A minimal violence RPG. Would it sell?

#1 I think there's definately a track ecord for non-violent games being popular - just look at the Sims. However, the audience you'd be targeting with an RPG is different to the Sims' audience. Especially for an MMORPG.
I like the idea, and I think it could work, providing you add in many other fun things to do in place of the simple mechanic of killing things. I personally would be extremely bored if all the game had to offer was a simple routine of a job. I mean, people play games to escape the boring routine of life, not to start up another one. The whole point of games is that escapism element.
I do agree with your views on violence in games (and movies, too - who's seen Hot Fuzz? Brilliant movie, but I walked out feeling a little sick...), but the solution isn't necessarily ruling out violent mechanics altogether. For example, have a look at the Thief games, or even Splinter Cell - stealth games where you're discouraged from using violence, sometimes even penalised for it. But but providing the player with a clear conflict and a way to resolve it, the player doesn't get bored. Survival gameplay could also be an idea.
Though based on what you're describing, I'd sort of like to be able to travel round to all those places you said, rather than being chained to my blacksmith's anvil all day. Have you played the original Pirates of the Caribbean game? The environment was one of the most awesome things about the game. I would have enjoyed a game set in that sort of setting, maybe as an administrator for the English colony. Add in a storyline that lets you travel around, a little intrigue, maybe some mystery elements, and bang, you have some fun.

#2 You might take a look at A Tale in the Desert for an MMO similar to that which you are describing. It has been around for several years now, so there is definitely some market for non-violence-focused MMOs.

#3

Quote:It would still be a requirement for you to come
into the game at least once a week to maintain your job. Otherwise things could happen like
your boss fires you, or your assistant packs up all the money from selling all your goods and
he skips town.

But then what happens if the player gets sick, loses a family member, is busy with social events, or goes on vacation for a month? They lose everything? And if you have a setting in the game that pauses those effects for just that sort of eventuality, what are the chances that the game would be high enough on the list of user priorities in life not to forget and incur those same penalties?

Just some things to think about, as certain features of a game, while realistic, also become tantamount to coercion of a player in certain ways that taint their desire to play. If they feel that they have to, then it's no longer a game, but a chore, and they'll try to get away from it.

Otherwise, I think a non-violent MMO would work great, as long as the gameplay is there...

#4 I think a zero violence RPG would sell. There is nothing about role-playing games (or games in general) that requires violence.

For example, look at the old Infocom text adventure games like Zork, Planetfall, Infidel, Starcross, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, etc. These are not violent games. Here's a url in case you missed these games when they came out:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infocom

I think these games and many others like them could be popular today when done with current technology.

#5 I've seen those games on GameTap too, and played most of them when they came out.
(there I go showing my age again..)

@Ted, that's kind of what I thought too. Just tossing ideas out there and seeing what
sticks. There are a few games I've quite because I felt that they were a chore. One such
game was World of Warcraft. I found after about level 30 that I was saying to myself,
"Here we go, another couple of hours of hacking and slashing to gain one more level so
I can finally go kill that stupid super-orc up on the hill and finish this quest.".

Another one of a different type was Dark Space. I enjoyed the game play, but if there wasn't
an allied planet with a shipyard or a depot for repair within a few systems you had to go all
the way back to the Sol system by flying across each solar system along the way, taking the
jump gate to the next system, flying across that system, taking the next jump gate, etc... EvE
online was the same way. It took 5 minutes plus to get from your home system to where you
needed to be to see anyone in the game.

I think on the basis of this discussion, and some others that I've had over the last few
weeks with some friends that do and don't play games, I've decided there will have to be some
kind of violence in the game. The compromise is there doesn't have to be all the blood and guts
spewing forth that you see in some games. I think I'll limit the possibilities for violence on the
planets, and have most of the battles be in space. Epic cooperative battles are cooler anyway.
Maybe even make it so ships are disabled but not destroyed. Who knows. I'm in early
prototype right now, so it can, and likely will, change several times between now and the
first beta. :-)

#6 I've been working on the design of an RPG for the last few years, and one of my tenets is that is won't need to revolve around combat. There are a LOT of other elements to an RPG that don't require fighting. There's a lot of entertainment value in plot & character interaction, societal interaction (following rules, groups, etc.), finding hidden, lost, or protected items, people or places, solving mysteries, etc, etc. Of course, I don't even think about MMORPG design (not my cup o' tea), but when players don't have to just think "when I'm more powerful I can go anywhere I want and do anything I want" and actually have to use their imagination and think about things it can make for a very rewarding experience.

