Children & Player Housing

MornaBaine

So my husband and I were talking this morning about the bizarre lack of children in Tamriel. Yet another thing ZOS refuses to explain. They were a huge part of Skyrim and while some of them were incredibly annoying (much like children in real life) and led to the development of the infamous "killable children" mod it just really kills immersion to be walking through a bustling city, well patrolled by guards, and not see any children. So we came up with an idea!

Although ZOS is still refusing to even start talking about what they have planned for player housing I think it's a good bet that you'll be able to buy things for it. Lots of people have already discussed being able to place their pets in their house and let them roam within the confines of the house and their mounts in stable outside. I'd LOVE to see my horse out cropping grass in my yard!

So... what if one of the things you could buy for your house are...children? You buy a "kid token" (for whatever outrageous fee in crowns they decide to charge) and then you can enter character creation, choose from one of, say, three age groups (toddler, child, teen?) and then literally create them just as you would a regular character, race, class, etc. Then they'd be in your house and you could interact with them much as you could in Skyrim. They could do small amounts of gathering for you, ask you for money (because what kid doesn't do that????), you could tell them to do their chores or bring them gifts (what else are all those crazy and terrifying dolls we steal good for?), and just have some fun emote interactions for them. I realize not a ton of people would jump on this but for those who found children charming and a fun addition to Skyrim this could be a fun way to revisit that and make ZOS some cash all at once.

What do you think? Suggestions for improvement? Suggested pricing?

JJBoomer

Wow, i never actually noticed the lack of children in all of Tamriel. That is interesting. I wonder why that is.

kip_silverwolf

Given some of the emotes I've seen players perform on NPC's, I can understand why there are no children. Some people just lack any sense of decency.

'Buying' children is not something I would go for. I found them annoying in Skyrim and am glad they are not in ESO.

Arthg

Seeing the number of psychopaths out there woe-blading their way through the cities of Tamriel...

Nah, let's leave the children out of there, frankly.

idk

1. Children. How is the lack of children an issue. Why would Zos waste their time explaining such a small thing that only an extreme few even think about.

2. Housing - just like anything else, Zos will discuss more about housing when they're ready. A big reason is timing to get the biggest marketing effect.

OP seems to have a very confrontational tone towards Zos in a manner that seems she is trying to force Zos to saying someone. It isn't going to work. Zos doesn't reply well to brute force.

CapnPhoton

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

1. Children. How is the lack of children an issue. Why would Zos waste their time explaining such a small thing that only an extreme few even think about.

2. Housing - just like anything else, Zos will discuss more about housing when they're ready. A big reason is timing to get the biggest marketing effect.

OP seems to have a very confrontational tone towards Zos in a manner that seems she is trying to force Zos to saying someone. It isn't going to work. Zos doesn't reply well to brute force.

Agreed. 'Refuses' is a strong word. No one has outright refused. They just aren't ready. Plus you say children are annoying in real life. Why do you want them in game? It is a little condescending.

MornaBaine

Arthg wrote: »

Seeing the number of psychopaths out there woe-blading their way through the cities of Tamriel...

Nah, let's leave the children out of there, frankly.

I foolishly keep thinking it goes without saying that children should be unkillable. But this isn't even advocating for them to put them in cities but to make them optional for players and the only place they would appear is within the player housing of those who bought them.

Junkogen

If you go to Cyrodiil and witness the behavior of some people there or read zone chat, you would know that Tamriel actually has too many children in this game.

I really like OP's idea though. If only ZOS put that kind of quality into new game features. Then they might actually be worth the $30 to $40 they charge for the simplistic and cheap-looking items they sell now.

boldscot

It's a pointless feature and not needed.

k9mouse

To be fair, only Skyrim had children. Rest of TES games did not. Well Oblivion had ONE child -- the Adoring Fan. He is really more part of a quest -- a reward kind of than a NPC who walks around.

MornaBaine

CapnPhoton wrote: »

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

1. Children. How is the lack of children an issue. Why would Zos waste their time explaining such a small thing that only an extreme few even think about.

2. Housing - just like anything else, Zos will discuss more about housing when they're ready. A big reason is timing to get the biggest marketing effect.

OP seems to have a very confrontational tone towards Zos in a manner that seems she is trying to force Zos to saying someone. It isn't going to work. Zos doesn't reply well to brute force.

Agreed. 'Refuses' is a strong word. No one has outright refused. They just aren't ready. Plus you say children are annoying in real life. Why do you want them in game? It is a little condescending.

