Nonviolent video games are video games characterized by little or no violence. The term "nonviolent" as applied to video games is objectively ambiguous as virtually any game with conflict contains violence in some form, however minor. The apparent vagueness of the term is resolved by examining the definition of "nonviolent video games" as it is applied. Non-violent video games are defined in the negative by a
disjunctiveA disjunctive syllogism, historically known as modus tollendo ponens, is a classically valid, simple argument form:Roughly speaking, we are told that at least one of two statements is true; then we are told that it is not the former that is true; so we infer that it has to be the latter that is true...
modus tollendo ponensModus tollendo ponens , or MTP, is a valid, simple argument form of inference that is today known as disjunctive syllogism:MTP should also not be confused with modus ponendo tollens.-External links:*...
argument. As such, game designers, developers, and marketers that describe themselves as non-violent video game makers, as well as certain reviewers and members of the non-violent gaming community, employ the term to describe games with
comparatively little or no violence. The definition has been applied flexibly to games in such purposive genres as the Christian video game, however a number of games at the fringe of the "non-violence" label can only be viewed as objectively violent.
The purposes behind the development of the nonviolent genre are primarily reactionary in nature. As video quality and level of gaming technology have increased, the violent nature of some video games has gained worldwide attention from moral, political, gender, and medical/psychological quarters. The popularity of violent video games and increases in youth violence have led to much research into the degree to which video games may be blamed for societally negative behaviors. Despite the inconclusive nature of the scientific results, a number of groups have rejected violent video games as offensive and have promoted the development of non-violent alternatives. The existence of a market for such games has in turn led to the manufacture and distribution of a number of games specifically designed for the non-\violent gaming community. Video game reviewers have additionally identified a number of games belonging to traditionally violent gameplay genres as "nonviolent" in comparison to a typical game from the violent genre. Despite the fact that some of these games contain mild violence, many of them have entered the argot of nonviolent gamers as characteristic non-violent games.
Video game violence and attendant controversies
Controversies surrounding the negative influences of video games are nearly as old as the medium itself. In 1964,
Marshall McLuhanHerbert Marshall McLuhan, CC was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar — a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist. McLuhan's work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory.McLuhan is known for the...
, a noted media theorist, suggested in his book,
Understanding Media: The Extensions of ManUnderstanding Media: The Extensions of Man is a 1964 book by Marshall McLuhan.The book is the source of the well-known phrase "The medium is the message". It was a leading indicator of the upheaval of local cultures by increasingly globalized values...
, that "[t]he games people play reveal a great deal about them." This was built upon in the early 1980s in an anti-video-game crusade spearheaded by the former Long Island PTA president, Ronnie Lamm, who spoke about her cause on the
MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHourThe NewsHour with Jim Lehrer is an evening television news program broadcast weeknights on PBS in the United States. Unlike most other evening newscasts in the country, each edition is an hour long. The program also runs longer segments than most other news outlets in the U.S., with in-depth...
in December 1982. The same year, Surgeon General,
C. Everett KoopCharles Everett Koop is an American pediatric surgeon and public health administrator. He was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and served as thirteenth Surgeon General of the United States under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1989.-Early years:Koop was born in...
, had suggested that games had no merit and offered little in the way of anything constructive to young people. Despite early general claims of the negative effects of video games, however, effects of these concerns were relatively minor prior to the early 1990s.
Although discussion of the impact of violence in video games came as early as 1976's Death Race
arcade game or PalacePalace Software was a British video game publisher during the 1980s based in London, England. It was notable for the Barbarian and Cauldron series of games for 8-bit home computer platforms, in particular the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64...
's Barbarian
(1987) featuring the ability to decapitate opponents, it was not until graphic capabilities increased and a wave of new ultra-violent titles were released in the early 1990s that the mainstream news began to pay significant attention to the phenomenon. In 1992, with MidwayMidway Games, Inc. is an American corporation in bankruptcy as of 2009. Founded as an amusement game manufacturer, it was a video game publisher and developer from 1973 to 2009. Midway published and developed titles such as Mortal Kombat, Ms...
's release of the first Mortal KombatMortal Kombat is a fighting game developed by Midway, released in arcades in 1992. After being published by Acclaim Entertainment for a home version, it was later returned to Midway. The game is the first title released in the Mortal Kombat series...
video game, and then in 1993 with idid Software is an American video game development company from Mesquite, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
's Doom
, genuine controversy was first ignited as the wide and growing popularity of violent video games came into direct conflict with the moral and religious ethics of concerned citizens. Protests and game-bannings followed the publicizing of these conflicts, and controversies would erupt periodically throughout the 1990s with the releases of such games as DreamwebDreamweb is a DOS and Amiga parser-free cyberpunk top-down adventure game first released in 1992, then later released on CD in 1994, and developed by Creative Reality and published by Empire Interactive Entertainment....
(1992), Wolfenstein 3DWolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded as having popularized the first person shooter genre on the PC. It was created by id Software and published by Apogee Software. Released on May 5, 1992 for MS-DOS, the game was inspired by the 1980s Muse Software computer games Castle...
(1992), Mortal Kombat IIMortal Kombat II is a 1993 arcade game and the second title in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series.-Development:To create the character animations for the game, actors were placed in front of a gray background and performed the motions, which was recorded by on a Hi-8 videotape, which had been...
(1993), Phantasmagoria
(1995), Duke Nukem 3DDuke Nukem 3D is a first-person shooter computer game developed by 3D Realms and published by Apogee Software. It was released on January 29, 1996 for the PC. It is a sequel to the platform games Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II published by Apogee...
(1996), Blood
(1997), Grand Theft AutoGrand Theft Auto is an action-adventure video game created by DMA Design and published by BMG Interactive. The game allows the player to take on the role of a criminal who can roam freely around a big city. Various missions are set for completion, such as bank robberies, assassinations, and other...
(1997), CarmageddonCarmageddon is the first of a series of graphically violent driving-oriented video games produced by Stainless Games, published by Interplay and SCi. It was inspired by the 1975 cult classic movie Death Race 2000.-History:...
(1997), PostalPostal is a computer game made by Running With Scissors and published by Ripcord Games in 1997. In 2003 there was a sequel, Postal². Director Uwe Boll has bought the movie rights for the series, and has produced a film of the same name....
(1997), Mortal Kombat 3Mortal Kombat 3 is the third game in the Mortal Kombat series, released in arcades in 1995. It was updated into Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 in arcade and home consoles, and later Mortal Kombat Trilogy home consoles only...
(1997), Carmageddon IICarmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now is the sequel to the computer game Carmageddon, released on November 30, 1998. The game was developed by Stainless Games and published by Sales Curve Interactive. It has been released for both PC and Macintosh....
(1998), Blood II: The ChosenBlood II: The Chosen is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Monolith Productions and distributed by GT Interactive, which was later purchased by Infogrames. Released on October 31,1998, it featured Monolith's new fully 3D engine Lithtech, which was previously used in Shogo: Mobile...
(1998), Grand Theft Auto 2Grand Theft Auto 2 is a video game that was released worldwide on October 22, 1999, by developer DMA Design ; initially for the Windows operating system and the PlayStation console. The game was later ported to the Dreamcast console and the Game Boy Color. It is the sequel to 1997 hit Grand Theft...
(1999), and Requiem: Avenging AngelRequiem: Avenging Angel is a first-person shooter developed by Cyclone Studios and published by 3DO and Ubisoft in April 1999.-Background:Requiem draws heavily upon the Bible and Christianity for its influences, as well as the more usual sci-fi sources as found in other games. The background story...
(1999) among others.
In April of 1999, the fears of the media and violence-watch groups were legitimated in their eyes as investigations into the lives of Eric Harris and Dylan KleboldEric David Harris and Dylan Bennet Klebold were the high school seniors who committed the Columbine High School massacre. They killed 13 people and injured 21 others. Three people were also injured as they escaped the attack...
, the shooters in the Columbine High School massacreThe Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton...
, revealed that they had been fans of the video game, Doom, and had even created
levelsDoom WADs are package files for the computer game Doom or its sequel Doom II, that contain sprites, levels, and game data. WAD stands for Where's All the Data?...
for it today dubbed "the Harris levels". A great deal of discussion of violence in video games followed this event with strong arguments made on both sides, and research into the phenomenon which had begun during the 1980s received renewed support and interest.
In December 2001,
Surgeon GeneralThe Surgeon General of the United States is the operational head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and thus the leading spokesman on matters of public health in the federal government...
David SatcherDavid Satcher, M.D., Ph.D. FAAFP, FACPM, FACP is an American physician, and public heath administrator. He was a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as the tenth Assistant Secretary for Health, and the sixteenth Surgeon General of the United...
, led a study on violence in youth and determined that while the impact of video games on violent behavior has yet to be determined, "findings suggest that media violence has a relatively small impact on violence," and that "meta-analysis [had demonstrated that] the overall effect size for both randomized and correlational studies was small for physical aggression and moderate for aggressive thinking."
