Permanent Character Death

[SquirrelPants]

Everyone keeps mentioning frustration, but that's the thing: It doesn't have to be. It's kind of a way to FORCE people to avoid the frustration of dying. You fear for your character's life rather than just getting killed, reloading your save, running in, rinse and repeat.

 

[ohgodalex]

I hate permanent character deaths, in that, when I'm ridiculously attatched to certain characters, I do not want to see them killed, never to rise again.
Example: My dog in Fallout 3. I don't want to leave it behind because it's my god damned dog and I'm not leaving him alone in the Wasteland, but at the same time, I don't want to bring him into battle because I know there's a greater chance I'll have to restart from my last save.

Maybe it's different for people that aren't as attatched to their characters or units, but I hate seeing them die, and I'd rather lose progress and find something else to do than risk losing my pets/characters.

I do, however, like the concept of a game where dying results in a complete restart. It would be an amusing gimmick to try and work into a puzzle game of some sort.

 

[Idocreating]

Just to point out, this idea works fairly well in a dungeon runner like Diablo 2, espcially since it's completely optional upon character creation, but in an MMO...

No. A thousand million billion gillion squillion times no.

Punishing a player for dying in an MMO is a horrendous outdated concept that only serves as a giant middle finger to those who get killed a lot, whether by their own lack of knowledge (You built your wizard like a twit), their own lack of skill or perception (I can definitely take on this angry looking Polar Bear!) or by the dreaded PvP griefer.

This is mainly because MMO's require a large time investment in one character. If it took a reletively short time to hit max level or the equivalent, then it may be a workable idea.

 

[OneBig Man]

I was thinking about this the other day and i agree. It would be cool for an MMO.

 

[barryween]

its an okay idea, but I think in like an RPG your character should have a protege, a Character that is learning the ropes and is weaker than the main character. Once the main character dies the Protege takes over. You have to raise his lvl to be as good as the original but you don't have to stat over. That's the only way I could see something like that working in a financially successful game.

 

[Mad Maniac with axe-firing chainsaw]

You know what, I'd make it optional. On the options screen, you could select five options:

1: Anyone can die, and if a storyline crucial character bites it, its over. (hard mode)
2: Anyone can die, but the storyline will work around it (but it will lead to some seriously negative stuff in the storyline if you decimate your cast.) Lose your last character, and its over.
3: No one is permanently dead. Characters can be revived with items or will come back at the end of battle with one hit point. However, get wiped out and its over.
4: No-one is permanently dead, and death merely makes you go back to a save point (easy)
5: Anyone can die, and if anyone does die, its all over (hardest mode.)

Combine this with difficulty settings and you've got a chance for real immersion, as well as a challenge worthy of anyone proud to wear the title of hard-core.

 

[sauerkraus]

Spelunky is awesome, and it has permanenent player death. it takes like two hits to die.

 

[The Ruler of Nosgoth]

Nooooo.
Maybe some people would think it's more "immersive" but I quit playing Runescape after I died in PvP and lost all my items. My character wasn't gone but after I had spent almost an entire month saving up money to get my awesome dragon armor, I didn't see any point in wasting another month getting it back.
And yes I am aware that RS is for nerds and 12 year olds. Get over yourselves.

 

[Aura Guardian]

Just play Steel Battalion. That will piss you off when you die.

 

[BoxCutter]

This is one of the reasons im really looking forward to heavy rain. I can tell you right now if they had this for all games i'd loose my fucking mind, but I have no problem with developers experimenting with it (in the appropriate games).

 

[Idocreating]

Nooooo.
Maybe some people would think it's more "immersive" but I quit playing Runescape after I died in PvP and lost all my items. My character wasn't gone but after I had spent almost an entire month saving up money to get my awesome dragon armor, I didn't see any point in wasting another month getting it back.
And yes I am aware that RS is for nerds and 12 year olds. Get over yourselves.

That's the problem with older MMO's and one of the key reasons that World of Warcraft is so popular, it doesn't screw over the player for screwing up.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

No. Just no. It's a horrible idea, it's would be annoying as hell, and not all players are as masochistic as you.

This.

I understand where you're coming from, Crazzee, but permanent character death would just suck for most games (if not all games).

 

[iblis666]

perma death in a mmo is a big no no in mmo design, that is not to say that penalties for death are not ok such as in UO where you could loot a opponents corpse which was ok since there were no lvls and armor could be crafted fairly easy.

 

[RnAoDm]

Have an option like Diablo 2 did. Agree with previous posts though, lag and glitches can cause you to lose god knows how much time spent. Remember on diablo 2 once a 98, almost 99 Necromancer died going to get the leg for the cow level due to a bit of lag and a group of strong enemies. For the time it used to take thats a lot to pick yourself up from and start again.

At least friends were able to loot his corpse and return his items. Even though that isn't much of a consolation

 

[magnuslion]

I would play this kind of game a lot. especially if it was an mmo. as much funs as they are, they kind of get boring after awhile. maybe a system whereby you can be rezzed if not killed during pvp would work. One of the reasons i play table top RPG's is because I get tired of "save button" syndrome.

 

[UltimatheChosen]

I think it would have to implemented very well. And the effort spent on doing so could be better spent elsewhere.

Plus, most gamers don't like the idea of losing all of their progress due to a mistake, so... No.

 

[Internet Kraken]

You could just no reload any saves if you die.

I would hate it if more games didn't let you continue upon death. I mean, think of all the random things that can occur in most games resulting in your death. I would be really pissed off if my character was dead for good in Fallout 2 due to some stupid Super Mutant encounter.

 

[Tirin]

I once played on a roleplaying server for a game, and the rule was if you were killed, it was completely permanent unless it was nulled by an administrator for falling outside the rules. It taught you to be careful instead of just following the simple run-and-gun/spray-and-pray formula for anything.

Some people need a kick out of that bad habit.

 

[SquirrelPants]

Well, it would also work rather well in a game/MMO when not many people get past level 6 or 7 anyway, the way Dungeon Crawl is. So, take that game, slap some good graphics and a scenario on it, and you've got yourself an amazing MMO that implements permanent character death pretty well.

 

[Flying-Emu]

Just play Steel Battalion. That will piss you off when you die.

But it's so much fun...

Seriously, I love Steel Battalion. I don't have the money to buy the huge lunk of plastic, so I play it at a little store near my house for a couple bucks an hour. But it's soooooo amazing.

More games need to use that.