From Merriam-Webster
Refuse: to say or show that you are not willing to do something that someone wants you to do

They may not be saying they won't talk about it but they are certainly showing their refusal to do so. Of course I know they WILL talk about it when they are darn good and ready, probably much closer to release. I think this is unfortunate because it seems they go ahead and do a lot of things without any player feedback and then are unable to change things when players are finally given information and let them know this isn't what they wanted.

Also, I'd be surprised if you'd never met a child that annoyed you. There was at least one kid in Skyrim that would be rude to your character every time they saw them. Neither of those things is me being condescending, they are just facts.

Rohamad_Ali

There are many children in Tamriel , trust this one .


Probably why ZOS didn't make children NPCs .

MornaBaine

Also, this idea is total money-making fluff that I would not expect to see any time soon. Rather just something for ZOS to think about for those TES players who liked the kids.

petraeus1

The option to adopt children would arguably lead in some cases to disturbing player behaviour. Enough reason for me to just not go there.

MornaBaine

petraeus1 wrote: »

The option to adopt children would arguably just lead to disturbing player behaviour. I'd rather not have ESO associated with banned YouTube clips.

SIGH You just made me envision some tool teabagging a sleeping child NPC. This is why we can't have nice things. Nevermind then.

petraeus1

MornaBaine wrote: »

petraeus1 wrote: »

The option to adopt children would arguably just lead to disturbing player behaviour. I'd rather not have ESO associated with banned YouTube clips.

SIGH You just made me envision some tool teabagging a sleeping child NPC. This is why we can't have nice things. Nevermind then.

I'm sorry.

Daemons_Bane

Kids would indeed be nice to see in game, and would add a lot to the atmosphere and feel of the game.. But aside from their standard protection from everything rule, it would probably take a great deal of work

CossackHD

I just realized, Oblivion had no kids either, never noticed. I guess children are a new thing which appeared in the 4th era - time when events of TES Skyrim take place... ESO is set in 2nd era.

idk

Daemons_Bane wrote: »

Kids would indeed be nice to see in game, and would add a lot to the atmosphere and feel of the game.. But aside from their standard protection from everything rule, it would probably take a great deal of work

How and why. So few really even care about no children being in game that it would make an insignificant differnce to add them. Not even worth the time to code it.

Egonieser

There are too many people and too many "emote" options available to have children around as NPC's. While I understand this is just a game, but there has to be a line drawn. I have seen too many perverts and psychos who wouldn't hesitate to perform a taboo emote/action on said NPC. And trust me, this game has people like that in droves, and they don't care if they get reported or people take offense, they will do it for the shock factor, much like the abusive and perverted people on consoles who spout out things that would get them jail sentences IRL in a heartbeat. While the same happens on PC, it's easier to ignore due to no open voice chat, but seeing it done in action via emotes is not easy to ignore, just the thought of it alone sickens me.

And yes, you always have to look and evaluate the bad side of it first before you think of the positives.

Skcarkden

MornaBaine wrote: »

Arthg wrote: »

Seeing the number of psychopaths out there woe-blading their way through the cities of Tamriel...

Nah, let's leave the children out of there, frankly.

I foolishly keep thinking it goes without saying that children should be unkillable. But this isn't even advocating for them to put them in cities but to make them optional for players and the only place they would appear is within the player housing of those who bought them.

Personally i hate any game with immortal NPC's in an otherwise mortal game... Bethesda titles really got more annoying with that regard after morrowind.

No annoying little children unless they are also mortal. I hated fable for that too, but luckily i had found a way..... make guards in bowerstone shoot their crossbows at you while you're above ground on the hill as a child NPC runs past with the guard at the bottom of the hill.

Cryptical

MornaBaine wrote: »

petraeus1 wrote: »

The option to adopt children would arguably just lead to disturbing player behaviour. I'd rather not have ESO associated with banned YouTube clips.

SIGH You just made me envision some tool teabagging a sleeping child NPC. This is why we can't have nice things. Nevermind then.

Don't rule out the other gender either. I know women with female characters that do the speed-crouch thing.

Myself, I love the new heroic personality emote 'greet'. It's almost exactly that hulk-roar that I've wished for.

