I’ve been playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance and it struck me as odd that there are no children in the game. Is there a particular reason for this? It seems like everyone is either an adult or some elder figure, and I don’t even see any teens or preteens around. What gives?
4 Answers
One of the devs actually addressed this issue! They mentioned that adding kids would require players to behave well in-game, which is a tough ask given how many gamers are out there. If children were included, it could lead to some very disturbing content, like videos of players doing awful things to them. So I guess they decided it wasn’t worth the risk for realism’s sake.
But they could just make kids invulnerable, right? Like they do for certain NPCs. Just don’t allow harm to come to them; simple fix!?
I think it’s all about avoiding backlash. If there were even the possibility of kids being harmed in-game, it could lead to serious negative press. It’s better for developers to stick with adult characters and avoid the PR nightmare, especially since many games don’t feature children for similar reasons.
For sure! Developers gotta walk on eggshells to keep that community clean!
Just goes to show how sensitive the topic is. Even games like GTA stay away from it.
Having children in the game would open up some serious issues, especially when it comes to darker themes, like during a village raid. It’s probably for the best since they would need to include difficult subjects if they had kids. Plus, if they made all children invulnerable, it would remove the whole point of adding them in the first place.
True, the medieval era was so dark. I guess avoiding that complexity keeps the game focused on its main themes.
Exactly! You know, many games with kids like in Bioshock don’t seem to have a problem, but this game has a specific tone to maintain.
The lack of kids could also be a design choice linked to the limitations of the game. Kids would need additional animations and voice work, and given how many characters are already there, it might not make sense resource-wise. They probably weighed the pros and cons and chose to leave them out to enhance performance.
Right! And honestly, I feel no loss without them. The world still feels immersive without children running about.
I mean, it’s true that not much can be gained from having kids wandering around. Just takes away from the realism if they have the same body types as adults!
Yeah, I get that, but some games have managed to include kids without a PR disaster. Think of older titles like Fallout 2!