I'm 14 and my 8 year old cousin and I love to play RPGs together. We've finished the ultima series, and the Baldur's gate series. He wants to play PS:T, so I wanted to see if it would be appropriate for him, content-wise. I've heard there are lots of, uh, professional women in PS:T. Sure there were some in BG, but all they did was stand there and say something mildly suggestive, but it was never said straight out what they were. I'm not really worried about violence, the graphics are pretty old, I'm mostly worried about sexual content. Thanks for any advice you guys could give me! :)

More examples of games we have played:
Thief 1-3, Morrowind, currently playing gothic 1-3, Icewind Dale...

Of course people are going to have differing opinions on what they think is okay or not okay. I would say that the themes are quite mature, not that they are not suitable for an 8-year old (in fact, good moral lessons are good at any age), but that the content might go over his head or be a little serious/dark/disturbing to be likeable for someone that age. But maybe not. I'd probably give him the benefit of the doubt and go for it. But again, there may be a lot there that he "misses" and would be better suited for someone your age because of the maturity it presents. Of all the games your mentioned, it is certainly the most adult (not because there's sex and violence, but deep, dark, philosophical things.)

Considering the games you have played you don't have to be worried about PST being disturbing.
You might not understand the philosophical content and get bored by reading the texts but I'd say if he wants to play the game do it, no harm will be done.

There is the Brothel of Slaking Intellectual Lusts, where patrons engage in an alternative kind of "intercourse" (this word actually used. The girls are called prostitutes there but do not engage in any sex. Morte occasionally uses suggestive language such as expressing a desire to "snuggle" with Anne's "pillows" an calling himself "La petite mort". The Nameless One can also have "relations" with the prostitutes in the Hive. But, there is NO graphic depictions of any acts (the screen simply fades to black and then back) or any nudity in the game at all (except for a large state) and the language is mild, but suggestive.

I hope I haven't scared you off the game, but if you think he shouldn't play it now, he should definitely play it when he's older.

Thanks for your help. I'll go ahead and play it with him, I already own it from buying the D&D collection on sale. I wouldn't worry about him not being able to understand it. Sometimes he's just too smart for his own good... :) Thanks again.

I think the 8 year old might be amused by the humour and acting in parts, as well as the fantastic visuals and mostly simple combat (way more simple and less of it compared to BG or IWD so should be a breeze by comparison)

It's a pretty deep and emotional storyline. But you might get a big kick out of letting the kid choose options instead of you metagaming as an experienced player or choosing the "obviously good" options in branching conversations. There are some creepy parts to the game and choices to be good or evil, but it's all in text form, as is the vast majority of conversations and the really emotional and heart string tugging stuff involving themes of love and loss, etc. Mature themes in the non-porno sense. I've heard of grown men and women brought to tears by some of it. A big plus is that your PC can respawn, so might be good to like the kid have some fun and control sometimes. If they goof then it is no biggie as no need to reload the game, unlike in the other IE games. Less fear of the "punishment" of reloading should make it more relaxed and fun.

I'd probably not give it to an 8 year old, mostly as I don't think they'd understand or appreciate it anyway.

So you wanna harm your cousin. I understand that right? Every human especially kids need movement. Of course your cousin and you can play games together but why videogames? That is not healthy and it will nothing positiv to your cousin.

You can play with him chess for example or a normal game like Monopoly or you can play soccer with him You can teach him somethin about life or science something positive what will help him to become a better human and bring him further in life.

This is my suggestion.

You are very critical and close-minded in your view and you don't make sense with your monopoly example especially, it is a horrible game for so many reasons! Something like PS:T is a piece of art, and there is much more value and meaningfulness in playing that than most "games"no matter what type, and a lot of video games can teach a lot of things and develop a lot of understanding/brain capabilities for people of all ages more than a lot of things because they can be so varied, on so many levels. Learning to make moral choices is certainly a valueable lesson just in itself, being exposed to different ideas/ways of thinking, being exposed to great writing, serious maturity that I really think is handled well and tasteful and could very well help the maturity development of someone who plays it.

Why would you want to inflict Monopoly on the poor child!? Oh. Well that does explain the Monopoly suggestion.

An eight year old isn't going get much out of the game. Better for 'em to come back several years later, then give it a whirl...

There's nothing in the game that an 8 year old can't handle, but he may get very bored, very quickly.

There's a lot of reading to be done so it completely depends if he's into that sort of thing.