Ashtaris

I just started playing Witcher 3 and I must say that CD Projekt Red knows how to bring a town to life. A big part of that is seeing children playing in the streets, singing, and having fun. But I also realize that this is a single player game. In a MMO, every NPC they add to the game slightly decreases performance for that zone, or zone.grid. And we all know that some zones have enough issues as they are So although I would like to see Children added for the RP atmosphere, It may never happen because of performance balance.

Daemons_Bane

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

Daemons_Bane wrote: »

Kids would indeed be nice to see in game, and would add a lot to the atmosphere and feel of the game.. But aside from their standard protection from everything rule, it would probably take a great deal of work

How and why. So few really even care about no children being in game that it would make an insignificant differnce to add them. Not even worth the time to code it.

By making the world seem more realistic Having kids running around in the enviroment adds life
1st bold part: Maybe some don't care if asked.. But I'd be willing to bet a lot that people would enjoy it, if implemented
2nd bold part: That is true to you and others maybe, but it's not true to a lot of other people

Tavore1138

Given the number of human monsters (or self styled comedians) we have in game I shudder to think what would happen were they in open world, even if un-killable, but this idea has some merit for those who might want to 'live' in game in the way you could in the prior stand alone games.

Would work well if player housing can be shared by people and even if you could invite other players to visit your housing at your discretion...

All sounds a little complex though and I doubt many of us can afford the million crown price tag...

CapnPhoton

MornaBaine wrote: »

CapnPhoton wrote: »

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

1. Children. How is the lack of children an issue. Why would Zos waste their time explaining such a small thing that only an extreme few even think about.

2. Housing - just like anything else, Zos will discuss more about housing when they're ready. A big reason is timing to get the biggest marketing effect.

OP seems to have a very confrontational tone towards Zos in a manner that seems she is trying to force Zos to saying someone. It isn't going to work. Zos doesn't reply well to brute force.

Agreed. 'Refuses' is a strong word. No one has outright refused. They just aren't ready. Plus you say children are annoying in real life. Why do you want them in game? It is a little condescending.

From Merriam-Webster
Refuse: to say or show that you are not willing to do something that someone wants you to do

They may not be saying they won't talk about it but they are certainly showing their refusal to do so. Of course I know they WILL talk about it when they are darn good and ready, probably much closer to release. I think this is unfortunate because it seems they go ahead and do a lot of things without any player feedback and then are unable to change things when players are finally given information and let them know this isn't what they wanted.

Also, I'd be surprised if you'd never met a child that annoyed you. There was at least one kid in Skyrim that would be rude to your character every time they saw them. Neither of those things is me being condescending, they are just facts.

They just are not ready to respond. I don't think that every question needs to be answered on demand. This leads to responses that perhaps are not accurate or even useful. I would rather see a thought out accurate answer instead of simply responding because someone seemingly demands it.

Of course I have met annoying kids. But is it right to generalize? Kids deserve better than to just be labeled with a trait when they are not all the same. They get too much of that in school already.

Divinius

k9mouse wrote: »

To be fair, only Skyrim had children. Rest of TES games did not. Well Oblivion had ONE child -- the Adoring Fan. He is really more part of a quest -- a reward kind of than a NPC who walks around.

I love how people think the "TES Games" started with Morrowind...

There were children in Daggerfall.

Cazzy

I've never seen a child Argonian/Khajiit...and I want too!

Rohamad_Ali

Other MMO's have children running around doing chores , giving a quest sometimes and visibly present . They are unkillable NPCs and no one even brings it up as a topic over there , just normal stuff to them . This place is often strange to me in ways people think . For a rated M title maturity seems to be a big issue here .

idk

Daemons_Bane wrote: »

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

Daemons_Bane wrote: »

Kids would indeed be nice to see in game, and would add a lot to the atmosphere and feel of the game.. But aside from their standard protection from everything rule, it would probably take a great deal of work

How and why. So few really even care about no children being in game that it would make an insignificant differnce to add them. Not even worth the time to code it.

By making the world seem more realistic Having kids running around in the enviroment adds life
1st bold part: Maybe some don't care if asked.. But I'd be willing to bet a lot that people would enjoy it, if implemented
2nd bold part: That is true to you and others maybe, but it's not true to a lot of other people

From my post you quoted you chose to bold "so few even care" and "not even worth the time to code"

Really appropriate that you got that message. Odd that your reply doesn't make sense in the context of what you focused on. Hmm.

Again I will point out that it's an Extreemly small number of the game community that really cares about this issue. End of story.

waterfairy

I don't want ZOS to attempt adding children to this game...think about it, do you really want ZOS to do this?