I’ve mentioned how I’m playing Clash of Clans with my sons. Since that post, we’ve quit that clan and created our own. I’m the clan leader, and both my boys are co-leaders. They have personally invited all their friends to join us, so we have almost 20 clan members. Running this clan with my sons is giving me an example for lessons in diplomacy.

There are four levels of membership in a CoC clan: Leader, Co-leader, Elder, Member.

The Leader can change some clan technical settings, and has authority to accept new members and kick anyone from co-leader on down.

Co-leaders can also change some technical settings, and can accept new members and kick Elders and Members.

Elders can accept new members and kick Members.

Members cannot accept or kick anyone.

I’ve given all the friends Elder rank in the clan so they can accept other friends. But some keep asking to be made co-leaders. I ask them why they want to be a co-leader and they don’t answer. Then they ask my sons to make them co-leader. My sons then ask me if they can make that friend a co-leader, and I ask why, they pass along the question, and again, the friend gives no answer.

There really isn’t a reason for anyone to be co-leader other than to be able to kick out an Elder, (as all the friends are). My sons, as co-leaders, have this ability, but they know not to do it without checking with me first. My boys live with me, so if there’s any problem, they can bring it to my attention immediately. Their friends, if made co-leaders, could kick other friends without checking with me. I’ve seen how sometimes the least little thing can make boys mad with each other. (Apparently it’s not just girls who create drama.) So I’m hesitant to give anyone else the ability to kick a friend.

Then someone accepted a join request from someone no one knows in the real world. I specifically wanted to restrict clan membership to only real world friends, and friends of friends. There’s a lot of chatting within the clan when the kids are playing, so I want to make sure everyone is safe from trolls and predators. Well, this guy got in somehow, and it was a couple of days before I found out that no one actually knew him, and no one remembers letting him in.

I’ve chatted with him a couple of times within the game, and I’ve learned that he’s a new player, and he’s an adult. I can see all the chat logs, and I regularly monitor what goes on. He has not been at all inappropriate with anyone. In fact, he doesn’t chat much at all. There have been a couple of chat mentions to kick him from the clan because no one knows him, and he has said that he’d accept being kicked if that is what everyone decides.

I discussed the decision with my sons. On one hand, he isn’t a real world friend, or a friend of a friend, and shouldn’t have been accepted to the clan in the first place. But he’s not done anything wrong, and has actually been helpful by donating troops to other people — in fact, he has donated more troops than anyone else in the clan, including me. (Donating troops to others costs in-game resources, and is generally considered a very nice thing to do for others.)

So to kick him would seem pretty rude, but to keep him is a weak spot in the ring of safety I’ve created for the boys in this online game world. During the discussion with my boys, I was torn between teaching them to not fully trust people you don’t know online, and teaching them to not wield power over others without reason. We talked about trusting and about being a bully, and we decided to let the unknown guy stay so long as he hadn’t done anything wrong. But we’d keep an eye on him. Mostly it would be me keeping an eye out, because I’m the one who monitors all the chat logs.

An ironic twist to all this is that all the friends often quit and rejoin the clan. Someone will quit the clan, go join either some other friend’s clan or some random clan, and then a day later, (or sometimes an hour later), they’ll come back to rejoin ours. It doesn’t actually hurt us in any way, but it is a bit annoying to me. If the unknown guy were to quit our clan, we could simply ignore his rejoin request and not have to kick him and I wouldn’t worry about having a stranger among us online. But he’s been one of the most reliable people in our group.

Bullgrit

My sons and I are currently playing, (read: addicted to), the mobile/app game Clash of Clans. They both started playing on their Nooks about four weeks ago, and I got into about a week later. We’re all in a clan with some of Calfgrit10’s school friends. There are 50 people in this clan, of which CG10 knows personally maybe half a dozen, and maybe another half dozen are personal friends of those friends. The other people are from who knows where around the world, including at least one player from Asia. (He/she communicates only in an Asian language. I don’t know specifically which one.)

As with most games, there is online chat available for players to talk to each other. We only use the clan chat. Calfgrit10 is a chatter box in it, (too often with nonsense), and Calfgrit13 only chats when he’s asking for something, (like support troops). I often check the chat log to keep an eye on both boys’ interactions, including what they’re saying, what others say to them, and what time of day they are on the game. (They better not be on it after bed time or before they’re allowed to play in the morning.)

