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

[Korten12]

Honestly, seeing kids in a zombie game -- or similar -- is fine by me. The complete lack of them has always struck me as odd. Dead Rising 2 did a great job of having zombies of all manner of ethnicity, body type, and gender, but it still didn't have kids. Something has to cross the line eventually, so why not now?

Besides, who didn't want to shoot a few of the obnoxious brats in Fallout 3?

*Saves games - Walks into Little Lamplight to annoying kids - attempts to kill them - Fails*

FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU....

I don't hate kids in general, but dang in that game, those kids pissed me the hell off! I don't go around thinking this in real life, but F3 was the first game to honestly make me pissed off at them...

 

[captaincabbage]

Well, that's possibly the most horrific and artistically beautiful trailer I've ever seen.

 

[Holyeskimo]

I enjoyed this mostly for the death to all parts

 

[Kopikatsu]

I enjoyed this mostly for the death to all parts

What, that's it? Not because of my Sympathy-powered Death Ray, or my roguish good looks that brings in all the rather handsome female dogs? You, sir, should be ashamed!

 

[sheah1]

Three different games released with large intervals? Yeah, sure, definitely connected. I suppose they're all horror games but they all use children in different ways. Dead Rising 2? Plot point to continue the story. Dead Space 2? Emotional impact. Dead Island? Emotional..... impact....... Ok, yeah, you may have a point (especially since Katie would have caused emotional impact if the graphics and story of Dead Rising 2 weren't such toss). Although I very much doubt it's for free publicity (although wait a couple days till you see Fox news picking up this advert), Dead Space 2 barely advertised the kids other than as a new enemy, and then only dedicated gamers would really have known that much about them, Dead Nation is obviously aiming to be a very "real" zombie game so it's therefore trying to cause the max amount of emotional impact, that isn't a bad thing, it just means a better, more emotional experience for the player, so now I'm excited to see if it can back it up.

 

[Uber Evil]

That trailer, honestly, made me sick to my stomach. If it were anything other than human, it would bother me as much, and if it weren't a fall, it wouldn't have bothered me as much, but watching a like 8 or 9ish y/o fall to their death. That just made me sad.

 

[Ambient]

Wow, the trailer is oddly...beautiful. And well made.
Zombie kids? Makes things interesting.

 

[Carlston]

And like movies in the 80's many "kids" in horror movies were targets. Rarely killed but in danger added sense of helplessness that made movies.

Watch Cloak and Dagger, Poltergeist...even the first Chucky movie. Horror is best served when attacking the helpless, what more helpless than a kid.

Now a days they think kids have to be protected and only kid movies have 12 year old "ninjas" kung fu kicking bald adults in the nuts.

I mean kids die everyday in the real world, cancer, accidents crime, hell in a video game they were avoided so much many villages just seem to have adults, and toddlers. The adults are for slaughter and the toddlers immune to being harmed in any way....

I'd say giving a kid a idea they are immune or just not able to be harmed is worse than a few nightmares.

 

[Caliostro]

It became a "hook" because of how many companies try to tip toe awkwardly around the issue, with rather idiotic results. It become the big fat white elephant in the gray and brown room, so when a company finally addresses it, it becomes a selling point.

Honestly, I find the whole controversy around it pretty stupid. I mean, I could understand it if you were just playing a Sesame Street or Lego game then out of nowhere, bam, kill a child! But that never happens. Killing children is only ever even proposed or expected in games that revolve largely around killing. Which leads us to the absurd inconsistency: Homicide is fine. Infanticide is out of bounds!

Why? Why is it such a bigger fucking deal to kill children over killing adults? It's a game, you're not killing anyone. And if you were, I'd say the bigger issue would be that you'd be killing people at all.

It's a game. Deal with it.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Three different games released with large intervals? Yeah, sure, definitely connected. I suppose they're all horror games but they all use children in different ways. Dead Rising 2? Plot point to continue the story. Dead Space 2? Emotional impact. Dead Island? Emotional..... impact....... Ok, yeah, you may have a point (especially since Katie would have caused emotional impact if the graphics and story of Dead Rising 2 weren't such toss). Although I very much doubt it's for free publicity (although wait a couple days till you see Fox news picking up this advert), Dead Space 2 barely advertised the kids other than as a new enemy, and then only dedicated gamers would really have known that much about them, Dead Nation is obviously aiming to be a very "real" zombie game so it's therefore trying to cause the max amount of emotional impact, that isn't a bad thing, it just means a better, more emotional experience for the player, so now I'm excited to see if it can back it up.

Dead Island's first 'revealing' (Not the right word, but hey) was last year or the year before, I believe. That makes them released within a year or two of each other (Well, known. Dead Island doesn't even have a release date yet.) Considering how long it takes to produce a video game (Well, one like these. You could make a flash game in like a week.) I would say that they're pretty close.

I don't want to spoil anything for Dead Space 2, but...

Mother: "Come on! Come to mommy...yes, that's it! That's a good baby!"

I will say nothing further! (The original scene of that was bad, because JUST before it finished, you got attacked by a Necromorph)

 

[Veldel]

child killing has been around forever in games example Deus Ex and Fallout 2

 

[sheah1]

Three different games released with large intervals? Yeah, sure, definitely connected. I suppose they're all horror games but they all use children in different ways. Dead Rising 2? Plot point to continue the story. Dead Space 2? Emotional impact. Dead Island? Emotional..... impact....... Ok, yeah, you may have a point (especially since Katie would have caused emotional impact if the graphics and story of Dead Rising 2 weren't such toss). Although I very much doubt it's for free publicity (although wait a couple days till you see Fox news picking up this advert), Dead Space 2 barely advertised the kids other than as a new enemy, and then only dedicated gamers would really have known that much about them, Dead Nation is obviously aiming to be a very "real" zombie game so it's therefore trying to cause the max amount of emotional impact, that isn't a bad thing, it just means a better, more emotional experience for the player, so now I'm excited to see if it can back it up.