After writing all of that, I must say that YES there is some violence in my design -- but it's not about violence. Basically, you'd have about the same chance of beating someone in the game as you would in real life (well.... nearly). It's just not something that should normally pop into the player's mind as a 'first choice' in resolving a situation.

#7 Well it would sell but i would still keep in the combat part. You wouldn't have to base the game around combat but the players that play it could pick what they could do in the mmo. It would give the game a balance to the players that like games that have combat and the ones that don't. Also if you do not like the blood so much just decrease it. If you have ever notice in CoD series or MoH those war games have little blood at all and you never see it on the ground and those are fps.

#8 You can do alot of things without combat.

puzzles, minigames, resource management, character development, etc.

if you did it right, players wouldn't even notice anything was missing.

I'm assuming your going for the virtual sandbox model....just make sure you give players ways to compete for rewards, whether it's against each other or the house.

and if your creating a world which would tend to support it, you may even want to allow combat, just create mechanics which are harsh enough to ensure that people don't go around beating each other up for no reason (instigator goes to jail, victum gets a shiner)

#9 Harvest Moon and similar games would also be good examples of RPG-ish non-violent games.
Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates is an online game with minimal cartoon violence. As the name implies,
it's more about using your brain. Free to play, perks for pay.

There's always the option of having non-lethal violence (Puzzle Quest does this, and many Nintendo games).
Instead of killing, you're capturing. You could also have "combat" mechanics which aren't fighting -
one I can think if is the battle of wit in Monkey Island. Expanding on that idea would be interesting.

About the management game above where players are sick and don't log in:
The whole business should just close down completely while the player is away.
No sales, no action, complete freeze of anything. If you want it to be not abused,
there could be some sort of instant challenge the next time the player logs on.

#10 True. Maybe it would be better to just shut down the player's "store" while
they're out. Have an AI player open a store with similar goods close by so
the other players can still get those things.

The possibilities are endless..

#11

Quote:The basis of the game is simply to get a job and exist
as a member of the in-game society.

Quote:It would still be a requirement for you to come
into the game at least once a week to maintain your job. Otherwise things could happen like
your boss fires you,

Most people play games to escape reality ;p But in all seriousness, you can sell anything with enough marketing...

#12 Actually kids buy stuff like that because kids love making things so having a store to make products and making cash to upgrade store and other things kids would just go nuts over it.

#13 In my opinion, there is only one maxim to keep in mind concerning the success or failure of a video game: It's not what you do but how you do it. Consider Viva Pinata. I rest my case. Killing isn't the only fun activity to be found in video games, and I'd also like to see more non-violent games out there.

#14 My kids play an online game that lets you raise horses. They have to feed, groom, raise money for boarding, etc. It is completely non-violent, but it is something they are really interested in: horses. My kids get mad at me when I say things like, "Your horse has died of dysentery." :)

#15 I totally agree with you on the more gore, the worse the game. There are games out there where the bad guy must have high blood pressure issues brecause you poke a hole in him or shoot him once it's like a bucket of red paint exploded. It's incredibly stupid and kind of gross. When I go hunting and shoot a pig, it doesn't explode into a ball of blood. We even opened the pig up and took out the insides of it (to get to the meat) and it was nowhere near as gorey as just shooting someone once in most video games.

Your idea, yeah it sounds pretty good. It would make a nice game but it wouldn't be like an instant hit though. I like the whole idea but I think it would be more fun to make it an online game where the more experienced teach the newer people. To make people actually do this you would need a reward system od some sort. It could be as simple as money or as creative as skill points.