Game Design Sketchbook: Immortality

Calobi

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Zombie_King said:
I'd carry a stock of grenades, and two fully loaded pistols. If I got into an argument with someone, I'd just hold them down and cook a frag in their mouth. And if a friend and I were really pissed at each other I could fake my own death. Sweet ^.^ Another thing, I could kill hundreds of people. It'd be like a video game, except there's never an off button and you never die.
Then you'd have to hope that they pass the death sentence on you. Because, at least in America, if that fails the first time you're free to go due to double jeopardy. If you were locked up for life, you would get to stay in jail for a very long time. Although, I guess living forever would pretty much make you the king of the prison, so not too much risk in getting turned into someone's, ahem, bride.
 

BallPtPenTheif

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immortality would be awesome... then you could move on and figure out how to become a god. i would take the genetic route, trying to figure out how to literally create life. if that failed then i might look into the mysticism angle, but that would probably require hunting down and killing the current god to take his throne.
 

Luthorcrow

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UpInSmoke said:
what happens if I get sentenced to life in prison while immortal? Or "Lethal" injection? I bet that would suck.
Good point. It would be just those sort of problems might lead you to be a bit conservative at least with breaking the law. If we are talking about just not aging but not being invulnerable then I think it would lead to a very ordered, conservative life. Because after all much of life is risk management. The risk of dying in a car crash is relatively low over the course of normal life but extended of over a great enough of a time span it becomes very risky.

On the other hand, if we are talking about a "Tuck Ever Lasting" kind of scenario then you probably be a lot less cautious than a normal person. Your only too risks at that point would be being discovered or being imprisoned.

As for civilization, it would be good to have an immortal or two. When socieity collapses during the next great mass extinction, this person(s) would at least ensure that all of that knowledge or at least enough to get back on the road, would not be lost. Just that sort of person could once the dust settled bring knowledge back to the survivors and help rebuild.
 

BigCat91

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May 26, 2008
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I actualy am not afraid to die. I was terrified when i was younger but then watching old movies and watching some very informative shows i realized that if i don't die that i am just another burdan on the next generation of adults and to the others around me. if i can't do any work or have now real purpose but to await death and live in my own agony. am i going to kill myself when i break my leg when im 60 no. im not saying we should also murder the old and kill those that are disabled thats wrong and i don't intend on ever believing that. but when you think about it if i plus maybe 70 million plus people live for 100 years and beyond that we'd just be wasting valuable oil, food, water, electricity, and more importantly the money of our loved ones. maybe by advancing ourselves in medicine was bad in the long run. great for the people living today but maybe we basically just killed a generation thousands of innocent people for ourselves.
 

BigCat91

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May 26, 2008
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please note i do not approve of killing people in my last message just incase you missed the no's so just in case
 

Colodomoko

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Life and Death are common with all mortals. We enjoy are life and then we go to the afterlife where we stay in peace and harmony doing things we use to do on Earth.

Unfortunatly I think good or evil we all go to the same place except the evil has to work for us.

Thats my view on things.
 

GothmogII

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Apr 6, 2008
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I plan to live forever, of course, but barring that I'd settle for a couple thousand years. Even five hundred would be pretty nice.
Sums up my own thinkings on it pretty nicely I thinks.
 

felixader

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Feb 24, 2008
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Zombie King said:"...I'd be OK. Plus, I'd carry a stock of grenades, and two fully loaded pistols. If I got into an argument with someone, I'd just hold them down and cook a frag in their mouth..."

You are sick.
 

JBX06

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Aug 22, 2007
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A very loose yes being immortal would leave so much open as well as taking so much away but then again you could be one of those immortal villans that work behind the scenes pulling the strings makes me thing of Metal Gear Solid
 

Easykill

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Yes. I would prefer if I had the option to off myself after the first while though. My ideal, and it would be nice if we developed the tech for this in my lifetime, would probably be 700 years old.
 

zacaron

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UpInSmoke said:
what happens if I get sentenced to life in prison while immortal? Or "Lethal" injection? I bet that would suck.
for the life in prison thing you need merely outlast all the guards or challenge them all to a fight to the death at the same time.

as for the lethal injection they would have to run out of it eventually.
 

lee99

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May 28, 2008
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what happens if i well... fail in life xD

be homeless and no money

i will be a hobo forever C:

that dosent sounds like fun
 

Orion Magus

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Jun 11, 2008
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I don't understand the thinking that being immortal will lead to boredom and eventually wishing you could die because you've "seen it all". It is in my nature to be as lazy as possible and living forever probably wouldn't change that about me. Sure i might eventually get around to sky diving or deep sea exploration or whatever, but for me the idea of being holed up in my secret layer (yes you heard that right, if i can become immortal i can have a secret layer) with a steady Internet connection would be awesome. Not to say that I don't ever want to be around other people, but to be honest I feel that socializing with random people is overrated.
 

