Wholesome Games Are Awkwardly Comfortable Depicting Violence Against Animals

gamespot.com:

Browse your preferred gaming platform's store page for 30 seconds and count the number of guns or knives you see in the various game tiles. Five? 10? Not zero, right? Because much of the games industry has been obsessed with violent conflict for decades now, a counter-culture of alternative games and game developers has emerged more recently to give fans a break from all the bloodlust and brooding anti-heroes. Thanks to a healthy indie scene, games of all sorts and made for all kinds of players are now better able to come to fruition. Not everyone cares to play yet another first-person shooter set to the backdrop of a futuristic war, 1960s Vietnam, or an alien invasion, which tends to be what the AAA space focuses on, and so-called wholesome or non-violent games have drawn in huge fanbases as a result.

For people seeking an often quainter virtual experience, these wholesome games--which today have gone from genre descriptor to full-on brand--are a welcome alternative. However, given the movement's intent to wash its hands of the messy glorification of violence so many mainstream games depict, its consistently poor depiction of nonhuman animals leaves so much to be desired. I believe this problem stems from a larger societal view toward animals that too often disregards their well-being even when it's not a zero-sum game with our own. If creators, promoters, or players really want to shed themselves of the violence the industry is fueled by, they ought not forget about the casual violence still depicted in even the otherwise most cheerful stories and settings.

Perhaps the poster child for the wholesome games genre, Animal Crossing, is both inspired by predecessors like Harvest Moon and a direct inspiration for games that