What's Your Favorite Non-Violent Game?

It's been quite a week in the world of video game news. Loot boxes will be required to have their odds revealed in the future on consoles. And after tragic mass shootings last weekend, ill-informed governing people are looking to place blame on something, and surprise, it isn't on loose gun laws. (It's video games—trust us, we're tired.)

As we head off into the weekend, we figured we'd start a conversation around games without guns or combat of any sort, because obviously, there are loads! (Not that there's any problem with the former, honestly.) So let us know in the comments: What's your favorite non-violent game?

A question like this really makes you consider how often you engage in combat in a game. You wouldn’t think of Stardew Valley, Final Fantasy, or Madden as violent games, but you do engage in some sort of combative aggression in all of them. Through this lens, you could even say Mario Kart is violent in some way.

So in that spirit, I'll put forward Mini Metro, a wonderful little management sim about civic planning. It's a sleek, simple simulacra of designing a city's metro system, and all the unexpected headaches and problem-solving that entails. I learned a great deal about public transportation just from playing the New York map for about half an hour. Turns out I don't know much better than the folks who planned it.

Animal Crossing is an obvious answer, specifically New Leaf since it's the best in the series. But when it comes to big, widely played games, my favorite non-violent games are Forza Horizon 3 and 4.

Sure, the Forza games are bro-ish to their core, but the Horizon series in particular has always been very relaxing. They're just pleasant collectathons, and I have a lot of fun making my cars look as stupid as humanly possible in them. Even now, nearly a year after Forza Horizon 4, I dip back in on occasion, turn on a podcast, and take to the roads of the U.K.—and if it's winter, I drift across some frozen lakes. Forza Horizon is a blast, always.