Despite this, the controversies and debate have persisted, and this has been the catalyst for the emergence of the non-violent video game genre. Non-violent video games are defined in the negative by a
Modus tollendo ponensModus tollendo ponens , or MTP, is a valid, simple argument form of inference that is today known as disjunctive syllogism:MTP should also not be confused with modus ponendo tollens.-External links:*...
disjunctive argumentA disjunctive syllogism, historically known as modus tollendo ponens, is a classically valid, simple argument form:Roughly speaking, we are told that at least one of two statements is true; then we are told that it is not the former that is true; so we infer that it has to be the latter that is true...
. In other words, in order to recognize a non-violent game, an identifier must recognize the violent game as a distinct class. This has led to a degree of ambiguity in the term as it relies upon a definition of
violenceViolence is the expression of physical or verbal force against self or other, compelling action against one's will on pain of being hurt. Variant uses of the term refer to the destruction of non-living objects . Worldwide, violence is used as a tool of manipulation and also is an area of concern...
which for different identifiers may mean different things. In general, violence may be placed into at least three distinct categories:
- Totally non-violent games - Games in which absolutely no violence occurs. This category contains games characterized by lack of the death of characters, lack of sudden noise or movement, and often lack of traditional conflict. (e.g., Below the Root
Below the Root is an adventure game released by Telarium in 1984. It is based on the Green-sky trilogy, published between 1975 and 1979 by Zilpha Keatley Snyder...
or Sudoku GridmasterSudoku Gridmaster is a Touch generations puzzle game for the Nintendo DS, released on March 23, 2006 in Japan, June 26, 2006 in the United States and October 27, 2006 in Europe. It was developed and published by Hudson Soft in Japan, and published by Nintendo in the rest of the world...
)
- Games in which the player acts non-violently - Games where violence occurs to the character-player as a result of environmental hazards or enemies but the character-player's reaction is to run away or otherwise distance himself from the violence. (E.g. Portal)
- Games with environmental hazards only - Games lacking enemies, but containing a potentially violent environment (E.g.
Alleywayis a video game developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo as a global launch title for the Game Boy. It is a Breakout clone and one of the first four games developed and released for the system...
, or Roller CoasterRoller Coaster is a platform-based game which contains some strategy and puzzle elements. Uniquely it holds the claim of being the first video game to ever simulate amusement rides....
)
- Games with enemies - Games with violent enemies which the player-character must avoid (E.g. the Eggerland series)
Games in which the player acts non-violently to other sentient beings - Games where a player acts violently against robots or other non-living non-sentient enemies (E.g. DescentDescent is a 3D first-person shooter video game developed by Parallax Software and released in 1995. The series has a strong following due to its unique six degrees of freedom gameplay. It is still cherished by a strong community of fans, particularly for its online multiplayer, and new levels...
)
Research
The
history of video game developmentThe origin of video games lies in early cathode ray tube-based missile defense systems in the late 1940s. These programs were later adapted into other simple games during the 1950s...
shares approximate contemporaneity with
media violence researchMedia and violence research attempts to determine whether a link between consuming media violence and subsequent aggressive and violent behavior exists...
in general. In the early 1960, studies were conducted on the effects of violence in cartoons, and throughout the 1970s and 1980s a number of studies were conducted on how televised violence influenced viewers (especially younger viewers). The focus of many of these studies was on the effects of exposure of children to violence, and these studies frequently employed the
social learning theorySocial learning theory or SLT is the theory that people that learn new behavior through overt reinforcement or punishment, or via observational learning of the social factors in their environment...
framework developed by
Albert BanduraAlbert Bandura is a psychologist specializing in social cognitive theory and self-efficacy. He is most famous for his social learning theory.- Education and academic career :...
to explore violent behavioral modeling.
With advancements in video technology and the rise of video games containing graphic violence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, media violence research shifted to a great degree from televised violence to video game violence. Although under current debate, a number of researchers have claimed that violent games may cause more intense feelings of aggression than nonviolent games, and may trigger feelings of anger and hostility. Theoretical explanations for these types of effects have been explained in myriad theories including social cognitive theory, excitation transfer theory, priming effect and the General Aggression Model.
One difference between video games and television which nearly all media violence studies recognize is that video games are primarily interactive while television is primarily passive in nature. Video game players identify with the character they control in the video games and there have been suggestions that it is the interactivity available in violent video games that narrows the gap between the theory and practice of youth violence in a manner that goes beyond the effects of televised violence. Acknowledgment of the fact that, for better or worse, video games are likely to remain a part of modern society has led to a brace of comparative studies between violent games and non-violent games. As technology has advanced, such studies have adapted to include the effects of violent games and non-violent games in new media methods such as immersive virtual reality simulations.
Results have varied, with some research indicating correlation between violence in video games and violence in players of the games, and other research indicating minimal if any relationship. Despite the lack of solid conclusion on the issue, the suggestion that violent games cause youth violence together with the clear popularity of violent video game genres such as the
first-person shooterFirst-person shooter is a video game genre which centers the gameplay around gun- and projectile weapon-based combat through the first person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits...
have led some game designers to publish non-violent alternatives. The publishing of these non-violent alternatives has gained support from a number of social realms and the rationale for purchasing such games often derives from the results of studies indicating a high degree of relationship between violent games and youth violence.
Lawsuits and legislation
As research supporting the view that video game violence leads to youth violence has been produced, there have been a number of lawsuits initiated by victims to gain compensation for loss alleged to have been caused by video-game-related violence. Similarly, in the US Congress and the legislatures of states and other countries, a number of legislative actions have been taken to mandate rating systems and to curb the distribution of violent video games. At times, individual games considered too violent have been censored or banned in such countries as Australia,
GreeceIn 2002 the Greek government, ostensibly in an attempt to fight illegal gambling, passed the ambiguous and controversial law 3037/2002 which effectively banned all electronic games in public places...
,
etc.
In 1997,
Christian conservativeChristian conservative may refer to political position:*Christian right*Christian agrarian conservatism of Europe...
activist and (now former) attorney
Jack ThompsonJohn Bruce "Jack" Thompson is an American activist and disbarred attorney, based in Coral Gables, Florida. Thompson is known for his role as an anti-video-game activist, particularly against violence and/or sex in video games....
brought suit against
Atari Corp.Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Infogrames Entertainment SA ....
,
Nintendo of Americais a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel...
,
Sega of America Inc.is a multinational video game software and hardware development company, and a home computer and console manufacturer headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan...
, and
Sony Computer Entertainmentis a video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a full subsidiary of Sony. The company was established on November 16, 1987 in Tokyo, Japan prior to the launch of the original PlayStation video game system...
on behalf of the victims of
Heath High School shootingThe Heath High School shooting occurred at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, United States, on Monday December 1, 1997. Fourteen-year-old Michael Carneal opened fire on a group of praying students killing 3 young women, injuring four young women, and wounding one young man.-The...
in
James v. Meow Media. The suit was dismissed in 2000, absolving the companies of responsibility for the shooter's actions based on a lack of remedy under Kentucky
tortTort law is a body of law that addresses, and provides remedies for, civil wrongs not arising out of contractual obligations. A person who suffers legal damages may be able to use tort law to receive compensation from someone who is legally responsible, or liable, for those injuries...
law. In 2002, the
Sixth Circuit Court of AppealsThe United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Kentucky* Western District of Kentucky...
upheld the dismissal, and in 2003, the
U.S. Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal judiciary. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices, who are nominated by the President and confirmed with the "advice and consent" of the Senate...
denied
certiorariCertiorari is a legal term in Roman, English, and American law referring to a type of writ seeking judicial review. Certiorari is the present passive infinitive of Latin certiorare,...
, refusing to review the case because it was not dismissed on
1st AmendmentThe First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the Congress from making laws "respecting an establishment of religion", prohibiting the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech and infringing on the freedom of the...
grounds.
In 2000, the County Council for St. Louis, Missouri enacted Ordinance 20,193 that barred minors from purchasing, renting, or playing violent video games deemed to contain any visual depiction or representation of realistic injury to a human or a "human-like being" that appealed to minors' "morbid interest in violence." This ordinance was challenged in 2001 by the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) as violative of freedom of expression as guaranteed by the first amendment. The IDSA cited the 7th Circuit case of American Amusement Machine Association v. Kendrick
as precedent suggesting that video game content was a form of freedom of expression, however in 2002 the Eastern District Court of Missouri ultimately issued the controversial ruling that "video games are not a form of expression protected by the First Amendment" in Interactive Digital Software Association v. St. Louis County
.
In the aftermath of the Columbine High School massacreThe Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton...
, a $5 billion lawsuit was filed in 2001 against a number of video game companies and id Softwareid Software is an American video game development company from Mesquite, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
, the makers of the purportedly violent video game, Doom by victims of the tragedy. Also named in the suit were Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., Activision, Inc., Capcom Entertainment, Inc.,
Eidos Interactive, Inc.Eidos Interactive Ltd. was a video game developer and publisher based in England. It is now part of Square Enix Europe.Its best-known game series include Tomb Raider, Hitman, Commandos, Deus Ex, Legacy of Kain, Thief, Timesplitters, and Fear Effect...
, GT Interactive Software Corp., Interplay Entertainment Corp.,
Nintendo of America Inc.is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel...
, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.,
Square Soft, Inc.was a Japanese video game company founded in September 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto. It merged with Enix in 2003 and became part of Square Enix.Squaresoft was also a brand name used by Square between 1992 and 2003. As such, the name is often used to refer to the entire organization, but the Japanese...
