What happens if you kill their parents? It would be horrible to see a child walk around telling you that daddy said mommy went on a long vacation.

What happens? They grow up to go on an epic quest of revenge, they become Inigo Montoya. Surely that's worth it.

It happens all the time.

Or they get depressed and become a beggar. 0_o

Or they Buy Corpse Preparation Manual and Showel

That's alright, we can always use more beggars. Who else are we going to solicit information out of and give charity to?

Y'know, they really should stop sending corpses on vacations. What's the point?

They turn into a Dark Brotherhood speaker, apparently.

In real life as well as in Dragon Age. There are poor refuge children who's parents and siblings are slaughtered. They are told something like "they've gone on a looong trip, and you have to be very brave, child." Breaks the heart, and so it should. You also deal with a parent in danger of losing a child, and you can actually kill that child if you find it necessary. That also breaks the heart, to see the parent suffer.
Now there's a game that deserves it's M rating by other means than boobs and gore. More games should deal with those kind of dilemmas.

I never "missed" children in Morrowind/Oblivion, it is the kind of thing where you can say "Oh, they all must be in school/playing somewhere/dead-in-a-ditch" There are many more items of realism that need to be added before children. However, if they are added for the sake of "reality" than yes, they should be mortal, just as every NPC, creature, and even "gods" have been. Of course, Oblivion's poorly handled "essential NPC" system could be used.

Actually yes, they should be mortal or else that defeats the freedom of the game. What happened to go anywhere and do whatever you want!

Kill the parents, burn down the farm/house/village, and you can be sure he'll become a hero!

I disagree with children all the time - my nephews, for example, are extremely opinionated.

Oh.

I didn't find the lack of little rugrats running around Morrowind or Cyrodiil to greatly impact my gameplay and enjoyment, pro or con. Some later games, like The Witcher, or even Dragon Age do have children running about playing as a backdrop when you are in Vizima or Denerim, respectively. And that's nice - they may even have a comment if you click on them. Once in a while one runs up to your player character to deliver a message of dubious origin. If they weren't there, it would not have affected my overall opinion of the game though. So yeah, if Bethesda wants to add children as ambience for a city in the next game, they can follow that kind of thinking and just have them around pvssyring and playing. I honestly can't get myself worked up over it either way.

Of course, the game still has a fair amount of blood in it anyway (though no nudity, to my knowledge, even if the desire demons come... about as close as they can without just doing away with the clothes entirely.)

However, most developers prefer to avoid the issue, and for good reason, besides, having one quest where certain decisions could force a child to be killed is a bit different from letting the player just kill any child you want just because you can.

But I don't really care much either way if there are children in the game, of course, it would be realistic to have them, but children are not high on my list of things that need to be in the game. Generally, if I don't see them, I tend to just ignore the fact that they're absent, considering that where an Elder Scrolls hero goes people are likely to die at some point, whether by the hero's hand or not, children really have no business associating with Elder Scrolls hero's anyway. And if Bethesda wants to avoid potential controvercy that could arrise from children being killed in a game by leaving them out entirely, that's fine with me. On the other hand, if they go with the tactic of including unkillable children, I'm fine with that too, not having the freedom to do something only bothers me if it's something I'd want to do if I could, and since I have no desire to kill simulated children, I don't mind not being able to do so. Bethesda just needs to make it so that they won't fight back if attacked, and will just run, otherwise they should simply be programmed as essential NPCs, because if they're completely impossible to even temporarily knock down, fight back when attacked and you just happened to accidentally hit one... well, a child would be a more terrifying foe to face than a Daedric Prince.

They try to preform "human transmutation" and end up limb-less
n_n i love FMA

What have children ever done? I say kill all of them!



(jk)

The largest issue with children appearing in a game that claims to have ultimate freedom is that they can't be killable (at least not without a fade to black, or green in Bioshock's case) or else it would risk breaking that sense of freedom.

I don't care if they do or if they don't. I would be happy to see children in the next TES game, but not if that means they can't be killed. Its not that I'm going around murdering kids (in game or out), but I think throwing a fireball and killing 20+ guards but not Timmy-Two-Times is just a bit immersion breaking.

I didn't even notice the lack of children until I also noticed the lack of mirrors, toilets, and windows (in Morrowind). Children were just one of those things that weren't there, but weren't really necessary. I do think it would be nice and the freaks mentioned that would want only to kill them and do Vivec knows what else to them are far and few between.

haha same here, havent seen that show in for ever though, missed the premier of FMA brotherhood saturday though, was kinda disapointed

Fortunately, in Deus Ex you could just blow a child's brains out with a shotgun, or mow 'em down with an assault rifle, no fade to black or anything.

Actually you did see some children in Oblivion, accept they didnt look like children. Like the Jame Brothers in Chorrol, the two Odil boys, And those 2 huge familys of uncles, aunts, and neices in the Elven Gardens disctrict. And another thing that bugged me, was all the beggers were old people. The game is not set in America, its set in Tamriel. Anyway, I fixed much of these issues with the Improved Child NPC mod I made for TES IV. And I think the added families and children running around towns made the game feel alot more authentic.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=17333

One of the Chorrol brothers was a drunkard spending his nights at the tavern drinking. I doubt he was a "child". Maybe 17 or 18, but not a child.
Odiil's sons are not children either, but young advlts. I doubt Valus Odiil would send his 8 year old kids deal with the goblins at his farm.

While there are older teenagers (16-17), young advlts in Oblivion, there are no kids at all.

Kids are nice to set an ambiance to a town. Dragon Age's example was mentioned earlier. Seeing a child beggar adds a bit of "dark" theme on a city. Bandits holding children hostage for ransom adds a completely different style for a side quest. Like Daggerfall's sidequest with the Dark Brotherhood who sent a letter to an innkeeper, telling him they captured their child and will kill him. It's much more dramatic than freeing a normal man in the same situation.

I like the effort but they just looks like midgets, not actual children

And kids make good eats!!!

Bioware's used children before, to some effect. Jade Empire had a demon possessed girl, where you could release one of the demons, which kills her. I remember spirits of children, who you might choose to avenge or bannish. There were lots of vindictive ghosts in that game... I really wanna play it now...

can't wait for the mods letting me fight the underking as a ten year old in a green tunic

Rofl. Reminds me of [censored] ^^