Do you think you should be allowed to kill kids in games?

[Neonit]

yes. why? why not!
we are allowed to kill men (omg murder simulator!), women (omg women murder simulator!), animals (omg animals rights!), people of other races (omg kkk simulator!), but not children.
why? because some idiots who have nothing to do with games would complain? why should we give a damn about them? they sure dont give one when it comes to us.

its not that i want to kill them, i just dont see why allow killing of x, but not of y.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Kids annoy me in games. I can't stand the little bastards. In Skyrim the kids have health bars. What's the point in giving them health bars if you can't even kill them? Anyway, would you like to be able to kill kids in games?

You know, there's a mod for that...which I installed just in case they annoy me too much.

 

[Folji]

M'aiq believes the children are our future. But he doesn't want them ruining all of our fun.

M'aiq also believes that anyone who wishes death upon a child should probably go see someone about that. He thinks their presence feels real enough without having to do things to them.

 

[jklinders]

M'aiq believes the children are our future. But he doesn't want them ruining all of our fun.

M'aiq also believes that anyone who wishes death upon a child should probably go see someone about that. He thinks their presence feels real enough without having to do things to them.

I forgot about M'aiq. He can always be counted on to tell us what Bethsoft has to say on the matter.

You my friend have one the thread for me.

 

[KennardKId5]

I would like the option for kids to be killable in games, but for a think slightly different and much less psychotic reasons than are suggested in the original post.

It's all about role play. Watch a village get massacred in Skyrim or Fallout 3 and you can still see the kids somehow having managed to survive. That's not realism, in an attack like that everyone would have died. And of course if I'm being evil and am doing the attacking then I need to be able to roleplay it properly. A truly evil pyschopath would kill the children, whereas a psycho with some moral hangups would not, and I want to be able to portray both.

Wanting to kill kids in games just because they're annoying though? I think you may have some issues you need to work out.

You're missing the point. It's not like you can't kill adults either for being annoying.
You don't have psychological issues. In a world where there are guilds and gangs of thieves and assassins, saying it is morally wrong (in an M- rated video game) to be able to kill whoever you please is an illogical argument that makes the game less immersive.

 

[ZeroMachine]

Anything that exists in a game world should follow the rules in the game world unless there is some explanation of how they follow a different, more immortal rule.

In other words, yes. You should be allowed to kill children if they are in a game.

BUT.

The consequences should be intense. Higher bounty on your head in Skyrim. Massive bad karma in Fallout. Allies turning on you. Villains taunting you (sometimes by "praising" you). Stuff like that.

 

[jklinders]

While I can understand the choice to make children invincible, I can't accept a game that makes children consequential and invincible.

The craziest example was Little Lamplight in Fallout 3. As I recall, the city was in a cave that barred the way to an important story mission. When the player arrived, the children would not let him in without jumping through some hoops.

My problem with that is that, if you are going to make a game in which the player can kill his or her way through everything, but somehow avoid the issue of child killing, you should avoid making a city of children who insult the player and present an obstacle.

To be invincible, children have to just be set pieces, there for atmosphere or to add some authenticity to the city. They can be characters, but it is sloppy and immersion-breaking when you have to avoid the violent solution when dealing with one as an obstacle.

So basically, yes, make children invincible, but don't put them in the way of the player.

Valid point.

I really believe that Little Lamplight was a big FU from Bethsoft to everyone that wanted killable children in Oblivion. When I look at it in that light I enjoy the joke for what it is and clear out Paradise Falls portion of the game first to just get in.

 

[Berenzen]

I think they should be killable, but I feel that they do better as a choice for a Sadistic Choice. And if you do use them as a Sadistic choice, then they shouldn't be able to be killed in game, otherwise it trivializes the choice. But in a massive open world game like Skyrim, I wouldn't mind if Children could be killed. If you want to play as a sadistic world-eating bastard, it sort of breaks immersion if you can't kill a 10 year old kid, but could kill every guard and adult citizen in the city.

 

[Muspelheim]

No, not really. I've never really thought to myself "This game would be perfect if it'd just let me kill some kids, too". Can't say I see the charm in it.

Yes, they can be irritating, I guess. But my first reaction in a game if someone says anything mean to me is not whipping out my rifle and have 'em eat it up with a sidehelping of lead.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

I think if the developers decided to not implement it, It would be disrespectful to then go and mod it in.

Sir I think that is absolute twaddle. If I think that a developer has left out a feature of any kind that I feel would make the game more enjoyable, more impressive or more engaging then I believe I have every right to mod that game and put that feature in, providing it does not interfere with the enjoyment of others. If I want to put custom skins on my guns I should be able to. If I want a dragon to destroy entire villages then the kids should bloody well die too! If a fully grown adult can die because of a dragon or a roaming bandits axe to the face then the kids should too.

