Both Fallout 3 and New Vegas won't let you kill children. Why?

I could kill children in Fallout 1 and 2. Even get a perk for it.. well not so much a perk, just everyone hates you. and you are labeled as a killer of the future of the wastes.
Sometimes killing children were the only way to get them out of your way in Fallout 1 (before they added the move/push button) I destroyed Shady Sands back in the day. Razed it. Worth it. sigh.

In addition, where is my grave digger title? I've dug up at least 7 graves now.

Thoughts?

With the level of detail in the graphics and modern day political-correctness, having killable kids in the vanilla game wouldn't make it past the rating board.

There are mods for it (if you're on PC) but the rules here forbid posting links to them.

And if there is a grave digger perk, you might need to dig up every grave in the game to get it, because I've dug up like 20 and don't have such a perk.

Not that it ever amounted to anything in FO2...

Kill-able children would harm the game too much as far as ratings go, not to mention the backlash from non-gamers everywhere. When Fo1 and Fo2 were released, this kind of thing wasn't nearly as polemic.

Heck, in Fo2, one of the versions (EU, US, whatever.) removed the option of killing them, and you needed to mod it back in.

Grave digger isn't in the game, but there's a bunch of other perks for doing combat related stuff. Nothing like porm Star, Gigolo and such though.

It was EU version.

Not sure why people WANT to shoot the kids... In Fo3 I understood (Little Lamplight bastards), but there's no need to even TALK to kids in this one I've found.

Well in FO1 and 2 you would want to shoot them because if you weren't well-liked, they'd toss rocks at you and deal damage (small amounts but if you're sitting around waiting, 1-2 damage can add up); and especially in 1 they run around like morons and block doorways and you had no way to make them move other than shooting them.

Being able to kill children in NV/FO3 is for people who want to play a straight up evil mofo.

Yeah, see I'm playing a good character right now so wouldn't want to. However, If I played an evil character along an antisocial personality disorder build then yeah, killing children would be right there in the mix. As far as being damaging to the rating for the game. It's already got a mature rating. Furthermore, why is that off limits but forcing a prosttute to "pay" you in six for finding her lost love because she can't take living that life anymore is ok. I think that's pretty f'd up but can do it.

As far as other reasons to want to kill them, maybe you're an animal rights activist with a persecution complex and want to REALLY teach those kids a lesson in Freeside for chasing that poor helpless rat. Because you have the option to kill the rat and the kids run up and start eating it right off the bat...

just sayin

Not sure, but most people would not put Murdering Children in the same category as Consensual Prostitution or killing animals for food (and not pleasure).

Plus the rating board is the rating board. I think the studio just wanted to avoid the social outcry that may happen, doesn't mean it will happen, if they allowed mass murder of children in their games. Just look at Modern Combat (I think) and its Taliban issue.

It wouldn't really add much gameplay-wise and would just generate a whole bunch of unnescessary controversy and grief in the process. Videogames are much more high-profile and mainstream than they were in the 90s, when it was easier for this sort of thing to slip under the radar. I really don't think it's any great loss.

I was more or less just curious on people's thoughts is all. I was shocked that I could do it in 1 and 2 and rarely did do it (esp. after they added the push/move option in 2) Only when I played a really evil character.

I just think if they're going to stay true to Fallout they should include it... However, it should have some major penalties, like being vilified EVERYWHERE and with EVERYONE and failing all quests so you basically have to kill everybody or, well, die. I dunno....

Thing is, they do that and Bethesda/Obsidian/ZeniMax/Microsoft/insert name here get penalised irl by being vilified everywhere and with everyone etc. and so on. How important is it really, anyway? Is the ability to kill children really the soul, the truth, the very essence of what Fallout is? I don't think so, personally.

Child killing is not a topic we discuss here.