Gaming philosophy - is video gaming sustainable in a world at peace?

[binary solo]

This is a different look at violence in video games.

Violent video games are not a cause of violence in society, but violence in the world is a fertile source of "inspiration" for a huge proportion of video games, and the existence of violence in the world is a psychological or emotional reference point for the gamer; they understand violence because they live in a time of violence (though perhaps not directly in their own lives).

Take the list of games that make up 2009's GOTY lists. All the games up for contention for overall GOTY are based on the existence of a violent world, or rather consumers being familiar with the concept of being in a violent world: Batman AA, Uncharted 2, MW2, Demon's Souls, Dragon Age: Origins, Assassin's Creed 2. Then there is the second tier of games that are top of genre or platform: Ratchet & Clank, GTA: Chinatown Wars, Madworld, Street Fighter IV, L4D2 and many others, including my personal favourite game thus far this generation: Valkyria Chronicles.

There are a lot of games that do not rely on violent conflict and crime. There are the many and varied racers, the sports games, many of the platformers, puzzle games, quiz games, singing games, fitness games, so it's not like videogaming is only a seething mass of violence. But the point is that the industry as a whole is reliant on violent games as a significant and vital source of revenue.

Now I'm like every beauty pageant contestant in history, I want world peace. And I hope one day it will be achieved (though perhaps not in my lifetime). I'm an optimist and I think it will happen, I just don't know when. But for the purposes of this discussion let's not debate whether a world at peace is possible, let's assume the world is at peace. What does that look like (in a few sentences) and what does that mean for videogaming?

In the most basic of terms a world at peace means the elimination of conflict and crime. So no wars, no crime, no domestic violence, no child abuse, no rape, no bullying at school, to football hooligans, no terrorism, no drunken street brawls on a saturday night...etc. Or at least the frequency is so diminished that for 99.9% of the world they've never seen or heard of these things. This means violence, conflict, war, crime, abuse, terrorism etc are simply not part of the public consciousness. People can't relate to these things except what they read in the history books about how barbaric humanity used to be.

In that world do you think FPS games would sell? Do you think beat'em up games would sell? Do you think the 2D fighting game would sell? Do you think any game that essentially requires some awareness or consciousness of conflict and violence would hold any appeal to people for whom violence towards others is a totally foreign (and thereby abhorrent) concept? Given world history would still provide those who read and study it with a sense of what a violent society is like, does this provide an outlet for video games centrered around, or at least making use of violent gameplay? I doubt it would.

Can a videogaming mega-industry exists under these conditions? What will it look like? What types of games will people play?

Given I think a world at peace approximating what I describe above will happen violence in video games will die out. Not because anyone makes a law against them or that draconian censorship is introduced, but simply that people living in a world at peace will stop having any interest in them. Under those conditions will the video game industry evlove and retain people's interest without using violence, or will it atrophy away to virtual nothingness from the loss, a mere curiosity and amateur pastime?

The same question can be asked of every popular entertainment industry, but in this instance I'm asking about video games.