GTA without the guns: Meet the pacifist players that refuse to kill

What happens when the player refuses to kill? An increasing number of people are finding out the answer to this question, finding new ways to beat games and defy the intentions of developers by shunning violence.

It only takes a cursory search through YouTube to find playthroughs dedicated to engaging with games without resorting to violence. Labeled “pacifist let’s plays” or “no-kill runs”, these videos focus on playing popular titles without killing a single non-playable character or enemy. Such is the case in artist Kent Sheely’s “Modern Pacifism: Call of Duty” series, where he resolved to play

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as a non-violent protagonist.

“I had already been reading about games that were designed to be completable without killing anyone, such as Fallout: New Vegas and the original Deus Ex,” Sheely tells me over email. “These are both games that pride themselves upon the range of freedom they offer to the player, and so I wondered if it was possible to do this in a game like Modern Warfare, which was intended to be a much more linear experience.”

Fuelled by curiosity, Sheely set about formulating a strategy that involved dodging enemy fire, nudging players, and biding just enough time to allow the artificial intelligence to extinguish the opposition. This proved easier said than done, however, due to the sheer number of enemies onscreen, as well as the compulsion to fire back.

“Having a weapon that’s constantly in front of you and a roomful of enemies firing at you from all sides makes it difficult not to pull the trigger, but with a little practice I adjusted my play style to be more defensive,” he says. “I also developed new strategies based around urging my AI teammates to move forward and take shots that were meant for me, such as nudging them out of cover and running forward through the enemy line so that my allies would be triggered to move up. I also used the game’s console to remove the gun model and crosshair from the screen, to give myself an even greater sense of vulnerability and get myself in the right state of mind to survive.”

Just a normal person in a hyper-violent world

Curiosity isn’t the only reason why players are attempting this exploit. Another motivation is to benefit the role-playing experience and promote alternative ways of engaging with the world of a game. That is the case in Jeremy Mattheis’ GTA Online video series, where he role-plays as a normal person that has been transplanted into Rockstar’s warped version of the United States.

“I started the Grand Theft Auto Pacifist videos primarily as an experiment,” Mattheis says. “Video games offer the opportunity to explore new worlds as new people, and I wanted to explore a violent world as a peaceful person. I wanted to test the potential. Most games weld a gun to your avatar’s hands, you’re reduced to a hunt-or-die animal state and peacefulness isn’t really relevant. But Grand Theft Auto has always left a little wiggle room for non-violent exploits, and I wanted to make the most of these.

“It’s important that no-one thinks I’m advocating universal non-violence or the banning of guns in games or anything like that. I think players have a right to explore ideas, and death in games is an inconvenience at worst. It’s not about censorship, or protesting or hating people who are playing differently than me. It’s about assuming the role of Francisco, a ’normal’ person in a hyper-violent world, and trying to survive in spite of it.”

Likewise, for Kyle Hinckley (known by his channel name The Weirdist), the idea of promoting ways for players to expand their options was a deciding factor in why he chose to play Fallout 4 in this manner. Loading up the game, he set himself the challenge of creating a pacifist character build that would allow him to complete Fallout 4’s campaign without utilising violence – a task that would prove immensely difficult considering the title’s narrow mission objectives.

“Originally, I had heard that Fallout 4 wasn’t designed with pacifism in mind, which was a departure from the rest of the series,” he explains. “My experience with Fallout has shown me, above all, that Bethesda’s character-creation options are so vast that even they don’t know what kinds of things can be done. I therefore decided that I would begin immediately searching for pacifist routes as soon as the game came out.”

Some of the tactics Hinckley employed included boosting specific stats (Intimidation, Animal Friend and Wasteland Whisperer, for example), dismissing companions to allow them to deal with enemies without them counting as a kill on the Pip-Boy combat screen, and putting obstacles between himself and others. But despite taking these measures, he still encountered numerous problems, which he eventually overcame through careful planning and dexterity.

“The major hurdles the game presented were the number of missions that have only one solution, namely killing somebody (or clearing an entire area of hostiles). In any version of the no-kill run, the most difficult problems involve the clearing of the raiders in the Museum of Freedom (which is optional in the normal run of things, but vital for a no-kill run) and killing Kellogg (which must be done by one of his two low-level synth companions).”

Violence as an option

Other players have also attempted the same feat, but for entirely different reasons. Ryan Greene, a YouTuber going under the moniker The Gamer In The Rye, also has an ongoing no-kill playthrough of Fallout 4. But he started the let’s play series to try and dismantle the argument that suggests video games primarily teach violence, building on the aims of an earlier morality playthrough he created, where he documented each action he undertook and categorised it as either good, neutral or evil.

“I’ve always been a huge fan of speedruns and I would spend hours watching YouTube videos of people taking up various video games. I personally enjoy the genius in discovering alternative ways of beating a game, without ‘killing unnecessary enemies’ or resorting to violence at all.

“It’s just the way that this sort of gameplay contradicts the cliché that video games teach violence, [showing] that violence could be optional in some video games, or just one of many other ways to beat the game.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=5Ifys9ErjXk

It’s important to point out that YouTubers aren’t the only ones getting in on the inaction. With the creation of pacifist mods, players are now able to modify their video games to facilitate more peaceful experiences. Examples of this include mini-mods in Skyrim that feature less aggressive animals, and mods that rewrite whole quest lines to assist this style of play.

And that’s not all. There are also several video games that have been designed from the ground up to encourage no-kill runs, namely Dishonored and Undertale. These games provoke the player to interact with them differently to others, goading them to search out peaceful solutions to immediate problems and rewarding them for doing so. These rewards take the form of alternative dialogue options, unique events, and special achievements to be earned.

(Above: Undertale)

Although the medium may still be associated with violence by some both inside and outside of the industry, many gamers are actively opposing this stereotype in the way they interact with the games they play. Their reasons for this extend beyond the difficulty that these playthroughs present, being born out of a desire to discover new potentials and defy expectations. With the invention of pacifist mods, and the rising popularity of no-kill let’s plays, it’s likely even more gamers will elect to undertake this mode of gameplay in the future.

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