Is there a market to a social-fu game
 

Because I'm not sure how well used this term is, by social-fu I mean defeating enemies with social skills. Making good arguments, forming alliances, etc.

Most games have it as an option. Personally its my favorite tactic. Some people feel cheated when a boss battle is avoided or won without actually fighting. To me, its the ultimate display of prowess over your enemies. It says, I'm so awesome, I dont even need to attack you.

However, those are just options, potential play methods in a game. But I wondered if it could be the focus. A game like those, but the combat option, isn't an option. Where you are in an action game, but instead of being the grizzled space marine, you are a normal man armed with a silver tongue. You have to find logical flaws in their ideals, search areas for information to use in arguments, form alliances to use as leverage.

A game where you are required to save the world with a few well chosen words.

Planescape is the ur-example

Old Fallout games can be played in that way.

I found the Socal bosses in Dues ex HE to be some of the most stressful in the game. It not only allows you to skip entire levels but felling of talking down a In a game where your trying to keep killing to a minimum it's clearly the best.

also Its OH SO satisfying to break someone in LA Noire and Phenox wright games

While we're at it, Hotel Dusk, Last Window, Another Code and Ghost Trick are all similar to Ace Attorney.

If by "is there a market" you mean "will it be AAA" then probably definitely not.

But there's plenty of space in the indie scene for this.

Also, it is VERY hard to create a Triple A game fully around Social-Fu, because one of the cavets about Social-Fu games is that players will break the system. They ALWAYS break the system. It's part of the culture of the fans of the genre. And when they can't, they hit the "design walls" of those games and get frustrated.

It's just way easier (and cheaper) to keep it at a simple development cycle where the game is fun by itself while teasing the player into a controlled path. So you won't "dare" too much.

http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=001732

I'd be worried that there isn't enough blowing stuff up for a typical mainstream release at the moment. Nothing to worry about, as for as long as there are people who are asking, "Do I always have to blow stuff up?" there will be games where you do something else. As noted by somebody else, the indie scene has many such games.

There happens to be a decent old school release I'm thinking of called S.N.A.T.C.H.E.R. ...