Permanent Character Death

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GonzoGamer

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Redkop said:
you know, you could just choose to NOT save the game.
Yea or with a game like Fallout, you can turn off the autosave.
It's impossible to play through the game in one night so you'll have to save but at least you can control the points yourself.
 

undeadfly

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Jun 23, 2009
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I say its a terrible idea. except maybe on a game like left 4 dead. on an mmo like WOW. My character has died from so much bullshit so many times lvl 38 errrllllaaagggimdead. level 53 oh shit a ?? horde asshole im dead. level 70 i just spent a year playing this character and some nine year old ran in and got everyone in the raid killed.. ann im dead...

Yeah, I think at that point I would want something real to die.

Games have to have something to keep gamers playing the game and not from throwing their controllers at a wall and kicking their dog. And permanent death is definitely not it.
 

Pimppeter2

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I read something about Mass effect 2 that does something like this.. Doidn't really care cause ME is not my cup of tea.

Still, Its funn when you do it in Oblivion. I only save when I rest, unless I have to shut the game off at an unexpected time
 

wgreer25

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Idocreating said:
Diablo 2 has this system. Normal Mode and Hardcore. Normal has nasty penalties for deaths, in hardcore it's game over for that character.

On the plus side, Hardcore is extremely more fun to play if you like playing a more defensive style, which most of the online playerbase isn't. If you have a bunch of buddies to play it with regularly, Hardcore is like playing L4D properly.

Unfortunatly, public games on Hardcore can be hell due to the griefy glitchy nature of some players. I had my Druid get instakilled due to a portal glitch which allowed a guy to do something he shouldn't be able to and one shot me, with a text macro to display an ASCII middle finger in the chat box.

I do hope karma bites him in the arse for that. I really liked that Druid.
The same thing happend to me, exept is wan't a glitch. I had a HC 60+ level Necro, a total bad ass. We had a really big public game going and we were in the section where you fight Diablo. Some noob broke a seal before anyone was ready and 30 extremely tought enemies (due to the number of players) spawned on top of me and I died instantly.

I havn't played Diablo since... That is what permanent character death does.

I do think that you (OP) have a point though. If you die and your last checkpoint/autosave was 5 minutes ago... oh darn, I have to play that 5 minutes over again.

I have just started playing MGS4 (Way late, I know, but they dropped the price so I couldn't resist) and you can easily spend 20-30 min of gaming (not cutscenes, gaming) without a checkpoint. I found this did cause me to play the game differently (for the better). I was way more cautious and thought about every move I made. This is staple for a MGS game, but I think it is the happy medium between permanent character death and checkpoints/savepoints every three steps.
 

Manji187

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I don't know about you but progression adds to fun (or at least should) and permanent death is a progression killer.
 

GuerrillaClock

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Crazzee said:
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.
But why should gamers be forced to do anything? I don't want to spend my gaming life fretting about a character because 100 hours of hard work could be wiped out just around the next corner. Getting killed repeatedly is frustrating enough, and I think most gamers see having to do a certain section again punishment enough for a failure. Good games can make you fear things (or feel anything they want you to, in fact) without having to resort to cheap, shitty mechanics like this.
 

teutonicman

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I like the save ability that you were talking about. For the kind of nervousness your talking about when entering an unknown area I'd soon just increase the difficulty level.
 

Merteg

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I would hate nothing more than that!

One of the major appeals of MMORPGs to me is my skills can only increase.
 

Kaijj

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No, I don't think so. It would be massively annoying to restart because your level 2 ran into a deathclaw. Or even worse... your level 30 gets killed because your companion accidently found a fatman. 8\
 

Darkwolf9

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Most of the games in the Suikoden (although I can't think of one that doesn't have em) have permanent deaths. Valkyria Chronicles has them as well. The original FF Tactics had permanent deaths too.
 

The_Deleted

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I remember reading an interview with Kojima some while back where he said that he'd like to make a game that just stopped when you died. No save points. No retry. Game Over. If you wanted to start again. You bought an new game.
 

eels05

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I think it has a place in some games.
If those games are designed in a balanced way so that its not impossible to finish without dying and without making the game to easy at the same time.
It has the potential to add alot of tension if done right.
 

salbarragan

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When you can spew out a new character every two seconds, the game stops being about skill and more about brute force. I'll just keep sending wave after wave of PCs until I just overcome my nemesis. Kind of like a zerg rush actually. For that reason, I always believe that death should come with a heavy consequence. That's actually one of the reasons that I love D&D. If your character dies, you have a heavy price to pay in order to bring them back.
 

