Question of the Day, September 2, 2010

[The Escapist Staff]

Question of the Day, September 2, 2010



Some games have hardcore modes that includes permanent character death - no extra lives, no second chances, just restart from the beginning. How does character perma-death change playstyle? How would you feel about permanent character death in MMOs?

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[Jedoro]

People who got to max level, if there was one, would be gods.

 

[Disaster Button]

It would be fun as an added extra but its not something I'd like to do permanently.

 

[iLikeHippos]

What's the point of putting down time and progress on a character if it can just die by a group/cheap shot?
Utterly motherfucking pointless. The idea is worse than super realism.

 

[Quid Plura]

It would depend on how they plan to implement it. If it means that max level people will be gods, as said before, it would not be so cool. But it would give a new challenge to a game.

 

[Stormpigeon]

Just imagine how even more annoying it would be going afk in WoW, going for a wee and coming back to find a horde of murlocs chomping on your corpse if you had to start the entire game again after that
Perma Death is for sadists only

 

[[guys_its_ok]]

It would really suck. The amount of times you die in runescape is incredible. [small]Actually, I think two or more of that games tutorials actually kill you...[/small]

But I think that it would be an interesting thing, and i'd probably give it a go, but chances are I would just die once after a few hours and give up.

 

[Kavachi]

I can see what this has as an advantage. YOu can create a world with interactive storytelling. For example, one player could be a king, that can be assisanted and won't respawn ro walk back to coprse thing. However only changing the respawn way of an MMO will just get players annoyed very quickly. I think many more things (leveling systems, gameplay, way of story-telling) would have to change before this could work.
Not that I know much about, just my thoughts For now, putting something like that in WoW will only get people very,very annoyed.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I barely enjoy it in Single Player...

Self imposed Hardcore runs are fine, but losing everything due to a glitch or bug, like an enemy stuck in a rock, would just suck. At least with a self imposed Hardcore run, you could make the bullshit deaths not count as a "real" death.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

As long as there is a resurrection feature, I am fine with it. People die ALOT in MMO's, and this is hard enough as it is. If say when you're logged on, your corpse is shown and people can transfer their own life into reviving you, then it will be good.

Calumon: Wow, it'll be fun in raids.

 

[kintaris]

It'd probably convince me to play MMOs, because it would convince me that I probably wouldn't waste all my life and money on them.

On a serious note though, I think this element is missing from a lot of games and frankly without death being a serious penalty many games have become less about tactics, resource management and skill and more about grinding and waiting. I wish more games would consider permanent death or a real penalty for death. I don't think it would turn away as many people as paranoid devs think it would.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

MMOs require you to put more effort into your character and grow an attachment to them.

Given something as simple as a phonecall can shut your connection down, killing your character, I think it's an idea for masochists only.

 

[dochmbi]

Oh yes please, give me a post-apocalyptic MMO with full PvP and a permadeath server, it would be so awesome. Oh the tension, the adrenaline, can you imagine it, attacking another factions base, so much loot to be had but oh so risky.

 

[Cpu46]

If there was a separate server for this mode i would jump on it immediately. It sounds fun, but not if it was forced. It would make everyone more cautious and hopefully more friendly to each other.

Everyone else seems to be saying that the higher leveled players would be gods but realistically how long do you think it would take for them to be hunted down and mobbed at the first sign of them abusing their power.

 

[Queen Michael]

I'd like this very much.