game on the Internet. that is what makes us all so different and makes these types of games popular and fun for everyone.
What I am concerned with was your disinterest at protecting not only the minors, but also the adults that play the very game that you designed and created known as bloodlines. You have the game on a mature Sim. Why? Because it is a mature Role Playing game and meets Second Life’s requirements for a Mature Sim. Otherwise wouldn’t you have the Sim set as a G Sim if it was a game for everyone of every age?
In your second paragraph you then stated that bloodlines welcomes all ages. You cant have that both ways. Its either an open game to all (which means changing the rating of the Sim and changing the game) or leaving it as a mature game.
Also, by leaving the clans to chose which age they will accept into their own clans means that someone will have to monitor those clans with underage consumers. It is a mature game set with the mature rating of second life’s terms of service. If the individual does not met the criteria of being on a mature account then they should not be allowed in to a mature role playing game. By what you said Mars, your willing to open up a mature game to anyone who is willing to pay for the HUD and give it to any aged person as long as your HUD are being sold. that’s fine. I can understand how wanting to make a profit would entice a person to lower their standards of something they developed and created in order to pay the bills.
There are those of us that prefer to stay in a adult game where only adults participate. having minors involved with bloodlines is not only changing the way the game can be played but will also leave some adults open for undesirable situations with minors.
In order for the clans to accept the minors into their clans they will also have to relocate their castles and abide by the Second Life terms of user agreements for Sim ratings. According to the user agreement for the ages of minors they will need to remove pose balls, sexual content, violence and many other items too numerous to mention but you can read it on the Second Life web page under Sim rules and regulations.
If you are going to be changing this game into a G rated game, the cost of moving and restructuring is not something that most of us are interested in doing. Enough money has been spent in creating and building our clans and Sims that many of us will refuse to pay for anything more in this game.
Bottom line Mars, Bloodlines is a mature game sold on a mature site made for adults. If your going to incorporate children then you need to go back to your drawing board and revamp the game to accommodate everyone.
Cordially,
Zeus Fingerpin
January 25th, 2011 at 9:22 am
Zeus – Your argument is based on the idea that Bloodlines was designed as a “mature” RP system. As one of the creators, I think I am uniquely qualified to state that no, it wasn’t.
Bloodlines was designed to allow as many RP options as possible. We steered away from any particular mythology because we recognized that some people want to RP that they’re in Underworld, and some people want to RP being in Victorian England. Somewhere in SL, if there’s a clan of genderless robot vampire bunny rabbits, we are happy to provide them the tools for RP.
Ergo, Bloodlines was not designed to only be “mature”. There is nothing in the items, artwork, or documentation of Bloodlines that a teen can’t see in a movie theater, unattended by an adult. Furthermore, the maturity rating of the sim has nothing to do with the intended maturity of the gameplay. The primary reason for rules on our official sims is that we want people to be able to shop and learn about the game without being griefed or hassled.
Do mature things happen in RP? Sure. But they occur on sims owned by individual players and clan leaders – who are, contrary to what you’re saying, obviously the most qualified to be policing what goes on in individual clans. If Bloodlines was tasked with invading every single clan castle to root out this or that type of player, we would have no time to manage the game or create updates.
Don’t want teens in your clan? Fine, use the Minion ban settings in your HUD. Don’t want teens on your property? Use the ban settings on your land. Rather than Bloodlines take away RP options for everyone in SL just because one clan leader doesn’t want a certain type of player around, it makes much, much more sense for individual clan leaders to set their own rules, and police them.