How can gamers be made to fear ingame death?

[clippen05]

When game developers add things like this there's always something about it to make you play it.

You say the developers make you play this mode, and considering there is absolutely NOTHING in F:NV that requires you to play on hardcore mode to get the full experience aside from 1 achievement, I assumed that was your reasoning. But since it wasn't I restate that there is so little difference between regular and hardcore you don't miss out on anything. What compelled you to play it if you knew it would be tedious?

 

[Yopaz]

When game developers add things like this there's always something about it to make you play it.

You say the developers make you play this mode, and considering there is absolutely NOTHING in F:NV that requires you to play on hardcore mode to get the full experience aside from 1 achievement, I assumed that was your reasoning. But since it wasn't I restate that there is so little difference between regular and hardcore you don't miss out on anything. What compelled you to play it if you knew it would be tedious?

I didn't know it was going to be tedious, quote me where I said I did. I thought the mode was actually going to add some elements to make the game better or more interesting, the point of it was to give some added experience to the game. So saying that there's nothing requiring it is true in a way. It's also true that you do not need to do sidequests in games unless you want to fully experience what the game has to offer.

Now you stated that I did not read your post. Now you have chosen to ignore most of my post and (by coincidence, I'm sure) especially the parts where I call you out for not reading my post.

Really, consider what I said in my first post which you ignored and went on to only accuse me of not reading your post. Take an active part in this. Find your own reason to avoid death. I played I Wanna Be The Guy with the goal to die less than 100 times and I did it. Make your own challenges, find your own way to fear death. Developers got bug fixes and polishing to work on rather than focusing on making games tedious just because a minority wants it. I dislike in game deaths without the need for a tedious game mode to do so.

 

[The Funslinger]

Simple Question really. I feel that gamers no longer feel scared in games, whether they be RPGS like Skyrim to FPS's like COD. In cod, no one cares when they die. If they see an opportunity to get 5 kills but know they'll die they'll take it. Similarly, in Skyrim you have a savepoint always backing you up so bosses are no big deal. I know that some people don't want to die with the stress of this, and that's fine. But perhaps there could be a separate mode in some games that caters to those who feel death is too painless. One example in shooters is long respawn times or long walks to get into battle (Both ala Red Orchestra: OST, not so much Red Orchestra: HOS. But this causes camping and that doesn't solve much. I can't really think of an example in RPGs or any better ones in shooters so that's why I ask you: what can be done? Now I know some people can say, "You can rolepay or limit yourself" Sure, ok, but I want things that are in line with the gameplay not things that I have to force on myself. Also, b4 someone says, "Play 1 life gamemodes" for FPS's realize that those gamemodes have a very narrow range of gameplay options. I want Conquest for BF3 just with an added incentive not to die? Not neccesarily ARMA level realism (which is nice) but just something that will make the player fear death. Tell me Escapists, can this be done? Again, I restate, I don't want this to be included in every game because that wouldn't be fun, I just want there to be an option where applicable.

It has already been done on Minecraft. Go play on a month long deathban hardcore server. Everyone deeply fears death because if they die they can't play for a month.

And yes, it is that simple.

Sounds crazy.

Also, in Day Z, you lose all your gear and have no idea where you'll respawn.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Jak II made me fear in game death because of the checkpoints...or complete lack of them.

I don't consider this a good thing though.

 

[Faladorian]

Roguelike mechanics, you die your save file is wiped and start from scratch. I personally love the mechanic most people don't though. I can understand why.

This.

Or even to a lesser extreme, sparing checkpoints. Whenever I play a game with very little checkpoints and I'm about to die, I start flipping my shit.


It's basically the same reason we fear real death. The consequences are too great not to avoid at all costs.

 

[Quazimofo]

Roguelike mechanics, you die your save file is wiped and start from scratch. I personally love the mechanic most people don't though. I can understand why.

yeah thats a little harsh, how about something a bit more like eve where if you die you loose skill points back to a certain point (for rpgs), and you loose perks or weapons in games like cod.

i personally like the demons's souls mechanic of, in the words of yahtzee "take away your health until you prove that you don't need it"

 

[Ix Rebound]

Make it horrible:

That final scream will haunt my nightmares for days

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Dark Souls has a balance. I didn't fear my first death as much as my second death without recovering what I lost. The one humanity was normally a small price to pay. The large amount of souls and stored humanity wouldn't be. The fact that anything could kill you at any time, also the pits of death, makes the journey to your bloodstain a harrowing trip.

Expounding on this, there needs to be a risk of items or experience or something, but it must be possible to get it back either through a way similar to Dark Souls or by doing a little more grinding.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

I say we bring lives back, if you die more than three times playing something like Gears of War or God of War then you deserve to restart the game from scratch. Games these days are so easy that it's not that I don't fear the penalty it's that I don't even fear the possibility of dying.

 

[Eddie the head]

Put T.N.T under my house and if I die I lose? A fear of death? Things can get tense but I can never say I was afraid.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Depends on the game. In horror games you'll certainly want to avoid whatever gruesome death scene awaits you if the monster catches you, but in some games death is pretty much expected until you get the pattern down.