, Midway Home Entertainment,
Apogee Software3D Realms is a publisher and video game developer based in Garland, Texas established in 1987. It is best known for popularizing the shareware distribution model and as the creator of franchises on the PC such as Duke Nukem, and also the publisher of other franchises such as Commander Keen and...
,
Atari CorporationAtari Corporation was a manufacturer of computers and video game consoles from 1984 to 1996. Atari Corp. was founded in July 1984 when Warner Communications sold the home computing and game console divisions of Atari to Jack Tramiel, the then-recently ousted founder of Atari competitor Commodore...
, Meow Media, and Sega of America. Violent video games mentioned by name included Doom
, Quake
, Redneck RampageRedneck Rampage is a 1997 first-person shooter game designed by Xatrix Entertainment and published by Interplay. This game features some songs by Mojo Nixon, Reverend Horton Heat, Beat Farmers and other Psychobilly artists. As the name implies, Redneck Rampage has many hillbilly elements in it...
, and Duke NukemDuke Nukem 3D is a first-person shooter computer game developed by 3D Realms and published by Apogee Software. It was released on January 29, 1996 for the PC. It is a sequel to the platform games Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II published by Apogee...
. The suit was dismissed by Judge Babcock in March 2002 in a ruling suggesting that a decision against the game makers would have a chilling effect on free speech. Babcock noted that "it is manifest that there is social utility in expressive and imaginative forms of entertainment, even if they contain violence."
In 2003, Washington State enacted a statute banning the sale or rental to minors of video games containing "aggressive conflict in which the player kill, injures, or otherwise causes physical harm to a human form in the game who is depicted by dress or other recognizable symbols as a public law enforcement officer." In 2004, this statute was subsequently declared an unconstitutional violation of the first amendment right to free speech in the Federal District Court case of Video Software Dealers Ass'n v. Maleng
.
In 2005, Jack Thompson brought suit against Sony Computer Entertainmentis a video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a full subsidiary of Sony. The company was established on November 16, 1987 in Tokyo, Japan prior to the launch of the original PlayStation video game system...
and Grand Theft AutoGrand Theft Auto may refer to*Motor vehicle theft, a crime in many jurisdictions*Grand Theft Auto , the first film directed by Ron Howard*Grand Theft Auto , a computer and video game series...
in representation of the victims of the Devin Moore shooting incident. On November 7, 2005, Thompson withdrew from Strickland v. SonyStrickland v. Sony is a court case whose central focus is on whether violent video games played a role in Devin Moore's first-degree murder/shooting of three police officers...
, stating, "It was my idea [to leave the case]." He was quick to mention that the case would probably do well with or without his presence. This decision followed scrutiny from Judge James Moore, however Thompson claimed he received no pressure to withdraw. At the same time, Judge James Moore had taken the motion to revoke Thompson's license under advisement. Jack Thompson appeared in court to defend his
pro hac vicePro hac vice, Latin for "for this occasion" or "for this event," is a legal term usually referring to a lawyer who has not been admitted to practice in a certain jurisdiction but has been allowed to participate in a particular case in that jurisdiction.The right to appear pro hac vice is not...
right to practice law in Alabama, following accusations that he violated legal ethics. Shortly thereafter, the case was dismissed and Thompson's license was revoked following a denial of his pro hac vice standing by Judge Moore who noted that "Mr. Thompson's actions before this Court suggest that he is unable to conduct himself in a manner befitting practice in this state." In March 2006, the Alabama Supreme Court upheld Judge Moore's ruling against the dismissal of the case.
In 2005, California State Senator,
Leland YeeLeland Yee is a California State Senator in District 8 which includes the western half of San Francisco and most of San Mateo County. Prior to becoming state senator, Yee was a California State Assemblyman, Supervisor of San Francisco's Sunset District, and was a member of the San Francisco...
introduced
California Assembly Bills 1792 & 1793California Assembly Bills 1792 & 1793 were two bills introduced by Speaker pro Tempore of the Assembly Leland Yee . Commonly called the "ultraviolent video games bills" or simply "video game ban" bills, these two bills restricted sales of "ultraviolent" video games from minors under the age of...
which barred ultra-violent video games and mandated the application of ESRB ratings for video games. Yee, a former child psychologist has publicly criticized such games as
Grand Theft Auto: San AndreasGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a sandbox-style action-adventure computer and video game developed by Rockstar North. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall...
and Manhunt 2Manhunt 2 is an action/adventure video game developed by Rockstar Games and the sequel to 2003's Manhunt. The game was released in North America for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Wii on October 31, 2007...
, and opposes the U.S. Army's Global Gaming League. Both of these bills were passed by the assembly and signed by Gov.
Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor, businessman, and politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of the state of California....
in October 2005. By December 2005, both bills had been struck down in court by Judge Ronald Whyte as unconstitutional, thereby preventing either from going into effect on January 1, 2006. Similar bills were subsequently filed in such states as Michigan and Illinois, but to date all have been ruled to be unconstitutional.
In 2005, in reaction to such controversial games as
Grand Theft Auto: San AndreasGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a sandbox-style action-adventure computer and video game developed by Rockstar North. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall...
, Senator
Hillary Rodham ClintonHillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving within the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she served as First Lady of...
along with Senators
Joe LiebermanJoseph Isadore "Joe" Lieberman is the junior United States Senator from Connecticut. First elected to the Senate in 1988, Lieberman was elected to a fourth term on November 7, 2006...
and
Evan BayhBirch Evans "Evan" Bayh III is an American Democratic politician who has served as the junior U.S. Senator from Indiana since 1999 and earlier served as Governor of Indiana....
, introduced the
Family Entertainment Protection ActThe United States Family Entertainment Protection Act was a bill introduced by Senator Hillary Clinton, and co-sponsored by Senators Joe Lieberman, Tim Johnson and Evan Bayh on November 29, 2005...
(S.2126), intended to protect children from inappropriate content found in video games by imposing a federal mandate for inclusion of ESRB ratings. All three senators have actively sought restrictions on video game content with Sen. Lieberman denouncing the violence contained in video games and attempting to regulate sales of violent video games to minors, arguing that games should have to be labeled based upon age-appropriateness. Regarding
Grand Theft AutoGrand Theft Auto may refer to*Motor vehicle theft, a crime in many jurisdictions*Grand Theft Auto , the first film directed by Ron Howard*Grand Theft Auto , a computer and video game series...
, Lieberman has stated, "The player is rewarded for attacking a woman, pushing her to the ground, kicking her repeatedly and then ultimately killing her, shooting her over and over again. I call on the entertainment companies—they've got a right to do that, but they have a responsibility not to do it if we want to raise the next generation of our sons to treat women with respect."
In June, 2006, the Louisiana case of
Entertainment Software Association v. FotiEntertainment Software Association v. Foti is a lawsuit filed on June 16, 2006 claiming that a Louisiana law should be declared unconstitutional...
struck down a state statute that sought to bar minors from purchasing video games with violent content. The statute was declared an unconstitutional violation of the 1st Amendment. Amici filing briefs included
Jack ThompsonJohn Bruce "Jack" Thompson is an American activist and disbarred attorney, based in Coral Gables, Florida. Thompson is known for his role as an anti-video-game activist, particularly against violence and/or sex in video games....
.
On September 27, 2006, Senator
Sam BrownbackSamuel Dale "Sam" Brownback is the senior United States Senator from the U.S. state of Kansas. During 2007, he was a candidate in the Republican primaries for the 2008 Presidential election...
(R-KS) introduced the United States
Truth in Video Game Rating ActThe United States Truth in Video Game Rating Act is a bill introduced by Senator Sam Brownback on September 27, 2006. The act would require the ESRB to have access to the full content of and hands-on time with the games it was to rate, rather than simply relying on the video demonstrations...
(S.3935). The act would require the ESRB to have access to the full content of and hands-on time with the games it was to rate, rather than simply relying on the video demonstrations submitted by developers and publishers. Two days later, Congressman
Fred UptonFrederick Stephen Upton, is a politician from Michigan. He is a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, serving the state's 6th congressional district. The district, based in Kalamazoo, stretches along the Michigan-Indiana border in the southwestern part of the state.Born...
introduced the
Video Game Decency ActThe United States Video Game Decency Act of 2007 is proposed new U.S. video game legislation originally introduced into the 109th Congress as H.R.6120 by Congressman Fred Upton on September 29 2006. The bill was reintroduced into the 110th Congress as H.R. 1531 in March, 2007...
(H.R.6120) to the House.
Lawsuits and legislative action have provided economic and legal impetus to the non-violent game movement. Although court holdings have tended to protect video game manufacturers' products as examples of free speech and free expression, the high publicity of these cases within the video game community together with the common legal tactic of interweaving a violent-video-game-to-high-profile-school-shooting narrative has had something of a chilling effect on ultra-violence in video games. Companies such as Nintendo have publicly expressed their desire for more family-oriented video games, and as public outcry over violence in video games has arisen, new non-violent video game manufacturers have stepped in to fill the market need for alternative video games.
