There are no kids, no schools, and no playgrounds in GTA.

[TheAncientLegend]

Somehow I only recently noticed this, and it struck my curiosity. Why do you think this is?

 

On some level, it’s obvious. If there were kids in GTA, you could conduct simulated violence against kids, which of course, is more frowned upon than doing the same to adults.

 

But is there deeper reasoning to this?

 

Would Rockstar games be opening themselves to civil liabilities? Would they be violating laws?

 

Or is it solely out of the good of their hearts that the game only includes adult NPCs and buildings?

[EasonIDontKnowAnything]

I'd argue they just don't want to get any potential lawsuits or complaints which could affect their brand-name. 

[lewdicrous]

2 minutes ago, TheAncientLegend said:

Or is it solely out of the good of their hearts that the game only includes adult NPCs and buildings?

What?

[Spotty]

>Moved to PC Gaming.

It's the same for most (all?) games. In Skyrim the children that are in the game are all unkillable NPCs.
And yeah. No games want to depict violence against children.

[emosun]

4 minutes ago, TheAncientLegend said:

it’s obvious. If there were kids in GTA, you could conduct simulated violence against kids

 

[minibois]

Correction:

There is a playground in GTA, in the fourth installment to be specific:

 

[TheAncientLegend]

2 minutes ago, minibois said:

Correction:

There is a playground in GTA, in the fourth installment to be specific:

Interesting, I didn't know that. A totally empty playground though.

[AntiTrust]

18 minutes ago, TheAncientLegend said:

Somehow I only recently noticed this, and it struck my curiosity. Why do you think this is?

 

On some level, it’s obvious. If there were kids in GTA, you could conduct simulated violence against kids, which of course, is more frowned upon than doing the same to adults.

 

But is there deeper reasoning to this?

 

Would Rockstar games be opening themselves to civil liabilities? Would they be violating laws?

 

Or is it solely out of the good of their hearts that the game only includes adult NPCs and buildings?

if you could kill children the game would probably get banned entirely. 

[TheAncientLegend]

9 minutes ago, AntiTrust said:

if you could kill children the game would probably get banned entirely. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standoff_(video_game)

[Eigenvektor]

2 minutes ago, TheAncientLegend said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standoff_(video_game)

Yes, there are games that depict violence against children. If you read the page, you'll notice how the game was banned from several platforms and there's huge controversy.

 

For all it's worth: In Fallout 2 you could kill children and you'd even get a child killer perk (and be hunted down by bounty hunters ever since). Later versions of the game no longer allow kids to be killed or hurt in any way... ~edit: And I think that was actually removed from the European version of Fallout 2.

[minibois]

7 minutes ago, TheAncientLegend said:

Interesting, I didn't know that. A totally empty playground though.

Sure.. But just wanted to point it out!

3 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

And I think that was actually removed from the European version of Fallout 2.

Must be. I see Fallout 2 is PEGI 16+ rated (PEGI being the European ESRB, who both apply age rating to games), while PEGI's guidelines state this about 16+ and 18+:

Quote

16+:

This rating is applied once the depiction of violence [...] reaches a stage that looks the same as would be expected in real life. [...]

 

18+:
The adult classification is applied when the level of violence reaches a stage where it becomes a depiction of gross violence, apparently motiveless killing, or violence towards defenceless characters. [...]

https://pegi.info/what-do-the-labels-mean

I cut out some irrelevant parts.

 

The rating had to be 18+ if they included the child murder stuff, since they are likely classified by players as 'defense-less' characters. So if they included that 'feature', the games must have been 18+, not 16+.

[Praesi]

Because soem weirdos would kill them. So RS just dont take any chances. Understandable.

[Praesi]

40 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Yes, there are games that depict violence against children. If you read the page, you'll notice how the game was banned from several platforms and there's huge controversy.

 

For all it's worth: In Fallout 2 you could kill children and you'd even get a child killer perk (and be hunted down by bounty hunters ever since). Later versions of the game no longer allow kids to be killed or hurt in any way... ~edit: And I think that was actually removed from the European version of Fallout 2.

In FO3 it wasnt possible to kill the Children. And guess what, a mod was created. I like weird and crazy things and im mostly against all kind of censorship. But Children are out of the Question.

[Eigenvektor]

1 hour ago, minibois said:

The rating had to be 18+ if they included the child murder stuff, since they are likely classified by players as 'defense-less' characters. So if they included that 'feature', the games must have been 18+, not 16+.

I live in Europe, but I must've played the US version back then, because you could definitely kill them. Also keep in mind that Fallout 2 is a fairly old game and a lot of its dark humor would probably not make it into more modern games (I mean, you can kick people in the groin and get status messages like "looks like her child bearing days are over")

 

The thing is, Fallout 2 does feature violence (quite a lot) but it's not a primary goal. You can talk your way through a lot of situations and hurting/killing children is actively discouraged by branding you with the child killer "perk" if you do. The perk causes bounty hunters to appear, some characters will leave your party or turn hostile and I think a lot NPCs will refuse interaction. I assume it's quite hard to actually complete the game once you do (never tried).