Insulting or jarring game overs (Symphony of the Night... MUHAHAHA!) can help, but you wouldn't want a scene that makes people avoid playing the game or so tense from the possibility of seeing it again that they're too afraid to take risks. Occasionally in RPGs you'll see the tragic death of whomever you just failed to save, possibly a character you've gotten attached to giving their final scream (Persona, Metal Gear)... or in Chrono Trigger's case, the annihilation of the world as foretold by destiny. That's one game over I tend to reset out of.

 

[ShadowTrooper-A-E]

if a game with lot of customization 1.make it look like you or someone you care about 2 give them there in reality name 3 if voice option is there make them sound close too them as possible. 4 put on the hardest difficulty 5.get in the psyche to think it's really you or whoever you made.6 play and try not die 7. if you die restart from beginning game using someone else's in game representation.

too note i have not done this myself.

 

[Saika Renegade]

Strangely enough, I feel Borderlands actually pulled off a fairly balanced blend of mechanics to make death a real nerve-wracking problem without making it unduly frustrating. Save points were easy to identify, but relatively few and far between. Dying brings you back to the safe zone, but costs you 7% of your total funds. However, even if you get taken down, be it by a swarm attack or a cheap spawn-from-behind-you enemy, you're given a chance to turn it around by killing an opponent, any opponent, while in your last stand. While ammo is cheap, gear gets expensive, so you have to hold on to the resources you've got.

I think the only change they probably would have needed to make would have been to cause death to also cost the player a single piece of gear in their backpack--because weapons couldn't be stored in safe areas like in Fallout (without a DLC purchase anyway), the risk of losing a useful mod or powerful gun that you know you might need brings new, genuine anxiety to the player, but as noted above, even being downed is survivable, so it isn't an automatic death sentence if you're down to your last hit points. In so many words, the threat of losing some but not all of your stuff because of something you could have avoided can be a good sell for fearing death in a game without becoming frustration/savescumming bait as with roguelikes.

 

[Xenowolf]

The only example I can think of is Heavy Rain, mainly because you really didn't want to fuck up the QTEs and lose that particular character for the rest of the game, but that would be retty hard to implement into more conventional games.

 

[GLo Jones]

There are plenty of modern games where avoiding death really is something people prioritise over completing their objective. You'll find that all these games have some form of permadeath, whether it be for that 'round' or game (some of which can last for weeks).

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

First off, in multiplayer games, I find severe punishment for death to be frustrating. It's a multiplayer game, by design you're supposed to die the same ballpark amount of times that you kill. In single player games this varies too. A good action oriented game should strive to keep its momentum and I think having to repeat a shootout is more than adequate punishment for accidentally taking cover behind the wrong wall. In fact some games will give you more ammo or health or something when you have to do something again, which could technically be considered rewarding you for dying, because honestly, who wants to be stuck on the same shootout for half an hour?

I would say open world games like fallout or skyrim that strive for immersion could benefit from an additional threat from death. I mean I don't want a perminant consequence or something because I play games under mind altering substances a lot and I don't want to screw myself over by doing so, but I could understand losing some gold, or maybe being slightly weaker until you "recover" from your injury. Something that slows you down for a while so that you'll put off the particular scenario you died on for the timebeing might be good for encouraging the player to maybe tackle another quest they're adequately leveled for or encourage exploration. Or if the player is deadset on completing that mission, they'll either spend their recovery time training their skills to come back and kick its ass, or they'll go back in with even worse odds and feel like a complete badass if they pull it off.

Still though, I think a game should strive to challenge a player rather than punish them.

 

[Kroxile]

Dead Space 2's hardcore mode made people fear death. You only got 3 saves and no checkpoints plus you couldn't start it from a new game +.

I ran through the game something like 12 times (6 on PC and 6 on PS3) before I even attempted it just to make sure I knew where everything was and what was coming when. I remember the gap between chapters 5 and 10 where I'd constantly be backtracking in search of health and panicking at the sight of multiple enemies.

The Platinum and the Hand Cannon made it all totally worth it though

 

[Hawkolf]

Runescape does a good job of this basically if you die you lose everything your carrying with the exception of the three items of highest value plus one extra item if you use a certain spell/prayer/item etc.

This one in the old Runescape. In the new one, even dying isn't that terrible thing to happen... I still remember fighting against Jungle Demon, my heart pounding because I knew that if I die, I will lose my best equipment that I worked so hard to get.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Dead Space 2 had "Nightmare" mode which limited the player to 3 saves thru the entire game, and zero checkpoints. If you die, you back to the last save, or the start of the game if no save was made, losing potentially hours worth of play. For completing it, the player gets a foam-finger gun with unlimited ammo. In preparation for playing it, I read a handful of strategies online and even played through the entire game a 2nd time just to learn where I could expect trouble and how best to deal with it.

It required an entirely different strategy from the normal game. Normally, one could save their money for upgrades and get all the armours as they come available. In Nightmare, which has to be started from scratch (no New Game+ available), you have to pick a couple of weapons for the whole thing, upgrade only the essential and cost-efficient things and the rest goes on ammo.

The first time I saved in Chapters 5 (before the first brute I believe), 9 and 12. After dying for the first and only times on the eye machine, I went back to 9 and re-saved just before that machine as I had no issue with the drill ride. It did actually make the game more interesting to play. I was afraid every room I entered would mean death. I was nervous of a power cut, played with the controller plugged in so it didn't run out of battery at the wrong time, etc.

It was well done. Difficult and challenging enough to make me terrified of dying but playable and rewarding enough to make me want to play it.