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Post by Lavie on Dec 11, 2016 22:39:48 GMT
Hello everyone!
So I've decided we will be a more "mature" pet-site game.
Our theme is mythical beasts, and reading through the countless articles written about these beasts, a lot of it is very violent or perverse in nature. Other petsites that have legendary beasts like dragons, gryphons, mermaids, etc have either ignored their history or made it more innocent. With Beast Summoners, I want to stay true to these creatures' origins and dispositions as much as possible. Of course we will have a mix of creatures that are more benevolent like unicorns and such, but when summoning these creatures, many will have some pretty weird, disturbing, or just plain funny items needed in order to do so.
Take the Inugami for example. In Japanese mythology, a starved dog must be severed of its head in order to summon the "inugami" spirit. So, don't be surprised when you see dog heads dropping from the Item Drop page... As of today, actually LOL.
Another example is the unicorn. Unicorns were said to only appear for women who were virgins. So you may one day see a weird item like "virgin's hair" or something.
If any of this freaks you out or you can no longer play because you don't condone violence or anything, I apologize. This game may not be for you then. Even if this causes anyone to leave, I appreciate everyone who has played and tested things out so far. And as for the rest, I hope you enjoy the new items! ;P
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Post by Manewa on Dec 11, 2016 22:44:38 GMT
Oh, finally someone makes this decision! As a major fan of old legends I couldn't be happier. These smoothed out stereotypes are nice for sure, but there's still that something in the original legends. I can't wait to see where this goes to
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Post by Lavie on Dec 11, 2016 22:52:22 GMT
Oh, finally someone makes this decision! As a major fan of old legends I couldn't be happier. These smoothed out stereotypes are nice for sure, but there's still that something in the original legends. I can't wait to see where this goes to Yay, I'm excited too! <3
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Post by Thornes on Dec 12, 2016 7:46:50 GMT
Sounds pretty cool! What's your minimum age around here though? If you're going to add mature content, I'm not quite sure if you can have 13 year olds running around here? (: But yes I am very content that someone finally chose to do this! Even though I'm not quite mature yet(only a few days until I'm 18 wooh!) but still, this sounds really nice to finally have something that does not sugarcoat the legends and all the different creatures!
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Post by Lavie on Dec 14, 2016 4:33:28 GMT
Sounds pretty cool! What's your minimum age around here though? If you're going to add mature content, I'm not quite sure if you can have 13 year olds running around here? (: But yes I am very content that someone finally chose to do this! Even though I'm not quite mature yet(only a few days until I'm 18 wooh!) but still, this sounds really nice to finally have something that does not sugarcoat the legends and all the different creatures! Yea, I'm not sure if we would be considered T or M on the game rating scale. And if T for teen, does that include 13 or 16 year olds as the minimum? Lol I'm gonna have to research heavily into this. I think for now I will rate us M to be safe.
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Post by Thornes on Dec 14, 2016 12:05:58 GMT
Sounds pretty cool! What's your minimum age around here though? If you're going to add mature content, I'm not quite sure if you can have 13 year olds running around here? (: But yes I am very content that someone finally chose to do this! Even though I'm not quite mature yet(only a few days until I'm 18 wooh!) but still, this sounds really nice to finally have something that does not sugarcoat the legends and all the different creatures! Yea, I'm not sure if we would be considered T or M on the game rating scale. And if T for teen, does that include 13 or 16 year olds as the minimum? Lol I'm gonna have to research heavily into this. I think for now I will rate us M to be safe. You are definitely going to have to do some research on that eventually! (: Good luck with that, I have no clue, not that familiar with ratings. Rating the site M for now seems to be safe enough yes!
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Post by Holtzmann on Dec 17, 2016 22:03:10 GMT
I have to say that I was a little disturbed when I saw the severed dog head, but I love that you're not shying away from the brutal aspect of the mythology.
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Post by Lavie on Dec 18, 2016 23:26:54 GMT
I have to say that I was a little disturbed when I saw the severed dog head, but I love that you're not shying away from the brutal aspect of the mythology. Lol, yes! Glad you like! ^^
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Magdalena
New Member
Let's be bad guys.
