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This little snippet might seem a couple of days overdue to some of you, but it's been sitting in one of my tabs in Firefox until now that I've decided to quit being lazy.
Gaming site Hellforge posted an image by the artist responsible for the design of the "Vault Boy" character from the old Fallout games.
Despite being particularly disturbing, and somewhat pro-choice, it could have been a whole lot worse, considering the message it's supposed to convey.
This particular image, which was never used, is the image supposed to show up under the Reputation tab in the character screen for the 'Child killer' attribute.
For those who don't remember, or those who didn't play the games:
The reputation tab basically displayed a list of factions that the character had interacted with, as well as the character's standing with each one; also, there were several 'traits', attainable by performing certain actions.
"Made man" for example, was obtained whenever the player joined one of the 4 crime families of Fallout 2.
What does it take, then, to obtain this scandalous title of Child Killer?
You have to murder the wee ones. Not midgets. According to Borderlands, those are fair game.
Children were present in Fallout 1 and 2. They scampered across the terrain, spewing forth quotes that reflected their hopeful dreams, or their prejudiced naivette.
They were never hostile, but it was still possible to injure them through a careless spray of gunfire during a heated firefight with enemies.
They were also targetable during turn-based combat.
Remember those little miscreants in the Hub that would pickpocket you when entering or leaving a building?
Yeah, the ones who made you enter combat and use up your turn walking into a building, so they couldn't take action.
Fuckers.
I'm sure they were fired upon many times by those feuding folks wary of their personal belongings.
Since then, this touchy subject has been avoided by a variety of means.
That kid in Fallout 3 whose parents died to the ants would merely run away as if scolded when facing my hail of lead.
And remember the sandbox utopia that was Grand Theft Auto 4?
For such a bustling metropolis, there was nary a child in sight.
Liberty City must have strict truancy laws and schools that operate 24/7.
Either that or games show us the future, and the future is a Clive Owen movie.
Clearly, this is done to avoid content that could be considered in extreme bad taste, depending on what actions the player took. I don't oppose this approach that games usually take, it's just kind of strange that a game actually did it, many years ago.
That and there was going to be a little cartoon picture for it.
Comments
14 years, 8 months ago
The picture would bother me more if I could think of any better or less offensive way to create an image for "Child killer".
14 years, 8 months ago
I remember when it announced that children in Fallout 3 would be unkillable. I also remember all of the bitching from certain official forum members.
Really? Your entire gaming experience is ruined because you can't kill kids?
14 years, 8 months ago
You know Carlos, you have a very good point. It seems today everyone is worried about being "politically correct" or trying not to offend anyone. Isn't a human being the same as another? They have a variety of games out there that could be considered bad taste but are considered great games. I think everyone needs to take a chill pill and calm the hell down......i mean come on its a game.
14 years, 8 months ago
Heh, nice children of men reference. I got child killer once in Fallout 2 on accident because he got too close to an explosion i was using to kill some other dude.
14 years, 8 months ago
I'd would be fine with the kids in fallout 3 if every single one of them wasn't such a little asshole. It's like Bethesda is taunting me. When I met "princess" in little lamplight, I just turned off the game and played something else.
14 years, 8 months ago
in the imortal words of brad " i dont discriminate when handing out T-baggins." so think we should be able to murder children in games. i dont understand the whole "10 people died todays, 3 of them children!" mentality of most people. i can blow old ladies head off with shotguns, i can murder aspiring fathers. i can murder single mothers. but children? carlos is righteous thought, he dint let brad talk him into killin that one gay dude in that one game just because he practiced a different kind of love.
14 years, 8 months ago
For me, if your going to make a game about freedom, choice, doign whatever the fuck you want to with it, THEN GIVE ME THE CHOICE TO BE A BABY KILLER. Let me decide if I want to kill people in games. Don't just make 1 type immune to damage. I mean, ok I understand where they are coming from, they don't want news mediums going crazy on the fact that you have a CHOICE to kill (which they weren't say, only "you kill children".)
My point is, as a gamer, as someone who wants to be engulfed in teh game world, taking out the ability to kill children takes me out of the experience and makes me realize, its just a game, and for me, thats one of the worst things a game can do. Now I don't mean having menus or stuff like that, I like that, but taking away freedom is just something that should never happen.
Also, I like that picture of baby killer. Its dark, disturbing, depressing, and fits the mood so well. You just killed an innocent person, course you should feel like crap afterwards.
14 years, 8 months ago
To be honest I don't mind that I can't kill kids in video games. I mean the fact that children were invincible in fallout 3 have any negative affects, the only different thing that would happen if I could kill children in that game is the amount of controversy it would create, and I think most developers would prefer to avoid that bad press.
And also it depends on the games setting, for example the inability to kill children in fallout 3 is something that doesn't bother me, as they don't pose any threat to me and there would be no real reason to kill them. Bioshock on the other hand gives you the opportunity to kill these children rather than saving them, which can be advantagous to the player as you begin beleiveing that you will recieve more adam by following that path.
I shall also state that when playing a game, my initial reaction to seeing a child is not attempting to murder them. And also I couldn't care less about invincible children in fallout 3, what I hated were the other invincible NPC's who could still pose a threat to you, and simply would not die. Same as Oblivion.
14 years, 8 months ago
they were definitely playing it safe since back then it wasnt heavily looked upon as it is today.its sad how much of a grip the media has on videogames now a days to the point where it keeps a dev from being truly creative