Death is really only a version of the general idea here: Penalty for Failure. In a game, you present the player with a challenge. Now, in most cases, you want some sort of penalty to occur if the player fails the challenge. Why would we punish the player? If there's no penalty for failing, there's no glory in succeeding.
Many recently, for reasons we will cover, have spoken somewhat against this idea. Their reasoning is: If the player faces harsh consequences for failing, they will be hesitant to take the challenge at all. These arguments of no risk/no reward vs too much risk/reward not worth it have risen to the surface recently because of the game Demon's Souls.
DS goes for a new take on death. The game expects you to die, a lot. It is quite hard. When you die, your health meter is cut in half, and you don't get it back until you defeat a boss monster. You are told this right after being automatically killed in a fight. As one of my favorite reviewers said, "Truly, a game that kills you twenty minutes in and tells you you can have your health meter back when you prove you don't need it is a game that does not f**k around."(Source)
This game has resulted in the controversy surrounding death penalties in games to become a main stream topic again. DS provides a harsh example, but you can continue playing the game, just at a major disadvantage.
Some games have basically no penalty.
Two Worlds: You reappear at the nearest shrine, where you can immediatly restore yourself to full. Note also that there are a lot of these shrines and that the enemies don't regenerate over time, meaning a war of attrition is possible on any encounter (including the final boss).
Fable II: If you die, the game shows you slow mo flipping through the air dead, and then you stand back up with a chunk of your HP restored. Oh, and you get an unremovable scar (somewhere) on your body, but the point of that is a little obscure. Apparently, it makes your uglier, but no one made any rude comments at my roommate, and she died a lot. Besides, your beauty has no effect on the core gameplay, and it only means you'd have to break wind a few more times to prove your undying love to a villager.
Some games have a penalty somewhere inbetween.
World of Warcraft: If no one is avaliable to resurrect you, you will have to release your spirit. You appear in spirit form at the nearest graveyard. You must then run back to your corpse. Once there, and the coast is clear, you can elect to resurrect with no further penalty. Your gear does take a large amount of damage when you fall, but it can be repaired at a cost that is trivial for most.
Neverwinter Nights: Lacking a powerful cleric to resurrect you, you may either release or Load a Saved Game. Releasing will cost you half your gold, and 10% of your xp towards your next level, but otherwise you suffer no consequences. Personally, I always load the game. I also save a lot.
Then there's the harsh penalities.
Everquest 1: This has changed since I played, but I will discuss the old style. Upon death, you are immediatly transferred to your bind point. You appear at that spot, completely naked (though you do have default clothes that you still have you dirty minded people). Your gear is on your body, and you've lost a significant chunk of your XP. If that loss would lower you below the amount of experience needed to be at your current level, then you lose a level. Your options are now one of the following: 1. Run back to your body and loot it so you can get your stuff back. 2. Find someone to cast a resurrection spell on your corpse. The second option is the best. Running naked is quite dangerous, and a second death would not be helpful. Also, a resurrection spell will return a percentage of the lost XP to you. The best (non-customer service) resurrection restored 96% of the experience lost. Despite the harshness, I loved this system. It encouraged players to work together and prevented any preschoolers from advancing through the content (a common complaint about World of Warcraft)
The ultimate penalty is called Perma Death, where perma is short for permanent. This usually takes the form of forcing the player to reload a previous save. In its more extreme form, all your progress is lost forever. Some of the old text based online games (MUDS) did this. In that situation, if your character died, they were gone forever, you had to start a new character. But, this brings up the previous point that players will then be too nervous to try anything. Character deleted = bad.
Perma death has often been called for more modern online games like Everquest and World of Warcraft. There is a group of players that would love that high type of risk. For my own online game that I am planning ini my head, perma death is included, partially. For one, it would be limited to clearly labled select servers, so the players may choose to play the game with or without it. Second, give the players a little leway. Nothing would be worse than hitting the top level only to get unlucky with a random orc. If no one heals them within five minutes, then their character is lost. Finally, give some work around to let players try the big challenges. Ask them to sacrifice some XP in return for death immunity for an hour. Something they won't want to do willy nilly, but will allow them to tackle situations where it is assumed many players will die frequently.
For regular, non-online games, I feel the answer lies somewhere inbetween. There must be a penalty, to give satisfaction for completing objectives, and to penalize failure. But there must also be leway, so the players are willing to try things without fear of losing it all.
The Spirit Healer Welcomes You to Die!
I like the idea of splitting "death modes" across servers so people who want the greater challenge can have it and still be on a level playing field. Nice idea.
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