Poll: killing kids in games. is it so wrong?

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crudus

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Oct 20, 2008
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In a game where I am an absolute evil dick whose evil permeates his skin(like Fable), I should be able to kill children and drink their souls (but only if I extend the pinky). Otherwise I think it is uncalled for.

The_Blue_Rider said:
Also think of the media shitstorm that would happen if a game where you could kill children came out
Good point.
 

FieryTrainwreck

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Apr 16, 2010
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The problem with kids in Fallout 3 is that they aren't really kids. It's a hardscrabble life in the Wasteland, where even the children are thrust into varying degrees of action. Forcing the player to interact with them as character equals, without allowing the same resolution strategies that define the rest of the game, is an enormous blow to both immersion and balance. If they don't want you killing kids, those kids should be locked up in a post-apocalyptic nursery far from the conversations and bullets of the player. The current implementation is just frustrating, and for that I blame Bethesda rather than society's arbitrary values.

By the by, arbitrary doesn't always mean wrong. Go have a kid of your own. You'll understand perfectly why there is a difference between killing a virtual child and killing a virtual adult. Hint: innocence... which feeds directly into the issue with Fallout 3, where the children aren't so innocent.
 

supagama

Lord High Raggamuffin
Jul 25, 2009
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well in army of 2 TFD not killing a kid resulted in him turning out to be a leading drug dealer and killed 22 families before being caut. so yeah, kill em for better or for worse
 

GuerrillaClock

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Jul 11, 2008
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After playing Limbo I'm now totally desensitised to any kind of child death, and can pretty much just eat through the trauma of seeing a child being stabbed in the head by a giant spider.
 

Berserker119

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Dec 31, 2009
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I try, but it never works. One time, in Fable 2, I got all the kids in Bowerstone to follow me around, then we all jumped off a bridge together. It was fun.
 

ACM_Shadow

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Aug 6, 2009
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as people pointed out, you can kill babies in dead space, what they didnt point out was YOU CAN KILL THEM BY DROP-KICKING THEM!!!!!. and yeh, i remember the controversy of COD6(MW2) with the killing civilians, and the censorship of L4D2, side-boob of mass-effect. Also postal 2, best game ever, still got a copy of it i believe. but yeh, killing children is viewed as one of the things that make "gamers violent" or cause those weird random kids that get their parents guns and shoot people (happened a year or to ago in the US i think), which in turn censors the games even more.
 

Sinclair Solutions

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Jul 22, 2010
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Well, let's think. If you are allowed to kill kids, the media and most likely the Westboro Baptist Church would throw a hissy fit. If you can't, you break the immersion somewhat. I think the potential risk outways the potential benefit here. Also, is it that breaking of the immersion? I never really cared enough to try. I mean, I beat the shit out of the kids at Little Lamplight, but I didn't want to kill them.
 

Woodsey

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Aug 9, 2009
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Radeonx said:
Since it's a video game, no. There is nothing wrong with killing kids.
Ironically, the fact that it's a video game is the exact reason you can't kill kids. Every irrational member of the media (I.e. anyone whose work-hierarchy eventually leads to Rupert Murdoch) would come together and piss their pants as one. We wouldn't hear the end of it for a long time.

Of course, it's perfectly fine in books, the theatre and film.

Still, I see no reason why it would really be necessary, but equally I find no real reason against it, it being in a game and all. In which case, may as well allow it.
 

Zanaxal

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Nov 14, 2007
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It's a game, you don't feel bad in a game of chess if the tower kills a pawn, or the horse kills a bishop.

Anyways the games that cause controversy usually make more money and get better sells because of overracting oblivious media and politicians.

See Gta sex 3 scandal, Postal 2 peeing and puking.

Children are the parents responisibility, if you let your children see CNN or the 5 oclock news they will see more shocking and REAL tragedy. Its just them wanting to push blame imo. They practicly force youth to watch 2nd world war autrosities in school but no one thinks thats a bad idea..
 

Blemontea

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May 25, 2010
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What i find funny is that in games like Fallout the kids don't die but its a rated M game BUT in Infinite Undiscovery we have and on screen child death in cold blooded murder from a soldier and its rated T.
 

Sansha

There's a principle in business
Nov 16, 2008
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In some parts of the world it's illegal to feature children in violent situations.

Which explains HL2.
 
Mar 9, 2010
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I know it takes it out of the realistic atmosphere they're trying to make but they don't need to be killable. That said, I like my games to be immersive and realistic so when I try to kill a kid, I want them to die.
 

2012 Wont Happen

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Aug 12, 2009
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The_Blue_Rider said:
Because they deserve to have a long and fulfilling life?
Also think of the media shitstorm that would happen if a game where you could kill children came out
Deus Ex, Fallout 1 & 2

OT:

I'm fine with killing kids in games.
 

Icehearted

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Jul 14, 2009
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I think it's hypocritical to make kids immune to violence in a game, only to then say that it's just a game when someone uses it as their excuse to harm others. It's a pick and choose mentality, and the devs that skirt it are just cowards (like Molyneux).

Movies geared toward adults depict acts of violence against kids all the time, the only difference is that it's interactive, but it's all just as fake (even faker if you remember that the kids in games are just 1s and 0s).

For me, the question is not only about being able to kill children as a choice in a game, but the absence of them altogether as well. Why did Liberty City have playgrounds, but no kids, for example.

It's the same as Nudity in games. Until the industry decides to grow up (like movies had to, and it took them about 40 or so years), most heroes will look like roid junkies, most women will be big breasted and crammed into the tightest possible but almost never sow their skin (even when sex is involved), and almost all children will be immortal.

...and I am thoo!
*get's off soap box*
 

oktalist

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Feb 16, 2009
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FargoDog said:
I think it's good we can't kill kids in games. Not because of any moral high ground or anything, I just fear for what would happen if Fox News found out.
Don't negotiate with Fox News. It only encourages more acts of Fox News.
 

themilo504

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May 9, 2010
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the only time i rember kids dying in a game was in mother 3 when claus died thinking about it they also sort of die in earthbound and earthbound zero i suppose that the fact claus died is the reason we while never see mother 3 in the usa stupid censors and mothers who think there kids while be ruined if they hear the worth death.
 

FullMetalEagle

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Dec 28, 2007
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Mackheath said:
I think killing kids in games is perfectly OK. Not only is it moronic and flow-breaking to not be able to, its just a bunch of pixels. You can set people on fire, make them explode into shredded pieces, and dozens of other messy, gruesome deaths, yet you can't kill a kid?

Sorry, but that just spoils the flow of immersion considerably, especially if you accidently shoot one anyway.
I've noticed in games like GTA and Saints Row there are never any kids among the ranks of pedestrians and passers-by, probably for this reason.
 

team star pug

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Sep 29, 2009
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I think It would be wrong not to. Went on a plane recently... why bring one year olds on holidays, their not going to remember!