Hallo. I have been playing Dead Island recently, and was disgusted that there was a 30-year-old woman crying like a 6-year-old and asking for here 'Teddy bear' to help her sleep. Now, after doing some investigation, it seems that ERSB forbade Dead Island to include any children in it, resulting in this thing which completely shattered the immersion. Later I actually found this thread:
http://ie.games.ign.com/articles/119/1192293p1.html and I really want to answer this to it: NO, I do not really want to kill children, but I DO want children to be killed in a game if it is appropriate. The insane bi*** who asked for her teddy bear could not even be killed! (believe me, I have tried) So they basically could have put a child in her place, but did not for some foolish reasons. Anyhow, I do not think that children should be slaughtered in shooters etc. But for a horror game, even a war horror game, the rules should not really be much different than for a horror movie. I think I saw numerous movies killing children, but no games. This depreciates a horror game's effectiveness if the death of a child would be all too appropriate, and any respectable horror game company (or horror game developer, which I am) should screw the rule to 'the sticking place' and make a 100% quality game.
What do you think? Although I understand that the death of a child can be avoided by changing the story, can it truly be assured that the new story variant would be of equal or better quality? I would be interested to see any replies.