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Non-Violent, Cooperative Games?
jandersen writes "While I generally don't play computer games, I do occasionally play games like Crossfire or The Mana World, because they have more of a story line and allow you to go at your own pace. What I don't care much about, though, is that they are still focused on killing monsters and amassing wealth, and it gets very tedious after a while. Are there really no games where the goal isn't so much about increasing your own power and defeating others, but where you instead grow by doing things that benefit others, where enemies shouldn't be killed out of hand, but befriended; where learning, teaching, research and social skills are more important than killing and conquering? Would people be interested in a game of that nature?"
That game was pretty much designed just for this scenario. Hell, as a hardcore gamer (logged nearly 1000 hours in FFXI) even I enjoyed it. Sequel's gonna be out in the US on the 16th, too.
World of Goo is on the PC too.
But much like the real world, it won't get you very far.
Yes, there are a few games that can be won without any violence at all, but they either wind up being too boring or too difficult. For instance, in Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magicka, there is a journal that keeps track of quests and kills and such, and it is entirely possible to beat the game with 0 kills. There are quite a few quests than can be completed with no violence at all, you can run from pretty much every battle, and even the end boss of the game can be defeated without violence. However, it is very, very difficult. Think beating Final Fantasy with a 1 white mage party.
Likewise the Civilization series, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Master of Orion, and other games of that nature can often be won with pacifistic strategies, at the expense of enjoyment. Sure, they're somewhat enjoyable the first time through to see all the technologies and city/planet upgrades, but there's hardly any replayability.
Another one that comes to mind is Europa 1400. It is a game that really doesn't fit into any genre. Sort of a version of The Sims set in 15th century Europe with careers such as blacksmithing, alchemy, and masonry. Amassing your wealth is the point of the game, but violence is difficult to find: you can become a thief or robber baron, or in the right circumstance challenge another npc to a duel, though it rarely results in death.
I played a MUD heavily back in high school when I first got a computer called Dragonrealms by Simutronics. At the time it was a free game in the AOL Games arena, back when AOL first offered a plan that did not charge by the hour. It was entirely possible to play some classes without killing mobs at all, like Cleric, Empath, or Trader. In fact, for one class (the Empath), harming another was strictly prohibited, and doing so was punished heavily in game.
As for a game that is intrinsically nonviolent, the Sim games are probably the only popular ones I can think of. Sim City, Sim Tower, The Sims, and the like are all well known titles, The Sims and expansions, in particular, sell very well and frequently visit top 10 seller lists.
So yeah, there are games that do not revolve around killing monsters or amassing wealth, or both, and some games can be played and enjoyed using pacifism, but they are certainly rare.
The speed of time is one second per second.
How about Planescape: Torment?
The complex and storyline-based nature of the game means that gameplay often focuses on resolution of quest and story objectives through selection from available dialogue choices, rather than combat. Simply stopping and having a long (often very long) chat with one of the other members of the player's group can often advance the game more (and reveal more surprising things) than hours of combat and questing in other games. In fact, there are only four or so required combat encounters within the game, while contemporary role-playing games have tens or hundreds. All other encounters can be resolved or avoided through dialogue or stealth.
Planescape: Torment is notable for the quality and quantity of textual dialogue it contains. It is estimated that the game's script contains around 800,000 words. A review in the New York Times noted that, "The game's level of detail and its emotional impact have prompted some players to cast about for literary peers."
It has some pretty witty dialogue too, and it's an interesting universe. You may be familiar with the general principles if you ever dabbled in D&D, though naturally some adaptations were made to make sure it worked better as a computer game.
It has some issues(for one, finding a legitimate copy). There were some bugs in the final shipped version and it's not supported anymore, but fans have fixed a few more of the bugs and have a patch available(linked in the wikipedia article, reference 9).
You are of course free to slaughter all sorts of things in the game(though there are consequences for killing lots of townfolk or dabus' in particular). But you don't have to by any stretch of the imagination, and usually you shouldn't just stick your knife in things for fun. Heck, the final boss fight at the end of the game can be resolved in a couple different ways through dialogue(and this approach gives IMO by far the most satisfying ending). Wisdom is by far the most important stat in the game for The Nameless One, followed by Int and then Cha.
I'd heartily recommend it, as do some game reviewing companies for what that's worth.
Puzzle Pirates. Play puzzles to bilge, sail, build clothing, etc. It's a (vaguely) player driven economy with a mostly laid back group of people. And, of course, there is Viva Pinata.
I think the original poster's goals are unreachable with current technology and techniques. You can't befriend a game in any more substantive a fashion than you can befriend your television... lots of games have tried various ways of simulating human interactions, but humans are notoriously complex. Emotional simulation systems quickly break down into either simplistic grinding or laughable parodies of humanity. If you attempt to replace those computer entities with actual other online human beings... Let's just say that you can't rely upon other human beings in online games to act like human beings.
The closest thing to what the grandparent poster asked for is the sims. It's a good example of how simplified human interactions have to be made in order to work in a simulated environment.
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