Conor Dougherty of The Wall Street Journal reports on a growing phenomenon among videogame players of making “pacifist runs” through games.
Killing is easy in the moral vacuum of videogames. So when Daniel Mullins needed a challenge, he gave peace a chance.
Mr. Mullins, 19, is the creator of “Felix the Peaceful Monk”—his character in a videogame called “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.” The game gives players wide latitude over their on-screen characters’ appearance and actions. Felix, who is half man, half cat, has become a small-time Internet celebrity for his steadfast refusal to kill.
In videogame excerpts Mr. Mullins has posted on YouTube, Felix roams an icy fantasy world doing things like soothing angry wolves with magic. In one video, he explains how to turn away threatening skeletons, noting Felix won’t even harm the undead. And when an assassin tried to gut Felix with a knife? While most players have swords and arrows for would-be hit men, Mr. Mullins hit his with a calm spell.
Felix the Peaceful Monk”Apparently someone wants me dead. But that doesn’t mean [the assassin] deserves to die,” Mr. Mullins explains.
Very interesting. I’ve heard of people doing this in World of WarCraft, as well. My one experience with this was in the game “Thief 2,” which had easy, normal, and hard objectives for every mission. The hard objectives always included “Don’t kill anyone,” and I found the game to be much more enjoyable when played this way, as it emphasized your ability to sneak around and not be spotted by enemies.