IceStar100

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sirbryghtside said:
IceStar100 said:
In mmo it would flop. One person get strong and bully everyone. In the end it would only kill the game it's self.
But then, wouldn't it be cool to see this awesome player crushed by an army of weaker ones?

And there would be eras - the horrible people leading the tyrannous ones, and the kind rulers with peaceful lands.

That would make it so much more realistic and cool... sigh...
Maybe but it would still be a flop. Becuase MMO need new blood. Vet get bored sooner or later. When this happends they stop playing. If bully kills new blood on his demo time. He will get fed up and not pay for the game. That waisted resores. So in the end it would be a nightmare. Plus MMO are grind worth. Not many want to keep doing the same level again and again. To loss all progress is a death kiss. Then again if it's a choice like only one server does it. It might keep it freash for vets
 

Nutcase

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GuerrillaClock said:
Crazzee said:
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.
But why should gamers be forced to do anything?
Games have rules. As long as you play the game, you are forced by them. If there are no rules, there is no game.
I don't want to spend my gaming life fretting about a character because 100 hours of hard work could be wiped out just around the next corner.
It's not like you are forced to. You can play some other game. Right now there are almost no games which feature long-term character development and permanent death. There are many of us who'd like to see a few such games being made into the mainstream. If you are not convinced, you would still have the 99% of forgiving games. Why would you want to deny us the 1%?
Getting killed repeatedly is frustrating enough, and I think most gamers see having to do a certain section again punishment enough for a failure. Good games can make you fear things (or feel anything they want you to, in fact) without having to resort to cheap, shitty mechanics like this.
Oh? How do you propose to make the player fear death in Steel Battalion if not with this "cheap, shitty mechanic"?
 

GuerrillaClock

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Nutcase said:
GuerrillaClock said:
Crazzee said:
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.
But why should gamers be forced to do anything?
Games have rules. As long as you play the game, you are forced by them. If there are no rules, there is no game.
I don't want to spend my gaming life fretting about a character because 100 hours of hard work could be wiped out just around the next corner.
It's not like you are forced to. You can play some other game. Right now there are almost no games which feature long-term character development and permanent death. There are many of us who'd like to see a few such games being made into the mainstream. If you are not convinced, you would still have the 99% of forgiving games. Why would you want to deny us the 1%?
Getting killed repeatedly is frustrating enough, and I think most gamers see having to do a certain section again punishment enough for a failure. Good games can make you fear things (or feel anything they want you to, in fact) without having to resort to cheap, shitty mechanics like this.
Oh? How do you propose to make the player fear death in Steel Battalion if not with this "cheap, shitty mechanic"?
OK, the "play something else" card that you seem to be playing here is totally irrelevant. If I didn't like a game, I would play something else, of course. That hardly affects the fact that the idea is dumb.

Yes, games have rules. Of course they do, but, again, this has nothing to do with the issue at hand. If a gamer wants to try something out, they should be free to do so without the fear of having hours of hard work brushed into the bin. If I want to attempt a shortcut in a racing game, my car shouldn't be at risk of exploding, because it would make the risk-taking and excitement that people play games for redundant. If I want to try flanking someone in a shooter, and it doesn't work out, why should I have to die permanently just for trying something off the wall?

Fire Emblem is the only series that I've played (never played Diablo 2) that did this mechanic well, and I admit it could be made to work in games where you control a party of characters, as in Fire Emblem it wasn't game over when you let someone die, but it was a harsh punishment. What I am taking issue with is the idea that gamers should be forced to spend hours tiptoeing around a level without wanting to make progress because they know everything they've done so far will be scrubbed off if they put a foot wrong. First and foremost, games are toys. They need to entertain. If a game wants to pass itself off as art, that's fine too, but it needs to be entertaining first for it to fit the bill of a good game. If people want to play a game like that so they can shout about being 'hardcore' on the forumz, then I'll happily let them, but it won't change my mind that permanent character deaths in most games are a ridiculous and unnecessary idea.
 

StigmataDiaboli

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Ah, now I remember some time ago that Hideo Kojima (the MGS guy) wanted to do a game where you die once and that's it for both your save file and disc, so that players can understand how precious lives are...real ones...I think it was Kojima...or was I dreaming?
 

Laura.

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GuerrillaClock said:
If people want to play a game like that so they can shout about being 'hardcore' on the forumz, then I'll happily let them, but it won't change my mind that permanent character deaths in most games are a ridiculous and unnecessary idea.
That's exactly what I was thinking: unnecessary and for teh hardcorez.

If you are making a game with permanent character death, make it optional, otherwise I will use a trainer or some sort of hack.
I get really attached to my characters, enough to try very hard not to die. I don't need the fear of permanent death as an incentive to get more involved in the game.