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[Seriphyn]

As if it wasn't obvious, Anette was made way back when as a skanky plot device for...various ends. It is, of course, very cliche for there to be a grizzled single father with a maiden of a daughter. But I was young and stupid younger and stupider back then.

So, to avert this, I developed Anette into her own independent character. 13-year-old actress with her own personality, quirks, flaws, and heartaches. Perhaps most importantly, I have made her immune to any sort of kidnapping or mishap. So, I feel less self-conscious about this stereotypical setup.

Recently, though, I've noticed capsuleers are very baby-crazy...lots of pregnancies and whatnot. Daughters seem particularly popular. I mean, really popular. Not really a judgement of any sort, just an observation. What do people think?

[Katrina Oniseki]

As an actual father of two beautiful daughters in real life and someone who wholly enjoys being a parent, I wanted to incorporate it into my RP. I actually know what being a parent means for good and bad (though I'm only 7 years into the process), and I have for a long time wanted to place those experiences into Kat's story and see what comes of it.

It's very powerful. It's life changing. I don't want to be cliche and say until you're actually a father, you probably wouldn't understand, but... yeah.

I enjoy being a dad so much in real life, I wanted Kat to be a parent too.

[Seriphyn]

Well, I bashfully admit that Seri/Anette is also because of my own fatherly ambitions (what I tried to imply in the OP). I guess it doesn't matter that much. Just more sons would be nice :E

[Saikoyu]

Might boil down to most players are male, and possibably most are unmarried or without kids, and talking in sterotypes, most males don't feel manly if they coo over a son.  But cooing over a daughter is more acceptable. 

If Sai or one of the alts ever gets knocked up, I'll make it be a boy.  Of course, this is EvE, so it probably won't end well.

[Anslol]

I like families in RP. Ciarente's (i think) sister Mission Impossible rappelling down to steal Cia's stuff when she didn't look was hilarious. I so wanted to have a thing where Anslo, Cia, and Pieter joined in one day. Everyone would just see her sis come down, steal a mug and go back up. Then Anslo come down, steal a lamp behind Cia, then go back up. Then PIETER come down, steal her desk (all of it), and go back up.

Glorious.

[Rin Kaelestria]

As an actual father of two beautiful daughters in real life and someone who wholly enjoys being a parent, I wanted to incorporate it into my RP. I actually know what being a parent means for good and bad (though I'm only 7 years into the process), and I have for a long time wanted to place those experiences into Kat's story and see what comes of it.

It's very powerful. It's life changing. I don't want to be cliche and say until you're actually a father, you probably wouldn't understand, but... yeah.

I enjoy being a dad so much in real life, I wanted Kat to be a parent too.

+1 to this, as I'm a parent myself. Personally I don't mind characters of mine having kids and starting a family of their own, regardless if it's EVE or some other place on the net for RPs. It's great character development. 

[Lyn Farel]

Heh. How to say it.

I find children as plot characters powerful and the source of a lot of possibilities.

I also witness a lot of players portraying children in their RP just for the sake of having children in their RP. What I mean by that, is that it cheapens a lot the power they initially hold. I suspect there is sometimes a lot of children here just to satisfy... erm... hormonal fantasies. Like there are a lot of special snowflake female characters played by males to satisfy inner fantasies and following tropes that become rather harmful to the genre in itself.

I have always had a very mitigated view on children. IRL I tend to shy away from children as a general rule since most of the time they seem to expect something from me that I just am unable to give them back. It becomes even harder for me to deal with scenes where children are reduced to mere emotional hooks, asking for players how cheesy they are.

However, as said above, they have the potential to become a lot more than that.

I think it's probably one of the most difficult kind of characters to play genuinely without making them annoying as hell. At least to me, maybe not to some people.

[Katrina Oniseki]

I'll admit that now that Kat has a kid on the way, I'm entirely unsure how to actually play it out. Half the wonder in having a child is the unexpected. From the hilarious moments when they say something that your adult mind twists into something wholly unexpected, to the terrifying moments when they fall off the swing and bang their head on the ground. Being a parent is about flexibility a lot of the time, and being able to go with the flow and make split second decisions for someone that can't always make the right decisions on their own.