Today, while I was at work, I opened the game to play a few minutes while I ate lunch. My boys were not on, but there was someone looking to talk. This player, Q Kids, I had seen in the chat often, but I knew nothing about other than I *think* it’s a friend of one of CG10’s friends. I was almost going to converse with the player, but another player spoke up before me. I watched the conversation out of curiosity.

Below is the conversation. There’s nothing particularly noteworthy about any of it, but I found it interesting to watch the interaction from a third-party, (and father), perspective. I think I may be the only adult/parent in the clan, so I feel a sense of wanting to keep a protective eye over all the kids in it.

Q Kids: any i am bored so i am back on there is nothing to do

Q Kids: anyone there?

sayo: k

Q Kids: thx

sayo: ya

sayo: k

Q Kids: my mom is gone so i can’t go outside and my bros r playing a 2 player viedo game and i can’t play and the other 2 r watching the

sayo: the

Q Kids: game and will not o anything else

Q Kids: viedo game

sayo: huw old r they

Q Kids: 4,6,and 8

sayo: and the uther

sayo: u

Q Kids: i mean my other bro is watching i only have 3 bros lol

sayo: k

sayo: u

Q Kids: how old am i? 11

sayo: su u r the buss uf them

Q Kids: ya

Q Kids: u?

sayo: u can ask ure bru if he lets u play

sayo: im 18

Q Kids: the 1 has autium and only wants him and my other bro to play

sayo: why

Q Kids: ?

sayo: whatis autium

Q Kids: a disability(bad speller)

sayo: k

Q Kids: his brain doesn’t work and he can cry up to an hour

sayo: uj

sayo: what game r they playing

Q Kids: lego batman 1

sayo: and u wanna play

Q Kids: ? it was a christmas present and i want to see if it’s any good

Q Kids: i don’t want to badly

sayo: ddiid u give it tu them

Q Kids: no santa ;)

sayo: k

sayo: ure mum

sayo: r dad

Q Kids: they e gone but my mom will be home soon

Q Kids: r

Q Kids: so i prob

Q Kids: have to get off soon

sayo: they dunt let you play

Q Kids: ya but they will soon(mom)

Q Kids: r u in college?

sayo: guin

Q Kids: ?

sayo: im guing

Q Kids: cool

sayo: ya

Q Kids: want troops(lvl 5 barbs or arch)

sayo: nut awsume that im guing cause my gf is guing tu anuther college

sayo: sure

sayo: any

Q Kids: k

Q Kids: my mom is home bye

sayo: bye

sayo: r u scared uf ure mum

Q Kids: no

Q Kids: i get to play the viedo game :)

Q Kids: bye

sayo: k

sayo: wich 1

sayo: batman

[That was the end of that conversation. Then a few hours later, I just happened to catch them talking again.]

sayo: suo did ure mum let u play the videu game

Q Kids: ya 4 20 mins

sayo: batman

Q Kids: yep

Q Kids: brb raid

sayo: k

[3 minutes pass]

sayo: u there

Q Kids: ya

[cross conversation about the game]

sayo: wanna hear a joke

Q Kids: sure…as long as it’s not dirty

sayo: k

sayo: Knock knock

Q Kids: who is there?

sayo: Eat mop

Q Kids: eat mop who?

sayo: hehe u said eat mo po

Q Kids: k

Q Kids: when you arrange it ya

sayo: ha

Q Kids: oh now i get it

Q Kids: lol

Q Kids: thx

sayo: ya

[game stuff]

Q Kids: brb in 10 mins or more

sayo: where r u guing

Q Kids: I am not getting on again bye

sayo: why

Q Kids: because i am not allowed to

Q Kids: because I was on too long today

And that was the end of their conversation. About an hour later, I saw sayo ask Calfgrit10 to make him a co-leader of the clan. Actually, he didn’t “ask”:

sayo: co-leader

Calfgrit10: huh

sayo: give me

At least he did give CG10 some dragon troops before asking, I guess as an introductory bribe. But CG10 didn’t give him co-leader rank; he didn’t even respond to sayo after that, and sayo didn’t chat any more.