Degrees of violence
Video game rating boards exist in a number of countries, typically placing restrictions (suggested or under force of law) for content that is violent or sexual in nature. Gamers seeking violence find themselves increasingly age restricted as identified violence level increases. This means that non-violent games, which are the least restricted, are available to all players at any age. This moral or legislative public policy against violence has the indirect effect of encouraging players of all ages and especially younger players to play non-violent games, however it also produces something of a
forbidden fruitThe term "forbidden fruit" is a metaphor that describes any object of desire whose appeal is a direct result of the knowledge that it cannot or should not be obtained or something that someone may want but cannot have. The phrase refers to the Book of Genesis, where it is the fruit of the Tree of...
effect. For this and other reasons, the effectiveness of rating systems such as the ESRB to actually curb violent gameplay in youth gaming has been characterized as futile.
Table of violence ratings
| Violence Level/Rating System | USA Canada Mexico ESRB | AUS OFLC | NZL OFLCThe Office of Film and Literature Classification is the government agency in New Zealand that is responsible for classification of all films, videos, publications, and some video games in New Zealand...
| UK BBFC & PEGI | EU PEGI | Finland VET Vet may refer to:* Veterinarian, a professional trained to diagnose and treat illness in animals.* Veteran, a person with long experience in a particular area, most often in military service during wartime.** Veteran tree, a culturally significant tree...
| Germany USKUsk is a small town in Monmouthshire, Wales, situated 10 miles northeast of Newport.Usk is noted for its rural setting, tranquil lifestyle and quality of life. It feels more like a village than a town. The River Usk flows through the town and is spanned by an ancient, arched stone bridge at...
| BRA MJ/DEJUS | Japan CERO The is the organization that rates video games and Computer software in Japan with levels of rating that informs the customer of the nature of the product and for what age group it is suitable...
| TIGRS |
|---|
| Exceeding violence |
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|
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Banned |
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|
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| Brutal violence |
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|
|
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|
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18 |
|
|
|
| Extreme violence Extreme Violence is a computer game for the Commodore Amiga, released in 1991 as a shareware game. It was written by Simon Green in AMOS ....
|
AO |
|
Banned |
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|
|
Sexual violenceSexual violence occurs throughout the world, although in most countries there has been little research conducted on the problem. Due to the private nature of sexual violence, estimating the extent of the problem is difficult...
|
|
|
Banned |
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Labeled |
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| Gross violence |
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|
|
Noted |
|
|
|
|
|
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| Intense violence |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Noted |
| Strong violence |
|
|
|
|
|
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|
16/18 |
|
|
| Historical violence |
|
|
|
|
|
|
12 |
|
|
|
| Realistic violence |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Labeled |
| Fictional violence |
|
|
|
|
|
|
12 |
|
|
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| Fantasy violence |
E/E10+ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Labeled |
| Cartoon violence |
E/E10+ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Labeled |
ViolenceViolence is the expression of physical or verbal force against self or other, compelling action against one's will on pain of being hurt. Variant uses of the term refer to the destruction of non-living objects . Worldwide, violence is used as a tool of manipulation and also is an area of concern...
|
T/M |
RC |
Banned |
Noted |
Labeled |
|
|
14 |
Labeled |
|
| Moderate violence |
|
|
|
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|
|
16 |
|
|
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| Mild violence |
E/E10+ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
10/12 |
|
Noted |
| Minimal violence |
E |
|
|
|
|
|
12 |
|
|
|
| Non-violent |
EC |
G |
U |
3+ |
Alle |
L |
A |
Family Friendly |
RapeRape, also referred to as sexual assault, is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with or without sexual penetration of another person without that person's consent....
|
|
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Noted |
| Glorified human rights violations |
|
|
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18 |
|
|
|
| Glorified war War is a reciprocated, armed conflict, between two or more non-congruous entities, aimed at reorganising a subjectively designed, geo-politically desired result...
|
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18 |
|
|
|
Blood and GoreIn computer games, gibs , short for giblets, are variably-sized body parts or fragments produced when non-player characters or game players are damaged or killed...
|
AO |
|
|
|
|
|
|
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Noted |
| Realistic Blood |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Noted |
BloodBlood is a specialized bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body's cells — such as nutrients and oxygen — and transports waste products away from those same cells....
|
M |
|
|
|
|
|
|
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Labeled |
| Animated blood |
E10+ |
|
|
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|
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|
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Noted |
| Moderate blood |
|
|
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|
|
18 |
|
|
|
| Minimal blood |
T |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| No blood |
EC |
G |
U |
3+ |
Alle/6/12/16 |
L |
A |
Family Friendly |
Gender perspective
A number of studies have been conducted specifically analyzing the differences between male and female preference in video game styles. Studies have vacillated between findings that the gender effect on violence preference in games is significant and insignificant, however no firm conclusions have been achieved to date. The number of studies in this field has blossomed contemporaneously with greater
gender studiesGender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study which analyzes the phenomenon of gender. Gender Studies is sometimes related to studies of class, race, ethnicity, sexuality and location....
, and a degree of tension exists in the field between the traditional stereotype of violence as a male-dominant characteristic and the realities of the marketing data for violent games.
In 2008, an examples of such studies was funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice to the Center for Mental Health and Media. These studies were released in the book,
Grand Theft ChildhoodGrand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do is a book by Lawrence Kutner, Ph.D. and Cheryl K. Olson, Sc.D. In it, they draw various conclusions that run contrary to the rhetoric of some politicians and activists. Along with psychiatrist Eugene V...
, wherein it was found that among girls, nine of the "top ten [most popular video games] were nonviolent games such as MarioThe Mario series is a series of highly popular and acclaimed video games by Nintendo, featuring Nintendo's mascot Mario and, in many games, his brother Luigi. Gameplay in the series often centers around jumping and defeating enemies...
titles, Dance Dance RevolutionDance Dance Revolution, abbreviated DDR, and previously known as Dancing Stage in Europe and Australasia, is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, Dance Dance Revolution is the...
or simulation games" compared to a majority of violent games in the top ten favorites of boys. Ultimately, the conclusion reached in Grand Theft Childhood was that "focusing on such easy but minor targets as violent video games causes parents, social activists and public-policy makers to ignore the much more powerful and significant causes of youth violence that have already been well established, including a range of [non-gender-linked] social, behavioral, economic, biological and mental-health factors." This conclusion supports
Surgeon GeneralThe Surgeon General of the United States is the operational head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and thus the leading spokesman on matters of public health in the federal government...
SatcherDavid Satcher, M.D., Ph.D. FAAFP, FACPM, FACP is an American physician, and public heath administrator. He was a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as the tenth Assistant Secretary for Health, and the sixteenth Surgeon General of the United...
's 2001 study (supra).
Despite this conclusion, general awareness of the issue together with traditional stereotyping has led a number of game developers and designers to create non-violent video games specifically for
female audiencesA "girl gamer" is a girl or woman who:* Works in the game development industry, or* Regularly engages in the practice of playing video games, role-playing games, or other games...
. Advertisement placement and other marketing techniques have in the past targeted women as more receptive to non-violent video game genres such as
life simulation gameLife simulation games are simulation games in which the player lives or controls one or more artificial lifeforms. A life simulation game can revolve around "individuals and relationships, or it could be a simulation of an ecosystem"...
s,
strategy gameA strategy game is a game in which the players' decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Many games include this element to a greater or lesser degree, making demarcation difficult...
s, or puzzle video games. Although these genres often contain certain degrees of violence, they lack the emphasis on graphic violence characterized for instance by the
first-person shooterFirst-person shooter is a video game genre which centers the gameplay around gun- and projectile weapon-based combat through the first person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits...
genre.
Religious perspective
Criticism for the violent aspects of video game culture has come from a number of anti-violence groups, and perhaps the most vocal of these are the numerous religious opposition groups. The moral codes of nearly all major religions contain prohibitions against murder and violence in general. In some cases this prohibition even extends to aggression, wrath, and anger. Violent video games, while merely vicarious in nature, have been the focus of religious disapproval or outrage in various circles. Notable anti-violent-video-game crusader, former attorney
Jack ThompsonJohn Bruce "Jack" Thompson is an American activist and disbarred attorney, based in Coral Gables, Florida. Thompson is known for his role as an anti-video-game activist, particularly against violence and/or sex in video games....
is a self proclaimed
Christian conservativeChristian conservative may refer to political position:*Christian right*Christian agrarian conservatism of Europe...
, and his legal actions against violent video games have been intimately linked to his religious views. As groups like the fundamentalist Christian population have increased in number of adherents, new marketing opportunities have developed contemporaneously. Several religion-centric games forums such as
GameSpotGameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which purchased...
's "Religion and Philosophy" forum have developed within the greater gaming community in reaction to this growing niche.
Christian games
There has been a rapid increase in
Christian video gamesChristian video games were first marketed successfully in the late 1980s for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Wisdom Tree and now are made by many different developers...
in the last decade, however as Christian games have striven to compete with their more popular secular progenitors, there has been an increasing number of games released that blur the lines between Christian and non-Christian values. Jack Thompson, for instance, has publicly decried such Christian games as
Left Behind: Eternal ForcesLeft Behind: Eternal Forces is a real-time strategy game for Microsoft Windows by Left Behind Games, now known as Inspired Media Entertainment....