If you're controlling that child in RP, the unexpected element is quickly removed, and you end up having to fabricate stories that - for the most part - I'm not sure I can do justice to. I can't really think like a small girl, because I'm not one. That being said, there's plenty more to being a parent than just those sorts of moments, and perhaps the real value in children as part of RP is the political and social ramifications of it.

I'm likely going to have parenthood affect Katrina's morality and self-awareness. Right now, she isn't particularly concerned with setting a good moral example, but after her child is born she may change drastically. I'm really not sure where I'm going to take it.

Oddly enough, I've been meaning to talk to you, Seriphyn, about this. - since you are the only person I know of with longer experience portraying a child.

EDIT: Oh, and Kat's kid is a female because she was created with the genetic material of two females. I don't know shit about genetics, but I figure that Y chromosome has to come from somewhere and there's no dad. xD

[Lyn Farel]

To be honest i'm not even sure if what I wrote makes sense and if I actually think that to begin with. I'm rather easily confused when it comes to children...

On a general note though, and that's just me, it depends a lot of the age of the children too. There is a huge gap between a teenage and a baby. I usually like what children can bring into RP, I usually think they can also be intriguing characters to play with and have around. There is one exception to me though, and please forgive me in advance since that's mostly a matter of tastes, but I viscerally hate babies (as in before 2-3 years old). The only thing I find interesting is what they can imply for the parents or in general, but having them around is like torture to me.

[Seriphyn]

Babies just...well, there's not much they can do. Seen a lot of it in RP scenes, and it's mostly just for "D'aww" effect, goo-goo-gaa-gaa from the parents and whatnot. I'm glad I have teenage child character, as you can actually interact with them at a meaningful level, to have RP on par as if it was two adults. I think Camille Roth is the only other teenage child character I know of, a prodigy I believe, but from Anslo's depiction especially, seems a little too on the corny/cheesy side for my tastes.

[Ava Starfire]

It is increasingly unlikely (at this point, the odds are astronomically remote) that I will ever have children now, as I near 40 and am still, materially, utterly unable to even think about supporting a child - I can't even adequately support myself. Sad. I always wanted to be a mom.

Ava's son is adopted (the only avenue that will be open to me, well, anytime now) and he was introduced into the story 1) because I wanted him to be and 2) because I wanted to think of a way to mature Ava some; a child, especially one with a myriad of special needs, which he has, is a good way to move her forward, from young, impulsive, mad Ava, on to the older, calmer, wiser Ava she has to become someday.

Also, kids are awesome.

[Vieve]

Sons are awesome. I'm reasonably certain my appreciating having one IRL is why Sabi's wound up with three (two of whom aren't hers, biologically).  Her own, like mine, is a bit odd, somewhat unpredictable, charming as hell and an absolute menace, even armed only with peas.

[Arista Shahni]

People always have babies in RP.  There's nothing weird about it.

I find them used as cheap plot-tools at times, though this crowd is at first glance generally mature enough to not do that.

I'll never do it in EVE because being a pregnant capsuleer cuts into my ISK/hr.

[Pieter Tuulinen]

Kids are on the horizon for Des/Pieter, I think, but not in the near future because it leads to all sorts of logistical nightmares for dat Des who doesn't want to lose the ability to violence spaceboats for nine months. Duh.

Besides there is the whole issue of trying to explain to Captain Tubeborn why having kids has to be more complex than "Sons? Daughters? Sure - how many of each should we order? Just let me know how much room to reserve in the grow-vats. We should really sit down and hash out the basic genome plus acceptable variances! What's your favourite eye colour, dear?"

I suspect that when/if kids do appear they will remain written about in the third person and/or just off-camera at all times.

[Samira Kernher]

Kids are on the horizon for Des/Pieter, I think

Samira will not be pleased.


On topic: I'm not a big fan of pregnancies/young children in RP. I find very, very few people play it out appropriately, often growing bored of either the timespan required or the children themselves, causing them to either accelerate the pregnancy (and sometimes even the aging of the children), or completely forgetting they exist/retconning them out of existence. Even when that doesn't happen, if often leads into issues of characters spending all their time out doing stuff in the game/RP, leaving the question of who the hell is raising the children.

While it can occasionally be done well, I personally do not have much faith in it. In my opinion, it's better to go with having already-aged children in background story, characters who can/do have their own lives and could be played as main toons in their own right.


For her part, Samira does not intend on having children. She doesn't want the responsibility, and frankly she wouldn't be capable of handling the responsibility.