Hey i have reviewed the forum regulations and not found this post to break the rules anywhere. Please tell me if it does. I wish to note that i do not endorse killing children, i am just sharing my observation about the depiction of child homicide in gaming.

I have noticed that in some older games you can kill children but you can't do so in modern ones.

An example of that would be Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale (perhaps also Planescape Torment but off the top of my head i can't recall children being there), and Fallout 1 and 2. In these games you can kill children, though it's unreasonable because it bears heavy reputation hits.

Now, look at some of the more modern games. In Cyberpunk 2077 you can't kill children, your car will be brought to a complete stop if you attempt to run them over. Grenades, katanas, pistols, shotguns, and other don't work on them.

Another example would be Fallout New Vegas. It's not that recent a game, since it was released 11 years ago. But it's still pretty fresh. You can't kill children there, either.

Fallout 2 is from 1998 and you can kill children. Fallout New Vegas is from 2010 and you cannot.

What happened somewhere between 1998 and 2010? Did the regulations regarding depiction of pedocide in gaming undergo significant changes?

I would like to hear someone more educated offer an explanation on this.

Trigger warnings are for degenerates.

As for the question, it's pretty obvious. Big difference between pixelated graphics of the 90s where facial features were barely recognizable and modern realistic graphics where you can see the light in their eyes fade.

Societally we put a bit more value on the life of children. Its one thing to kill pixelated kids, its another to graphically portray it in glorious 4K photo realism.

because of the grotesque internet perverts and edgelords. You could kill children in fallout 2 because it was "before the internet" and you still got heavily penalized for it in the game, but nobody was spreading progressively sicker and sicker shit on the internet about it. It's as simple as that. Developers and publishers don't want their products misused for sick shit by the usual internet suspects. They can't stop them from modding the game, but the least they can do is not provide them with the means for their edgy sick shit from the get go.

Also, children go invisible in the photomode in Cyberpunk 2077. Care to guess why?

i am very rude on pc games. but in real life i am so kind.

thats why video games invented. live a different life but no body really harm for your actions.

there is a game call of juarez. you cant shoor animals you cant shoot corpses.
why ? you can kill people but you cant shoot their corpse ?

i dont understand that. but respect the developers. i can kill everyone in video games. even split their dead bodies. that is normal. yelling a child in real life is not normal

Children started to become 'invincible' or removed from games as they started to move into 3D territory / before internet hysteria. I do agree that its part of it now days, especially with the Cyberpunk example, but I strongly suspect most developers didn't want to 'cross the line' as games became more and more realistic.

Been playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance. The attention to historical accuracy is amazing, but it's noticeable how there are no children in the game. I actually suspect that's technical limitations and not some form of censorship in most cases.

It probably mostly has to do with how much the industry has grown. It’s the same reason that the newer Die Hard movies were PG-13 instead of R rated. The costs of making the product and the stock holders increase pressure to sell more and so they need to maximize available markets.

It’s really not that long ago that games were a niche product. They didn’t need to sell 10 million copies to be successful so they could be more adventurous with their style, subject matter, and systems. Which is why there are still games in which you can kill children, and they’re all smaller independent releases.

Why is it you were allowed to kill children in some old games, but not in modern ones?

Just going from my experience with Fallout, I'd say two reasons.

It's utterly pointless.

And it could generate unwanted controversy and possibly even cause the game to get a stricter age rating or need to be censored in certain territories.

I put trigger warning because people here don't like me


It kinda sucks that censorship has taken video gaming over

Indeed he did make this same thread before.

And also made multiple other exact same threads multiple times as well, for example, two different ones with titles/OPs like "Why do many PC gamers prefer a controller even though mouse is always superior" (note: the quotation marks do not mean those are his exact words, since I'm paraphrasing them from memory, but rather, the quotation marks are meant to indicate that the ideas in statement originated from his mind).

And he's also the same one who made a thread saying that there is nothing wrong with anyone of any age playing any video game because video games are just harmless fun that don't have negative impacts on someone's real-life personality...which of course, is the complete opposite of the message he is purporting to deliver every time he makes/re-makes the original post of this thread.

I think it should have been done differently. In Fallout 2 you get a permanent childkiller trait if you kill eve one kid. That's silly.

I think it could have been smart if you could use that in missions.


Say you have a quest where you need ti retrieve an item for a kid so that he gives you a relix that you need to unlock the tomb. You can either do the quest (if you are roleplaying a good character) or kill the kid to get it over with faster (if you are an evil character)

That was different one tho

You're in luck - right now GOG's forum moderators are particularly active for a change, I'm sure they will soon tell you all about it. ;)

So... you're mocking them...? Good on you.

There's also the occasional game in which you actually get attacked by children.

For example, in Paladin's Quest, there's one town where, after the alarm goes off, you get attacked by the townspeople, even children.

Also, Wasteland has a scene where children attack you, including (I believe) a baby with a gun.

I'd guess it's mostly for financial reasons. You want to sell the game in as many markets as possible, and some
countries have probably laws against digital violence against children.
Why create a game that can only be released in half the countries ?

As far as higher ratings go: I think those would benefit sales numbers.
Every kid wants that rated R game, every parent wants their kid to just shut up alrdy.

Some countries do (or did at one point) not even allow blood in games, so the color had to be changed....
It''ll just create headaches for the developer and serves no purpose.