Parental controls are all fine and good, but if he's going to catch up to his friends he's going to need to play a lot more than one would think. It will probably take him around 200 hours or so just to get to level 90, and most players agree the game doesn't even start until then. Not to mention the fact that most players have multiple characters.
Having logged maybe a year or so playtime (!!) in both those games combined, I can tell you that not only are they both very addictive, but the playstyles of both those games require an inordinate amount of time to even be able to attempt to play at a decent skill/gear level. They are both designed to suck as much time out of people's lives as possible. This may be an ok thing for lonely adults, but you're setting yourself up for some major disappointment if you don't put your foot down now. Making him pay for his own subscription sounds good at first look, but you are, in fact, giving him control over something which will in fact control him. Good luck taking away something he feels he rightfully 'owns'. Another issue is the environment of both those games are not good for children. Horrible in fact. You are essentially allowing him to play in a virtual dive bar, with all the crappy people and whatnot that goes with it.
Lastly, that laptop doesn't look like it will run either of those games at an acceptable framerate. Lol's engine is poorly optimized, and will eat most older computers alive - the same goes for WoW, but for different reasons - the engine is sleek, but there's just so much going on at a time that it will crap on your computer when it most matters.
If you want to send your kid into an abusive environment, try sports or something.
I haven't seen or heard of any instances where America has harassed, persecuted, censored, or arrested ANYBODY because of the opinions they expressed online, or the information they spread. This is not the case in China: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China#Arrests [wikipedia]. Why would anybody in their right mind want to give even the smallest bit of control to those whose track records have a history of abuse of power?
Most music has 2 copyrights on it at least: One on the song itself (Notes and lyrics, kind of like source code), and one on the recording of that song (something like the executable compiled from that code.)
The RIAA is only concerned with enforcing the recording copyrights, as their profit comes from selling recorded music. I believe, given a short string of samples drawn at random from any recorded music, it would be extremely unlikely to find a correlation within PI, with the chances decreasing exponentially as the string grows longer.
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I tried that once and scratched my record.
Looks like somebody's suffering from low self esteem.
Parental controls are all fine and good, but if he's going to catch up to his friends he's going to need to play a lot more than one would think. It will probably take him around 200 hours or so just to get to level 90, and most players agree the game doesn't even start until then. Not to mention the fact that most players have multiple characters.
Having logged maybe a year or so playtime (!!) in both those games combined, I can tell you that not only are they both very addictive, but the playstyles of both those games require an inordinate amount of time to even be able to attempt to play at a decent skill/gear level. They are both designed to suck as much time out of people's lives as possible. This may be an ok thing for lonely adults, but you're setting yourself up for some major disappointment if you don't put your foot down now. Making him pay for his own subscription sounds good at first look, but you are, in fact, giving him control over something which will in fact control him. Good luck taking away something he feels he rightfully 'owns'. Another issue is the environment of both those games are not good for children. Horrible in fact. You are essentially allowing him to play in a virtual dive bar, with all the crappy people and whatnot that goes with it. Lastly, that laptop doesn't look like it will run either of those games at an acceptable framerate. Lol's engine is poorly optimized, and will eat most older computers alive - the same goes for WoW, but for different reasons - the engine is sleek, but there's just so much going on at a time that it will crap on your computer when it most matters. If you want to send your kid into an abusive environment, try sports or something.
No more so than Stephen King owns 'his' books.
If you don't like our internet, you are perfectly free to implement your own. Don't let the backdoor hit you on the way out.
I haven't seen or heard of any instances where America has harassed, persecuted, censored, or arrested ANYBODY because of the opinions they expressed online, or the information they spread. This is not the case in China: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China#Arrests [wikipedia]. Why would anybody in their right mind want to give even the smallest bit of control to those whose track records have a history of abuse of power?
Is the new ceiling cat.
Most music has 2 copyrights on it at least: One on the song itself (Notes and lyrics, kind of like source code), and one on the recording of that song (something like the executable compiled from that code.) The RIAA is only concerned with enforcing the recording copyrights, as their profit comes from selling recorded music. I believe, given a short string of samples drawn at random from any recorded music, it would be extremely unlikely to find a correlation within PI, with the chances decreasing exponentially as the string grows longer.