Posts: 43
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Post by Magdalena on Jan 23, 2017 11:25:20 GMT
I -love- the idea that the darker and less kid-friendly aspects of mythology will be preserved here! I don't think I can express that enough. Too often is the accurate nature of a beast or monster's mythology watered down or 'cutesy-ified' to make it more acceptable for younger ages. While I fully understand the reasoning behind that move, as a lot of pet sites are targeted towards a younger audience, it kind of detracts from the original story. To be honest, what drew me in to this place was the inugami sprite I saw. I'm a fiction writer, and I delight in horror, dark themes and the weird & macabre, so being inclusive of the darker aspects of original mythology is a major bonus in my eyes!
Pertaining to the age considerations, I have no idea where the balance is. I tend to look to film adaptations to gauge these things. For instance, Neil Gaiman's story 'Coraline' was adapted to a film, both with a target demographic being younger audiences. While there wasn't anything particularly graphic, the themes in the story ran pretty dark at times (I don't want to spoil anything so I won't go too far in to details.) and the film, if I recall, is rated at PG. The 'Watership Down' adaptation was also marketed for kids, albeit back before content was as scrutinized as it is today, and I know for a fact that film traumatized a fair few children!
I think you need to consider just how deep into the mythology you want to go, as far as content/lore and art are considered. It's one thing to have it listed in lore, if we use the inugami again, that a starving dog's head must be severed. But it's a different can of worms entirely if you show a starved dog's head being severed. I think the manner in which something is presented, either realistically graphic or in a more stylized way (such as your site's art, which I loooove!) also determines where the bar will rest. As far as my personal opinions go, I think the way it is presented now (with having components mixed together) would be ok for teens, even as low as 13. That's my 2-cents!
And by the way, I -adore- the humor in the flavor text (such as for the severed dog head!). I have very quickly fallen in love with this place. C:
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Post by Lavie on Jan 23, 2017 16:31:19 GMT
Ahhh, thank you so much for the kind words! <33 I figure it would be very refreshing to see a site stick to the original lore of beasts, not to mention allowing more mature topics in the forums and being able to talk about certain topics as adults, something a lot of sites don't allow, would be awesome! As for rating, I think the game itself could still get away with a 13+ (Teen) rating. The forums can perhaps be considered a separate entity and will allow more adult themes (topics about violence, sexual content, etc), so it may need to be rated M (17+). We'll see. (: I may need to talk to a legal expert to be sure of everything. Wouldn't want to get sued by an angry parent. xP But welcome, and I hope you enjoy watching the game grow! I will admit it's a little boring right now once you get all the items/crafting combos, but we're getting there. (: I'm really excited to implement our newest features and get started on some more artwork!
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Magdalena
New Member
Let's be bad guys.
Posts: 43
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Post by Magdalena on Jan 23, 2017 17:05:31 GMT
Thank you for the welcome! I'm definitely looking forwards to the new stuff, and to being a part of helping this place grow! Regarding the forums, you could consider having sections separated by age. For instance, certain general areas would be accessible to everyone (like General Discussion, Bug Reports, etc.) and certain areas would only be accessible to people who are 18+, that way you don't need to restrict the entirety of the forums. I have 0 knowledge of coding or anything like that, so I have no idea how difficult an age restriction forum-wide would be to implement, but it's an idea in the least!
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Post by Lavie on Jan 23, 2017 17:15:28 GMT
Magdalena, That's actually a great idea, I didn't think of that! I'll be using that one. (:
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Magdalena
New Member
Let's be bad guys.
Posts: 43
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Post by Magdalena on Jan 23, 2017 17:31:18 GMT
I'd love to take credit for it, but it was something that I've seen implemented on other forums elsewhere, and thought it could work well here given the directions of the game! ^^
It won't be fool proof, since there's the chance some might lie about their age to gain access to the restricted sections, but for the most part it should be a good way of preventing minors from viewing what the shouldn't. Hopefully no lawsuits from angry parents, as well! C:
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