The Morality of Child Murder In Games - Is it okay?

[MrTroll]

If kids don't want to be murdered then they should stay out of my video games.

 

[Overcast]

If kids don't want to be murdered then they should stay out of my video games.

Now I can't help but think about if NPC's in games were self aware of what they really were and how fucked up that would seem to a kid, let alone to an adult.

 

[ES 148]

I mean, kids dying evokes an emotional reaction. I can get not wanting people to kill kids themselves, but games seem to leave out any kind of violence towards children even if it helps or is necessary to the plot.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

Pretty sure the Ultima games were chock full of child murder, which is especially interesting because you were supposed to be the messiah figure of Britannia.

The fact that games such as Ultima and the OG Fallout titles allow you to kill children illustrates the reducing freedom of choice in modern RPGs.

 

[MG 620]

Why not just make them into gnomes? No one would think twice about killing them.

 

[Edgeworth]

There's another point about Westerners being the main ones with this problem. There's a lot of Japanese games that are chalk full of kids getting brutally mutilated, tortured, etc. but they seem to be more niche and ignored in favour of the "My AAA game doesn't let me kid this kid that talked shit to me!" argument.

 

[OhGoy]

There's another point about Westerners being the main ones with this problem. There's a lot of Japanese games that are chalk full of kids getting brutally mutilated, tortured, etc. but they seem to be more niche and ignored in favour of the "My AAA game doesn't let me kid this kid that talked shit to me!" argument.

What Japanese games have dying children in them?

 

[Edgeworth]

What Japanese games have dying children in them?

Rule of Rose, Clock Tower, Silent Hill(both the Japanese and American developers, now that I think about it), a good handful of doujin games (Umineko When they Cry, Corpse Party, etc). I'm sure the list goes on but those are just ones I thought of off the top of my head.

 

[XE 600]

Why does Bethesda make such annoying kid characters that never shut up.

Because kids in real life are annoying and never shut up.

 

[Nobunaga]

What Japanese games have dying children in them?

Danganronpa

 

[Indrid Cold]

If it's morally wrong to kill polygons in the shape of a child then it's morally wrong to kill polygons in the shape of a man too.
Killing kids is funny too.

...except all them college learners and politicaliticians know that human beings are incapable of ANY evil, unless it's thoroughly simulated in vidja-games first. Kids were 217% safer before 3D physics-based vidja-games accurately simulated their clear physical inadequacies when compared to, say, a 260lb musclebound Nord:

It's all been downhill since then...

Not to whip a dead horse, but church attendance in America was perfect until the advent of Pong.

 

[Mapo Tofu]

Danganronpa

Spoiler: They are not kids

They are in reality closer to being 19 since it was 2 years after the end of the world as we know it and they were in their penultimate highschool year and no, in another episode and Danganronpa 3 the kids are confirmed to have survived

 

[Billy_Sama]

I always look on the ESRB for the violence against children alert. Not because to warn me of awful imagery but a sign of quality and good gameplay

 

[shartshooter]

This is the sort of question that should have a common sense boundary. Having kids in an open world game is not the end of the world. Having a child murder sim is not ok and no one should want to play that.

 

[Tanti-Fanti]

I think this is an interesting subject. I do believe a lot of people tend to be pretty sensitive when it comes to idea of children being involved in violence or in any horrific act, but I believe that people should not be censored when wanting to tell their story or if they want to convey a mood or message. For me, I'm personally not against kids being killed in video games as long as there is:

a) a morality choice (cure the child, but they end up worse than before, kill this child so they won't suffer, or let them suffer)

b) they're fleshed out characters that you grow attach to so when they die they have an impact on the gameplay and story

c) The children technically AREN'T children any more. Think monsters that happen to have a child-like body in horror games. It really helps intensify the mood of something going wrong.

Really, as long as it isn't just exploitative horror because of "edge" I'm perfectly fine with people wanting to tell these stories. That being said, I don't mind being given a warning about these issues in ratings and such because I know some people can handle it and some people can't.

 

[Indrid Cold]

^... a valid point, but have you considered this:

Spoiler: ...

 

[OhGoy]

Rule of Rose, Clock Tower, Silent Hill(both the Japanese and American developers, now that I think about it), a good handful of doujin games (Umineko When they Cry, Corpse Party, etc). I'm sure the list goes on but those are just ones I thought of off the top of my head.

I was thinking less about killing off children for narrative reasons and more just being able to walk up to a kid and shoot him/her for the heck of it.

Danganronpa

also, those are technically teens

 

[Edgeworth]

I was thinking less about killing off children for narrative reasons and more just being able to walk up to a kid and shoot him/her for the heck of it.

Oh. Er... I don't think I have anything on that front.

 

[Y2K Baby]

Killing children is always moral.

 

[OhGoy]

Oh. Er... I don't think I have anything on that front.

Okay, let me rephrase that: I was thinking of games where children can die at the hands of the player himself/herself. Silent Hill sorta' fits that category since you (the player) kill grey children.

Children that die in a cut-scene or are killed by NPCs are different from children that are killed by the player. The former is much less controversial than the latter. The latter is more of what I was thinking of when I asked the original question.

EDIT: Added a fifth poll option.