Conquer - Interactions: Hypocrisy beyond normality

 

A few months ago, Conquer became a more romantic place due to interactions. There was a time when people were so anxious about it that every few seconds you would have received an invitation to be kissed, hugged or to hold hands. I think each of us can remember those days (either with fondness or fear). However, it was nice knowing the game became more real… and we could express our love with the people we actually cared about.

Unfortunately many of the interactions available in Conquer have now been removed, even though all they would have expressed was LOVE, something that Conquer could only express via marriage until then.

 I know there have been many threads about trying to get the Interactions back. However, the hypocrisy of their removal in the first place has only been noted in a few of these threads. Therefore here I will present to you just how hypocritical both the staff of TQ and the parents of players were by asking to restrict interactions to what they deem to be appropriate.

 

 

 “Parents whose children play the game are very concerned interactions can be seen by their kids and they consider it inappropriate.” - CO Staff.

 This statement is true in and we can all understand parents’ concern. In the following paragraphs I will try to show some things parents should have been worried about before interactions or what parents should actually have a look at now, if they are really concerned about their kids and what do they see in the game.

1.  Conquer and all other TQ games are meant to be for players who are 18 years of age or older.

 Parents accepted, when agreeing to the ToS, that their kids might see inappropriate content, violence and offensive behaviors while playing the game. They accepted the potential for violence and themes of a sexual nature in order to even log in for the first time. Therefore, they were warned.  Yet, now that people are actually “making out” on their screen they act as if they didn’t expect that it would happen, deeming it an outrage unfit for their children. That is not the game or the companies’ fault. Parents can’t seriously expect this game to be as kid-friendly as Neopets, can they?

It’s also worth noting that it’s not the companies’ fault for how players use or abuse the interactions given to them. That’s just another aspect of a game targeted for and played by an adult crowd.

2.  If violence is tolerated, why wouldn't love be?

Every day in Conquer we see so much content related to killing people: Weekly and Monthly PK(which stands for Player-Killing, if parents weren’t already aware of that) Tournaments, Class based PK tournaments and Guild War, to name a few well-known in-game events. Even the simplest aspects of the game -hunting and leveling- require that the player kills monsters, which often seep blood upon death. Yet, according to parents, this is perfectly fine for their children while mildly sexual demonstrations of love are not. Parents did not complain to TQ when their children were relentlessly pked or were able to see a massive slaughter, but they can’t stop talking about when their child was ASKED if they would like to be kissed (as all interactions needed permission from both parties in order to occur) or when they saw someone else kissing on their screen. Why is it that parents would rather their child see and experience violence and killing rather than mildly sexual expressions of love? It seems like some standards of parenting should be re-considered.

 

3.  Are vulgar vocabulary and insults kids see AND use in the game perfectly acceptable?

 So those parents obviously care about what their children see and do, right? They would most likely not want to encourage their kid to scream, call names, curse, or wish death on someone, especially not for something as simple and meaningless as a game. However, the CO player base encourages just such behaviors via implementation of said techniques to get what they desire or punish those who refuse to give in to their desires. Children can very easily learn insults from this game, even multilingual ones such as “kosomk” (which for the parent’s sake I will not translate here). Although I’m sure learning new languages is a plus, isn’t it something more troublesome than seeing a passionate kiss?

4.  Racism- Why are interactions more of an issue than the promotion of Racial Hatred?

I’m sure all parents who play the game or see it played are aware of the growing issue of racism within CO. I can almost guarantee that there is at least one loathed ethnic group on every server. Once again, CO offers the warned children and their parents’ free education in racial stereotyping and hatred of those who are different than themselves. Even the lovely parent-oriented language filter cannot obscure that.

