F'ing Up Isn't So Bad

[Alexnader]

It occurs to me that it would be nice if games could find a way for the player to fail every now and again without getting a game over and subsequent failure-cancelling time rewind.

Its been done before but guess which game is going to do that now! Call of Duty Black Ops 2. If you fail a side mission you fail it and the story changes in response to that. Or at least, that's the theory.

Anyway this is why I love multiplayer, it's inherently organic and allows for the greatest victories and the most hilarious fuck ups. In particular, this is why I like games like Battlefield and Tribes.

 

[Zolcos]

Reminds me of how Losing is Fun in Dwarf Fortress. Even if everyone dies and all is lost, what happened there gets incorporated into the lore of your installation of the game, and you may see references to it in future forts, like a crafter making a commemorative statue of something that happened back there

 

[Tim Chuma]

I am enjoying people making their own stories whilst playing the DayZ mod, in particular when they try and play it like a traditional FPS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBwKrFy3qhc

I have enjoyed this series as there was definite progression in the story
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL68854CD9F0A0C4A7&feature=plcp

Even getting a helicopter after all the effort it takes does not guarantee you will win
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gy373G-ttA

Every let's play for the mod seems to play out differently so far.

 

[Xakk Zeliff]

Some of my favourite games are ones where dusting up doesn't end the game as often as it does. You want to really make the player feel their losses? Make them clean up the mess if Dr. Venereal manages to blow off the prison gates or make them live with a character who has to jump to attack every enemy because the good doctor is fond of knee-high buzzsaw traps. The best part is there's no interruption of play.
Also this kind of stuff, and organic gameplay too, seems to work better anywhere the devs aren't putting the big spotlight. The more casual and seeming-normal-to-gameplay something is, the less likely it is to be overly scripted to do whatever Tony Hawk thing the devs imagined when they coded it.