Just had a mental image of kids pummeling fruit, thinking it was some new fad I'd missed I need to brush up on technology, it seems...

:)

I agree with you (except for the strangling their parents part), it frustrated me in Fallout: New Vegas when I met the two kids in Freeside running around trying to catch the rat to eat it because they were so hungry.

And I had thirty thousand bottle caps, a bunch of Caesar's Legion money, a bunch of NCR money, pre-war money and several hideouts with lots of food in them and yet I couldn't do anything to help those kids out because the game wouldn't let me

By Azura by Azura by Azura...!!

I shot the rat

and they got it , but yah sand boxy games should allow for such a thing

I like you

Considering that many,many children play the Bethesda games it's silly not to have them in game.
If they must be in the games and we can't 'discipline' them physically in any way, at least have the ability to send the bratty ones to their rooms for the rest of the game.

I'm not a big fan of kids being in the game but I hope it's a hybrid of Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Have them not appear as often as they did in Fallout 3 but don't have it be like New Vegas where you only had like around 15 kids and none of them had a major impact on the storyline.

From what I've read in the GI mag it's going to be similar to Fallout 3 (That's not truly confirmed the number of kids its just a guess judging from what I've read in the article). Which if that's the case it's not a bad thing if they can do it right. If your in combat the kids can't be treated as enemies and the AI that's programed for the kids has no combat abilities, meaning they won't pick up a sword to swing it at you if you murder their parents. Hopefully the Radiant AI in that situation though would have the kid running out into the middle of the village screaming "Murder, my parents were murdered" which that then would turn the whole village against you for a couple days.

To be honest, this is (at times) a maturely themed game anyway. Read some of the stories, hear some of the things the NPCs have to say... It's mature.

One of the things I really liked about Oblivion was that "If it was a creature, it could be killed."

Essential NPCs excepted of course - but even that annoyed me. They ought to at least have been gone for a couple of hours.



If I can see an NPC and interact with an NPC but cannot kill that NPC, it's not really an NPC and I'd prefer not to have it there at all. The potential that Oblivion showed for allowing the player to create their own world (kill everyone if you want to - but it will be your lonely world) was kind of cool. I don't think Oblivion went far enough in the end, but I'm all about players making choices and suffering the natural consequences of those choices. I don't like games where there's "an invincible mage, dragon, tree stump, etc."

Regardless of what form it comes in, if it's an NPC and it's supposed to be alive, it kind of ruins the immersion if that's not really true. For me at least. I'd rather that children not be in at all.

It would be interesting to see what the ages of various pro-anti children people are.

I'm 60 and I think kids in the game would be a great idea. A world without them is unrealistic--and Total Realism ™ isn't one of my requirements for an RPG. Besides Skyrim wouldn't be the first game to have children. Baldur's Gate had them and Daggerfall. Both of games integrated children into several questlines and somehow the game didn't explode into uncontrolled cuteness or anything. They couldn't be any more annoying than hearing "Citizen, you have my ear" every thirty seconds.

I love having kids in the game, but is it wrong I'd like a Bosmer girl as a companion? make her an Archer of some type

If I wanted a game with children in it, I would buy one.
I play TES games so I can kill, maim, loot, slaughter, explore, conquer, and accomplish quests.
This is TES, not Barney and Friends Playtime.
I am in my forties, and I like kids, I work with them. I am quite nurturing and patient with my students.
TES is a mature themed game, not a DIsney rated E for everyone. I equate my tesgaming escapism with going out to dinner.
I don't want to sit next to ill behaved crying children. Nor do I want to play games in which children have the potential to be put in danger.
No way.
I also agree with Xeritox.

No one ever said that having children in a game meant you could harm them also. I know in Fable you couldn't do any hostile action towards a child period. In Skyrim, who's to say that a child will be harmed if you swing a sword at it? Or better yet, the game lets you use a weapon in the direction of a child at all?

I fully support children in Elder Scrolls. It's one of the reasons I downloaded Children of Morrowind for Elder Scrolls III. In fact, I really liked Fallout 3's execution of how you started as a child. It really brought me back to the older days of Fable.

Children in games, when handled right, add much to the immersion and emotion of the player. Like it was said above, when playing Fallout New Vegas and stumbling upon the children in the Legion, I felt really bad for them. Forced to serve when they were still pretty young. That's an emotional connection to the player. Considering that society in Skyrim is stable and not post-apocalyptic, children will either be in proper families or begging on the street or something. I highly doubt we'll end up with random situations like a cave full of children who formed their own society.

