I recently heard about this game on NPR: http://www.afmpgame.com/ It's a game where you try and oust opresive regimes by organizing non-violent resistance movements :D I wanna play! Anyone else think this is a cool idea?

Quote:Original post by ussnewjersey4
NONVIOLENCE!!!!!!! OH NOOOOOZ!!!!!
Seriously, sounds pretty boring to me.

LOL! Well, SimCity sounds pretty boring, TheSims sounds pretty boring, Katamari sounds pretty boring ;)

I'm a fan of violent shoot-em-ups myself, but often times I get sick of it. I mean seriously, you would think game mechanics have advanced further than Space Invaders.

I liked simcity but i found thesims incredibly boring after i was done playing with the house builder

Think of almost any racing game. Most of them are non-violent, but still fun. Also, sports games, while aggressive, aren't neccesarily violent. So there are a lot of non-violent yet fun games out there. We just don't usually think of them when we play a lot of games with violence.

Cyprus

PS. If you are in the MMO crowd looking for something non-violent, there is a game called A Tale in the Desert. The game is set in ancient Egypt and the point of it is to go around learning. Yes, learning. Each new skill you learn lets you build new objects, starting with simple things like wood planes and brick drying racks, and eventually up to houses and mines. It is a very interesting game, and the link is www.atitd.com.

I think that violence in vidio game can be overdone and is not nessesary for a fun and non-boring game (actually I like the sims). As was said, racing games are not violent, but can be very fun (there are even peolpe that find golf games fun - go figgure :D).

I think that conflict in game is nessesary (in a racing game the comflict is who wins the race, in golf it is who wins the match), and the simpilest method of conflict is violence.

There have been many attempts to have non violent games, but the worst of them also try to eliminate conflic. Conflic is essential to a game, infact one deffinition of a game according to game theory is the there are 2 or more parties in conflict to achieve a goal, and this conflict is govererned by a set of rules.

While I agree that violence stems from the nature of the game (conflict) rather than from its graphical representation, I don't agree that conflict is essential in a game.
In many games, players struggle to solve a puzzle in a more or less elaborate form. Some multiplayer games are based rather on social relationships than on competition.
IMO, to build a non-violent game that works, one must work from the bottom-up: find something fun to do, and build the game on top of that, rather than from the top-down: take a game and eliminate all violence from its gameplay. That has never worked.

I wouldn't call it "excellant and unique", all they are changing is that your people's fingers are in the peace symbol instead of around a trigger. It might be refreshing for a minute or two, but after that it will either get boring or just the same as any other game, despite its differences. I think to make a unique game without violence, you have to pick a nonviolent topic (ie, not war or evil regimes or etc). Like the sims. I am no huge fan of the sims, but when I played it the first time, it was pretty refreshing and stayed so for a while. Do I think this was the most unique and impressive game ever? No, but I think it is a good model to follow if you want to make a great, stand-out, nonviolent game. Its best to develop a game in a completely nonviolent vein of thought, rather than removing the violence from a violent video game. A game where you only knock enemies out by spraying them with sleep mist wouldn't get very far. Its like holding a treat in front of someone the whole game without ever letting them have it. You should change the nature of the treat, rather than just not letting them have it. As far as this game goes, it isn't exactly like that, you can tell from the start you won't get to incite violence, but it still deals with that sort of medium, and because of that I don't think it will be too fun. Course thats just my opinion. ;)