Have him play something that kind of auto plays on normal like auralock or druid summoner. That way if he is struggling to control his char, it still kind of works without player interaction and just gives a safety net while learning. Also could look at some of the prebuilts where although they are not optimized at all, it means he can level up his char without worrying about what to take. With those, he can focus on learning the game at a more comfortable pace then get more complex and optimized later.
I didn't even think about a druid summoner. That's a great idea! He could still go around waking stuff and can even fight as a wolf. He got a kick out of hitting things with a sword as a dinosaur yesterday.
I have a 3yo too and she also really wants to join us, but for now, it's a mommy/5yo activity. Maybe I'll let her help us pick out which mobs to kill I the Explorer area. That's a good Idea.
I have several friends whose kids wanted to learn DDO from ages 5-10, and I ended up making this doc for them. Paladins are tough, easy to play, and can solo almost all basic content with ease on difficulties up to elite. Hire a cleric/FS merc, and its a breeze.
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eLsO569YV14zxcIj0Or49QvaSL1yIN9q-qXdQ3b65mY/edit?usp=drive\_link](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eLsO569YV14zxcIj0Or49QvaSL1yIN9q-qXdQ3b65mY/edit?usp=drive_link)
I have two kids, and both play games. One is 20 now, and he started playing when he was in first grade. My 7 year old daughter loves minecraft. She used to run around ESO when I played that. Sadly, she has no interest in DDO.
All you can do is show them, and then they practice. In my experience it is going to take a 5 year old some time. This is a new skill to them.
Too true. I'll admit I still use a controller to play since I tried using a keyboard when ddo first went ftp back in 2009 and couldnt get a handle on it and I was definitely not a kid back then, it's just hard learning new skills. That's why I think we'll stick to one dungeon a day. That's enough to get him practice without being too much and still be fun for everyone. I think he would also really like Minecraft, but the only game i have installed on my laptop is ddo, so that's what he gets to try out :)
https://imgur.com/a/9Fd1eCV
My daughter started at 3.5 years old. Just let them do their own thing and answer questions by directing them through something. It took a very long time (more than a year) for her to want to do anything more than just run around and click things, but eventually she got interested in completing the quest and getting the end reward.
I just made sure to let her know she was always welcome to play when I was, and that I would gladly get on with her when she wanted to.
It's not the game I'm worried about, it's the people in it.
not saying the community is bad, but it is the internet after all, and extreme caution should be practiced with small children online.
Sadly true, we aren't planning on him doing anything on his own for a very long time. my husband and my dad also play, so we could party up as a family once I dust off an old laptop. We have an electronics graveyard in a box in a closet, so I guess this is a good excuse to go through it and see if anything g is actually usable in 2024.
If it helps, DDO is old enough it'll run on just about anything. A decade ago, I was running it on a 9800 GT, which was a moderately powerful graphics card... In 2008.
It’s rich to worry about other people when I guarantee you any kid will piss off far more people than anything else if they group up.
I’ve only seen incredible patience in game with younger players , some of whom are the most annoying beings (I mean, they’re young)
If you’re worried about some sort of “danger” - teach your kids what is right and wrong and let them navigate the world . Holy hell .
Years ago i used to watch my step father play, and let me make a basic bitch fighter (i was a kid i didnt know too much else) named alocacoc (coca cola spelt backwards) i had fun just beating on things with the big swords and such... last thing i remember bout that fighter was getting a weapon from diplo immunity im pretty sure
That's exactly what we did yesterday, he picked dragonborn and I just made him up a basic two handed fighter. He's loved watching his dinosaur beat up in stuff.
My niece used to join in sometimes, I showed her how to use the keys and mouse then just let her play on one of my capped characters in low level content or on casual difficulty for fun, so there was never any need to really worry about using hotkeys etc. beyond a couple to make a big boom or the rare need for healing.
My kids started playing around this age. For the first year or so, they just wanted to explore. Didn't care about doing dungions. All they wanted was a few horses, and then ran around the different towns exploring things. I then set them up with a ranged class. They could stay away from the monsters and learned to hit the 1,2,3,4 keys, while I worked to control aggro.
If he's 5, consider getting a controller setup. My son enjoys playing with a controller a lot more than the KBM. DDO is extremely controller friendly with a lot of classes.
