PvZ is a fun and original take on the “tower defence” genre where you are tasked with defending your house from zombies using plants in your garden. It stands out from the crowd not only through its thematic uniqueness but also through minigames and puzzles that put a new spin on the core mechanic of the game. The repetition of this core mechanic across all modes acts as training in being a good PvZ player. My experience with game is such that I need little concentration to effectively navigate levels and challenges and as a result, the game is now my choice of activity whilst listening to podcasts as it provides minimal distraction from their content.

To play PvZ as the Pacifist Gamer thus presents an interesting opportunity to break from the training and attempt to play a level whilst taking every care not too harm the invading zombies. I elected to make my attempt through the games survival mode to ensure access to the full library of plants so that I could pick from the plants that would maintain a passive stance in the face of the zombie onslaught. I selected plants that are readily available as defensive options in the game but which normally act to complement the large amount of offensive options on hand. My nine choices of plant were as follows:

1. Sunflower – which collects sun and provides the resources to ‘build’ more plants
2. Twin sunflower – placed on a sunflower to double sun production
3. Wall-nut – a wall that the zombies must chew through thus delaying their progress
4. Tall-nut – a more expensive version of the Wall-nut that I picked so that I could have a second wall to place during the Wall-nut cooldown period
5. Imitator (Wall-nut) – This plant imitates another plant once placed which let me have a third wall to place to slow down the zombies
6. Pumpkin – provides a protective shell around a plant, acting as a further wall to slow down the zombies
7. Ice-shroom – When placed it first freezes then slows down the zombies on screen for a short period of time each
8. Coffee bean – Used to ‘wake up’ an Ice Shroom which is asleep in daytime mode because it is a mushroom
9. Garlic – Diverts the zombies who bite it to another lane, allowing for a concentration of defence in certain places

They can be seen in picture form below:

With my plants selected I decided to have a few play attempts in order to refine my strategy and get used to being a Pacifist in a game that expects you to kill off any zombies that enters the screen. Once I felt confident I decided to record an attempt which you can watch below.

The Video

This strategy acknowledges the inevitability of defeat when playing the pacifist in PvZ. I rely upon delaying the movement of zombies until the final group of a wave appear. This is so that when any zombies reaches the end of the yard, all are vanquished by the automated lawnmower defense. This lawnmower remains the only source of harm to the zombies I could allowed as it falls within the second rule I set for this series:

If something inherent in the game/level design leads to the harming of something I will try to prevent it if at all possible

As I am unable to prevent the attack of the lawnmowers they remain a means by which I can survive to the end of levels through the channelling and delaying to the zombies so that they are removed all together.

Discussion

Jorge Albor made the point in his recent post on Experience Points about a permadeath playthrough in Mirrors Edge:

In the case of my Mirror’s Edge play through, permanent death was meaningless by itself. It was the threat of death that enhanced my emotions, which itself is an external application. Permanent death didn’t just change the story, it changed the game.

The Pacifist Gamer approach to Plants vs Zombies is one other type of external application that creates a new experience of the game. The accepted inevitability of defeat in survival mode was accelerated and made more immediate by the inability to thwart the incoming zombies in any continuous way. A sense of success was suddenly a matter of lasting a few more seconds rather than a few more waves of zombies. The appearance of a zombie in one of the six lanes of my garden was a threat to the single-use offensive capability of the lawnmowers and thus represented a different kind of obstacle that I had to act to overcome. I was forced to concentrate more closely than normal on my actions in the game because I was applying a different framework  on the game system designed by Popcap games. I was forced to consider the approaching zombies in a different light.

As The Pacifist Gamer in Plants vs Zombies the experience of defending my virtual backyard and brains from zombies became a more intense experience. The game no longer felt like unique spin on a genre known for its casual game audience but a hardcore challenge that I hope others might take up. Failing that, however, if you are committed to Pacifism in this world there is one other path that can be taken with no risk at all.

Happy gaming and happy gardening.

Pacifism:

“the opposition to war or violence as a means of settling disputes or gaining advantage”

I am proud to introduce The Pacifist Gamer, an experiment in alternate gaming styles. Hopefully this will be a series that I can continue over the course of a few games so as to explore how deeply violence is embedded in games and their structures of reward and progress. My main aim is to play games that usefully require some amount of violence in order to achieve their goals but have the ability to be played at some level without directly fighting or killing any opposition. I don’t mean games such as Thief 3 or Splinter Cell where such practices might be encouraged but rather games that provide the opportunity but don’t actually expect anyone to take that path.

For this exercise I have a few rules that I will adhere to:

1. As a direct result of my actions in the game I will not cause harm to anything or anyone
2. If something inherent in the game/level design leads to the harming of something I will try to prevent it if at all possible
3. Others around can act as they please and I will not impede their progress

Those are the three for the moment and I already have a couple of games planned for this exercise with the first being Morrowind,  and the second a choice between Plants vs Zombies and Left 4 Dead. If anyone has any other suggestions for games that might be fun to undertake as The Pacifist Gamer please let me know.