Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by mulander 1880 days ago
In Fallout one and two, the main character had the option to kill NPC child characters. The game went so far as to mark you with a specific perk "Childkiller"[1] after performing that act.

From the linked fandom wiki, quote by Tim Cain about the subject:

> This led to the child killing controversy. We said look, we're going to have kids in the game; you shoot them, it's a huge penalty to karma, you're really disliked, there are places that won't sell to you, people will shoot you on sight, and we thought people can decide what they want to do. [...] This of course contributed to our M-rating, however, Europe said "no". They wouldn't even sell the game if there were children in the game. We didn't have time to rewrite all the quests, we just deleted kids off the disc.

[1] - https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Childkiller
1 comments
ModernMech 1880 days ago
Right, but the charge is that this is a slippery slope. That as soon as you put some limitations in the name of protecting children, eventually and inevitably you are preventing your characters being named after religious icons and politicians. I'm just wondering where that's actually happened. As far as I'm aware you can name you character whatever you want in Fallout.
link
mulander 1880 days ago
I don't think there is an explicit filter installed. Quick search reveals a companion that can pronounce names and Jesus is not recorded as something the character can say while Mohammed is allowed and voiced. Though this might not be censorship but just something that wasn't recorded. Fallout also evolved into an online game. I haven't played it but that might lead to character name restrictions.

> Codsworth is known to say the Sole Survivor's chosen name if it is an option, although it may be shortened, extended, or have a word omitted. A list of spoken names can be found here.

> Ironically you can be Mohammed but you can't be Jesus. I know I missed a bunch of the good ones, feel free to add some below.

[1] - https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Codsworth

[2] - https://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/49688113...

link
tjs8rj 1879 days ago
As for Jesus vs Mohammed, Mohammed is an incredibly popular name among muslims generally, so it’d be like leaving out “John”. Jesus is a much less popular given name around the world.
link
exciteabletom 1879 days ago
Jesús is a popular name in Spanish speaking countries...
link