No One Gets Hurt

The task that my peers and I have been asked over the following weeks as part of our studio unit, consist of prototyping in small teams of four. The name decided on for our group is "Serve While Hot" and the brief is to produce a project meeting the requirement that "no one gets hurt". I found this mildly interesting, particularly when the time came to brainstorm potential ideas. It came to my attention that games adhering to the "no one gets hurt" rule are few and far between. Almost all of the games that I have played or enjoy playing to be more accurate, involve some form of mechanic revolving around the notion of defeat, through injury or death without necessarily being violent.

A quick glance through any good list of video game genres is evidence enough, I was personally able to identify at least one game for each that necessitates hurt. This begs the question, why? The obvious answer is because they sell, but why do they sell? Could the reason be attributed to our human nature, perhaps we unknowingly find these sorts of games enjoyable because it satisfies the same instincts that have caused us conflict and war. Interestingly enough, I wonder is there still an untapped market potential based upon ideas that we find satisfying for other reasons. Alternatively, experiencing hurt is what makes us human and may explain we find ourselves so immersed in certain games.