Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios is bowing to the pacifists and trialing a PvE mode in their extraction shooter. If you play between October 13th and 20th, you'll be able to flick a toggle that means you load either into the traditional world of Arc Raiders, where human players vie for the valuable scraps left behind in a ruined world watched over by killer robots, or a slightly safer version where the machines are still deadly but the humans can't hurt you.

"We’re seeing a large and growing group of Raiders who come to the Rust Belt for the co-op and the ARC, not fighting with other Raiders," Embark say in the post announcing the trial. "That group has become a core part of our community, so it’s important we learn how to support them properly rather than leave them working around the game."

To back this up, the studio share some data they've collected, showing that there are now more players that play only friendly co-op and never attack other humans than the merciless pure PvP bunch. Apparently the PvP group has remained at a stable 34% since the game's launch, but the number of mixed players, who spend most their time being affable members of the post-apocalypse society but occasionally dabble in wanton homicide, has shrunk, with most opting to become full-time peaceniks.

The PvE mode Embark will test is virtually identical to regular Arc Raiders except for a few key differences. Obviously, number one is that there will be zero player-to-player damage. Less obviously, but understandably, the value of loot you'll find in these peaceable games is lower, reflecting the reduced risk of nabbing the stuff. There are also some special events that won't appear in PvE games because they were built with unpredictable encounters in mind. Would Night Raids, Hidden Bunker, Locked Gate and Frigate be as much fun if you know the other players around you could stop being impromptu allies at any moment and stab you in the back for your knapsack full of goodies?

Embark stress that their intent with this test is not to find ways to make PvE more challenging to counter the loss of PvP threat. That said, they have tuned up to be slightly more dickish: "If you are downed by ARC’s, be a bit careful when crawling, they might re-acquire you as a target even when you are moving when downed. They will ignore you if you stay still. We’re trying this to maintain some tension to compensate for the lack of a PvP threat."

So, yeah, learn to play dead.

While extraction shooters appear to be having a moment, or certainly were last year when Arc Raiders came out, a couple of the biggies in the genre seem to be contending with a large chunk of players that don't want to engage with a core component of the games. Since The Division's Dark Zone mode, the threat and uncertainty of other players' intentions is what has given Extraction Shooters their unique frisson of tension. You're never quite safe, right up until the moment you escape a map. But, as well as Embark, Bungie, too, are working to create a PvE mode in Marathon, again to appeal to players who aren't looking for the competition with other players, instead seeking more co-op play.

I will try both these games' PvE modes when they come out because I am fascinated by what it will do to the games. Will it make them into something more enjoyable or, without the threat, will they hold the same lustre?