Shintenma

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Mar 18, 2008
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If I could remain in perfect health at approximately 25-30 years of age(physically) and be immune to death/pain from starvation/asphyxiation and other severe physical trauma, then yes, absolutely. Otherwise, no.
 

Axeli

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Assuming we're talking about eternal youth kind of immortality, and not being able to sustain any injury, permanent ones at least (though that would be kind of intresting on its own)...

Well, despite having very little affection for the world, life or even myself, the idea of seeing a bigger picture than anyone else is very intresting... Just to see how humanity and the world evolves, what kind of achievements are made and to see history that no one else sees in its whole, slowly unfold like a story.
And imagine what kind of goals you might have, that were realistic only to an immortal being, or what kind of relationships you could form with the rest of the humanity... World migh not be a overly good place, but if you chose to, you would have thousands of years to make things change, no one being able to stop you completely (you know, if you didn't go the build an evil empire way...).

But would it all become very boring, futile and unintresting, it's hard to say. But I think the general idea is, that anyone can live thousand years just like they live hundred years; Day by day.
But I also suppose that once you've explored the whole world throughly enough, it will slowly start feeling like a limited space, prison with boundaries... Then again, I wonder if it would ever become unbearable, as it all keeps changing constantly, enough fast that you probably couldn't keep up getting bored at it - the globe is big enough for that.
And as I said, Ywu could take things like a curious scientist or a historian, make yourself a leader, a teacher, an immortal warrior - you name it. It' really not like there aren't virtually unlimited amount of things to do or projects to take.

What I would be most worried about though, would be how well human psyche would handle things. First of all, even if your couldn't be physically harmed, you might sooner or later face insanity in some form or another. Humans unfortunately aren't as much in control of their own minds as they like to think... Many mental illnesses are considered to never fully curable, and I think no one likes the idea of having to struggle to keep your sanity, which I suppose is very close to the core of what is you... Somehow living forever insane just strikes as a very unpleasant idea. Perhaps because with eternity of time, you have a fair change of finding happiness, but you and especially your mind is the tool you use to achieve that.
Talking about major mental illnesses, that are difficult or near impossible to recover from and affect strongly your ability to tell the real from unreal, it would make the task of perhaps impossible. And not controlling you never ending life would most likely make it a hellish torment

And secondly, human mind can learn to handle death, by acceptance or ideas of immortal afterlife or rebirth... But when you live forever and start seeing things big, would the life and world and maybe the whole universe eventually start to feel awfully meaningless to you. If you could see nothing worth it in the world, thus observing or participating in it feeling futile and dull, and you could only find any meaning in earthly, amoral pleasures... Wouldn't that feel pretty hollow?
But perhapst it wouldn't be impossible to re-learn to find meaningfulness in humanity and world again either... Who knows.

That rant being made, if I would literally live forever, I would say no in a split second. If you couldn't die even through suicide or end of the world, you'd eventually end up living on a lifeless, dark and cold rock, or even floating forever in the empty space. I cannot think of anything closer to an ultimate hell.
 

Pifflestick

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Jun 10, 2008
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I've considered this topic before and I decided I'd really like to be immortal because I would get to see everyone I hate (I.E. Everyone) die. I could also murder people in a country that dosn't have the death penalty so I could just kill someone and wait for the 'life' sentence to end. And if were talking total immortality like take a bullet to the chest and walk away without a scratch then sign me up, I'd walk into the toughest biker bar in town and say to the biggest guy there and say "Hey! Arn't you the guy whose mother I'm f***ing?" and laugh as he emptied his clips into my chest. I could walk in front of cars and sue them for millions. I could do f***ing anything! Now all I would need is a time machine and I could live until we enter an era that is like cyberpunk and bring the technology to the Victorian era and watch them go steampunk! Ok, I'm rambling, so yes I want to be immortal. Sorry for the rant.
 

vellocet

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Jun 17, 2008
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Absolutely not. Death is what gives life meaning. Why enjoy everyday that you have when you know you just have an endless number of them?

What does anything you achieve mean when you have infinite time to do anything you want?

Mozart died at the age of 35. Look at the mark he left on the world.

Life is important pretty much ONLY because it is limited. So ever lasting life is meaningless.
 

Playbahnosh

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Dec 12, 2007
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Um, sorry for ruining the high-brow conversation, but what's the point of that "game" other than bore you to death? Yeah, I get the idea of the immortality pill and the poison, and all the brick moving, tower building thing is a methaphor and all that, but c'mon, somethings gotta give. I inspected the directory of the game elements and found some kinda vine and leaf and other things. Where are those in the game? I can't seem to find them really. A little help here?

On another note, I'd love to become immortal. Many people say, that immortality would be boring, but that is only their pessimism and boredom speaking. These people are usually unhappy with their lives in some way and see no future for themselves. I personally would like to live forever, see all there is to see, hear all there is to hear..ect. Get to know the universe a little better, get a better understanding of things that I normally couldn't. I would learn, study and create.

Oh, did anyone watch "The Man from Earth"? That's a pretty tough take on this whole immortality thing. I liked it.