...then you collect the dragon balls and be wished back to life.

[Edited on September 2, 2009 at 12:13 PM. Reason : page 2]

9/2/2009 12:13:06 PM

one of the things I hate about the permadeath debate are the attempts at mitigating the penalty of the death...

a game feature like this really has to be all or nothing, otherwise the penalty costs will always slide towards the carebear end of the spectrum over time

the ideas that ThatGoodLock presents should only be thought in the arena of game features (jedi ghosts for star wars, if you have a heaven and hell it's a feature of the planes of your game setting) and NOT focused on the mitigation of permadeath penalty

people who talk about permadeath and start to add ways to get around it are not getting the purpose behind the feature and the awesome possibilities it holds. if they want to mitigate the percieved problems around permadeath in a game that features it, it would be best to look towards the rest of the game mechanics rather than permadeath itself

9/2/2009 12:17:12 PM

well ok the Heaven/Hell example is clearly not permadeath but the jedi ghost doesnt have to just be stuck to star wars games and i think its something of a compromise for those who want permadeath to mean a character is not be able to continue advancing after the point of death and yet still keep that player involved in the game. i would actually lean more towards the ghost being a pet and have the bonus he/she affords you is convenience more than anything, no real advantage but a perceived luxury item. and maybe you have to have done some epic quest before you even get the chance to.

im reading alot about MMO's and ive decided im actually going to write some GDD's since i have nothing better to do.
these are the most interesting reads ive found so far
http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming/laws.shtml
http://www.fudco.com/chip/lessons.html

and even though permadeath isnt mentioned a single time specifically it applies. obviously you want to embrace the largest fanbase while at the same time not giving in to their every whim. people will grief permadeath. they will find a way (that the game developer did not plan on) to take advantage of some mechanic and its the GD's job to act swiftly to either 1) embrace or 2) punish.

9/2/2009 12:19:01 PM

I used to play an online economy simulator where each player could only start once with $100k and if you went bankrupt you were bankrupt until the world ended in about two months (or you could talk someone into loaning/giving you money, either as salary for managing their resources for them or as charity).

9/2/2009 3:53:05 PM

I could see this if they made a GTA game that toned-down the shoot outs a little, made them a little bit more survivable the first time through. Would definitely change the way you played GTA, make you think twice about jacking a car in front of a cop, etc etc, make the game more realistic as far as psychological experiences go.

9/3/2009 12:58:32 AM