, stating "It's absurd, ... you can be the Christians blowing away the infidels, and if that doesn't hit your hot button, you can be the Antichrist blowing away all the Christians." Similarly, James Dobson, PhD., founder of the
Focus on the FamilyFocus on the Family is an American evangelical tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1977 by James Dobson, and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s...
group, has advised parents in relation to video games to "avoid the violent ones altogether.
Although Christian games have been around since
Sparrow RecordsSparrow Records is a popular Christian music record label; a division of EMI. Sparrow Records was founded in 1976 by Billy Ray Hearn, then A&R director at Myrrh Records. Purchased by EMI in 1992, it is now part of the EMI Christian Music Group, and has been named by Billboard Magazine as "America's...
' Music Machine
for the Atari 2600The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
, there have been few genres as unassailably violent as that of the first-person shooterFirst-person shooter is a video game genre which centers the gameplay around gun- and projectile weapon-based combat through the first person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits...
(FPS). The majority of games that have been banned for violence have been FPS games, and for this reason, Christian games in the FPS genre have struggled to overcome the blurring effects of the violence inherent to the genre. Games such as Revelation 7
and Xibalba
, for instance, have attempted to avoid claims of violence by using "off the wall" absurdist humor with enemies such as flying, bat-winged clown heads (modeled after the biblical JezebelJezebel/Jezabel is the name of two women in the Bible.-In the Hebrew scriptures:Jezebel/Jezabel is the name of two women in the Bible.-In the Hebrew scriptures:Jezebel/Jezabel is the name of two women in the Bible....
) that shoot rays out of their nose, or alien Nazis (a mocking reference to RaëlianRaëlism, or The Raëlian movement, is a UFO cult that believes that planet Earth and its people had received contacts by ancient extraterrestrials with the resemblance of human beings. Members, called Raëlians, believe that civilizations of the ancient and medieval eras became convinced that the...
religious beliefs) Other Christian FPS games such as Eternal War have avoided the issue by expressing the view that justified violence is morally acceptable.
Some of these games, despite containing objectively violent content, have been affirmatively labeled "non-violent video games" by marketers and faith-based non-violent gaming communities. In direct response to the
Columbine High School massacreThe Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton...
(alleged to have been caused by the shooters' obsession with the game, Doom
), Rev. Ralph Bagley began production on Catechumen
, a Christian first-person game produced by N'Lightening Software involving holy swords instead of guns. In Catechumen
, the player fights inhuman demons using holy armament. When "sent back" the demons produce no blood or gore, and for this reason it has been described as a non-violent game. The intent of Catechumen
, according to Rev. Bagley, is "to build the genre of Christian gaming. People are tired of having these violent, demonic games dictating to their kids." Among Christian FPS games, a lack of gore has often been used as the minimum standard for non-violence. Christian game reviewers have at times characterized non-Christian games such as Portal
and Narbacular DropNarbacular Drop is an environmental puzzle video game developed by Nuclear Monkey Software. It was released free online in 2005 on PC . It was the Senior game project of students attending DigiPen. The gameplay consists of navigating a dungeon using an innovative portal system...
as comparatively non-violent games despite their lack of a Christian focus.
An example of a notable Christian video game organization is the Christian Game Developers FoundationThe Christian Game Developers Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Christian video games. Its headquarters are located in Poway, California....
, focusing on family-friendlyEntertainment or information is called "family friendly" if it is considered suitable for all members of the average family. In particular it means that it is not considered inappropriate for children, which may imply restrictions on engagement in, or depiction of, nudity, sex, violence, horror,...
gameplay and Biblical principles.
Hindu games
In 2006, Escapist magazine reported that a Hindu first-person shooter entitled My Hindu Shooter
was in the works. In My Hindu Shooter, a game based on the
Unreal engineThe Unreal Engine is a popular game engine developed by Epic Games. First illustrated in the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal, it has been the basis of many games since, including Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, Turok, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas,...
, the player employs the
VedicVedic may refer to:* the Vedas, the oldest preserved Indic texts** Vedic Sanskrit, the language of these texts** Vedic period, during which these texts were produced** Vedic pantheon of gods mentioned in Vedas/vedic period...
abilities of astrology,
Ayurvedic healingAyurveda is a system of traditional medicine native to India and practiced in other parts of the world as a form of alternative medicine. In Sanskrit, the word Ayurveda consists of the words , meaning 'life', and , meaning 'related to knowledge' or 'science'...
, breathing (meditation),
herbalismHerbalism is a traditional medicinal or folk medicine practice based on the use of plants and plant extracts. Herbalism is also known as botanical medicine, medical herbalism, herbal medicine, herbology, and phytotherapy...
, Gandharva Veda music, architecture (which let you purify demonic areas) and yagyas (rituals). Gameplay involved acquisition of the siddhis of clairvoyance, levitation, invisibility, shrinking and strength, and the ultimate goal of the game was to achieve pure consciousness by removing
karmaKarma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist philosophies..'Karma' is an Eastern religious concept in contradistinction to...
through completion of quests and cleansing the six chakras in ascending order. The only way to actually win the game is to complete it without harming or killing any other living creature. Despite the violence-free requirements of the main character, however, a player could die and be reincarnated in a number of different forms like a human, a pig, a dog, or a worm. Whatever form you came back as would limit the way in which you could interact with other characters in the game. Like the majority of games that have been labeled non-violent, violence in the game that is applied to the character rather than that the character applies is not considered to make the game a violent game.
Buddhist games
According to Buddhist morality, the first of the Five Precepts of
ŚīlaŚīla or sīla is usually rendered into English as "virtue"; other translations include "good conduct," "morality," "moral discipline" and "precept." It is an action that is an intentional effort. It is one of the three practices and the second pāramitā. It refers to moral purity of thought, word,...
is a commandment of non-violence. This moral mandate extends to human as well as non-human life, and as such it runs directly against much of the violence that characterizes today's video games. Although primarily
browser gameA browser game is a video game that is played on a web browser. It is distinct from other video and computer games in that it typically doesn't require any client-side software to be installed, apart from the web browser...
s, a number of stand-alone video games eschewing violence, such as the 2007 Thai game, Ethics Game
have been created that promote the Five Precepts and Buddhism generally. The Buddhist concept of dharmaThe term , is an Indian spiritual and religious term, that means one's righteous duty or any virtuous path in the common sense of the term. A Hindu's Dharma is affected by a person's age, class, occupation, and sex. In Indian languages it can be equivalent simply to "religion", depending on context...
has been emphasized in a number of Buddhist games as a reaction to perceptions of the adharmicAdharma is the Sanskrit antonym of Dharma. It means 'that which is not in accord with the law' - referring to both the human written law and the divinely given law of nature. Connotations include unnaturalness, wrongness, evil, immorality, wickedness, or vice....
state of modern games. The concept of ZenZen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, translated from the Chinese word Chán. This word is in turn derived from the Sanskrit dhyāna, which means "meditation" ....
has also influenced a number of nonviolent video games such as Zen of SudokuZen of Sudoku is a Sudoku based computer game developed by Charlie Cleveland of Unknown Worlds Entertainment and released on June 20, 2006...
, and The Game Factory's Zenses
series.
Jewish games
While the earliest games to feature a Jewish main character (the Wolfenstein
seriesWolfenstein is a series of World War II fantasy-themed computer and video games. All but the first two games follow an American soldier named William "B.J." Blazkowicz...
' William "B.J." Blazkowicz) are characterized by militant anti-Nazism, a number of non-violent Jewish games (such as the Avner
series) primarily aimed at younger audiences has emerged with the intention of promoting Jewish religious concepts related to the TorahThe term "Torah" , refers either to the Five Books of Moses or to the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts...
. One notable non-violent game that explores Jewish themes is The ShivahThe Shivah is a computer game designed and developed by Dave Gilbert with the assistance of others . The game was originally developed for the Monthly Adventure Game Studio 5th anniversary competition in June 2006, which it won...
, a puzzle-adventure game featuring a non-violent battle between Rabbis that takes the form of an insult swordfight.
Muslim games
Despite notoriety in the Western press for controversial violent games such as Under AshUnder Ash is a first-person shooter sometimes explained to be a response to how Arabs are pictured in computer games in general and America's Army in particular...
, and Under Siege
, Muslim developer Afkar Media has also produced at least one non-violent game entitled Road Block Buster
. In Road Block Buster
the hero must "jump[] around [] doing tricks to soldiers ... [attempt] to get over any barrier or road block implanted by Israeli Defense forces without using violence, [and] earn respect by helping surrounded people whom [sic
] can't get through the separation walls."
Sikh games
Exceptionally rare, the few Sikh games (e.g. Sikh Game
) in existence are primarily browser-basedA browser game is a video game that is played on a web browser. It is distinct from other video and computer games in that it typically doesn't require any client-side software to be installed, apart from the web browser...
. The only notable exception, Sarbloh WarriorsSarbloh Warriors is a computer game developed by Taranjit Singh, a Birmingham-based Sikh video game creator, slated to be released in September 2008 as PC freeware. It is touted as the first game mod with the theme of Sikhism...
, contains mild violence and has been characterized by the BBC as Anti-Muslim.
