MinnesotaShouldBeInCanada

Sorry late to the thread.

I died wandering around naked in a blizzard after botching what should have been a quick twitch stream to my buddy to show him the game. He wanted to see the bow in action so I dropped literally everything - including my clothes - and headed out - to ultimate death.

All on the ~90 day game I was playing exclusively with my kids. I felt terrible, especially the sheer negligence. This was our first full game together outside of quick-death starts.

20 minutes ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

Thanks for the thoughts. I have kids too -- they were too young to play TLD when we were first working on it, and honestly are still too young considering the rating. I would never tell another parent how to parent. All I can say is I have an obligation to call out the game's rating. I only bring it up because in general the game content is designed with a Teen+ audience in mind (I would say the story is more mature than even that, but from the ESRB or PEGI's points of view the game is a T (13) in NA and a 16 in Europe). 

All that said, each parent needs to decide for themselves what is appropriate for their children. I've seen a lot of people over the years commenting on playing with their children, and it's heartwarming to think that it could be an experience shared with kids. (I play Minecraft, Splatoon, PvZ:GW2, etc. with mine). How mods can make the experience more "family friendly" is honestly not something I've considered, as I tend to think of our audience as being skewed on the older side. I appreciate the perspective.

Holy cow, i actually didn't know that it was rated that high. We only play Survival and the worst we hear is the character saying "Damn" at times. We live rural and embedded in hunting-friendly families, so maybe it's about guns? Or maybe Story mode has something. Honestly, this is the tamest game we've EVER FOUND to play with them, especially relative to other games my oldest asks about (and doesn't get). Also, many of these survival games seem to have zombies or other unnatural things that just don't cut it for us. Again, I think your vision is out there and embraced - despite it not being complete. I have started (and let go of) many organizations in my life (I'm nearly 50) and it's never easy giving up that control or even seeing things change. I am hopeful there's something constructive that comes out of this, not one-way, but with the community. I am finally able to post about this without fear of being banned so that's nice. :)

All said, THANK YOU for giving us some great family time in a lovely world.

6 hours ago, kristaok said:

@MinnesotaShouldBeInCanada I know your children are young, but don't doubt them that they can learn quick. I been gaming since I was a young child, probably around 5 give or take? and yes attention spans are short, heck mine still is lol! but kids are smarter than we give them credit for. Your 4 yr old might take a little longer to be patient without the Mods, but I am sure your 7 year old may be able to handle this. Or what you could do until Mod Support rolls around, you could play and they could watch you.  

Thank you but please do not make assumptions about my kids capabilities or build expectations based on your own experience/life. I give all the credit in the world to them and their accomplisments. That's all I'm going to say about this personal situation.

I created an account to share my story. Thanks for allowing this conversation in the forum.

It's been clear mods are not sanctioned, but honestly my kids can't wait 2 years for mod support. They are 4 and 7 and LOVE this game right now. As do I. For the past 6 months, I've use the mods to help them access the game (esp the 4 year old) while I stick vanilla. The kids just don't have the nuanced understanding of the game - nor patience/dexterity - so I use mods to move easier on terrain (sprains), place things in the house and on the ground (stacking), remove and to speed up the game (faster searching) among others. 

Just know this game got played by us quite a bit this past winter, sitting all together it was a blast to play TLD in the morning while a blizzard is raging outside IRL. 

I know you say the game hasn't gotten to meet your vision yet, but in our eyes, the game is already there. It's so unlike any other game and we all love it for a variety of reasons. The challenge. The exploration. The struggle. The blood curdling scream from the kids as they go running away from the game when faced with a surprise bear. Or the "WE FOUND A BOW!" as they go running upstairs to tell mom about a new find. 

We see your vision every day and we LOVE it. This is all a journey. I look forward to the day you allow the mods to work again.
Thanks for the experience.