The Cost of Killing.

What does it mean to kill a virtual character? In a strictly mechanical sense killing a character is a means of removing their ability to interact with other objects in the game world, it's a state change from active to inactive.

Playing through Deus Ex, with the Vintage Game Club, I've found that myself and other have taken a decidedly low violence approach and have sought to incapacitate enemies instead of killing them. However on a mechanical level both actions serve the same purpose, the removal of a particular character's ability to interact with the game world; they are quite literally removed from the equation.

In Deus Ex the difference between murder and incapacitation is defined in two ways; in either cases characters can be attacked either from a distance or point blank range and their bodies can be carried away and hidden.

The first way in which dead characters differs from incapacitated ones is that upon death a pool of blood form on the ground beneath their bodies, though this fades within a few seconds.

The second method used to differentiate killing from incapacitation is the reaction of other characters to your actions. Some characters will choose to berate you for weakness if you avoid killing while others will commend your restraint. The further you get into the game the less often your actions are commented on by other characters; in later locations there are even certain circumstances where you are asked to kill a particular character but are able to fulfill the mission requirements by incapacitating them.

Taken together neither of these systems provide an explicitly disadvantage to resorting to direct, lethal, violence. The only reason not to kill a character is if it is easier and less resource intensive to knock them out. The tools available to you, and the ways in which they facilitate interaction with the environment, are such that administering a knock out is less resource intensive and faster if you are able to get within point blank range. Conversely administering a killing blow is straightforward from any distance. This requirement to get within range of characters in order to incapacitate them serves to make killing the easier and safer option.

In purely mechanical terms killing is the optimal option, it removes the character from the world at the least risk and expense to the you. The decision to not commit virtual murder in Deus Ex comes down to personal desires and role playing.

Players will willingly choose to make life more difficult for themselves in order to avoid virtual violence.

Of course it's not really as simple as that. As mentioned, during the early stages of the game several characters take a stance on your decision to kill or not. Some will even restrict the tools you are provided with based on your actions. In these first few hours of the game you have yet to select more than a handful of Skills and Augmentations; your character is still developing. By the time other characters stop commenting on your actions you will have selected almost all your Skills, Augmentations (Though not have upgraded them fully) and choosen a specific Inventory load-out. You choices in terms of Skill, Augmentation and Inventory selection will govern how likely you are to take a lethal or non-lethal approach in the future. There is no need to reinforce such decisions through the opinions of other characters as you have already made your mind up.

A few contextual comments in the opening stages of the game can influence the way players reaction throughout the entire course of the game, even to the extent of encouraging them to play in a more risky, challenging and sub-optimal manner.