Bahá'í games
In January, 2007, artist Chris Nelson produced a non-violent art gameAn art game or arthouse game is a video game that is designed in such a way as to emphasize art or whose structure is intended to produce some kind of reaction in its audience. Art games typically go out of their way to have a unique, unconventional look, often standing out for aesthetic beauty or...
called The Seven Valleys
which he exhibited during the ACSW conference at the University of BallaratThe University of Ballarat is a dual-sector university in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It was formed by the passage of an Act of the Victorian Parliament in 1994, from the Ballarat College of Advanced Education...
. Based on the Unreal TournamentUnreal Tournament is a first-person shooter video game co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. It was published in 1999 by GT Interactive. Retrospectively, the game has also been referred to as UT99 or UT Classic to differentiate it from its numbered sequels...
engine, The Seven Valleys
was designed with the intention of "illustrat[ing] the unillustratable, and 'subvert[ing]' the image of violent video games in the process." Nelso was interviewed by ABC RadioCitadel Media is an American radio network owned and operated by Citadel Broadcasting. It currently controls many of the assets of the former ABC Radio Networks, which Citadel bought in June 2007...
on the subject in February of the same month.
Taoist games
Video game publisher, DestineerDestineer is a computer game developer and publisher based in Minnesota, United States. It was founded in 2000 by former Bungie Studios vice-president, Peter Tamte...
's non-violent puzzle video game, WordJong for the
Nintendo DSThe is a dual-screen handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in 2004 in Canada, the United States, and Japan. The console features a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP, with two LCD screens inside—with the bottom one being a touchscreen...
has been considered a Taoist puzzle game.
Types of non-violent video games
Non-violent video games as a genre are characterized as a genre by purpose. Unlike genres described by style of gameplay, non-violent video games span a wide number of gameplay genres. Defined in the negative, the purpose of non-violent games is to provide the player with an experience that lacks violence. Many traditional gameplay genres naturally lack violence and application of the term "non-violent video games" to titles that fall under these categories raises no questions regarding accuracy. For game developers and designers who self-identify as non-violent video game makers, however, the challenge has been to expand the concepts of non-violence into such traditionally violent gameplay genres as
action gameAction game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand-eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games....
s,
role-playing gamesRole-playing video games form a loosely defined genre of computer and video games with origins in pencil and paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, borrowing much of their terminology, settings and game mechanics....
,
strategy gameA strategy game is a game in which the players' decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Many games include this element to a greater or lesser degree, making demarcation difficult...
s, and the
first-person shooterFirst-person shooter is a video game genre which centers the gameplay around gun- and projectile weapon-based combat through the first person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits...
.
Emergent and more recent gameplay genres such as
music video gameA music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs...
s are for the most part naturally non-violent. Purposive video game genres such as
educational gameEducational games are games that have been specifically designed to teach people about a certain subject, expand concepts, reinforce development, understand an historical event or culture, or assist them in learning a skill as they play...
s also are primarily non-violent in nature. Other electronic game genres like
audio gameAn audio game is an electronic game played on a device such as a personal computer. It is similar to a video game save that the only feedback device is audible rather than visual....
s are also most frequently non-violent. The indisputably non-violent nature of these games are often considered self-evident by members of both the non-violent gaming community and the gaming community at large. As such they are often not explicitly identified as such. Typically, explicit identification is applied counterintuitively to titles where there might otherwise be a question concerning non-violence. This has led such categorization to be viewed with mistrust, hostility, and mockery by those who fail to recognize the comparative nature of the definition or who disagree fundamentally with the underlying purpose of the genre.
Traditionally non-violent games
Among traditionally non-violent games are included
Maze games,
Adventure gameAn adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story that is driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenges such as combat...
s,
Life simulation gameLife simulation games are simulation games in which the player lives or controls one or more artificial lifeforms. A life simulation game can revolve around "individuals and relationships, or it could be a simulation of an ecosystem"...
s, Construction and management simulation games, and some
Vehicle simulation gameVehicle simulation games are a genre of video games which attempt to provide the player with a realistic interpretation of operating various kinds of vehicles. Rollings and Adams note that "the vast majority of vehicle simulators are flight simulators and driving simulators"...
s among others. These games are generally less frequently described as non-violent due to the self-evident nature of the descriptive term. Prior to the development of games specifically designed for non-violence, non-violent gamers were limited to these traditionally non-violent genres, however a number of games even under the traditionally non-violent umbrella may be considered arguably violent.
MinesweeperMinesweeper is a single-player computer game. The object of the game is to clear an abstract minefield without detonating a mine. The game has been written for many system platforms in use today, including the Minesweeper for the Windows platform, which has come bundled with versions of the...
, for instance, is an abstraction of a scenario that often leads to a patently violent result.
Other common traditionally non-violent genres include adventure gameAn adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story that is driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenges such as combat...
s, puzzle games, music video gameA music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs...
s, programming gameA programming game is a computer game where the player has no direct influence on the course of the game. Instead, a computer program or script is written in some domain-specific programming language in order to control the actions of the characters...
s, party games, and traditional gameIn computer and video games, a traditional game is a computer program adaptation of a non-computer game . Most card and board games that have achieved wide spread popularity have been turned into a computer game including Monopoly, Yahtzee, Hearts, and Solitaire...
s.
Examples of traditionally non-violent games include:
Sudoku GridmasterSudoku Gridmaster is a Touch generations puzzle game for the Nintendo DS, released on March 23, 2006 in Japan, June 26, 2006 in the United States and October 27, 2006 in Europe. It was developed and published by Hudson Soft in Japan, and published by Nintendo in the rest of the world...
- A totally non-violent game wherein the player must assign the mathematically appropriate number to the corresponding blank in a grid.
Roller CoasterRoller Coaster is a platform-based game which contains some strategy and puzzle elements. Uniquely it holds the claim of being the first video game to ever simulate amusement rides....
- A game featuring a non-violent main-character wherein the player must navigate a dangerous amusement park to collect pieces of money.
Alleywayis a video game developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo as a global launch title for the Game Boy. It is a Breakout clone and one of the first four games developed and released for the system...
- A game with only environmental hazards featuring a non-violent main-character wherein the player must break blocks (mild violence) with a ball while avoiding the floor of the level.
The Eggerland
series - A series with enemies featuring a non-violent main-character wherein the player must solve block-sliding puzzles in order to secure a key and unlock the door to the next room.
RobotsRobots is a computer game originally developed for the Berkeley Software Distribution, a derivative of Unix, by Ken Arnold. Since then it has been reproduced as clone games for various platforms.-Gameplay:...
- A game lacking violence to sentient beings wherein a player must either bomb malfunctioning robots or conserve bombs by stepping strategically in order to induce the robots to crash into one another.
Non-violent action games
Action games have typically been among the most violent of video games genres with the liberal employment of enemies to thwart the actions of the player-character, and an emphasis on killing these enemies to neutralize them. As action games have developed they have become progressively more violent over the years as advances in graphic capabilities allowed for more realistic enemies and death sequences. Nevertheless, some companies like Nintendois a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel...
have tended to shy away from this kind of realism in favor of cartoon and fantasy violence, a concept also implicated in the increase of youth violence by media violence researchMedia and violence research attempts to determine whether a link between consuming media violence and subsequent aggressive and violent behavior exists...
ers. This has created a spectrum of violence in action games. Non-violent video game proponents have labeled a number of games containing comparatively low-level violence as non-violent as well as games such as the anti-violent serious gameA serious game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally appended to refer to products used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, religion, and...
, Food ForceFood Force is an Educational game published by the United Nations World Food Programme in 2005. Due to its content, it is considered a serious game . Players take on missions to distribute food in a famine-affected country and to help it to recover and become self-sufficient again...
.
Studies have also shown that there are tangible benefits to violence in action games such as increased ability to process visual information quickly and accurately. This has led to support for the development of action games that are non-violent which will allow players to retain the positive visual processing benefits without the negatives associated with violence.
Examples of non-violent action games include:
- Seiklus
Seiklus is a platform game for Microsoft Windows. It was created by a single author, cly5m, using Game Maker over a period of approximately 6 months.- Overview :...
- A totally non-violent game wherein the player traverses a natural landscape as a small person in order to get to the end.
Sunday FundaySunday Funday is a Christian video game that was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Wisdom Tree, formerly a subsidiary label of Color Dreams, in 1995. The game was the last to be released by any company for the American NES...
- A game featuring a non-violent main-character wherein the player avoids bullies, clowns, and businessmen in order to skateboard to Sunday school"Sunday school" is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-Development:The first Sunday school may have been that opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham...
.
Knytt
- A game with only environmental hazards featuring a non-violent main-character wherein the player must guide a small creature through a series of caverns and mountains containing pitfalls and hazards in order to get to the end.
Marble MadnessMarble Madness is an arcade video game designed by Mark Cerny, and published by Atari Games in 1984. It is a platform game in which the player must guide an onscreen marble through six courses, populated with obstacles and enemies, within a time limit. The player controls the marble by using a...
- A game with enemies featuring a non-violent main-character wherein the player must navigate his way through a marble maze while enemy marbles and other enemies attempt to knock him off or otherwise destroy him.
BarbieBarbie is a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Hi Tech Expressions starring Mattel Inc.'s Barbie. It is one of the few explicitly girl oriented Nintendo Entertainment System games.-Gameplay:...
