What Measure Is a Non-Human?/Video Games: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'', it is against the "rules of war" to use nerve gas on your enemies; doing so will earn you the ire of all the other factions. But in the ''Alien Crossfire'' expansion, nobody bats an eyelash if you use the nerve gas on the Progenitor (non-human) factions (still, the Progenitor factions feel the same way toward humans, so this may explain things).

** The "rules of war" in SMAC are a mutually agreed upon set of regulations that can be disbanded by 67% majority vote. The Progenitors have never signed the treaty, and do therefore not fall under its protection. Additionally, most CPU factions will push to remove the regulations if they ever think it will benefit them.

** On the '''other''' hand, we see a number of more or less unique defeated enemies (only occasionally mini-bosses, like Biggs and Wedge) return to attack the players again (likewise with the Turks in FFVII, though they were all humans). So we can assume that defeated enemies are [[Only Mostly Dead|not quite as dead as they seem]]. This still doesn't make all the enemies you supposedly 'knock out' and leave behind when escaping the inevitable base on a self-destruct countdown any less dead though.

** Possibly purposefully used in Crisis Core ''[[Final Fantasy]] VII'' {{spoiler|by Zack's mentor Angeal, when he purposefully turns himself into a monstrous form in order to force Zack to kill him, after Zack proves reluctant to even fight back against him in his human form. However, he changes back before dying and Zack is completely devastated regardless, so it doesn't exactly suggest that he was worth less because of it}}.

* Another ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' example is the seventh game (first one released in North America.) Your major enemies are [[Beta Baddie|BetaBaddies]] who are pretty much human except for their eye & hair color. Your army has no problem destroying them by the hundreds, yet go out of their way to subdue and capture human opponents. The game justifies this, explaining that the non-human enemies are sins against nature. It also helps that most of the party are professional solders and mercenaries (in-fact, 7 is unique in that only 2 units able to attack don't fit that description), who ''should'' be fine with killing enemy combatants on a battlefield.

** Another issue involves the several side missions that deal with Kishuna, the first (and incomplete) artificial creature. During several flashbacks, the [[Big Bad]] contemplates on whether Kishuna was alive or not, eventually banishing it for not being good enough. The heroes never fully understand why Kishuna blocks their path with armed guards, though the game implies that Kishuna is a [[Death Seeker]] that [[I Cannot Self-Terminate|can't kill himself]].

** {{spoiler|Considering there are only three characters (four if you include the cute talking gunturrets) ''all'' of them are among the game's most popular characters.}}

*** Pfft: ''nobody'' gives a damn about [[Heroic Mime|Chell]].

* The game ''[[Jet Force Gemini]]'' garnered a Teen rating from the ESRB, in spite of the fact that most enemies (and, er, friends) can be shot, blown up, set on fire, horribly dismembered, electrocuted, etc. etc. and always in a horrifically overdone shower of blood and gore by the player. This is entirely because the antagonists are all hideous insectoid aliens, and therefore acceptable for slaughtering.

** Likely the innate human fear of creepy crawly things is why bugs are # 1 bad guys in games.

* The [[First-Person Shooter]] ''F.E.A.R.'' has both clone supersoldiers and the occasional normal security guard as enemies. Despite the latter being realistically much weaker and easier to kill... they're inexplicably much harder to [[Ludicrous Gibs|gib]]—though not impossible.

** Played with in the sequel, ''Project Origin'', where the disturbing nature of the Replica and the logistics and mentality of them comes into play. The Replica themselves are specifically stated as "disposable" and "easily replaced," and spend most of their lives sealed inside stasis tubes until activated - at which point they emerge, ready for combat, instantly. They are utterly and completely loyal to their missions and won't break even when flat-out terrified, which makes their existence disturbing and, in a way, almost ''sad.''

* ''[[Professor Layton and the Curious Village]]'' brings up this trope a small bit, right near the very end. {{spoiler|If the Golden Apple - the treasure, that is - is taken out of the village, all of the villagers will stop working and, effectively, die. Of course, Luke, Flora, and Layton don't lay a hand on it}}.

* In the [[Roguelike]] [[Nethack]], you as the player character can play a human, dwarf, gnome, elf, or orc, which also show up as monsters in the dungeon, and cannibalism is penalized accordingly - however, only the killing of a peaceful human will ever be considered murder by the game, allowing for the senseless slaughter of peaceful dwarfs, gnomes, elves, or orcs with (relative) impunity.

* ''[[Persona 3]]'' uses it twice, with {{spoiler|Aegis and once with Ryoji.}} In the first example, it's an inversion, since {{spoiler|Aegis is questioning her life's worth as it compares to the humans on the team, who all consider her to be just as important as they are. This is driven home when she's repaired near the end of the game, and it's clear that the other members of the team wanted her back not just for her power in combat, but so that she would be back.}} The second may also be an inversion, {{spoiler|as it's a non-human character begging to be killed in order to spare the rest of the main characters from suffering. Doing so nets you a Nonstandard Game Over.}}

** On the one hand, you have the Shades: roughly humanoid (for the most part) creatures that look like darkness made solid, whose [[Black Speech]] sounds venomous and demonic, and which tend to attack travelers and are one of the many causes of the dwindling population of the world. However, {{spoiler|Shades are, in reality, the fragmented souls of the ''true'' humans that once inhabited Earth, and are actually called "Gestalts." They're sentient, they bleed and cry and feel pain and grief like any other person, and are human in every way except for their appearance and the abilities they possess due to their disembodied state. In fact, only "relapsed" Shades --those whose Gestalt process failed and ended up losing their sentience and memories-- turn hostile at all, and are pitied by both intelligent Gestalts as well as their caretakers. The only reason most Shades attack Nier and his party is because of ''self defense'' or the defense ''of their loved ones''}}. The player doesn't find any of this out until {{spoiler|[[New Game+]], where the ability to understand Shade-speech turns many "heroic" moments of the game into vicious [[Player Punch]]es committed by ''[[You Bastard|the player]]''}}.

** And on the other, we have the people of Nier's world, who {{spoiler|are actually mere replicas (actually named Replicants) of the bodies of those same humans that underwent the Gestalt process. In ancient times (read: our modern age) humans created Replicants as soulless vessels to be inhabited by Gestalts in the future, once the disease ravaging Earth had disappeared. Conveniently, since they were mindless ''things'', humans used Replicants as footsoldiers to exterminate their own enemies. And even long after all true humans had vanished or perished, specialized caretakers would continue to create Replicants to take care of menial tasks. Eventually, Replicants started developing their ''own'' sentience, and with it, culture and civilization. None of which matters to the caretakers, because when matters come to a head, they plan to forcefully reunite Gestalts and Replicants so the former take over the latter, which would either erase the Replicant's personality or "just" [[And I Must Scream|imprison it deep in their subconscious, with no chance of release]]}}.

* If you play [[Thief]] on the Expert level, you are forbidden to kill humans at all. Everything non-human is still fair game. Admittedly the restriction has nothing to do with Garret's moral grounds for the want of such, but rather with professional pride and reluctance to raise unnecessary ire in the authorities.

** In ''Thief Gold'' wizards appear in ''The Lost City'' and are fair game as per all other opponents in the wilds (anywhere not in the city), driving further home that it is a matter of professional pride that Garret avoids [[Deadly Euphemism|leaving a mess]].