5.  Conquer tends to become a very addicting game and nearly requires money to become enjoyable.

It is not our business how much time parents’ permit their kids to stay in front of the computer. However, for those who need a reminder, staying in front of the PC more than 2 hours a day is NOT healthy. Studies proved it (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15875758). The addictive nature of CO also leads to another issue- the willingness to spend money to gain an advantage. As parents may have discovered, there are individuals who have stolen or even gone into debt for this game. I myself have heard of several cases where children have taken their parent’s credit cards to buy DBs. Obviously this does not always occur and some children earn their TQ point cards with allowance or good grades. In this game hacking or scamming is very likely and there is a definite chance for children to lose all that they have earned to another greedy player. Perhaps, wouldn't a vacation or some cloths represent a better way to spend that money? Parents, please beware if you are not already. These facts matter a lot more than some pixels kissing.

6.  Conquer is a fantasy game and you are ok with it.

 Are you Christian or believe in Jesus Christ? Well, I know I am a bit absurd, but there are materials in the game which you should have a look at: Taoists inquire magic, spells and rituals. Blaze and Inferno skills are in fact showing the pentagram, an occult sign. Promotions inquire promoting a character to the rank of a “God”. Another good example would represent the second RB Quest where players have to complete the entire quest just to summon Satan. So tell me, don't you consider those things a bit OCCULT? Maybe you haven’t realized it yet?

 I also recall there was a quest with vampires, or count Dracula for Halloween. Let’s not mention other Chinese stuff there was in game, and although you might be Christian, you were cool with them. Those are fantasy things; still you didn’t act like this in their cases. Where were you when those have been implemented? I know, it’s just how the game is, but you were absurd too!

 

 

7.  TQ Staff was there to take away the interactions, but what is it doing right now?

Parents said that some interactions expressing love were inappropriate, but what have they said about a few articles posted by TQ staff in which they present a couple of beautiful girls, with no attempt to confirm that they are 18, showing their “beauty” ? Maybe TQ has the right to do it, but isn’t this just as offensive, if not more so, than the inappropriate interactions? Are potentially underage women presented in pin-up style photographs any less terrible? And yet several “beauty shows” have been held and are easily viewable while the old interactions were removed from the sight of the innocent children.

 TQ's defence of their “beauty shows”?

"The only intention of the show is to provide a platform for all the people who play TQ Games to show their personalities and build a friendship between each other. "

Oh yeah? Really? And how often do they check all the sexual oriented comments visitors post on those girls’ photos or how do they feel about it? I wonder if they realize that the “friendship building” activity they created only encourages crude comments and references to sexual activity. With their contest, they have converted CO into a dating site without an age limit, with no friendships to be seen. And, because TQ continues to host such shows, they advocate such crude behavior and open sexuality.

Do you want the proof?

 

Yes, you’ve done this TQ.  This beautiful girl has had 110000+ views on one uploaded photo and at least a few thousand comments. Just think how many comments she had to deal with, considering how many photos she has uploaded, and how many you have spotlighted. Being called in so many ways, being threatened, insulted and asked to divulge personal stuff to your players, to teen players - this is your creation. And you didn’t even ask her. What’s more important, you don’t even care/manage the comments or act in a way to change how things go around at the moment. And you say the interactions were inappropriate where as your sites contain such material? Lame…

Claiming you protect kids and listen to parent’s feedback on a subject that is much more normal than any of the things stated above is pure hypocrisy from both sides. Contest this all you want, but the truth of the situation sadly remains.

 It’s okay - don’t bring interactions back! Let kids learn how to swear, how to kill, how to watch and hook up with girls on the internet, because that’s somehow more appropriate. I hope parents become more aware of the dangers within the game that they allow their children to experience. I hope they will meditate on these subjects if they still decide to allow them to play it.

I hope that my little rant has made everyone more aware of the situation in CO and on the TQ website. I am not demanding that parents ban their kids from playing this game, or even that parent’s are bad for allowing their children to play this game (I’m sure there are some that help their children cope with what they experience and combat the negative influences found on the site and in-game). All I mean to say is that there are far more things that parents should concern themselves with than the old interaction system.

 

Article written and inspired by Techno.

Special thanks for her dedication, ideas and support goes to Caligirl.