Babbies... in games

Games
1

In particular, childbirth.

Oh yes - I went there. What I want: more evidence of labor, childbirth, and general baby-having in games. Here’s what I got so far.

Labor and childbirth in Second Life:
http://www.secondlifeupdate.com/virtual-world-experiences/virtual-maternity-child-birth-in-second-life-game/

Labor and childbirth in Sims 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl6-vpYtCrc&NR=1

Labor and childbirth in Sims 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6FpD_QdtNw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvVIT5gXO-0 (childbirth happens in the hospital, but I love the dad’s reaction)

Here’s a lady that uses Second Life to teach midwifery in New Zealand.

In particular, I want to know the kinds of interactions available both to the baby-haver and to anyone standing around.

In Sims 3, the only option for the mom is “Go to hospital” and the only option for everyone else is “Take to hospital.” If she doesn’t go to the hospital, she has the baby (babies) at home.

Here is what we have so far (in alphabetical order):

Alien vs Predator 2 Facehugging isolated victims results in chestburster’sbirth
Alter Ego By selecting one of three options, you choose the mode of your own birth. “If you don’t come out soon, you will have to be surgically removed, and your mother will resent you for that.”
Assassin’s Creed 2 Lucy pushes out her baby boy in semi-sitting position on a table, assisted by two midwives.
Baldur’s Gate 2 Aerie gets pregnant and can deliver the baby in between encounters.
Dwarf Fortress Mothers will interrupt their current action to give birth, unless they are sleeping. A birth will not necessarily wake the mother.
Europe 1400: Die Gilde (The Guild) Childbirth is a major component of strategic game play.
Fable 2 Spontaneously-appearing baby after “unprotected sex” choice on binary menu
Fable 3
Fallout 3 The player’s character is born and can look around the delivery room. Bright lights and the profile of the father and doctor can be seen.
Final Fantasy X-2 Lulu gets pregnant and has a child
Half Life Not a birth scene, but the final boss has been compared to a fetus or giant baby by players (e.g., YouTube comments).
Harvest Moon “The baby’s coming tomorrow.” How do they know? During birth, the partner waits outside while mom is helped by a woman and a doctor. Baby goes into the crib and does not require care, “absorbs nutrients through osmosis” (Matt Bowyer).
House of the Dead: Overkill 30’ mutated woman in traditional supine birth position. Clint (protagonist) enters her womb to make things right, to “return to a safe place, a place where things all started to die.”
King’s Bounty
Legend of the Red Dragon
Little Big Adventure 2: Twinsen’s Odyssey Zoe is pregnant throughout the game; in the ending sequence, the baby boy is heard off-camera.
Second Life
Silent Hill 3 Heather doubles over in pain, and vomits up internal organ which is actually god fetus. This gets eaten.
Sims 2
Sims 3
Valkyria Chronicles Martha’s baby is born in the tank during the encounter. Player and protagonist both learn about this later. Protagonist is alarmed, but is comforted to know that mom and baby are all right.
Viva Pinata Two animals dance at each other among floating hearts; the floating hearts explode into a spontaneously-formed baby animal.
Zeno Clash Perspective of child - need screenshot or video

2

Fable II probably offers the most realistic portrayal in which the baby spontaneously appears in its crib after a brief audio sexytime cutscene.

3

Apparently there are enough hentai games featuring pregnancy that it was included in the list of topics now banned in them in Japan. Though I wouldn’t expect to find much in the way of deep, fulfilling interaction there in the first place.

I’m reluctant to go and look for actual evidence, though…

4

What about the beginning of Fallout 3?

5

In Viva Pinata, two animals would do a sexy dance and after a bunch of animated hearts floated around their heads, a stork-like woman would deliver an egg that hatched babby. If it was a snake egg and you hit it with your shovel while it bounced, you would get a siamese twin snake babby.

So I guess the takeaway is: they used a form of classic childhood-tale mythology to handle it in-game.

6

None of those are games.

Games don’t have pregnancy or childbirth because there’s nothing fun about it. Most games don’t even have children in them, partly because they aren’t fun and partly because people get squirrelly about killing them. In fact, some group or other probably would have protested if there were pregnant women in GTA who you could shoot in the belly.

7

Imagine: Party Babyz?

They were already born, though.

8

Your point is well taken, but two of fire’s links are to Sims games, which are most certainly games. Pregnancy has enormous gameplay implications in The Sims.

