permanent-death
Latest
.png.cf.jpg)
MMO Mechanics: Exploring death mechanics
They say death must come to us all, and that inevitability extends to our characters in MMOs. The death of our characters may be inconvenient when we want to plough through content, but penalising failure is an essential part of any MMO and further incentivises success by making you learn from your mistakes. As much as players crave gratification through rewards and progression, they also need to feel that such progress has been well-earned and greatly deserved. Rewards become that much sweeter when we must risk something to secure them, and failure without consequence would render the gains made in our favourite MMOs insignificant. Without a considerable death penalty, it becomes possible to mindlessly crush content through brute force. I don't know about you, but I don't find fun in bashing my skull repeatedly with a rock in an attempt to crack it! In this week's MMO Mechanics, I compare various death penalties and the effects they have on the MMOs that employ them. I'll explore just how tangible death penalties such as corpse running, gear durability loss, and XP drain make our character's demise feel.
Leaderboard: Permadeath vs. no permadeath
Permadeath is one of those game mechanics that seems destined to forever be nibbling away at the fringe of the MMO genre than invited to the cool kids' table. Many players find themselves aghast at the notion of losing all their hard-earned progress with one untimely demise, and it seems like game developers agree with them: Very few MMOs have any sort of permadeath option. However, this most-severest-of-severe death penalties does persist. Some players elect to form guilds and meta-groups to pursue a permadeath lifestyle in their games. A few upcoming titles, such as Salem and Wizardry Online, have permadeath as a core mechanic. Even the recently released Diablo III has a "hardcore" permadeath mode for the brave at heart. The question we put before you today is yet another nibble that may never be noticed by the mainstream, but it's important to consider: Is permadeath worth including in MMO design, even as an optional mechanic or server, or should this brand of death penalty kick the bucket once and for all? Vote after the jump!
The Perfect Ten: Death penalties
Death penalties belong in that tier of MMO discussion topics that is reserved for the most controversial subjects, along with skimpy armor and the New Game Enhancements. Death, as we know well, comes for us all with big, nasty, pointy teeth. But for some reason, we are not fans of it, neither in real life nor in online games. One of the reasons death penalties continue to be a divisive subject is that they used to be brutal beyond belief in MMOs back in the olden days of yore. As the MMO genre progressed, the penalties were lightened and experimented with in an effort to avoid driving players barking mad because of them. So we've ended up with two camps: one group of gamers who campaign for harsh death penalties to make the world seem exciting and dangerous, and another group that campaigns for lenient penalties in the interests of sanity. So today we're going to go through 10 of the most-used types of death penalties in MMOs, starting with the most brutal and ending with the most lenient. Stay for the after-column party as well, as you'll get a taste for this debate in the comments section!
A wrap-up of the Paradox Interactive MMO conference in NYC
If you're unfamiliar with Paradox Interactive, you could be forgiven -- it's never been a flashy studio. But it does have a very solid track record of producing historical simulations and strategy games, including the critically acclaimed Mount & Blade and the Europa Universalis series. So when the company's New York convention includes two upcoming online games, it's with a background of producing solid games with a strongly simulationist angle. Two titles, Dreamlords Resurrection and Salem, were both on display at the conference, with two very different foci but similar levels of polish. Dreamlords Resurrection is an MMORTS with an emphasis on player armies rather than on city building. Players take on the role of a newly awakened Dreamlord attempting to work with allied players to claim as much land as possible... with the caveat that the game's regular resets will keep any one group of players from becoming too overpowering. Salem, meanwhile, is a sandbox game that plans to include not only open PvP but the threat of permanent death, forcing players to hopefully band together and police behavior. Both sound like interesting takes on the genre that will give players plenty to mull over as they move through development.
One life in the New World: Salem MMO to feature permadeath
Permadeath is a topic that's brought up on a regular basis in MMO discussion circles, usually featuring a cast of characters that span the full spectrum of the debate. Is there a burning desire for the risk and finality of a permadeath system in MMOs? Would players flock to or flee from such a game? And how would it work in such a way to retain players instead of alienating them? Game Designer Bjorn Johannessen is working hard on the answers for those questions in his new MMORPG, with the working title of Salem. Developed by Paradox Interactive, this free-to-play title is set in New England during the early period of North American colonization and features players stepping off the boats from Europe to make their way in uncharted wilderness. Like Wurm Online and Minecraft, Salem will focus heavily on crafting as players forge the tools, buildings and weapons they need to survive. For Salem's aesthetics, Johannessen named H.P. Lovecraft and Tim Burton's gothic horror as sources of inspiration, and the MMO will include magic and witchcraft as potential paths. Over all of this is the specter of permanent death: "When your character dies, he stays dead," Johannessen said matter-of-factly. This is made even harsher by the fact that Salem will allow free-for-all PvP, which means that anyone can attack you without provocation. Player buildings can be razed and their corpses looted, but Johannessen hopes that the players will band together to protect each other and mete out justice. You can watch Bjorn Johannessen's introduction to the game after the jump.
