I think the fixation with non violence beeing declared as more mature ridiculous.
Has anyone made that claim? Since they are not directly related, whether a violent or non-violent action is mature or not depends entirely on the situation.
The reason Combat is the focus of RPGs is because it is the only form of conflict that Video games have managed to put into concrete systems.
And therefore nothing else should ever be attempted?
to create a compelling system for "Verbal encounters", you would require much better AI than video games have right now.
Even with predetermined options and responses, good writing can create enjoyable games, and there are entire genres of games that are largely dialogue (even if you don't personally consider them real games).