Personally I wouldn't go around murdering children, it's just not what my character would do. However, the kids should not be invincible as it really really throws off my suspension-of-disbelief.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Kids annoy me in games. I can't stand the little bastards. In Skyrim the kids have health bars. What's the point in giving them health bars if you can't even kill them? Anyway, would you like to be able to kill kids in games?

With all due respect... Search bar. Use it. Thread's already been done in poll form.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.337667-Poll-killing-in-game-kids?page=1

That said, I wouldn't kill them, even if the game gave me the option to do so. Skyrim's attempting to simulate a place that *could* be real, and nobody who's right in their mind goes about killing kids because they're supposedly annoying.

My perception is that Bethesda created kid characters that made sense. When has a tween or a child been known to be considerate, polite and generally thoughtful regarding others? Frodnar in Riverwood is a little punk in the making, but Dorthe, Alvor and Sigrid's daughter, seems to be a little more personable. Balgruuf the Greater's raised one prissy little princess, while his son's probably the youngest of the two, who keeps suffering under her.

If you want a breath of fresh air, head up to Morthal and talk to any of the kids around midday. You'll have the option to play hide-and-seek or tag with 'em.

Beyond that, *why* are they annoying, exactly? If I followed your logic, I could say fairly far-fetched stuff along the lines of "Nords piss me the fuck off, what with their stupid accent. I'm gonna scour the game map until I've rid the game of each and every one of 'em!"

I'm sorry and I'm aware that this is subjective, but this "Kids in Bethesda games are annoying" argument is getting old. They were around in Arena and Daggerfall. Why shouldn't they be in Skyrim?

 

[orangeban]

I'd say just remove kids from games entirely. If they're invincible that makes them obnoxius, if they're killabe you just know the game will do a Modern Warfare and be all, "Oh, look how fucking controverial we are! Whoopy fuckin' whoop!"

 

[Laser Priest]

I think they should be, though it should probably be discouraged by the games mechanics.

Then again, I'd gladly take a Karma hit to repeatedly massacre Little Lamplight.

Call me a Mungo again, kid; I fuckin' dare you.

 

[DarkRyter]

This is equivalent to asking "Do you think you should be able to become an accountant in games?".

Sure, it would be a nice touch of immersion, but it would be so utterly insignificant to the experience that there would be no point in discussing it in the first place.

 

[Laser Priest]

Yes, but I want it to be the extension of being able to kill EVERYONE in the game. I hate the modern dumbing down of te Elder Scrolls series. When you played Daggerfall or Morrowind, you could kill everyone, INCLUDING important NPCs. Now, Ulfric Stormcloak and those annoying shits in Whiterun are immortal for NO REASON. Why? Because Bethesda is catering to retards that don't want the risk of accidentally breaking their game (which is what save files are for) and so have dumbed it down. Giving certain people plot-armour jars you out of immersion and is ridiculious. Kids are not sacrosanct. Kids die all the time, but not in modern games.

It's not dumbing down as much as it is adapting to their new system. The NPCs will be moving around before you even interact with them. As will the enemies. They don't want NPCs declared essential to be killed by the town guard because they picked up a sweetroll before you even got to interact with them.

 

[baconsarnie]

In the same way that half the fun in GTA is going on a killing spree for as long as possible when playing fallout i get bored and decide to travel to megaton and kill everyone with the latest oversized weapon i picked up (usually a minigun but sometimes the MIRV). I don't want to kill the kids because they are kids but for the same reason i massacre everyone else there, boredom and relieving stress, if i can't kill them, don't put them in. Like the companions in new vegas, boone was getting on my nerves so i try and kill him, i find out he is invincible once he is my companion so i start a new game just to kill him before he gets a chance to be my companion.

 

[Captain Booyah]

I try not to kill people in most of my games, so I'm slightly indifferent to the subject, but I don't see why children shouldn't be killable. Unless you're already screwed up, it's not as if fiction is going to bleed through into reality and make you murder your little brother or something.

I always find it confusing when people get into such an uproar about this stuff. It's like the whole MW3 controversy, with the girl being blown up or whatever. Wouldn't the time moaning about a work of fiction be better suited to trying to improve conditions for children who are at risk of being killed in real life?

 

[Claptrap]

Yes, But i think there should be extreme punishment for doing it, Like in skyrim you would get a huge bounty or something like that.

 

[omega 616]

If you put them in the game then I would say why the hell not, but why would you put them in the game... Skyrim would be an awful lot better without them, they could even spend some of that free time on fixing bugs.

Why? The kids in skyrim don't do anything, besides run.

Sure the first time I saw them run at me I thought "ooh, quest" 'cos at no other time in morrowind or oblivion (that I remember) did an NPC run at you, unless they had a quest.

The kid ran straight past me and so I carried on.

I have no idea where this hate for them comes from, unless you are some psycho in these game, who just aimlessly slaughters entire villages and you can't wipe out a few of them in skyrim due to kids.

They should be kill-able and I understand that they are NPC's and should be able to be killed but getting angry over it says something about you, "gah! I can't kill children" is a rather startling thing!