The Alphaville Herald

Interview with an 8 year old gamer grrrl.

by Alphaville Herald on 20/08/04 at 6:05 pm

In this interview with talk to 8 year old CTRL Key (pronounced, she informs me, ?control key?). She fills us in on her adventures in games both online and offline, including TSO and Second Life.

Urizenus: How old are you?

CTRL Key: 8 years old.

Urizenus: Have you ever played Sims Online?

CTRL Key: Yes, but with adult supervision.

Urizenus: What kind of supervision?

CTRL Key: Watching supervision.

Urizenus: Have you played Sims Online many times?

CTRL Key: I wouldn?t call it many, but about 5 the least.

Urizenus: What did you do when you played.

CTRL Key: I normally have a place to myself and talk to myself. Usually I treat it just like regular sims, except I talk.

Urizenus: Do you ever get to talk to other players?

CTRL Key: Yeah, but my dad usually only allows me to talk to two.

Urizenus: What do you talk about?

CTRL Key: Interests. What we?ve been doing lately. Nothing much. We just get up the chitchat.

Urizenus: Do you ever build things?

CTRL Key: Not normally in sims online, but in normal sims I do almost every day.

Urizenus: Which is more fun, normal sims or sims online?

CTRL Key: Well, I haven?t played sims online for a while now, so I might have to guess sims regular.

Urizenus: Have you ever worked in the robot factory.

CTRL Key: Yes, but the only reason I did is because my dad forced me.

Urizenus: Forced you? Why?

CTRL Key: Sometimes he can be a little fussy.

Urizenus: Was it fun to work in the robot factory.

CTRL Key: No, I was always scared of blowing up.

Urizenus: Blowing up?

CTRL Key: Yeah you can blow up if you?re not careful and you don?t have experience.

Urizenus: Were people nice to you?

CTRL Key: Usually, but I?m not nice to them as I could be, because once everyone was blowing up and it was only me and another girl left, and there were about 10 different stalls and I left the girl all alone because there were to many stalls for me too watch.

Urizenus: Do you ever go shopping in sims online?

CTRL Key: Barely ever, but sometimes I get a shirt for my avatar.

Urizenus: When you get older will you play more sims online?

CTRL Key: I doubt it. My father told me about bad things that happen in sims online.

Urizenus: Do you play any other online computer games?

CTRL Key: Yeah, but its normally only Disney Channel.com where I play Kim Possible and Lilo and Stich, and I also play Toon Town, which isn?t as dangerous Sims Online.

Urizenus: Which do you like more. Toon Town or Sims Online.

CTRL Key: That?s a hard one to decide, but I might have to say Toon Town.

Urizenus: What is fun about Toon Town?

CTRL Key: Well, you get to choose a crazy animal to be your avatar and you get to play trolley games and go fishing and fight these evil things called cogs.

Urizenus: That sounds violent. Is it?

CTRL Key: No you defeat them by pies and jokes. No guns or anything like that. The only kind of gun you would see is a water gun.

Urizenus: Was anyone ever mean to you in Toon Town?

CTRL Key: Once I was friends with this girl and I went over to her house and I went in her room and she ran out and she put all her furniture in the doorway and wouldn?t let me out. Finally she let me out, but it took about 5 minutes.

Urizenus: Were you afraid?

CTRL Key: Not really. I was really annoyed though.

Urizenus: What other offline computer games do you play?

CTRL Key: I play regular sims and I play Barbie computer games and Scooby Doo II and Math games for school.

Urizenus: Do you like math games?

CTRL Key: I guess. It?s sort of fun. Cuz usually kids don?t like it but I?m really like one of the smartest kids in my class, so I enjoy working math and other things.

Urizenus: Have you ever played Second Life?

CTRL Key: Yeah a few times, but much less than sims online.

Urizenus: What was that like?

CTRL Key: It?s fun cuz you get to fly around but usually if I?m playing for more than 5 minutes my dad makes me get off cuz he?s yabbing with someone else.

Urizenus: Did you build anything in SL?

CTRL Key: Yeah, we built a little drink stand with a straw roof with all nice drinks. It was called Pirates Cove. We made a flag with a skull and an X.

Urizenus: Whose idea was the drink stand?

CTRL Key: Well my dad usually builds very many things but it was mostly my design because I wanted to build something. My dad almost insisted me not to build it.

Urizenus: Why didn?t he want you to build it.

CTRL Key: He said it would be too hard. But nothing is too hard for the CTRL Key! I?m in charge! I have control!

Urizenus: Are there any games that you haven?t played but you want to try?

CTRL Key: Yes, Sims Unleashed and Sims vacation.

Urizenus: Did you hear that Sims 2 to is coming out and it will be 3D avatars like second life?

CTRL Key: Yes I did, I heard you can have babies and they get older and become 2 and 3 and 4. But does the mother get fat when she is pregnant?

Urizenus: I don?t know.

CTRL Key: I wanted so say something else. When it comes out I want to wait until it gets older because when it comes out it is going to be like $50, but I want to wait until it is $20.

Urizenus: Do you think you will play video games when *you* get older?

CTRL Key: I?d have to say there is a 99% chance that I will.

Urizenus: Thank you for your time today.

CTRL Key: No prob.