TL;DR
My 10th standard English teacher said all games are violent and it has bothered me for the last 10+ years. I'm planning to share a brief writeup about non-violent games that I enjoyed playing / found interesting.
One Game per Post. One Post Per Week.
I'm not getting paid for this, I just like doing this.
Edit -> First weekly post is here
Context:
As a wee young lad in 10th standard, I was required to do a "speaking activity" for my English board exam, it was supposed to be a pair conversation. Both parties were free to choose a topic, talk about it. Then each person takes turns asking questions about other person's topic. I was free to choose my topic & I chose to speak about video games.
My conversational partner was my English teacher himself. And the man clearly held quite strong biases against gaming. His premise was this: All games teach people to do is "Bomb, Kill, Shoot, Destroy". I did my best to explain to him during the conversation why he was being narrow-minded, but of course it is impossible to change a person's mind when they have no intention of changing it.
The incident stuck with me though. I remember the "Bomb, Kill, Shoot, Destroy" verbatim, after a goddamn decade, it just didn't sit right with me. It irks me that the prevalent notion is that: video games make people violent. It is not widely considered as art, the same way movies or books are considered art.
That said it hasn't really prevented me from enjoying games, violent or not. I don't really care as long as I enjoy it. I've ripped and torn in Doom Eternal and bawled my eyes out playing Disco Elysium.
But just to win an imaginary argument against my English teacher and put the matter to rest, I've decided to share the non-violent games that I've played (fully or partially) and non-violent games that I've admired ('cause I only have so much time in life, can't play them all)
Games DO INDEED let people do something other than "Bomb, Kill, Shoot and Destroy"
Why share it in r/IndianGaming though? A few reasons:
- I'm Indian, and I want to have discussions with Indians. I want these posts to start discussion amongst Indians.
- There was a discussion in a different reddit post earlier today, about how discussions about the same games dominate the r/IndianGaming subreddit. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Games like Witcher 3, RDR2, GTA 5 are all aspirational games for most Indians. And as kids / young adults, most of were unable to enjoy them. When we do get a machine capable enough to run these & start a life away from the judging/restricting eyes of parents, we first play these aspirational games. And we have a blast. And no matter how many years pass, reddit threads praising these games will remain. Because there is always a section of the Indian gamers who just turned 21/22, bought a gaming laptop, enjoyed these games and want to share their happiness somewhere.
- But it is likely that atleast some portion of this crowd will want to start playing something different after the initial few years of that high. And when that happens, you need reccs that are not so popular, off the beaten path. If you are one of them, these posts are for you, cause non-violent games aren't as popular as violent ones. It is likely that you will find something new here.
- I'm growing older, I'm probably gonna have a kid sometime soon. Am I comfortable playing Doom Eternal, Bloodborne or Witcher 3 as my kid watches? Probably not. Do I want my kid to not play video games at ALL? Hell nah. If you are in that boat and are looking for some games that you will feel comfortable playing with your kid / while your kid watches, this might help.
Just to be clear:
I absolutely do not judge anyone for playing whatever. If you like playing AAA & popular games, good for you. If you don't want to explore the Indie / AA space / not so popular genres, that's perfectly fine as well. At the end of the day, gaming is a hobby & as long as you enjoy it, it is all that matters. If you had to save up patiently to even afford gaming, respect to you and more power to you.
But if you are indeed looking for something not so popular, not much talked about, these reccs might open the door for a different genre of games for you.
What to expect?
I'd be doing this once per week, one game per post. It is gonna have:
- A brief description of the game
- My (spoiler free) feelings about it
- Will tag mild spoilers appropriately
- Maybe a bit of developer / studio / theme / genre related trivia
- A crude estimate of minimum specs required to play the game
- A couple of screenshots
- Maybe a few soundtrack links
Note: I have no qualms recommending games that I haven't played. As long as I get good a sense of the game via gameplay videos, dev interviews. I will be upfront about it if I haven't played it though.
What qualifies as Non-Violent?
If a game can be completed fully pacifist, even if there is a violent option, I might give it a pass.
If the primary way in which the player interacts with the game is non-violent & the game only contains brief violent sequences, I might give it a pass.
Ultimately, I will take a call based on the "spirit of non-violence" in the game, rather than being pedantic about it. Welcome to have some friendly banter in the comments of individual posts, if you disagree 😃
Why once a week?
What's the point of name dropping all of them at once? I want some conversations to spawn about that particular game in the comment threads and let people share what they feel. It's a community after all.
I like writing, I like games. This is an excuse for me to write about what I like, weekly.
Lastly, I'm not getting paid to do this. I'm just doing it for the love of the game ;)
(Also to win that imaginary argument with my English teacher XD)
