Comments on: Pacifism in Games

By: Caden Alexander

Caden Alexander — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 18:53:40 +0000

i played the original SimCity in the 90′s and until now i still play the latest version of SimCity’`;

By: Eddie

Eddie — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 05:24:58 +0000

I think Gornova is thinkin of games like Thief or Hitman, where you try to "trick" the enemy to go somewhere so that you can flee safely or perhaps compete a goal.

I'm also thinking of the game "Tenchu", where you can put some rice on the floor, and once the enemy comes to eat it, you can sneak away from the side or stab him in the back.

By: aschearer

aschearer — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:58:54 +0000

Sounds like it has some potential. How would you persuade? If you noticed your enemy was hungry would you try to collect some food and offer it to him? Or would there be a dialogue tree that you could try to navigate? What happens in the event that you fail to persuade the enemy?

By: Gornova

Gornova — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:56:24 +0000

maybe be "pure" can be the gameplay central point of a game. Let me explain :D

Imagine a game where different enemy want to kill player. Player can hide, or can persuade in different ways this enemies, no? Try to find how to persuade an enemy can be part of gameplay, with non-obivious solutions.. in an action game, like a shooter?

By: aschearer

aschearer — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:47:44 +0000

That's an interesting distinction you raise between the larger context and the instance of fighting, and I agree with you that many games feature pacifism as the ultimate goal even as they require fighting as you play. In some senses I think that's the heart of the problem; why can I still be "pure" and "good" in Fable 2 even though I'm killing dozens of bandits?

As you and twood rightly point out a number of games manage to use the "run away and hide" mechanic to create games without fighting, so it's great to know that such games exist and can be fun. Of course that mechanic only works to a point or for very specific games, and I'm not sure it would really apply well to a traditional story driven game which require the player to advance past some sort of enemy. Even the Metal Gear games require you to finally snuff out your enemies and fight giant robots.

By: Eddie

Eddie — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:34:51 +0000

Very nice read. I can see what you are saying.

I feel that even though the many games are violent in nature, I have found that the best games (for me, at least) were the ones that captivated you with a story and forced you in to the protagonist's goal of pacisim, which oftentimes becomes a quest to save the world/town/galaxy from utter destruction/evil. So even though these games have a violent "path", the ultimate goal is indeed pacifism. To save the world gives a good to fight.

But for the question of "What gameplay mechanics could make pacifism fun?" I agree with twood about stealth games; Metal Gear Solid provides an excellent example.

By: aschearer

aschearer — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:34:32 +0000

As I was writing this I definitely had the same thought you did, that part of the explanation for why games are what they are today is because it’s easier to make them this way. What’s most interesting is that even as games, such as Fable, add more and more layers they still shy away from adding this type of functionality. Is that because it simply wasn’t fun to be “pure” and spare your enemies, or was it simply too technically challenging?

By: twood

twood — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:45:35 +0000

This is an interesting topic that I've thought about a bit too. Intellectually, I am very interested in non-violent games, but in practice I've found few that really keep my interest with the exception of adventure games (I've never really been that interested in puzzlers). The only other non-violent game I can think of enjoying would be sim city.

I like your idea of finding ways to make combat oriented game still encourage non-violent solutions. Games that emphasize stealth are probably the most effective I've seen at having combat situations, yet rewarding players for avoiding the actual fighting part. I sometimes wonder whether the prominence of killing in many games is simply because it is a lot easier for developers to program that type of game -- to handle things like stealth or negotiation generally requires much more intelligent AI, whereas tracking kills is both simple, and a game mechanic that all players are used to.