Words Worth Knowing: Pacifist Run
Words Worth Knowing was a vertical I wrote weekly explaining key pieces of gaming jargon to parents, guardians and teachers, as part of the larger overall GameHub outreach effort. The column ran for nearly two years and resulted in around 60 WWK articles. GameHubHQ.com closed in late 2017. This piece originally appeared on Feb 29, 2015.
What It Is: Pacifist Run = A non-lethal play-through of a game.
What It Means: A Pacifist Run is an attempt to complete a game without killing its digital characters. Non-aggressive tactics are used instead of violence, with players using stealth, negotiation and strategy instead.
Why You Care: Pacifist runs are almost always far harder to complete than alternative aggressive strategies. Players will need to be patient and creative in order to pull off such a feat, or may have to resort to modding or hacking the game in order to make it even possible. Pacifist Runs are a popular subject of Let's Play videos, and completing a pacifist run is regarded as quite an achievement. Some games encourage the player to choose between violent and non-violent options, such as the Deus Ex series, which was an early champion of the concept. Another game often associated with the Pacifist Run idea is the Civilisation series, where the player may choose to take over their enemy's cities by cultural persuasion, rather than warfare. If a game allows players to choose between violent and non-violent gameplay options, it will be recorded in the Moral Choices section of its GameHub report. [link removed]