Would any of those vehemently opposed to NPC children being in Skyrim perhaps explain why, then, they approve of non-hostile, non-quest-giving NPC advlts being in the game? Are they seen to somehow serve different purposes in an RPG setting?

(More as a matter of curiosity; I'm aware of some of the social and psychological factors related to strong opinions on the subject, and don't intend to criticise or attempt to change them.)

Hehe, just hope Bethesda don't includes far to many kids. I like the kinda thing Fallout: new vegas did, in freeside you could se two kids chasing a rat through the streets, If you shot the rat they will thank you and eat it xD Just have a few here and there, otherwise they would just become annoying.

I just hope the kids wont be so abrasive as the lamplighters were in Fallout 3

Children can add to the immersion and be a good thing, IF THEY ARE DONE RIGHT. I wonder if there will be Argonne and Khajjit(sp) children as well? What about Dunmer?

I hope so - I'm interested in seeing how they look.

I think it's great, like many said already: children create immersion. I really did expect children in TES anymore (Except through mods, I love children of Morrowind). What could have caused the change in the opinion of Bethesda? I heard they also were in Fallout, why did they start placing them there and why not in Morrowind or Oblivion?

Well if they ARE in I do not want them off limits....(because I might want to keep their parents.)

I'm oposed to having children in the game for one simple reason, gameplay. I don't mind the quest giving or the dialoge, or the fact that they're even in the game but my biggest concern is gameplay. If I want to rest in the village after I slaughtered it I shouldn't have to leave the village to rest somewhere because it says that enemies are nearby and it's children who I can't well???
Another problem is if they're essential then what happens with the AI programming are they going to have any combat commands like if I murder their parents are they going to pick up a sword and start attacking me and I can't kill them because they're essential and for other reasons. Lastly what happens if your running away from a monster say a snow troll and you enter a village and the troll follows you and sees a kid. How is it realistic that the kid wouldn't be killed by the snow troll.

That's my biggest problem with adding children into an open world game like Skyrim. The Gameplay isn't realistic at all. It may add more of a dimension to gameplay and storytelling but how is it realistic if a snow troll can't kill a child because people would be offended by that type of stuff in a video game even though stuff like Grand Theft auto is worse way worse when you have to kill police officers, etc. The simple thing to do would be to not have children in the game at all avoiding any type of controversey. The GI article kinda confirms that children are in the game which isn't a big deal for me. I just hope that Bethesda does it right gameplay wise in a way that it's realistic gamewise but not in a way that it ruins the game experience.

I'm sure in other games if the parents are killed the kids just disappear (RP that they went to live with distant relatives or something). And as for the Troll scenario, they could just flee to the nearest house if an enemy appear on their radar. I'm sure they'll have thought of something like this as IIRC it's been mentioned that dragons may attack cities/settlements. Could also be that they can't turn hostile, so that fixes the other problem you mentioned. :thumbsup:

[Edit] So if you went on the rampage in a village, kids would flee to the houses, and if you killed their parents, they'd disappear from the game (sorry I worded the above badly).

I hope so it was the only flaws the children had in Fallout 3. I think Bethesda with the Radiant AI will have hopefully made those changes.

You know what I WANT TO SEE! and one of the few cases I don't mind seeing a kid...MWHAHHAHAH...a kid in the dark brother hood. That would be cool! I want kids to be able to murder, steal, and do everything an advlt character can, I even wouldn't mind seeing super strong child adventurers! but being everything the advlts were would also mean being able to die (note I did not mention killing them). Aside from those kind of kids if the others are polite and mostly stay out of my way I won't mind.

Edit- not to mention wouldn't you hate to see a "youngen"(a realitive word) blasted by a dragon's breath survive?

Children in Fallout 3 were set to be pretty cowardly, so I doubt you should have to worry about Skyrim's kids coming after you.

Please look at Summer's first post on the first page of the topic. The reason for not having kids in the game is quite clear for me and because the reason doesnt' apply to advlt NPC's is why I have no problems with non-hostile and non-quest-giving NPC's being in the game.

For the person who asked the age of those against children in the game, I'll be 40 next week. For the person who mentioned Daggerfall having children, they were removed in Morrowind and in Oblivion for the very reason I don't want them in the game.