Do you feel bad when losing units in strategy games?

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

While I'm not attached to the units, I do try to avoid casualties for three reasons:

1) They're not free

2) I like to roleplay as a Sun Tzu/Sir Arthur Currie/Sir Isaac Brock figure in Real Time Strategy. It's not only skillful to keep casualties down, but it does wonders for morale (in real life, and therefore in the roleplay as well).

3) Even if I didn't roleplay, I'm not the kind of person who views casualties as a necessary stepping stone for victory.

However, when my plans go tits-up, I don't fret about losing units, as my chief concern is getting the ones I still have out of the situation alive.

 

[Pyro Paul]

it depends heavily on the game.

In a game like Company of Heroes or Dawn of War 2, every unit killed is a loss, and losing an entire squad could be the diffrence between winning in losing. from the strongest tank to the lowest builder/pioneer/scout... your units are important.

in a game like World in Conflict and SupCom where losses are about as common as trees in a forest... hell no. in those games i'd intentionally send units to die simply to probe the enemy lines. entire production ques into a conflict of attrition with the intention of not seeing one of them come back home.

 

[fulcran]

I've never played Pikmin, but I think you're getting a bit of the Fire Emblem effect, where each unit is unique, important, and irreplaceable. Games like that, yes, sometimes I do get a little depressed when I can't keep them alive. If its a mistake that causes their deaths, I get angry at myself. If its a necessary sacrifice, its just depressing and makes me feel like I must have messed up earlier in the game to make it needed.

In the majority of strategy games, especially mainstream RTS's such as Starcraft, I don't get any emotional response to the untimely deaths of my units except possible irritation or anger if everything just seems to be going downhill.

 

[Aprilgold]

I'm only pissed because they didn't FIGHT HARD ENOUGH!....
I would make a great general with my tactics of GO KILL THEM, YOU PUSSIES!

 

[Meatspinner]

Only in Jagged Alliance. Otherwise losing units can be an option if it helps my goal

 

[Bravo 21]

usually not, because I usually have a policy similar to that of the Zergling Rush where I pour expendable units into combat, until everything is dead. Or else I use a complete excess of force. I feel subtlety is great, but the POWER is just so much fun.

 

[RicoADF]

Pikmin's the special exception since it's usually hard to get them to start off with, and they have such tragic deaths, followed by moaning ghosts.

However, today my brother challenged me to name every vehicle I get in from now on in EDF. He said that after my mech got destroyed so without hesitaiton I shouted "FREDRIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!". I imagine if I started naming everything despensible in a game I may feel something.

I've noticed in Sins of a Solar Empire that when I rename the capital ships I get more attached to them and extra annoyed when they get knocked out. Its because naming something means your relating to it & making it yours. Its not just cannon fodder. Zergling rushes could lose thousands and you wont care, but one carrier in SoSE and its a disaster

 

[commodore96]

In Battle for Middle Earth 1, the units carried over, you could name them and stuff. I liked them ones.

Yes! My friend and I would even name our units once they recorded 100 kills then gave them ranks accordingly. It would suck to see Lord Steve's Rohirim die especially when we had them since day 1.

 

[warhammerfrog]

yeah specially when guardsmen in DOW11 go up against the nids.... it must be terrifying.

 

[Nexoram]

"Banelings, Banelings, Banelings Ohhhhh. Like Banelings, Banelings, Banelings Whooooa. Banelings, Banelings, Banelings Ohhhhh. Like a deadly green landmine, mine" I don't feel bad because banelings are my little suicide bombers and that's their job. Plus, I'm a zerg player in Starcraft 2 so EVERYTHING IS EXPENDABLE!

 

[crop52]

I don't feel bad for the units, I get mad at myself for not being able to save them. And not because I have an emotional attachment to them, but because now I have a smaller chance of winning.

 

[coolkirb]

I play turn based and real time, and whether the charectors have back storys are not I dont care, but in picman yes, yes I do.

 

[Muggizz]

I shred a tear for every last one of my little self-combustive Baneling when I see their small little bodies explode to tiny little pieces trying to protect their society or sometimes just because I had selected them all and accidentally pressed "X".

My Mom ask me if I need professional help when she finds me inside my room crying, and I tell her "The Banelings just explode mom, THE BANELINGS JUST EXPLODE!!!"

SC2 Serious shit.

 

[Zakarath]

Depends... In some games it sometimes kinda feels like you need to throw men away if you want to get anywhere (King Arthur), but on something else like Dawn of War 2, when I'm playing as the Eldar I do my damndest to keep every last one of my troops alive. Sometimes I even succeed, and it makes me happy
In civilization I often play as the Romans, and I'll usually have a couple of legions that I try to give tons of xp to, and it makes me sad if those units fall, but I don't really care about the rest.

 

[sergnb]

Bad as in sad? No. Bad as in "I needed that to win"? Yes.

If your answer to the first question was "Yes", you might want to get that checked by a professional. I'm not joking.

 

[Deleted]

In games like fire emblem where the characters are actually characters and not units, then yes I would feel bad.

In a game like starcraft, death is just a small inconvenience.

 

[Amishdemon]

Fire Emblem.



And im not talking that New fancy pants DS version where your characters are thrown around like paper and no one talks to you, im talking about Eliwood, Lyn and Hector, the three of them developing a bond that nothing can shatter. and not to mention the many other characters, all of whom were given emotional baggage....God, if lost even a single unit, I shut off the game. I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't leave a man behind.

It took my years to beat the game.

I know how you feel man

 

[Chris Barber]

I don't feel bad about the loss of units under my command at all. FFXI did manage to make me feel genuine empathy for my pets playing Puppetmaster and Dragoon though. I'd go well out of my way to ensure the safety of them because I didn't want them to die. The cutscenes and class specific stuff did a good job of establishing them as your friends and that really stuck with me.

I had no such feelings for my WoW Hunter's pets though. They were just tools throw at monsters. And the game treats them as such.

 

[FirstPersonWinner]

Sometimes. Especially in games like Fire Emblem where they all are individual characters.

 

[Corporal Yakob]

Depends on the faction I'm playing as-every fallen battle brother and landser in the DOW and COH series is mourned and avenged with much slaughter of the enemy that dares to even stand before me. Playing on the opposite side on the other hand, I just hurl wave after wave of my now expendable men at the enemy with a shrug.