The Saga of Eethan

(This was written about one year ago - it's about our daughter's experiences playing the online game Horizons.)

Our daughter (5 years old and with autism) decided she wanted to play Horizons too (after watching us play since beta).  Of all the racial options, she wanted to play a dragon.  We spent quite some time designing her dragon.  He had to be orange and look like fire.  I think we actually did a pretty good job.  She named him Eethan after this little boy that really liked her in preschool.  We would have named him Eathan, but that was taken.

We arrived on Skaalkar (on Chaos) and I guided her through talking to Spitfyre.  I helped her get the initial adventure quests and return to her trainer as needed, but she drives Eethan and does the combat herself.  We hotkeyed her attacks, showed her how to target mobs and how to move around, and set a button with the loot command on it.  She figured out how to adjust her camera angle on her own.  Her favorite part of hunting is, and I quote, "put fire on the pigs".  She got to level 7 in adventure mainly just doing a basic attack and breathing fire on things.  She's good at remembering to loot.  I help her hoard things and delete the junk.  She's already about 3k hoard and has never left the island. 

She has zero interest in crafting.  She doesn't get the idea and has no interest in trying it.

She loves walking around and looking for the orange sky (the volcanic area), and she loves going to the beach.  She likes Eethan to put his toes in the sand.  She regularly tells him that he needs a bath.  After a few drowning incidents we've got her to understand 'dragons don't swim' but she still drowns him once in a while.  "Is he okay?" she'll say with great concern.  "No Alissa, he's not okay.   You drowned him.  Remember?  Dragons don't swim."  Then she'll hit recall.

She likes jumping in place repeatedly (like most hatchies).  She tells the computer 'up up and away' while she's jumping.  This past weekend, she drew on a patch on my (white!) carpet with green crayon and started jumping up and down on it.  "What are you doing?!!" (or something like that) I asked her.  "I jumping on the grass."  Sigh…

Sometimes she stands next to Spitfyre and says they're standing in line.  Then she moves over to the lore book and says they're in Kindergarten.  Sometimes when she stands next to Spitfyre she says he's 'her brother'.

When she's done playing she says 'Eethan is tired'.  I've shown her how to recall where he likes to 'lie down by the fountain' (sit by the shrine).  She'll pat him on the screen and say "he's so soft" and then lean in and kiss him good night.

We've had about a week now of her blowing on people.  I asked her what she's doing.  "Breathing fire," she says.  We've told her 'no breathing fire at school', but she doesn't listen.  I don't think I'll let her teacher know she's breathing fire on the kids.  My parents told her cousin (2 months older and a 'typical' child) about the breathing fire.  Now he's breathing fire on his mom.

Daddy showed her how to use tail whip.  She said 'he dancing'.  After every battle, while hunting down on daddy's computer, she was bouncing up and down saying "Come on!  We've got to find the pigs!"

The other night at dinner she went to the refrigerator with a little blue plastic bucket.  She wanted to get some milk…

If she sees her name in guild chat, she knows how to click on the little blue line and type 'hi'.  I've had to explain that other people can't hear her when she just says 'hi' to the computer.  Sometimes she clicks and types other things.  Let's pretend it's draconic.  It sure isn't English.

She loves playing Eethan.  He's turned out to be a good reward for good behavior (and can be confiscated for bad behavior).

The first word she read was spelling H..o..r..i..z..o..n..s  - Horizons (reading the loading screen over my shoulder over a year ago).   She used to watch me hunting cursed wolves.  I tried to do it when she wasn't watching because she'd inevitably say "Mommy!  Is the doggie alright?" and "Doggie have sad."

She has a 'kitty' now too.  Afadah looks like a tiger with bright green eyes.  I sent Afadah to New Koralia so she won't bother other players.  Of course she found the water.  Guess what?  Afadah needed a bath too….