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[Gabeux]

By the way, I don't remember children on Oblivion being of any use.
In Skyrim, I got a quest from a kid, which makes things a bit different. And by the way (minor spoiler):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He killed someone to get their bones and heart to make a ritual (or robbed the corpse from somewhere, which I doubt).

So, a kid can (apparently) kill someone, give you a quest to hunt someone, but himself cannot die?

I also remember in Fallout 3, some kind of cave in which kids had took over the place and kicked out / killed any adults that tried to go inside.
I don't remember if they wield weapons when you manage to get in, but they had weapons around the cave.. kinda funny you can't kill them?

[ukulele]

I find it funny how the killing of children in a videogame horrifies people so much, but the usual crazyness of the real world (wars, hunger, etc) isnt enought for anyone to move a finger.

[Blaze]

My only problem with this is the fact that in DF, your better off killing off a kid and waiting for migrants atleast till dwarves stop living 200+ years...

I turned births on my fortresses off - not because I'm squeamish about them dying - but to save myself the trouble of killing them off myself; and a similar fate awaits any child immigrating into one of my fortresses. And I don't bother going out of the way to make their deaths any less painful, they just die in whatever manner I find convenient. Useless little puke bags.

I find it funny how the killing of children in a videogame horrifies people so much, but the usual crazyness of the real world (wars, hunger, etc) isnt enought for anyone to move a finger.

Priorities. We have them.

[Leatra]

By the way, I don't remember children on Oblivion being of any use.

There wasn't any children in Oblivion and I'm glad. Nobody needs invincible children running around.

Also, here is a quote from M'aiq the Liar:

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

    A reference to discussion on the forums during development about whether children should be included in Oblivion. One group wanted children to be in to add realism; the other group argued that if children were added then the player would be allowed to kill them and the game would be denounced as a child murder simulator. A counter to this would be to make the children invincible, but the opposition countered this saying that doing that would ruin any initial realism.

And seriously, was childhood ever innocent? A 10 years old asked me if I got any cigarettes this summer. I also got some news from articles:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In the UK, a young boy aged just 13 years old became a father via his 15 year old girlfriend. Well, at least they think he’s the father. It could be one of the other six guys she was shagging.

Children are growing up too fast, says a leading author. But hasn't society always worried that young people are experiencing adulthood too soon?

Fat, spoilt, feral and stupid. Who would be a child or teenager today? They even mistime their coming-of-age, apparently.

"I think children act like adults at an alarmingly early age," said Dame Jacqueline Wilson, who has sold more than 30 million books. Her remarks came as a poll by her publisher suggested that more than half of parents believe childhood is now over by 11.

Whether lying about raiding the biscuit tin or denying they broke a toy, all children try to mislead their parents at some time. Yet it now appears that babies learn to deceive from a far younger age than anyone previously suspected.

Behavioural experts have found that infants begin to lie from as young as six months. Simple fibs help to train them for more complex deceptions in later life.

Until now, psychologists had thought the developing brains were not capable of the difficult art of lying until four years old.

Following studies of more than 50 children and interviews with parents, Dr Vasudevi Reddy, of the University of Portsmouth's psychology department, says she has identified seven categories of deception used between six months and three-years-old.

Infants quickly learnt that using tactics such as fake crying and pretend laughing could win them attention. By eight months, more difficult deceptions became apparent, such as concealing forbidden activities or trying to distract parents' attention.

If you are like 50 years old you may believe children are innocent. It's 2011 dude! Children become adults faster than you might even imagine. I actually consider age 15 mature enough. Hell, I started drinking beer when I was 15. You should hear what kind of swear words children are using right now. At least in my country, you can simply expand your vocabulary of swearwords by visiting a grade school.

[Tiny]

If you are like 50 years old you may believe children are innocent. It's 2011 dude! Children become adults faster than you might even imagine. I actually consider age 15 mature enough. Hell, I started drinking beer when I was 15. You should hear what kind of swear words children are using right now. At least in my country, you can simply expand your vocabulary of swearwords by visiting a grade school.

I droped acid at 14, my little brother gave it to me. Who gives a fuck.

You can go to war at 16, but can't but a drink. When reality is this mad, killing kids in a game ain't an issue either way, no matter wherther it's ASCI or rendered polygons.

I'd be fine with the kids of skyrim if they didn't say "I'm not scared of you" To the Listerner, Archmage and Head of the thieves guild all rolled into one.

[stabbymcstabstab]

You can go to war at 16, but can't but a drink...

Thats what I don't get you can go to war for your country kills dozens of people and get screwed up for the rest of your life. But you can't drink a beer? What the hell is Wrong with people.

[Alastar]

I sometimes find violence in video games offensive. Not so in Dwarf Fortress, as it is treated with some degree of realism and gravitas (if we get macabre amusement out of that, it's not the game's fault).

Killing innocent bystanders should have an impact, child or adult. I have a bigger problem with dodging the gritty parts. You're wading through hundreds of faceless voiceless mooks without a thought, but are supposed to care about a few arbitrary ones who get a few lines of dialogue. Intelligent species may be painted as only fit for killing. This gets creepy when they're dehuman(oid)ised with unrealistic exaggerations to make players comfortable: they'd die out if they were truly that cartoonishly evil, so we're buying into genocidal propaganda.
Of course many CHARACTERS may have more robust morals than a modern tofu eater, but going out of one's way to simplify morality in the SETTING usually has unfortunate implications.

I'm fine with idealistic, realistic or outright cynical media. But one thing bothers me very much: glossing over things that may upset our delicate audience while entertaining it with exploitative grit where cool. It's a sign of no artistic integrity and, sadly, the norm. This is the true outrage with modern entertainment and only a few annoying, arrogant elitists seem to care.

[Gabeux]

By the way, I don't remember children on Oblivion being of any use.

There wasn't any children in Oblivion and I'm glad. Nobody needs invincible children running around.

So I managed to confuse Oblivion with Fallout 3 or something. Still, I see no use for them if they are invincible, it breaks immersion a lot.

[Hitty40]

I kill children all the time and I find it Fun to put a double-barrel shotgun in their faces and unload both shells at once. Game-wise, that is.

[Zangi]

^ That's nice kid.

[Leatra]

By the way, I don't remember children on Oblivion being of any use.

There wasn't any children in Oblivion and I'm glad. Nobody needs invincible children running around.

So I managed to confuse Oblivion with Fallout 3 or something. Still, I see no use for them if they are invincible, it breaks immersion a lot.

Exactly. If you are going to add children to the game at least make them killable. If you are going to make them invincible just don't include children.

In my country's war of independence (By the way, I'm talking about Turkey) women and children didn't just carry our ammo. They learnt how to fight and joined the army. A group of 120 children (aged 7 to 12) died because of freezing while transporting ammo and food. A 14 years old sneaked in to a building which was taken by a French battlion and burned the whole building using a can of gasoil. Children in Africa are dying because of starvation. When the real world is this crazy, I don't care about some children dying in a computer.