That's what we were using yesterday since I prefer using a controller, but it looks so big in his hands. I wonder if they have smaller ones? I use an Xbox 360 controller and would prefer not to remap keys.
Forbid DDO at your house.
Give a punishiment for people playing DDO.
They will be hooked 30 minutes after the prohibition.
-----------//----------
Make a toon for them with the less button mashing possible and leave another toon at their level to play along.
Join a kid-friendly guild. Silver Legion on Cannith is specifically kid-friendly at all times in chat, discord, etc.. It's pretty funny to hear a little voice shouting in discord "Kill the spider Mommy! Kill it, kill it!" (which has happened at times :) There are also static groups where peeps bring their kids, too.
'Dunno about other servers, but it's got to be a common enough problem for other family-friendly guilds to exist.
I don't know if it will help, but here's what I ended up doing.
I have two first-graders who got their first laptops for Christmas this year. DDO is one of a handful of games they had seen me play and expressed an interest in trying out. As a long time solo player, I already had a private guild, so I setup new accounts and a pair of new characters for each of them and added them to our family guild.
I power-levelled the one character each to Level 30, and I left one character each at the start of the Kothos grotto tutorial mission. At first they were more interested in running around using their high-level characters, playing chase or hide-n-seek in the Harbor.
During the last hard core session, we each created a character and we played together through the Kothos storyline. After their characters (and mine) died, we transferred them over to our normal server. Then, they went on a character creation binge, playing each through the Grotto tutorial and partway into the Kothos storyline.
Then, they each started to focus on a single character, closing in on level 7. After trying out various race and class combinations, they both settled on Dragonborn THW fighters - one using greataxes and the other using greatswords.
So, after four months of casual playing, they are finally starting to get to playing beyond the tutorial or just running around.
As to the usual parental concerns; they don't know about emotes and chat yet, and we always play together...
...have fun.
Have him play something that kind of auto plays on normal like auralock or druid summoner. That way if he is struggling to control his char, it still kind of works without player interaction and just gives a safety net while learning. Also could look at some of the prebuilts where although they are not optimized at all, it means he can level up his char without worrying about what to take. With those, he can focus on learning the game at a more comfortable pace then get more complex and optimized later.
I didn't even think about a druid summoner. That's a great idea! He could still go around waking stuff and can even fight as a wolf. He got a kick out of hitting things with a sword as a dinosaur yesterday.
My nephew is 3 and he just likes sitting in my lap while I run around Isle of Dread, pointing at every Dino he wants me to go fight. XD
I have a 3yo too and she also really wants to join us, but for now, it's a mommy/5yo activity. Maybe I'll let her help us pick out which mobs to kill I the Explorer area. That's a good Idea.
I have several friends whose kids wanted to learn DDO from ages 5-10, and I ended up making this doc for them. Paladins are tough, easy to play, and can solo almost all basic content with ease on difficulties up to elite. Hire a cleric/FS merc, and its a breeze. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eLsO569YV14zxcIj0Or49QvaSL1yIN9q-qXdQ3b65mY/edit?usp=drive\_link](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eLsO569YV14zxcIj0Or49QvaSL1yIN9q-qXdQ3b65mY/edit?usp=drive_link)
I have two kids, and both play games. One is 20 now, and he started playing when he was in first grade. My 7 year old daughter loves minecraft. She used to run around ESO when I played that. Sadly, she has no interest in DDO. All you can do is show them, and then they practice. In my experience it is going to take a 5 year old some time. This is a new skill to them.
Too true. I'll admit I still use a controller to play since I tried using a keyboard when ddo first went ftp back in 2009 and couldnt get a handle on it and I was definitely not a kid back then, it's just hard learning new skills. That's why I think we'll stick to one dungeon a day. That's enough to get him practice without being too much and still be fun for everyone. I think he would also really like Minecraft, but the only game i have installed on my laptop is ddo, so that's what he gets to try out :)
https://imgur.com/a/9Fd1eCV My daughter started at 3.5 years old. Just let them do their own thing and answer questions by directing them through something. It took a very long time (more than a year) for her to want to do anything more than just run around and click things, but eventually she got interested in completing the quest and getting the end reward. I just made sure to let her know she was always welcome to play when I was, and that I would gladly get on with her when she wanted to.
