Athinira said:
Adults are also weak and defenseless in their civilian form. Why is it okay to murder them?
And how come we still have games like Dead Space, which floods you with killer-zombie children?
And why do you think it will add more harm than good? Because of public outcry from non-gamers? Here is a newsflash: People get used to anything if you just expose them to it, so the sooner we start actually doing stuff, the sooner people will forget about it.
Also, saying nobody would harm a child is very incorrect. I'll just quote Yahtzee here: The character of your ingame personality is not the same as your real personality. It's about as usuful an argument as saying "Who would take a flamethrower and start burning people to death in a major city?" I'll answer that: I would, and have done so several times in Grand Theft Auto. Would i do it in real life? Obviously not, but when I'm playing GTA, I'm not playing myself.
I'll try to answer your questions in the order given.
Well, technically it isn't okay, it's only slightly less cruel to murder an adult because they have a higher capacity to defend themselves than a child does. Whether or not they utilize that capacity is irrelevant, they are more capable, thus it is not considered as bad when it is an adult.
I believe "Killer-Zombie" is the operative phrase there. As long as it isn't "human," there's less flak given about killing something that is a youth. Most games implement this. Wolf Cubs, Dragon Hatchlings, and then the aforementioned Zombie children. As long as they can show that the thing your killing isn't human, then the age of that thing is up for grabs.
Yes, public outcry would be risen should games showcase the killing of youth. It would give anti-gaming lobbyists further ammunition to try to ban certain games from being sold and/or made, and in some rare cases it could rewire more impressionable minds into thinking that killing children is okay, especially if the game in question handles said killing poorly, which would then multiply said ammunition massively.
Now, for my own comments. You say people will get used to "anything," and to just "start actually doing stuff" so they'll eventually "forget about it." With that mentality, how can you really say that a game involving the murder of children, especially to the extent that some games take with killing zombies or aliens or even other humans, is going to do ANY good AT ALL?? Is there a reason we NEED a game that involves or focuses on killing children? Do we really NEED a game with such "realism?"
Now, while I'll give kudos to quoting Yahtzee, you have to remember he's a well-adjusted, handsome god of a man, who would never kill another human being in real life unless they wholly deserved it. However, he would not be against burning down an entire city of civilians in a video game because, let's be honest, we've all had such thoughts percolating deep down within our psyches, and video games help us vent them so that we are not so tempted to recreate them in real life. So, saying that, allow me to ask you this. Have you ever wanted to kill a child? I don't mean hit a child, or shake a child, I mean outright MURDER a child, possibly in front of their parents? I know we've all met a child or two we just want to give a good backhand to for being such a pain in the ass, but I don't think many of us would outright want to KILL them.
Now, if the child were to pose a legitimate threat to the player, then sure, fine, go ahead and kill them. But as I and many others have said, children are relatively defenseless compared to adults, and many of us feel an inherent need to protect them. A game that features child-killing, without doing it in some sort of tasteful or meaningful manner, is just going for shock factor, which is only going to fuel the flame wars even further.
