Writing Children as Real People: Jas, Vincent, and Childhood in Games
Jas lost her parents. She lives with her godfather who’s an alcoholic and her aunt who’s emotionally unavailable. She’s scared. She’s lonely. She’s trying to make sense of adult problems with a child’s understanding. And the game treats her as a person, not a prop. This is rare. Most media treats children as: Plot devices (orphan motivates hero) Comic relief (precocious kid says funny things) Sentimentality engines (tugs heartstrings through cuteness) Simplified adults (just smaller, less complex) But real children are: ...