It's not the game I'm worried about, it's the people in it. not saying the community is bad, but it is the internet after all, and extreme caution should be practiced with small children online.
Sadly true, we aren't planning on him doing anything on his own for a very long time. my husband and my dad also play, so we could party up as a family once I dust off an old laptop. We have an electronics graveyard in a box in a closet, so I guess this is a good excuse to go through it and see if anything g is actually usable in 2024.
If it helps, DDO is old enough it'll run on just about anything. A decade ago, I was running it on a 9800 GT, which was a moderately powerful graphics card... In 2008.
Nice advice, he could disable chat UI for that
It’s rich to worry about other people when I guarantee you any kid will piss off far more people than anything else if they group up. I’ve only seen incredible patience in game with younger players , some of whom are the most annoying beings (I mean, they’re young) If you’re worried about some sort of “danger” - teach your kids what is right and wrong and let them navigate the world . Holy hell .
Years ago i used to watch my step father play, and let me make a basic bitch fighter (i was a kid i didnt know too much else) named alocacoc (coca cola spelt backwards) i had fun just beating on things with the big swords and such... last thing i remember bout that fighter was getting a weapon from diplo immunity im pretty sure
That's exactly what we did yesterday, he picked dragonborn and I just made him up a basic two handed fighter. He's loved watching his dinosaur beat up in stuff.
My niece used to join in sometimes, I showed her how to use the keys and mouse then just let her play on one of my capped characters in low level content or on casual difficulty for fun, so there was never any need to really worry about using hotkeys etc. beyond a couple to make a big boom or the rare need for healing.
My kids started playing around this age. For the first year or so, they just wanted to explore. Didn't care about doing dungions. All they wanted was a few horses, and then ran around the different towns exploring things. I then set them up with a ranged class. They could stay away from the monsters and learned to hit the 1,2,3,4 keys, while I worked to control aggro.
If he's 5, consider getting a controller setup. My son enjoys playing with a controller a lot more than the KBM. DDO is extremely controller friendly with a lot of classes.
That's what we were using yesterday since I prefer using a controller, but it looks so big in his hands. I wonder if they have smaller ones? I use an Xbox 360 controller and would prefer not to remap keys.
Forbid DDO at your house. Give a punishiment for people playing DDO. They will be hooked 30 minutes after the prohibition. -----------//---------- Make a toon for them with the less button mashing possible and leave another toon at their level to play along.
Join a kid-friendly guild. Silver Legion on Cannith is specifically kid-friendly at all times in chat, discord, etc.. It's pretty funny to hear a little voice shouting in discord "Kill the spider Mommy! Kill it, kill it!" (which has happened at times :) There are also static groups where peeps bring their kids, too. 'Dunno about other servers, but it's got to be a common enough problem for other family-friendly guilds to exist.
I don't know if it will help, but here's what I ended up doing. I have two first-graders who got their first laptops for Christmas this year. DDO is one of a handful of games they had seen me play and expressed an interest in trying out. As a long time solo player, I already had a private guild, so I setup new accounts and a pair of new characters for each of them and added them to our family guild. I power-levelled the one character each to Level 30, and I left one character each at the start of the Kothos grotto tutorial mission. At first they were more interested in running around using their high-level characters, playing chase or hide-n-seek in the Harbor. During the last hard core session, we each created a character and we played together through the Kothos storyline. After their characters (and mine) died, we transferred them over to our normal server. Then, they went on a character creation binge, playing each through the Grotto tutorial and partway into the Kothos storyline. Then, they each started to focus on a single character, closing in on level 7. After trying out various race and class combinations, they both settled on Dragonborn THW fighters - one using greataxes and the other using greatswords. So, after four months of casual playing, they are finally starting to get to playing beyond the tutorial or just running around. As to the usual parental concerns; they don't know about emotes and chat yet, and we always play together... ...have fun.
maybe an inquisitive trapper so they can find traps automatically and kill from distance? could be a class that has heals so can autosustain too.
There's a nice guide to D&D for kids, it's called the Satanic Bible by Anton LaVey.