Good call on Fallout 3, Omnis!

Some of the Harvest Moon games are about having a family, as well as breeding animals. Although this is generally a matter of feeding the animal a potion that makes a baby version of the animal magically appear.

-Tom
9

In Final Fantasy X-2, Lulu is pregnant and later gives birth. Side-quest stuff, cutscene interaction only.

In Valkyria Chronicles, a baby is born in a tank right after a battle where said tank was used to evacuate the pregnant woman from a town under attack. This happens in Mission 3, I think. Cutscene, again.

I think most Harvest Moon games have pregnancy. My wife would mention that her character was pregnant, and then I’d look over later in that day and say, “if she’s pregnant, why is she toiling away in the mines?” After the baby is born, you can pick up the baby, put the baby back in the crib, and then spend ten hours slaving in the mines while the baby apparently absorbs nutrients via osmosis.

In Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, Aerie gets pregnant, and I think can deliver the baby in between random encounters, which seems inconvenient. I think it’s the same dialogue-tree interaction from there.

That’s all I can think of right now.

10

There’s something birth oriented at the end of House of the Dead: Overkill, if memory serves.

-xtien

“Don’t use the ‘Z’ word.”

11

Don’t forget Silent Hill 3!

Yum yum!

12

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13

14

Yes, the Harvest Moon games have childbirth and children, but it’s pretty silly (suddenly you have one, you can barely interact with the baby).

The Europa 1400/The Guild series hinges on family-making and rearing. Again, you use an “action” to put both the male and female in a house together and then you have a chance to get pregnant. The baby is delivered in an event message, IIRC and then you have little ability to interact with the youngster until the baby is old enough to decide if you want to send it to school, where, how, etc. Eventually baby grows up and becomes your main character, once your original dies.

Tons of the grand strategy games include children/childbirth, but highly abstracted. This means your characters get event messages - so and so is pregnant - or so and so had a boy/girl. This occurs in Rome: Total War, Medieval Total War 1/2, Crusader Kings, etc. Games where dynasty planning are a major part. Again, no birth scene, no control, and little interaction - although you do get to decide the fate of the child via school and training in Crusader Kings.

Bioshock mentions childbirth, particularly yours, and discusses various birth and child related experiments - but I don’t recall any specific instances of cutscenes like Fallout 3.

Black and White allowed the God hand to assign a man or woman as a “breeder” and they would take each other into huts then women would get “baby bumps.” Eventually, in one of the more “graphic” PC depictions of birth, the woman would lay on her back, make grunting noises, then a child (pretty much a 6 year old) would shoot out onto the ground from between her legs. Hilarious to watch, and hilarious to… say drop a rock on the birthing mother.

King of Dragon Pass references pregnancy, and you have to make decisions regarding pregnant women (I remember one where the traveling artist knocks a girl up and you have to decide what he should do).

You can have children in the new version of King’s Bounty. This is simply done by getting a wife (different ways to obtain one) then you chose a dialogue option to “start a family” and you get some REALLY cheesy dialogue (eventually the wife will request a baby). Then a bit later your wife will deliver via event text and the baby becomes an inventory item in wielded by your wife that gives your character passive bonuses. Very funny when you think of it that way.

Ultima 7 had babies in it, but no birth. I seem to remember babies being inventory items, but I could be crazy.

Well, I’m starting to stretch my memory here… hope that helps.

15

aliens vs predator 2 has you in some guy’s chest.

16

Oh c’mon fire, we know you’re doing marketing research for Doula Doula Revolution.

17

Nice. Here’s a video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HTC3UdS7s4

18

You’re not too far off.

Still trying to figure out whether to use the Wii a la Cooking Mama or the running pad a la Track & Field (NES).

19

I saw how that potion is collected in the Jackass movie.

20

I’m wondering how “interactivity” would manifest itself in a typical game though. I could certainly imagine general babby-having being presented in a non-interactive form within the context of an interactive game (cutscene, animation sequence, etc.) but actually “taking part” in an interactive form is harder to visualise.

Fallout 3 is a decent example, but the interactivity is limited to looking around, and I’m not even sure you could do that during the actual birth.

Anyway, I strongly oppose any such interactive sequence as I am young enough to be appalled by the very thought of childbirth. Eww, all that blood and stuff, that can’t be natural. Yes.