Dead Island's first 'revealing' (Not the right word, but hey) was last year or the year before, I believe. That makes them released within a year or two of each other. Considering how long it takes to produce a video game (Well, one like these. You could make a flash game in like a week.) I would say that they're pretty close.

I don't want to spoil anything for Dead Space 2, but...

Mother: "Come on! Come to mommy...yes, that's it! That's a good baby!"

I will say nothing further! (The original scene of that was bad, because JUST before it finished, you got attacked by a Necromorph)

Fair point about Dead Island but I was focusing more on the aggressive advertisement and such, so although Dead Island was announced ages ago, it hasn't really entered the public eye (I'm ashamed to say that although I adore zombies I hadn't heard of it till tonight). Also that scene causes, as I said, emotional impact, it wasn't advertised at all, even to the point where you yourself censored it. So, anyway, these children have been used to cause emotional impact, not to create controversy and free advertising.

 

[Bernzz]

Besides, who didn't want to shoot a few of the obnoxious brats in Fallout 3?

"Dad says not to talk to strangers."

I DIDN'T TALK TO YOU YOU LITTLE SHIT, I RAN PAST YOU. IN FACT, BY SAYING THAT, YOU'RE ONLY DOING WHAT YOUR DAD DOESN'T WANT YOU TO DO. SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP.

*pant pant pant*

I wanted to kill Harden so bad. He said that every time I walked past him. And I was in Megaton a lot.

So yeah, I don't mind seeing children in violent games where they're killable. It's only real.

 

[Irridium]

Doesn't bother me. In fact, I'd say its about damn time. Granted games in the past have had killable children(Deus Ex, Fallout 1+2), but I hope it catches on.

Zombies/viruses/mutants/monsters/whatever doesn't care about age, color, race, creed, religion, or anything. They'll kill you all the same.

Honestly, seeing kids in a zombie game -- or similar -- is fine by me. The complete lack of them has always struck me as odd. Dead Rising 2 did a great job of having zombies of all manner of ethnicity, body type, and gender, but it still didn't have kids. Something has to cross the line eventually, so why not now?

Besides, who didn't want to shoot a few of the obnoxious brats in Fallout 3?

Oh god, Little Lamplight almost drove me insane.

 

[Sacman]

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.

You guys need to play Deus Ex... you can beat them until they turn into little meaty chunks... or kill them and beat enemies to death with there corpse...<.<

 

[Kopikatsu]

Three different games released with large intervals? Yeah, sure, definitely connected. I suppose they're all horror games but they all use children in different ways. Dead Rising 2? Plot point to continue the story. Dead Space 2? Emotional impact. Dead Island? Emotional..... impact....... Ok, yeah, you may have a point (especially since Katie would have caused emotional impact if the graphics and story of Dead Rising 2 weren't such toss). Although I very much doubt it's for free publicity (although wait a couple days till you see Fox news picking up this advert), Dead Space 2 barely advertised the kids other than as a new enemy, and then only dedicated gamers would really have known that much about them, Dead Nation is obviously aiming to be a very "real" zombie game so it's therefore trying to cause the max amount of emotional impact, that isn't a bad thing, it just means a better, more emotional experience for the player, so now I'm excited to see if it can back it up.

Dead Island's first 'revealing' (Not the right word, but hey) was last year or the year before, I believe. That makes them released within a year or two of each other. Considering how long it takes to produce a video game (Well, one like these. You could make a flash game in like a week.) I would say that they're pretty close.

I don't want to spoil anything for Dead Space 2, but...

Mother: "Come on! Come to mommy...yes, that's it! That's a good baby!"

I will say nothing further! (The original scene of that was bad, because JUST before it finished, you got attacked by a Necromorph)

Fair point about Dead Island but I was focusing more on the aggressive advertisement and such, so although Dead Island was announced ages ago, it hasn't really entered the public eye (I'm ashamed to say that although I adore zombies I hadn't heard of it till tonight). Also that scene causes, as I said, emotional impact, it wasn't advertised at all, even to the point where you yourself censored it. So, anyway, these children have been used to cause emotional impact, not to create controversy and free advertising.

Hm...I suppose you're right, yeeeeeeah.

B-But...where does the sympathy powered death ray come in? D':

Edit: Also, I love zombie games/novels/movies as well, and I haven't heard of it before today either. (Just happened to find videos of it from a year ago and such on Youtube). Hopefully they'll advertise it more as they come closer to releasing/finishing it. I'm really interested in this game.

 

[dbmountain]

Killing innocent children in games is screwed up. Killing zombie children, however, is not! Let the child slaughter begin! Same goes with kids in the Fallout series that are just plain dicks

 

[xPixelatedx]

Killing anyone or watching anyone die is a horrible thing, technically. You've just become desensitized to watching adults die. Kids don't often 'get it' in any form of media, but they're going to start having to because it's still a ripe shock for most people. There is nothing wrong with a kid dying in a fictitious setting anymore then there is something wrong with a regular person dying in a fictitious setting. It only feels uncomfortable because of a psychological reason.

To be blunt, I am quite tired of seeing kids and pets survive anything they shouldn't, because that's always predictable. It's like 'Oh look, there's the characters with god-mode on'. That kid in Jurassic Park 3 should have died...