sneakypenguin:
I think you can't kill the children NPCs I believe in an interview they would run and hide if attacked.

I've read this as well. It sounds believeable and frankly, a much better compromise than some people deserve. You know who you are. You're the ones making video games look bad to the rest of the world.

The idea of being able to kill kids in Fallout does sound pretty bad and morally wrong (yet killing someone who is about 5-10 years older isn't anywhere near as large a concern, if someone is going to get offended, they should be pissed that you're killing someone, not what age they are) but then the OP mentioned the ability to beat kids in Fable 2.

Isn't that worse?

You kill someone, that's it. It's over for them and they can't be harmed again. Just beating someone doesn't finish them off and leaves considerable lasting psychological and emotional damage.

I'm personally not bothered by any of this (it's a game, not real life, blowing up kids could be pretty damn funny) but if someone is going to take offense they should be offended by ALL killings in games, not only those of a particular age.

Hexenwolf:

asiepshtain:
Hold on, I want to get this straight.

YOU are given a sandbox game, one which allows you a large degree of freedom. In this game YOU decide blowing up a kid with your "GuTPUncherBFG TM3000". The kid then gets GuTPUnched(tm) and does the appropriate thing, i.e. blowing up like a guts piņata. Somehow, you think this makes it the games fault?

I'm sorry but I have an opinion on that. Bullshit sir, bullshit to you indeed.

You didn't have to kill the kid, you choose to. I played Bioshock and didn't kill any one of those little sister (even thou they were freaking me out), I liked saving them more.

Games are interactive, they reflect our choices. Bad choices, good choices, and occasionally cruel choices. I fail to see how a game giving you option to do bad things ( I stress "option") makes it a bad game? ( as in bad = evil, not bad = Haze)

That's no fair, you beat me to the punch.

Furthermore, the game reflects your evil choice as evil. If you kill a child in Fallout, most of the NPCs will hate you immediately.

Beat you to GuTPUnch(tm) you mean, Gutpunch is now a patented trademark of Asi Epshtain .inc
:)

Personally I don't see how killing a sprite of an adult differs from killing a sprite of a child, either their both wrong or their both right, and that's a whole other debate.

There could be some pretty emotional scenes, with children involved. It would also feel great to be rescuing a kid from raiders, or something to that effect. It would make the ultra-violent doctor I intend to make a protector of children, too.

Sounds like a laugh.

don't care if you can kill em or not, als long as they are in there. I mean Oblivion had no children how the hell did they reproduce... aah well.
it's not gonna keep me awake in any way :P

being able to kill kids is nothing new, just play the first black and white, you could kill childeren in that game as fast as they were born.

What sort of effect do you think this will have on underage gamers like myself?

Well assuming Fallout 3 is an 18+ ("fairly likely" to say the least all things considered), you shouldn't even be playing it.

But we know you will.

It won't have an effect, no more than GTA, God of War, Gears of War or Barbie Horse Adventures.

Fuck I would just say why not just create all the animations and such then lock it away. Then 20 minutes after the games release release a "fan mod" that unlocks it all. But I guess GTAs hot coffee mod kinda screwed that for us. -.-;;;

After reading that article about that seven-year-old who went on a zoo rampage, I think I need MOAR child slaying, not less.

Uszi:
After reading that article about that seven-year-old who went on a zoo rampage, I think I need MOAR child slaying, not less.

Alice Springs police say no action can be taken against a seven year-old boy who killed more than a dozen reptiles, because he's not legally responsible.

WTF?! He sure as hell seems RESPONSIBLE to me.

Why didn't I commit more crimes when I was a kid? If it was that easy to get away with it, I should have gone fucking crazy.

I think that's my only regret in life now. Not having committed more crime when I could have gotten away with it.

Considering gaming's trend to attempt realism, it would be hypocritical to keep avoiding the child soldiers, considering that there are thousands of kids fighting in wars. The media likes to get people angry at something so it will probably get the outrage flowing.

As for underage gamers, well if you're not bothered by the violence and whatever in any of the other 18r games you've been playing then I'll assume you're not gonna go on a kiddy killing rampage.

ElArabDeMagnifico:

Uszi:
After reading that article about that seven-year-old who went on a zoo rampage, I think I need MOAR child slaying, not less.

Alice Springs police say no action can be taken against a seven year-old boy who killed more than a dozen reptiles, because he's not legally responsible.

WTF?! He sure as hell seems RESPONSIBLE to me.

Why didn't I commit more crimes when I was a kid? If it was that easy to get away with it, I should have gone fucking crazy.

I think that's my only regret in life now. Not having committed more crime when I could have gotten away with it.

But isn't it the "parent's responsibility"!?!?!??! Yeah, that's irony right there :\

Amnestic:

What sort of effect do you think this will have on underage gamers like myself?

Well assuming Fallout 3 is an 18+ ("fairly likely" to say the least all things considered), you shouldn't even be playing it.

But we know you will.

It won't have an effect, no more than GTA, God of War, Gears of War or Barbie Horse Adventures.

I play lots of M games, and I don't go on killing rampages, fuck the Media, and fuck ESRB, I feel mature enough to play Fallout 3 and GTA without being influenced badly

Codgo:

sneakypenguin:
You CAN'T kill children in fallout 3 why is this even a topic? http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2008/07/08/no-children-will-be-harmed-in-fallout-3/

Dumbing down, tsk tsk. Thankfully thats about it tho, they said they won't be making the mistakes they did with Oblivion in other articles.

Lets hope so...

That's the one thing I hated in Oblivion, Go after that one officer and it would take twenty minutes just to have the game say "Whosits" is unconcious. Nothing breaks emersion faster than that. As long as they don't make it something you have to do don't see the problem.