- A game lacking violence to sentient beings wherein BarbieBarbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration....
must rescue Ken by defeating a host of shopping-mall-related machines gone haywire.
Other Notable Examples:
Crash Dummy Vs The Evil D-TroitCrash Dummy vs. the Evil D-Troit is an action game developed by Italian developers Twelve Interactive for the Wii and PlayStation Portable. The game is based upon the crash test dummies used in vehicle safety inspections....
Treasure QuestTreasure Quest was a puzzle game created by Soggy in Seattle Productions and sold to Sirius Entertainment. It was released April 10, 1996.In the CD-ROM scavenger hunt game Treasure Quest, the player moves from room to room in the mansion of Professor Jonathon William Faulkner, who has bequeathed $1...
- a puzzle/action game
Knytt Stories
Steer MadnessSteer Madness is an animal rights inspired adventure video game developed and published by Veggie Games Inc. The game was released in December 2004 on CD-ROM for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh.-Gameplay:...
- a vegetarian-themed game endorsed by PETAPeople for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. With two million members and supporters worldwide, it claims the status of the largest animal rights group in the world...
Non-violent first person shooters
The application of the term "non-violent" to genres such as the first-person shooterFirst-person shooter is a video game genre which centers the gameplay around gun- and projectile weapon-based combat through the first person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits...
(FPS), that many players consider inherently
or definitionally violent, has at times generated vociferous arguments that the concept is inconceivable and at best oxymoronic. This argument typically derives from a strict definition of violence as "extreme, destructive, or uncontrollable force especially of natural events; intensity of feeling or expression," a definition by which the vast majority of video games may be described as violent. Despite arguments to the contrary, however, such characterizations have been employed as a marketing tool by makers and distributors of non-violent video games, and the degree of popularity enjoyed by games so described may be attributed to the comparative violence of other more violent members of the supergenre.
Non-violent first-person shooter developers have expressed the notion that it is the challenge of making a non-violent game in a violent genre that motivates them in part. Rarely, FPS games such as
Garry's ModGarry's Mod or GMod is a modification for the Source engine. It is a physics sandbox game that allows the player to manipulate objects and experiment with physics....
and Portal that have been developed without the specific intent of non-violence have been identified by reviewers and the non-violent gaming community as non-violent FPSes. Such characterizations have led to the concern that parents may allow their children to play these games, not realizing that there are still some elements of violence including violent deaths. Further ambiguities arise when determining whether a game is a first-person shooter
, as in certain games such as Narbacular DropNarbacular Drop is an environmental puzzle video game developed by Nuclear Monkey Software. It was released free online in 2005 on PC . It was the Senior game project of students attending DigiPen. The gameplay consists of navigating a dungeon using an innovative portal system...
, the player doesn't shoot anything at all, but merely clicks walls with the cursor. Similarly, in games such as realMyst, the player merely interacts with the environment by touching things in the first-person and the term "shooter" is seen to be objectively inaccurate. Despite this, non-violent first-person games have often been characterized oxymoronically as shooters due to the fact that of all comparable genres, these games are most closely similar to the FPS and often employ engines designed for the FPS genre.
Often modeled upon violent FPS games, non-violent FPSes such as
Chex QuestChex Quest is a total conversion of the video game Doom . This game, notable for being the first video game ever to be included in cereal boxes as a prize, was found in boxes of Chex cereal in 1996...
may bear striking resemblance to the violent game whose engine they are using. Developers of such games often have done little to change the game other than replacing violent or scary imagery and recasting the storyline to describe "zorching", "slobbing", or otherwise non-lethally incapacitating enemies. Examples of simple changes intended to reduce violence for non-violent FPSes include the alteration of the red shroud from the death-sequence in Doom
to become the green shroud from the slime-sequence in Chex Quest
or the removal of the red shroud from the death-sequence in Half-Life 2Half-Life 2 is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game and the sequel to the highly acclaimed Half-Life. It was developed by Valve Corporation and was released on November 16, 2004, following a protracted five-year, $40 million development cycle during which the game’s source code was...
for the deaths in Portal
. At times, similarities between violent progenitors and their non-violent descendants have proved strong enough that the non-violent developers have cast their game as a spoof of the violent version. This is apparent in Chex Quest. Off-beat and absurdist humor have been employed in a number of games order to tone down the serious content by makers of non-violent FPSes.
One subgenre of the FPS that typically is not characterized as non-violent despite the fact that gameplay revolves to a great degree around avoidance of battle, is that of stealth games. Although much of the gameplay characteristic to stealth games accords closely with the requirements of the non-violent genre, stealth games most frequently simply delay chaotic violence to focus instead upon controlled precision violence.
Examples of non-violent FPSes include:
- realMyst - A totally non-violent game wherein the player explores a lavish 3D environment and solves point-and-click puzzles.
- H.U.R.L.
H.U.R.L. is a nonviolent video game aimed at children that was released in 1995 by a publishing house called Deep River Publishing. It is a first-person shooter , and is part of the wave of nonviolent FPS's that followed closely on the release of Doom and other games such as Wolfenstein in the...
- A game featuring a non-violent main-character wherein the player must navigate a playing-field avoiding enemies as they attempt to "slob" him with trash.
- Narbacular Drop
Narbacular Drop is an environmental puzzle video game developed by Nuclear Monkey Software. It was released free online in 2005 on PC . It was the Senior game project of students attending DigiPen. The gameplay consists of navigating a dungeon using an innovative portal system...
- A game with only environmental hazards featuring a non-violent main-character wherein the player must navigate his way out of a dungeon filled with hazards.
- Chex Quest
Chex Quest is a total conversion of the video game Doom . This game, notable for being the first video game ever to be included in cereal boxes as a prize, was found in boxes of Chex cereal in 1996...
- A game with enemies featuring a non-violent main-character wherein the player must rescue his fellow cereal-pieces by "zorching" hordes of flemoids back to their home planet with various zorch guns.
- Descent
Descent is a 3D first-person shooter video game developed by Parallax Software and released in 1995. The series has a strong following due to its unique six degrees of freedom gameplay. It is still cherished by a strong community of fans, particularly for its online multiplayer, and new levels...
- A game lacking violence to sentient beings wherein the player rescues human miners trapped in mines guarded by malfunctioning mining robots.
Other Notable Examples:
- Chex Quest 2
Chex Quest 2 was released in 1997, after the release of the cereal box promotional game Chex Quest, and was available exclusively from the official Chex Quest website...
- a non-violent Doom clone advergame
- Elebits
, known in Europe and Australia as Eledees, is a video game for Nintendo's Wii console by Konami. It was released as a launch title for the Wii on December 2 2006 in Japan, then December 12 2006 in North America, May 4 2007 in Europe and May 7 2007 in Australia.-Overview:According to the game,...
- A WiiThe is a home video game console released by Nintendo. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of both...
-based first-person hide-and-seek game
- Extreme Paintbrawl
Extreme Paintbrawl is a paintball game released for the PC on October 20, 1998. The game uses a modified version of the Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition v1.5 executable.-Criticism:...
- A non-lethal paintballPaintball is a sport, in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by hitting them with pellets containing paint from a special gun called a paintball marker. Depending on the venue, games are played on either indoor or outdoor fields of varying size...
FPS
- Foreign Ground
Foreign Ground is a first-person perspective game developed by Swedish National Defence Collegethat simulates peace keeping operations. Instead of focusing on combat, like most other games do,...
- Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball
Greg Hastings' Tournament Paintball is a T-rated first person paintball game released exclusively for the Xbox. The game gathered a cult following, consistently appearing on the Xbox Live Top 25 list posted by Major Nelson, peaking at the number nine position. A sequel, Greg Hastings Tournament...
- A non-lethal paintballPaintball is a sport, in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by hitting them with pellets containing paint from a special gun called a paintball marker. Depending on the venue, games are played on either indoor or outdoor fields of varying size...
FPS
- Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball MAX'D
Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball MAX'D is a 12+ rated, action sport, first person shooter developed by The Whole Experience, under joint venture with Paintball Players Productions, LLC, and published by Activision on Xbox, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, and Playstation 2...
- A non-lethal paintballPaintball is a sport, in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by hitting them with pellets containing paint from a special gun called a paintball marker. Depending on the venue, games are played on either indoor or outdoor fields of varying size...
FPS
- Ken's Labyrinth
Ken's Labyrinth is a first-person shooter DOS game, released in 1993 by Epic Megagames . It was mostly coded by Ken Silverman, who went on to design the Build engine that was used for rendering a first-person viewpoint in Apogee Software's Duke Nukem 3D...
- a non-violent Wolfenstein- People :* Alfred Wolfenstein , German poet * Eugene Victor Wolfenstein , distinguished social theorist, practicing psychoanalyst and a professor of Political Science at University of California, Los Angeles...
clone
- Laser Arena
Laser Arena is a FPS PC game designed to simulate laser tag. Play modes include Free for All , Team Match, Duel, Domination and Mega Target. Players have 3 "health canisters", and every hit diminishes one of them...
