At this point, I accept that I will never play another tabletop roleplaying game again. Or any video game with similar level of engagement between players. Consider, that to play something like this, you need:

1. friends,
2. …who play games,
3. …who play the same games you do,
4. …at the same time as you.

Or dealing with strangers online? Nope.

Partially because of this, and partially because it’s a fascinating thing in itself, I’ve been interested in games that approach this problem: games that require some coordination between players (otherwise why talk at all?) but don’t use (or at least don’t require) text or voice chat.

I wonder what was the first multiplayer game where jumping became a form of communication. Probably the first multiplayer game with jumping in it 🙂

Splatoon can be kind of a level zero. The game is simple enough that you can just play cooperatively and it works. Like with any game, there are ways to talk to your friends, and a coordinated team would be better, but it’s not necessary to have fun.

Games like Journey and Sky: Children of the Light go for something simple, like Splatoon, but they also invent their own thing. Calling it a language is a stretch, but there is communication. If you think about it, a lot of human communication is non-verbal anyway, and this is no different. And when it works, it’s very special.

Apex Legend’s ping ability is brilliant. It’s even useful if you use the voice chat that the game has. If you are not familiar with it, you just have a special button that you press while pointing at something and your character would say something appropriate. You can warn about the enemy, you can say that there is an item on the ground, or even that you need ammo for your gun. It is great.

You can throw the entire Dark Souls Extended Cinematic Universe in here as games that have gestures. And I find that the vast majority of people actually roleplay in these games. Sure, there are not a lot of ways to not do that, but I still think it is a design choice and a good one. When someone attacks you or helps you, it feels appropriate to the world of the game.

There are a lot of other games that do something similar or maybe very different that I haven’t played or have forgotten. For example, I am still trying to figure out what the hell Book of Travels even is.