I've... been avoiding this thread for a few reasons, but my confusion has reached a point where I feel like I have to jump in, especially now that this has been stated to be like a social experiment...
The choice to RP children is, of course, a personal choice. Some of the characters I've liked to RP the most are children/children in their society (meaning physical and/or mental development does not always reflect on their actual age, used mostly for long-lived races). Some have been orphans, some have had family around. I'm not going to say I'm an expert on the subject, but I'm at least familiar enough with the concept. I've also been on the other side of the fence and RP'd being a mother; pregnancy, caring for babies, children, and teenagers.
That being all said... I'm going to address this claim of social experiment. Realistically, a five-year-old child that was dumped on the streets and walks around calling for Mommy would be given over to/picked up by local <insert law enforcement type here> and, after no parents can be found, be placed in some sort of child protective services, be it an orphanage, a church (or equivalent), a foster home, or a workhouse. Once in any of these situations, the child wouldn't be allowed to wander around alone. The other possible scenario for that would be waiting to see how long until Fagin comes along and picks up the child.
RP-wise, the character concept and social experiment may be putting people in an uncomfortable position of "To do the 'right' thing could be construed as Godmoding, to adopt would throw off everything I had planned, but ignoring would be rude".
The godmoding is a result of realistic chains of events: Lost/abandoned child is found. Lost/abandoned child is handed over to law enforcement/child protection services. Lost/abandoned child is then effectively locked up/locked down. This last part basically equals someone locking this lost/abandoned child out of RP.
Adopting/including a small child into one's (real or RP) life is a MAJOR step. Real Life requires an enormous commitment and even putting life's dreams on hold. RP-wise is almost the same. As someone who RP'd a character that got pregnant and had a baby, I can say that it is an experience I will -never- go through again; it put a huge damper on what I could reasonably RP, and I had to leave a lot of my plans for that character unexplored/unrealized. That character actually only lasted another half-year or so in RP before I retired her because it was just -not- fun to sit around RPing caring for a baby when everyone else was out adventuring. This might seem selfish, but I think it's totally reasonable. A Real-Life child is a major commitment. It is (or at least should be) an even more serious commitment than marriage(formalized partnership, whatever term you want to use), and not everyone is prepared or wants that sort of commitment. It's not that people do not empathize with orphans/abandoned children, it is a case that many (most) people realize that they are not qualified for it (many are correct in this), so they don't adopt. Even if it's "just RP", people who take their RP seriously would likely have the same line of thought.
Which brings us to the fact that ignoring would be rude. You're RP'ing, we want to acknowledge it. But to properly acknowledge it, many people would have to either skirt uncomfortably close to godmoding or include a major deviation to their plans/expectations/story progression that, for one reason or another, they don't want.
I'm confused on what you're wanting to accomplish with this character. You've said that the character will hit a wall if someone does not adopt her and you've made yourself seem quite upset when people turn down adopting her (which could make a few people feel guilty), but you do not want to create NPC's to adopt her and you have stated that you will not force someone to adopt her. Ignoring the fact that a five-year-old would not last long on the streets alone, unless you make NPCs to take care of her, this character probably has a -very- short shelf life.
As a social experiment, there really isn't much to experiment with; a logical chain of events has long been in-place in equivalent societies for a very long time.
So... yet again... I'm confused on your plans for the character/the purpose of the social experiment.
The choice to RP children is, of course, a personal choice. Some of the characters I've liked to RP the most are children/children in their society (meaning physical and/or mental development does not always reflect on their actual age, used mostly for long-lived races). Some have been orphans, some have had family around. I'm not going to say I'm an expert on the subject, but I'm at least familiar enough with the concept. I've also been on the other side of the fence and RP'd being a mother; pregnancy, caring for babies, children, and teenagers.
That being all said... I'm going to address this claim of social experiment. Realistically, a five-year-old child that was dumped on the streets and walks around calling for Mommy would be given over to/picked up by local <insert law enforcement type here> and, after no parents can be found, be placed in some sort of child protective services, be it an orphanage, a church (or equivalent), a foster home, or a workhouse. Once in any of these situations, the child wouldn't be allowed to wander around alone. The other possible scenario for that would be waiting to see how long until Fagin comes along and picks up the child.
RP-wise, the character concept and social experiment may be putting people in an uncomfortable position of "To do the 'right' thing could be construed as Godmoding, to adopt would throw off everything I had planned, but ignoring would be rude".
The godmoding is a result of realistic chains of events: Lost/abandoned child is found. Lost/abandoned child is handed over to law enforcement/child protection services. Lost/abandoned child is then effectively locked up/locked down. This last part basically equals someone locking this lost/abandoned child out of RP.
Adopting/including a small child into one's (real or RP) life is a MAJOR step. Real Life requires an enormous commitment and even putting life's dreams on hold. RP-wise is almost the same. As someone who RP'd a character that got pregnant and had a baby, I can say that it is an experience I will -never- go through again; it put a huge damper on what I could reasonably RP, and I had to leave a lot of my plans for that character unexplored/unrealized. That character actually only lasted another half-year or so in RP before I retired her because it was just -not- fun to sit around RPing caring for a baby when everyone else was out adventuring. This might seem selfish, but I think it's totally reasonable. A Real-Life child is a major commitment. It is (or at least should be) an even more serious commitment than marriage(formalized partnership, whatever term you want to use), and not everyone is prepared or wants that sort of commitment. It's not that people do not empathize with orphans/abandoned children, it is a case that many (most) people realize that they are not qualified for it (many are correct in this), so they don't adopt. Even if it's "just RP", people who take their RP seriously would likely have the same line of thought.
Which brings us to the fact that ignoring would be rude. You're RP'ing, we want to acknowledge it. But to properly acknowledge it, many people would have to either skirt uncomfortably close to godmoding or include a major deviation to their plans/expectations/story progression that, for one reason or another, they don't want.
I'm confused on what you're wanting to accomplish with this character. You've said that the character will hit a wall if someone does not adopt her and you've made yourself seem quite upset when people turn down adopting her (which could make a few people feel guilty), but you do not want to create NPC's to adopt her and you have stated that you will not force someone to adopt her. Ignoring the fact that a five-year-old would not last long on the streets alone, unless you make NPCs to take care of her, this character probably has a -very- short shelf life.
As a social experiment, there really isn't much to experiment with; a logical chain of events has long been in-place in equivalent societies for a very long time.
So... yet again... I'm confused on your plans for the character/the purpose of the social experiment.