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[Geen]

MGS3 is great for this, mostly because playing it lethal on high is living hell, and the rewards for nonlethal boss takedowns are full of awesome. Also, minor spoilers, the amount of people you've killed affects one boss fight.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I noticed that when I was walking down the river one of the latest times I played. When I was in my midteens I was all about murdering everything. But then I started noticing pilot helmets, and dudes holding their groins, and guys with their necks slit and I was all [nasal]"Did I do that?"[/nasal], so my next playthrough I went nonlethal to try it out and crapped so hard.

I remember having a marathon of playing it switching off with my friend. Similar to our morrowind steal-every-spoon play through, we decided to shoot EVERY guard in the balls. Hilarity ensues at that very time.

[Robosaur]

Iji.

[Seriyu]

Thirding Iji, it's a pretty great game. Plot changes (among other things) when you go pacifist over violent too. 

[Girlinhat]

Fairly sure that any given Elder Scrolls game fits, aside from a few select boss fights or certain plot chains.  But if you're a pacifist you're probably not helping the Dark Brotherhood anyways.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

I'm trying to think of a game where you are  actually forced to play as a pacifist instead of just having the choice between conflict and pacifism. Nothing apart from games in the survival horror genre come to mind and even then it's more the inability to hurt the threats more than a moral decision by the character. 

I suppose the concept of having a pacifist character might be interesting if they're placed in something like a post-apocalyptic setting. Mad Max where you play as a settler or trader trying to forge alliances and avoid threats could be an interesting concept but would take some dedication to make interesting.

[Virtz]

Just remembered, Age of Decadence. While there's only a beta demo so far, there's non-combatative roles in the game.

I'm trying to think of a game where you are  actually forced to play as a pacifist instead of just having the choice between conflict and pacifism. Nothing apart from games in the survival horror genre come to mind and even then it's more the inability to hurt the threats more than a moral decision by the character. 

There's loads of games like that. Such as Harvest Moon, boring job simulators, most driving games, etc..

[Catastrophic lolcats]

That's not really the same as the concept of being a pacifist in a situation where you're actually threatened. A protagonist isn't a pacifist just because he's never been in a situation where he had to fight, it's the moral decision to avoid a fight when being confronted with one.

A monk waylaid by bandits who decides to try to reason with them rather than take the fight to them is a pacifist. A construction worker that had no real threat in his life and never had a reason to get into a fight isn't necessarily a pacifist. Arguably someone who fights only in defence after trying all other options first is also a pacifist.

[Virtz]

That's not really the same as the concept of being a pacifist in a situation where you're actually threatened. A protagonist isn't a pacifist just because he's never been in a situation where he had to fight, it's the moral decision to avoid a fight when being confronted with one.

A monk waylaid by bandits who decides to try to reason with them rather than take the fight to them is a pacifist. A construction worker that had no real threat in his life and never had a reason to get into a fight isn't necessarily a pacifist. Arguably someone who fights only in defence after trying all other options first is also a pacifist.

I guess your best bet for this would be pure stealth games like The Art of Theft, then.

[Flying Dice]

That's not really the same as the concept of being a pacifist in a situation where you're actually threatened. A protagonist isn't a pacifist just because he's never been in a situation where he had to fight, it's the moral decision to avoid a fight when being confronted with one.

A monk waylaid by bandits who decides to try to reason with them rather than take the fight to them is a pacifist. A construction worker that had no real threat in his life and never had a reason to get into a fight isn't necessarily a pacifist. Arguably someone who fights only in defence after trying all other options first is also a pacifist.

Hence the difference between absolute pacifists and all other types. The former tends to run into problems re: coercion; even if by acting vi

[Seriyu]

That's not really the same as the concept of being a pacifist in a situation where you're actually threatened. A protagonist isn't a pacifist just because he's never been in a situation where he had to fight, it's the moral decision to avoid a fight when being confronted with one.

A monk waylaid by bandits who decides to try to reason with them rather than take the fight to them is a pacifist. A construction worker that had no real threat in his life and never had a reason to get into a fight isn't necessarily a pacifist. Arguably someone who fights only in defence after trying all other options first is also a pacifist.

I guess your best bet for this would be pure stealth games like The Art of Theft, then.

The thing is it's not really a popular point of view, and while that's not a great reason as far as "why not?" goes, it's still a pretty good reason as far as commercial games go.

If you buzzed around some more obscure independant games you'd prolly be able to find some. Would they be entertaining..... Iunno. It seems like a game that'd be hard to do.

Also the art of theft has the taser cane thing. Great game though.

[Geen]

Pure stealth runs of MGS are freaking hard, but fun too.

[Microcline]

Planescape: Torment - The only person you need to kill is REDACTED, as every other fight can be talked through (or in the one in MetalSlimeHunt mentioned, is against a zombie who isn't killed so much as temporarily out-of-order).

Iji - Can be played entirely around a no-kill run and the game changes based on you doing so.

DE:HR - The game tends to reward non-lethal solutions over lethal ones, and there's an achievement for a no-kill run.  Just remember to take the typhoon upgrade to deal with the bullshit bosses.

Alpha Protocol - It's possible and with certain abilities even pretty easy to do a pacifist run, but if you're playing AP for the gameplay you're doing it wrong.  Just remember to take a pistol with chain shot, as otherwise you'll get a first-hand look at the dangers of 80's fueled cocaine binges.

Thief - This is probably the best series for pacifism.  The hardest levels reward you not just for avoiding kills, but for avoiding hurting enemies entirely, as knocked out enemies are still evidence that you've been there, and are thus the work of a sloppy amateur.  (Note: Trilby is a 2-D loveletter to the Thief series, so the same things apply)

[Girlinhat]

I was gonna add Thief, especially because it comes with tools.  You can shoot someone dead, or you can knock them out, or sneak past.  There's various noisemakers and light-extinguishers to help you be a pacifist as well.

[Man of Paper]

Just remember to take a pistol with chain shot

Is there any other way to play?

[Catastrophic lolcats]

Planescape: Torment - snip

I would personally regard that first part as a spoiler. Unless you pay decent attention to all the dialogue you won't know that for quite some time. The less you know going into Planescape: Torment the richer the experience, in my opinion.