Oh… forgot to add why I mentioned they could pick their own mushrooms… the children are quite useless to the game for the first 13 years of their lives (all they do is eat up food points). They already pick mushrooms so this is a task I thought they could do independently once they are taught. Other than that, the basic point is that the kids should be more involved in the game from an earlier age than 14. In many aboriginal cultures children are taught quite complicated tasks to help out at an early age… An example is that in many remote villages in South America, children are even taught how to open melons and other fruits with HUGE knives (they kind of look like machetes) at the age of 3 or 4!! We would NEVER think to give our children a knife like that (let alone any knife) in more industrialized countries. And isn’t it amazing that the children have the dexterity to use a knife like that… and not cut themselves?! It’s crazy. Anyway, my point is that the children could be a huge assent to the game and could provide another depth to the vvs interactions and tasks.

If the children did too much it would make the game less challenging. I would love to see them pick mushrooms, after having been shown how, and if they are in the vicinity of the mushroom when it pops up. Maybe instead of just dancing, and other useless things, the children could havea different list of actions that don't necessarily contribute that much to the play of the game itself, but makes them seem a bit more useful. They could pick flowers for the graves, or for random villagers. They could collect seashells.

That jsut gave me an idea. LOL. Art. All cultures develop some form of artistic expression. Kids could collect bits of nature and make little art peices. That would also make an interesting minigame, taking things kids collected, some paint, and making little mosaics or something. Not sure if that belongs in this thread or another.

I've seen several people mention apprenticeships...maybe after the school is built, the children with natural dispositions for certain jobs could help out. Children who have a natural disposition towards farming could "Clean tools" or "Pull weeds", child builders could "Sort Tools" or "Sweep Sawdust", child Healers could "Collect Herbs" and spend their time running between the 4 plants; and it wouldn't necessarily give them a lot of experience points, but maybe give them 1/4 of what the adults would learn. And they wouldn't necessarily have to spend all of their time doing those things. Just like adults, kids could have different personalities when it comes to work, some are lazy and don't want to work, and others are super motivated. Heck, you could even have some of them earn points for parenting later on, by rounding up smaller children and babysitting. Then maybe parenting points could be more than how well (or often) a person breeds.

That would actually be more realisitic, because in a society that is struggling to survive, every member of society is expected to play their part, no matter how small. We struggled when I was a kid, both of my parents worked full time, and I was expected to do work. By the time I was 7 I took care of the pets, swept the floors, helped with the dishes, and scrubbed the bathtubs. As I got older I did laundry, cooked, and a myriad of other more difficult tasks, and the simpler ones fell to my little brother.

Make the children do laundry so the adults can work.

I love your ideas!! They are completely what I had in mind as well -- and the art thing is a great idea (didn't think of that one, quite creative!). I would just love to see more personality in the villagers (esp. the children). And like you said, the children could still do more (e.g., laundry, picking herbs, picking flowers for the graves, etc.) without taking away from what the adults add to the game.

i noticed that some people are saying kids should be able to work.. I agree,because if you're stranded on the island you would need an 8 year old kid to work!!!it should be like they can start farming at 8(it's not that hard to pick vegetables!!!),building at 10 (they could like get wood and rocks since they can run,and the adults could do the hammering)then research and healing at 14,then breed at 18.

Heck, when I was a kid while I was allowed to play, I was still expected to do chores. Simple stuff, yes, like helping to weed the garden, move small rocks, dust, clean up after myself, etc, but from five on I was expected to do work around the house. So there's no reason the kids can't help water the farm or clean up debries.

Since I've started playing VV, I am always reminded of the book/movie Swiss Family Robinson.

I agree that the children around 8 - 10 years of age could be able to do some chores. While the older children 11 - 13 could do the laundry, forage and help the younger children with their chores. The older children could be allowed to watch the adults build and do the science/technology; maybe even running errands for the scientists like getting water.

Of course, young children in real life are easily distracted or clumsy so should the children in VV.

Even without all the suggestions, VV is still a great game.

I love Phillips idea with the boat. I would like to see the villagers have some fun, like going down a waterfall or perhaps riding a whale or playing with dolphins in the water~some sort of a good time other than the GC making a dance party.

I would like to see the elderly appear more elderly, other than just getting slow. Maybe a change in appearance, such as using a stick to help them walk.

When you highlight a person, I would also like to see the age in that screen.

Maybe having disagreements among some of the villagers and having to help solve the them by choosing an option or having a certain villager that refuses to work with another certain villager.