Timmy. You've all met him. He and his ilk are the scourge of Xbox Live. But what can be done about it? Azuredreams thinks we've seen the enemy, and the enemy is us.
There was a time when a chorus of, “Tag! You’re it!” echoed throughout every neighborhood in the country. The smell of hotdogs and the crack of the bat were greeted by the thunderous sound of children at play. Everyone knew it was summer time. Now, the sounds of traditional warm weather activities such as street hockey and wiffleball have been replaced by mouse clicks and echoes of controller-wielding “Timmies” spouting their racial slurs.
We’ve all been assaulted some way or another by a Timmy during a favorite online game. Our first knee-jerk reaction may be to blame the parents for these outbursts. Perhaps the responsibility lies solely upon the shoulders of little Timmy? Sure you can mute them. But if you took the time to mute every loud mouth kid on Live, you’d wear out your thumbs. Here at 2old2play tout a community unlike any other seen in gaming, and our members are a good place to start to ask the tough questions about this all too common problem.
With the big melt rapidly approaching, what responsibilities do older gamers have to help balance the digital and real worlds of our children?
A Timmy Starts at Home
Back in the 70’s and 80’s when I was growing up, many families where facing the prospect of becoming two-income homes. The television started to take the place of babysitter as mothers left home to help support the household. Latch-key kids became more commonplace and what many consider to be basic American morals and values began to decline. How many 2old2players would talk to their mom or dad the way Timmy talks to his today? In my case I not only would have been unable to sit for a week, but my console would have been scrap metal in the trash. Now that dual income families are the norm, the $10,000 question is: “who is watching Timmy?”We are.
Timmy comes home from school, fires up the Xbox and drops into a world in which the Xbox Live community becomes the virtual babysitter. Timmy’s guardians are at work, or simply don’t care enough to check on Timmy when he's spewing hate-filled tirades upon any and all unfortunate enough to have to listen to him. Even more disappointing is when you hear foul-mouth junior abusing his parent while playing.
If your child’s Xbox Live gamer tag is “Cocksickle94” or “Crackakilla,” you aren’t paying enough attention. Children are flooding the mature gaming markets at an alarming rate. They give the media ammunition in its crusade against our beloved hobby, and an excuse to every psycho kid who blows away his classmates. If the parents were doing their jobs at home, I wouldn’t have to listen to an 8-year-old scream in my ear as I sit down to relax with a WWII shooter; nor would I feel self-conscious about telling someone I’m a gamer. The unattended and under-educated kids of Xbox Live are systematically destroying the integrity of our hobby. If you’ve ever taken the time to actually read any of the profiles of these kids, it’s frightening. Their parents are either too inept or uninformed to allow these things to go unchecked.
If you’re a parent and a member of 2old2play, you probably already know what precautions to take where videogames are concerned. However, I am providing a small list of what I believe is the family’s responsibility in making sure their child’s online persona is an acceptable one. Pass this on to your friends who may not know as much as you or I.
1) Know your child’s account information. His account name and password should be known to you and the account should be checked often -- not only for his bad behavior, but for the behavior of others such as internet stalkers, pedophiles and the like. Regardless of what Timmy thinks of you invading his privacy, it’s for his own good. Besides, you’re the parent. It’s not only your right to keep check on these things, but your responsibility.
2) The “Family Settings” are on the console for a reason. Use them.
Here are the instructions on how to do so, straight from Xbox.com:
You can limit the type of content played on the Xbox video game system based on the ESRB rating level. By default, the Xbox video game system is set to play all content. You can select separate parental control levels for games and DVD movies. To play DVD movies on the Xbox video game system, you need the Xbox DVD Movie Playback Kit (sold separately).
To change the level of content that can be played:
1. Turn on the Xbox console with no disc in the disc tray.
2. Select Settings, then select Parental Control, and then select Games.
3. Select the new level: All, M (mature), T (teen), E (everyone), K-A (kids to adults), EC (early childhood), or None.
4. The Xbox will play games and DVD movies that are rated at or below the selected level. For example, if the selected level is T, games rated T, E, K-A, and EC can play. If you choose any level other than ALL, you must select a pass code.
3) Know who your kids are interacting with online. The family settings on the console can prevent your kids from getting anything from anyone you don’t approve of beforehand. This is an invaluable resource. Sadly, not many parents seem to know or care about these controls enough to use them.
The Role of Xbox Live
As stated above Microsoft has already supplied “Family Settings” for the Xbox 360. This is a start. However, conventional logic tells us that for every user banned from their service, that’s $50 a year that MS loses in revenue. Hence, no matter how many times you file complaints on Timmy and his band of hyenas, odds are he won’t be permanently removed. Ultimately a business’s responsibility is to its share holders. So what can we do, short of a boycott, to get them to take action?Simple. Get involved and be vigilant. If your favorite game is plagued by the likes of Timmy and his gang, take it to the Xbox forums and tell them. If nothing is done, fire off an email to the game’s producers and creators. We don’t have to sit back and take the abuse; let them know that if things aren’t done to try and weed out the undesirables, you’ll take your gaming dollars elsewhere. You never know you may even get some apologetic swag out of the deal. And then there’s always keeping www.2old2play.com as your favorite bookmark.
The Role of the Older Gamer
Even though they may not be our children screaming in our ears, it’s still the role of the gaming pioneers to pull Timmy aside and encourage him to mend his erroneous ways. I’m sure we’re all guilty of snapping back at some little kid who pushed our button once too often, but hopefully most of us keep these instances at a minimum. If we step up and say something, how do you state it tactfully sans insults or sounding like you’re lecturing them?As older gamers and representatives of this site, we should strive to conduct ourselves accordingly at all times. We diminish whatever rights we do have to complain about how Timmy is acting if we are whining and complaining about being killed or “pwned” ourselves. We also diminish the reputation of this site as a whole. We all know age doesn’t stop someone from being a Timmy, so we should quickly confront those of our ranks who spew obscenities and otherwise act like a Timmy while sporting a 2o2p website or clan moniker in their profile. We reflect upon each other and perhaps the best way we can effect change in the younger gamer is to lead by example. Sure, everyone gets angry at a heated game of Halo or COD, but that’s why god invented the mute button. We should learn to use it more often.
When I was growing up I wasn’t even allowed in the house until dinner time during the summer. There’s just something intangible about dirt underneath your fingernails and a squirt gun battle on the front lawn. These activities are becoming conspicuously absent in the age of the cell phone and instant messages. Why would a kid want to go out and kick a can or ride their bikes when they can experience the visceral thrills of Max Payne or being Tony Hawk on the half-pipe?
With gaming becoming a more accepted hobby for all ages, parents and gamers alike need to make a more concerted effort to strike a balance between indoor and outdoor activities for the younger generation. By no means am I condemning gaming for children. I have two children who game and they’re properly monitored while doing so. I make sure they are out doing physical activities for at least 60 minutes a day and their gaming time is limited to a few hours a night after all of the school work and chores are done.
The online community will never be rid of the troublesome Timmy, but with a little effort from home, Xbox Live, and this community, we can diminish their numbers.
