Letting children die horribly seems to be the new 'hook'. (Now includes video, due to popular demand

[Iron Mal]

The use of children in zombie games/films is popular because it causes a conflict in most people as to how they should react.

Do we follow what we are often told is the 'right' thing to do and protect the child? (We naturally possess protective instincts for the young and for a long time we've viewed children as dependants who need protection)

Do we take the pragmatic and ruthless option and kill/abandon the child? Ignoring every piece of mental and social conditioning we've aquired over the course of our life in the name of self preservation?

Now some may take the easy rationalisation out of it by saying 'it's just a game, they're not real' (and this is true) but by the same token, characters who do simmilar things in films and books aren't real either yet they still elicit emotive responses from audiences.

 

[For.I.Am.Mad]

I look at that trailer and say 'Thank god for Nintendo.' You don't see Nintendo relying on dead little girls to sell a game.

I don't know, I understand that this industry is full of people that hated their childhood(child abuse, bullying) but I don't want the games industry to rely on shock value to sell games. You'll find yourself in comic book territory if you don't watch it.

 

[Wutaiflea]

Has killing children become the new way to garnish free publicity, as controversy always does? (For example, the Church's outcry against Angels & Demons probably made MORE people go see it.)

I think this kind of answers your own question.

I always view this find of thing as simply courting controversy for the sake of upping sales, and tend to view it as being as puerile and intelligence-insulting as making children invulnerable.

I'm pretty sure there's a happy medium of reality/not fucking milking it that we could all live with, but I'm sure the fashion won't die down until another Manhunt incident happens.

 

[SoranMBane]

This is hardly a new thing. Film and books have had infant mortality and zombie children for the longest time, and it's just finally starting to bleed over into games as they grow as an art form. Also, how dead children is worse or more shocking in games than in other forms of art, I don't know, but we seriously need to stop thinking of games as being barred from touching certain subjects that other mediums delve into regularly without creating this kind of controversy. I mean, we ask that our be more artistic, but we get offended with everyone else when they try? How does that work?

 

[Blimey]

I hate children. I hated myself when I was a child. I am no longer a child and I still hate myself. Does that cast an ill-light on myself as a human being? Probably.


But that trailer was fuckin' hilarious.

 

[Korten12]

I look at that trailer and say 'Thank god for Nintendo.' You don't see Nintendo relying on dead little girls to sell a game.

I don't know, I understand that this industry is full of people that hated their childhood(child abuse, bullying) but I don't want the games industry to rely on shock value to sell games. You'll find yourself in comic book territory if you don't watch it.

Uh... How do you know that the industry is full of people who were abused and bullied?

Also about Nintendo, they don't use this method because they use the same method of relying to sell games for the past ten years: Mario and more Mario...

 

[AVATAR_RAGE]

Probably because I'm used to games just straight up not having children, or if they do, the children are totally invulnerable. (Looking at you, Fallout)

Interestingly enough, the original Fallout games had children in them that were not invulnerable.

It's due to a change in video game laws, where you cannot show a child die. But you can show a child being possessed. Which includes zombification.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

Damn thats one great trailer.
The human factor was always coming short in zombiegames/flicks. *Thumbsup* The storys of regular people like those in the zombie outbreak add a great amount of unease and extrahorror that was unused for too long.

 

[neoontime]

I don't think its playing at kids but shoeing how vulnerable families would really be during an Apocalypse.

 

[Lucifron]

Stupid misquote.

Disregard.

 

[Lucifron]

(Looking at you, Fallout)

Tsk, tsk, tsk. In the original Fallout games killing children was quite the pastime. Though you would get the Child-killer perk and be shunned by polite wasteland society.

OT: "All publicity is good publicity." Nothing to see here.

 

[slightly evil]

I'm glad, the weird babythings in dead space were one of the few things in that game that really creeped me out. I just hope games dont start pandering to a new; 'killing children, we're HARDCORE'stereotype like they did with tits etc. -_-

Damn thats one great trailer.
The human factor was always coming short in zombiegames/flicks. *Thumbsup* The storys of regular people like those in the zombie outbreak add a great amount of unease and extrahorror that was unused for too long.

I think this guy said it better

 

[Kopikatsu]

(Looking at you, Fallout)

Tsk, tsk, tsk. In the original Fallout games killing children was quite the pastime. Though you would get the Child-killer perk and be shunned by polite wasteland society.

OT: "All publicity is good publicity." Nothing to see here.

Pfft. How would they know that you snapped the neck of an annoying little bastard in some deep, dark cave somewhere with noone around for miles besides the Deathclaws? That are IN the cave? Why can't you just blame it on the Deathclaws?!

 

[Lucifron]

(Looking at you, Fallout)

Tsk, tsk, tsk. In the original Fallout games killing children was quite the pastime. Though you would get the Child-killer perk and be shunned by polite wasteland society.

OT: "All publicity is good publicity." Nothing to see here.

Pfft. How would they know that you snapped the neck of an annoying little bastard in some deep, dark cave somewhere with noone around for miles besides the Deathclaws? That are IN the cave? Why can't you just blame it on the Deathclaws?!

I know! Bethesda of course created Fallout 3 in the same vein, and made sure that you can become hated by any faction in two seconds by killing some of their members, even if no one saw you and proving your guilt would be completely impossible.
./rage

 

[scw55]

It is a very powerful trailer. Very effective. It inserts a sense of trajedy and human emotion into the concept of a Zombie Apocalypse.

It will be a terrible shame if the game turns out to be another generic man pumping shoot em ups or a emo survival horror after creating such "beautiful" trailer.


I personally think it's quite cheap to use children for emotional impact. Children are innocent, and it amplifies the awfulness if they are victims of evil. I still feel emo when that girl got eaten by a mammilianreptile in the recent series of Primeval
It's cheap and effective. It also stirs controversey. I don't oppose using children as the punchbags of evil. Just aslong as it's used sensabley and effectively for all the right reasons like every other story element.

 

[Skratt]

I don't understand why we can't have children be killed in games or movies. We have rape, murder, genocide, torture porn and sodomy that not many people seem to have a problem with - and that is just in the R/M rated stuff.

Leaving children out of the mix is the equivalent of an alcoholic having a no drinking before 10am rule. It's all just misguided principals and feel good tactics that people employ because they know the violent content is inappropriate for anyone to view and it helps them sleep at night - at least it didn't include children.

 

[RollForInitiative]

*Raises Hand* I really wanted to murder half the population of Little Lamplight and that little brat in Rivet City with the ***** for a mom

It was the Rivet City brat that set me off as well; the constant mouthiness just begged for a shotgun round to center mass.

On topic, as I used to work in a cinematic format, I find the trailer quite fascinating. In a sense, it's opting to tell two stories at once: the (reversed) story of the girl's death as a zombie, and the story of her failed attempt to escape being turned into one. The two stories meet in the middle, at the defining point where one ends and the other begins, with a last glimpse of fleeting hope -- her hand reaching for the man's. It's excellent and poignant imagery for the zombie genre and very well executed.

I suppose that puts the game on my radar now.

 

[Kroxile]

I don't think a zombie is going to ignore kids just because they are kids.

Apply that to Necromorphs, plague, or whatever the game's story is using to bring about horror and it works as well.

Its more realistic that way and I like it.