In his book on вЂњgamer theoryвЂќ, media scholar McKenzie Wark ( 2007) points out how the primary violence of games is found, not in any particular representation of violent events, but in the way each particular game must decide on вЂњwhere everything belongs and how it is rankedвЂќ (В§ 23). What distinguishes games from other media is that they must determine how and under what circumstances player-initiated acts of violence are allowed, in relation to what classes of objects, and for what reasons. Like all media, computer games often represent acts of violence. A benefit of this is that it helps us to move past the level of provocative imagery, to rather get down to the underlying structures through which games produce meaning. Shifting the critical perspective from killing to killability allows us to study the implicit violence found in вЂњnonviolentвЂќ or вЂњfriendlyвЂќ games that usually garner little controversy. These games seldom occur in debates on games and violence, since they come neither from the class of ultra-violent games mostly berated for their gratuitous reveling in gory depictions (such as RockstarвЂ™s GTA- or Manhunt-series), nor from the class of games consciously using violence to address moral and philosophical concerns (such as 2KвЂ™s lauded Bioshock-games). The games taken into consideration are MaxisвЂ™ major title The Sims 3: Pets (2011) and ConcernedApeвЂ™s indie title Stardew Valley (2016). In this way, virtual games can be said to вЂњmake arguments about the way systems work in the material worldвЂќ (Bogost 2007, p. The way a game presents processes related to soccer or nuclear war says something about how soccer or nuclear war is thought to function the way a game implements processes of eating says something about how eating is to be carried out, in relation to what foods, in what context, and for what reason, et cetera. When a game implements the computational representation of a cultural process, the way it does so presents an implicit understanding of how that particular process works, according to what logic it operates, and how it should be carried out in practice. According to Bogost ( 2007), games explain вЂњprocesses with other processesвЂќ (p. The idea of computer games as arguments is inspired by what media scholar Ian Bogost calls the procedural rhetoric of games. The article considers computer games as arguments on the killability and nonkillability of nonhuman animal species, especially marine animals. Most significantly, the study demonstrates how fish is a prime example of a class of animals that is removed from the realm of moral concern, even in supposedly ethical and animal-friendly games. Thus, the games are seen as models of how similar hierarchies are created in the real world of so-called вЂњmeat cultureвЂќ.

The study considers how these games construct a hierarchy of classes of animals that are either included in, or excluded from, the realm of moral concern. Two games that both set out to avoid animal violence, and even promote animal care, are studied: MaxisвЂ™ The Sims 3: Pets (2011) and ConcernedApeвЂ™s Stardew Valley (2016). It argues that shifting the critical perspective from killing to killability allows us to study the implicit violence found in вЂњnonviolentвЂќ or вЂњfriendlyвЂќ games that usually garner little controversy. It focuses on what acts of violence are made possible in games, and against whom. The article considers video games as procedural arguments on the killability and nonkillability of nonhuman animal species, especially marine animals.

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