As the subject says, my son wants Splatoon very much. (I blame the media...)

It's not really my type of game, so I haven't bought it for myself.

My son is 7 (soon 8) and until a few months ago he was (and sometimes still is) really bad at losing. (He really hates rock-paper-scissors) Especially some levels in Yoshi Woolly World would bring him to tears/rage when he died frequently. In Mario Kart 8 he often stopped in the middle of a race to watch the scenery or some characters in the background or he would drive in the wrong direction.

In school he hates games that have rules. (He's in a special education class if anybody wondered. Not for intelligence, but for problems in emotional development...) He just doesn't want to follow arbitrary rules. He wants to play in a way that is fun for him. (Personally I think he acts more than a German child than a Japanese, but we're living in Japan, so he's bound to feel "different" and that might be the biggest "problem".)

I told him that if he played online in Splatoon, he would have to play by the rules. If he plays with other people and screws around, the efforts of the others would be negated and his team might lose because of him, and he said to me, if it's Splatoon, he'd play by the rules and he won't be upset/angry if he loses.

Today I watched him play MK8 online for the first time. Even though he was hit by projectiles left and right and always being at the bottom of the table, he was calm, he seemed okay with it and looked like he was having a lot of fun.

Long story short: Now I wonder if he might be ready for Splatoon, too. What do you guys think? Should a 7/8 year old play Splatoon online or is it better to wait? (I don't know how harsh the community is and if he can handle it already.)

Might as well. He`ll be playing COD behind your back soon enough anyway...

I think the regular mode (turf war) will be OK, but try not to play ranking battle until he improve a bit :)

We don't have a console that plays COD, so... Should be okay. For now.

Right now he has his eyes on Minecraft, Splatoon and Smash Brothers (which I didn't buy him for similar reasons).

If he shows signs of maturity while playing games like MK8 online then I'd say it's safe to let him play online too. Just let him get used to the controls in story mode a bit before he tackles online. There are so many higher leveled players that he might get lumped up with one on his first match. So going in with some experience to how the game works would help tremendously.

Oh, so there's a mode that doesn't affect/create a rank?

That sounds pretty good. Thanks for the info!

Be with him, make it a father and son thing, have fun together and guide him through some of the social concepts, it may help him understand socialising a bit more, as well as having fun together which is priceless

My son is the same age

The WiiU has 2 COD games...

Thanks for the input. Yes, with MK8's online he actually shows some maturity. He didn't stop during the race and kept on going even when he was in one of the last places.

Oh... right...

But still... I have to buy his games, so we're safe. I think I have never seen one of those on shelves here. I guess they aren't very popular. Or I tend to overlook them. (Now I'm a bit intrigued, I'll have to look around in shops if they have the Wii U COD games...)