So, like I said, the conversation wasn’t really noteworthy, but it was interesting to see two strangers, (one a child, the other a teen), conversing online. It also reminds me that I need to make sure my boys don’t let it be known when their parents aren’t home. We’ve already discussed not giving away their real last names or any real world information.

Bullgrit

I had heard of this game around the Internet, but I thought it was just a joke. But then I found it at Target. Should I add it to my Christmas wish list?

Bullgrit

Calfgrit13 has an Xbox. His favorite game, (the game he plays most often), is Halo — he has three games of that series. I tried playing Halo with him once just after he got it for Christmas last year, and I just couldn’t get the hang of the controls. Friday night I tried again, and still, using a console controller for a first-person shooter game leaves me flopping around dead, quickly and repeatedly. I’m hopeless trying to aim with a controller. (I’m great with a mouse and keyboard on a computer game. Game designers: make games that can be played multiplayer across platforms!)

But while playing with him, and listening to him regale me with his knowledge of the Halo universe history, technology, and aliens, I remembered that I have the movie Aliens in my DVD collection stored in the cabinet under the TV. He’s 13 years old now, so I wanted to show him this classic sci-fi movie of my generation. I explained that not only is it a classic flick to watch, it has some great one-liners he can quote while playing Halo.

Such as:

“They mostly come at night. Mostly.”

“Game over, man! Game over!”

“I like to keep this handy, for close encounters.”

“We got nukes, we got knives and sharp sticks.”

Saturday midday would be our best opportunity to watch the movie, as Calfgrit9 would be at a friend’s house for a birthday party. We dropped CG9 off at the party, and on the drive back home, I told CG13 the story of Alien, the predecessor of Aliens. I explained, in detail, how Alien is a horror movie based in space, in which one alien wipes out a whole crew of a space cargo ship. CG13 doesn’t like jump scares, and so I know he wouldn’t like watching Alien at all. But one needs to understand the story of the movie to really get the most enjoyment out of the sequel.

“And then Aliens starts out with Ripley’s escape pod being discovered 57 years later,” I finished. He saw similarities between the Alien story and the Halo story, and he told me more about it.

At home, we settled into the den to watch the DVD. Throughout the run, he wanted me to give him a heads-up about upcoming scares, and I gave him several seconds warning for each one I could remember, (which was probably 90% of them). I’ve watched this movie at least four or five times in my life, and I seem to pretty much have it memorized — I surprised myself with how well I remember every detail.

This movie really is very good. It well stands the test of time with regards to its story telling. The way it builds from the anti-climatic tension during the initial “assault” by the colonial space marines, to the action-satisfying battles later and the climatic end fight with the alien queen. Great stuff. Great writing, great directing, great setting. But two things stand out — one was noticeable as an error, or fault, from the first time I saw it, and the other is only noticeable now, after 30 years of technological advancement in the real world.

The error/fault that I noted way back as a teen in the mid-80s is: why is there no crew on the orbiting spacecraft? CG13 noted this problem when the plot came  to the point where the characters had to get the second drop-ship to come pick them up. It’s one of those plot errors that I often complain about in movies I find bad. Fortunately for Aliens, though, I can get over one plot problem hump and still enjoy the movie. It’s when there are numerous plot problems, throughout the film, that ends up making the whole thing really, really stupid and bad.

The other thing we both noted during the movie, and then discussed after the movie, was how sci-fi/futuristic equipment ideas have advanced so much over the years. In Aliens, the colonial space marines are wearing and using gear and weapons less “futuristic” than what our modern-day marines and soldiers are wearing on real world battlefields. A (non-Kevlar) helmet, a rigid and thin chest plate, and a 10-millimeter “pulse rifle” — the only thing even a little futuristic of these things is the digital ammo counter on the rifle.

Modern movies and games take a longer technological leap with imagining future military equipment. The armor in the Halo games not only covers the entire human body, but essentially gives the man inside super powers. This difference in how creative people thirty years ago and now think about and anticipate what the future will look like is so vast that it makes me wonder just how wildly short of reality our current sci-fi predictions will be.

Fortunately, regardless of how pathetically under-teched the future seems to be in the Aliens universe, Calfgrit13 still liked the movie. And he says he’s looking forward to using the cool quotes while gaming in Halo with his friends. I’m going to get such a buzz the first time I hear him say, “Let’s nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”

Bullgrit