- non-violent arena-style laser tagLaser tag is a team or individual tagging where players attempt to score points by tazing targets, typically with a hand-held infrared-emitting targeting device. Infrared-sensitive targets are commonly worn by each player and are sometimes integrated within the arena in which the game is played...
FPS
- Nerf Arena Blast
Nerf Arena Blast is a first-person shooter developed by the now-defunct Visionary Media Inc. in 1999, and was touted as a "family-friendly alternative to Unreal Tournament"...
- A non-lethal NerfNerf is a type of toy, created for safe indoor play, that either shoots or is made of foam-like material. Most of the toys are a variety of foam-based weaponry, but there were also several different types of Nerf toys, such as balls for sports like football, basketball, and others...
FPS
- NRA Gun Club
NRA Gun Club is a nonviolent first-person target shooting game by Crave Entertainment. The game allows gamers to enter the shooting range and shoot at paper targets, watermelons and sporting clays. The game contains over 100 licensed and recreated firearms. The game was rated by GameSpot 1.6 out of...
- A first-person target-shooting game
- Super 3D Noah's Ark
Super 3D Noah's Ark is a video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and for DOS. It was released by the biblical video game producer Wisdom Tree in 1994. It was the only commercial SNES game that was not officially sanctioned by Nintendo...
- A non-violent Christian video game
- Nanashi no Game
, also known as The Game with No Name, is a first person survival horror video game developed by Epics and published by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS...
- non-violent Horror FPS Game from Japan
Non-violent role-playing games
Though infrequently regarded as explicitly violent, role-playing video games (RPGs) have traditionally focused on the adventures of a party of travelers as they spend days and months leveling-up to fight greater and greater foes. Fighting in these games is highly stylized and often turn-based, however the actions of the player-characters and the enemies that attack them are distinctly violent. There have been some attempts made to reduce this violence by rendering it in cartoonish format as in some members of the Final Fantasy
series or by recasting the enemies' deaths as "fainting," "sleeping," or becoming "stunned" as in the Pokémon
series, however neither of these series has been explicitly labeled non-violent.
One rare example of an RPG that was designed as a non-violent video game is Spiritual Warfare
, a game with enemies featuring a non-violent main-character wherein the player wanders about converting the denizens of his town to Christianity while fending off the attacks of wild animals with holy food. Another example is A Tale in the DesertA Tale in the Desert is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game set in Ancient Egypt, run by the independent company eGenesis...
, an MMORPGMassively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of computer role-playing games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
based on economic development.
Secular examples include Capcom's Ace Attorney
series and VictorVictor Interactive Software, Inc. was a video game software publisher and developer, established in 1970-08-03 as a division of Victor Entertainment.In 1996-10-01, Victor Entertainment Inc. merged with Pack-In-Video Co., Ltd...
's Harvest Moon
series - a simulation/RPG game. Additionally, such RPGs as Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
, Planescape: TormentPlanescape: Torment is a computer role-playing game developed for Windows by Black Isle Studios and released on December 12, 1999 by Interplay Entertainment. It takes place in Planescape, an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy campaign setting...
, and Deus ExDeus Ex is a cyberpunk-themed action role-playing game developed by Ion Storm Inc. and published by Eidos Interactive in the year 2000, which combines gameplay elements of first-person shooters with those of role playing games...
have all been identified as containing certain modes of play that are mostly non-violent. This concept is also explored in the higher difficulty levels of the Thief series.
Non-violent strategy games
As with role-playing games, strategy games have traditionally focused on the development and expansion of a group as they defend themselves from the attacks of enemies. Strategy games tend not to be explicitly described as violent, however they nearly universally contain violent content in the form of battles, wars, and other skirmishes. Additionally, strategy games tend to more often strive for realistic scenarios and depictions of the battles that result. Counteracting this violence, however, is the fact that strategy games tend to be set at a distant third party perspective and as such the violence of the battles tends to be minute and highly stylized.
For the most part, non-violent groups have not explored this genre of violent game. Gender-marketers have designed strategy games for both male and female audiences, however gender-linked treatment of violence has not occurred in this genre and as such, male- and female-oriented strategy games tend to contain equal degrees of violence. Christian developers have made various attempts at the genre including
Left Behind: Eternal ForcesLeft Behind: Eternal Forces is a real-time strategy game for Microsoft Windows by Left Behind Games, now known as Inspired Media Entertainment....
in which the player attempts to convert as many civilians in an apocalyptic future as possible by raising their spirit level and shielding them from the corrupting influences of rock-and-roll music and general secularism. The game has been criticized by such anti-violent video game personalities as the former attorney,
Jack ThompsonJohn Bruce "Jack" Thompson is an American activist and disbarred attorney, based in Coral Gables, Florida. Thompson is known for his role as an anti-video-game activist, particularly against violence and/or sex in video games....
for strategy involving the slaying of infidels and non-believers, and for the ability of players engaged in multi-play modes to play as the Antichrist on the side of the Forces of Satan.
Secular non-violent video game designers have emerged from the
serious gameA serious game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally appended to refer to products used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, religion, and...
s movement and include such anti-violence titles as PeaceMaker
, a game where the player tries to foster peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and A Force More PowerfulA Force More Powerful is a 1999 film written and directed by Steve York about non-violent resistance movements around the world. There is also a book and a nonviolent video game developed by Breakaway Games with the same title...
, a nonviolence-themed game designed by
Steve YorkSteven H. York is a documentary filmmaker who has worked in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America on subjects ranging from religious fundamentalism to American history to nonviolent conflict.- Life and career :...
, a resistance leader against
Slobodan MilosevicSlobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia...
instrumental in bringing him down in 2000. Though these games are anti-violent, however, failure on the part of the player leads to violence. Thus the goal of the game is merely shifted to active violence-prevention while the degree of violence used to challenge the player remains consistent with violent strategy games.
Some examples of relatively nonviolent strategy games include:
- E.T.: Cosmic Garden
- Outpost Kaloki X
Outpost Kaloki X is a city-building video game for the Xbox 360 that places the player in the role of a manager, tasked with building a financially successful fantasy space station. Outpost Kaloki X is available for download from Xbox Live Arcade for 800 Microsoft Points...
- a strategy/simulation game
- Mudcraft
Mudcraft is a web-based shockwave real-time strategy game. In the RTS genre, it uses gender-neutral gameplay designed for both core and casual gamers. Players control mud people, attempting to create structures and more mud people, as well as stay alive despite the elements and animals. The...
Non-violent sports games and non-violent vehicle simulations
According to the Funk and Buchman method for classifying video games, there are six categories into which games may be divided:
- general entertainment (no fighting or destruction)
- educational (learning or problem solving)
- fantasy violence (cartoon characters that must fight or destroy things, and risk being killed, in order to achieve a goal)
- human violence (like fantasy violence, but with human rather than cartoon characters)
- nonviolent sports (no fighting or destruction)
- sports violence (fighting or destruction involved)
The separation of violent and nonviolent sports here illustrates a phenomenon also recognizable in the
vehicle simulation gameVehicle simulation games are a genre of video games which attempt to provide the player with a realistic interpretation of operating various kinds of vehicles. Rollings and Adams note that "the vast majority of vehicle simulators are flight simulators and driving simulators"...
genre. With both sport and vehicle simulation games, gameplay has traditionally been highly bipolar with nearly as many violent titles as non-violent. Just as there are non-violent and violent
sports games, so too are there flightA flight simulator is a system that tries to copy, or simulate, the experience of flying an aircraft. It is meant to be as realistic as possible...
and combat
flight simulatorsCombat flight simulators are video games used to simulate military aircraft and their operations. These video games are distinct from dedicated flight simulators used for military flight training which are far more complex and consist of realistic physical recreations of the actual aircraft...
, space flight and space combat
simulators, and racing gameA racing video game is a genre of video games, either in the first- or third-person perspective, in which the player partakes in a racing competition with any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings...
s and vehicular combat
gamesVehicular combat games are typically video or computer games where the primary focus of play concerns automobiles or other motor vehicles, normally armed with guns or other weaponry, attempting to destroy vehicles controlled by the CPU or by opposing players...
. Distinction of games as violent or non-violent here serves a purely practical purpose as gameplay may differ considerably beyond the merely aesthetic.
Such sports as Ping-pong, golfGolf is a precision club-and-ball sport, in which competing players , using many types of clubs, attempt to hit balls into each hole on a golf course while employing the fewest number of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that does not require a standardized playing area...
, and billiardsCue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...
, have in the past been identified as nonviolent. A common example of a nonviolent game that has been employed in a number of studies and government committee reports is NBA Jam: Tournament Edition
.
An example of a notable non-violent sports game company is Kush GamesKush Games was a video game developer based out of Camarillo, California. They focused on non-violent, sports video games such as MLB Baseball 2K and NHL 2K...
.
See also
A Modest Video Game ProposalA Modest Video Game Proposal is the title of an open letter sent by activist/former attorney Jack Thompson to members of the press and to Entertainment Software Association president Doug Lowenstein on October 10, 2005...
Christian video gamesChristian video games were first marketed successfully in the late 1980s for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Wisdom Tree and now are made by many different developers...
NonviolenceNonviolence is a philosophy and strategy for social change that rejects the use of violence. As such, nonviolence is an alternative to passive acceptance of oppression and armed struggle against it...