The Daily Grind: One life, one death
Permadeath -- AKA "permanent death" -- is always a contentious topic when brought up in gaming circles. Most MMOs are like a digital version of Valhalla, where warriors battle, die and are resurrected for all eternity. Death ceases to be "death" in a true sense, instead becoming a speed bump with penalties attached. Hence the appeal of permadeath, where once your character dies, that's it -- there's no coming back for seconds. Death matters, fights become more intense, and victories are that much sweeter. However, permadeath isn't for everyone, especially when you consider just how much time it takes to level your typical MMO character. Few people would want to risk something in which they've invested over 200 hours. But that doesn't mean permadeath is non-existent in MMOs: some titles have the option or special servers to support it, while others see a subset of players create and enforce their own permadeath rules (such as DDO). Today's question is simple: would you play a permadeath mode if your favorite MMO enabled it, and if not, what changes would be necessary to entice you into trying it? Would they need to dramatically increase the speed of leveling? Let you pass down "heirloom" buffs and items to your next of kin? Give special rewards for permadeathers only?
Using permadeath as a character reset
Damion over at Zen of Design combined (or saw his readers combine) two things that are rarely done in MMOs, and draw a lot of attention when they are done. Recently, permadeath has been brought up a few times (and implemented a few as well), and other games (most notably Shadowbane) have reset all character information in the game. And Damion asked if the two ideas complemented each other-- could permadeath make sure that, as with a character reset, everyone who gets too powerful is brought back to zero?It would only work, however, if lower characters could somehow stop someone who was too powerful, and as Damion notes, permadeath usually lets people accumulate power, not lose it. If one character is able to gain enough power to break the game and you combine that with a permadeath system, then any deaths he or she causes bring everybody else back to zero. And the balance to keep the lower characters powerful enough to stop the higher character and yet not overpowered is so precarious that, as Damion says, it usually ruins the game.But we are falling yet again into Damion's stages-- permadeath, it seems, just doesn't work unless you build your game around it, and then it can't necessarily be called permadeath anymore. The very fact of gaming means that, in a social game, to build a character worth playing, death, it seems, cannot stand in your way.
Dofus embraces permadeath with new hardcore servers
Richard Bartle once said, "Do you want permadeath or pedophilia? Both seem equally attractive to most players." In other words, permanent death in MMORPGs is pretty much unheard of, and most people who hear the idea are horrified that it should even be suggested. A few MUDs have it, but in the graphical world, there's almost no such thing. The original Lord of the Rings MMO that was developed by Sierra and eventually canceled was going to have it. That's the closest we've gotten to mainstream MMO permadeath.The developers of Dofus, then, are either completely insane or just very daring. They've announced plans to open up "hardcore" servers in December. On hardcore servers, player characters will receive significantly more experience and gain new items and abilities much faster than on normal servers. But when they die, that's it. They've passed on. They are no more. They have ceased to be. Bereft of life, they rest in peace. They've joined the bleeding choir invisible. They are, in their entireties, ex-Dofus toons.At various stages in an age-old debate, proponents have suggested that if executed in the right way in a certain kind of game, permadeath could enrich the online gaming experience. Battles would be more intense and PvP would be more meaningful, for example. Will you play on Dofus' hardcore servers, or is permadeath an affront to everything you believe in?
An argument for permanent death
I'm all about good ideas to improve the game we all love. I've even been known to toss them out to you folks on occasion. This morning though, in my morning perousal of the internets, I found a blog entry that just about made my eyes pop out of my head.Our good west-coast friend Cap'n Jack posted a couple of ideas yesterday that certainly had the benefit of being novel, if not extreme. While I don't think my head can completely wrap itself around his first PvP-themed suggestion, I'm really intrigued at his second idea: Permadeath.That's right folks. The Cap'n is suggesting that once you die, you're dead. If you can't find a benevolent druid, shaman, priest, paladin, or an engineer with a set of jumper cables within thirty minutes of death you're toast. Game over. Thanks for playing. We'll see you at the character creation screen momentarily. Jack further proposes that if the grim reaper does defeat you, that you would be allowed to start the character over at Level 1 naked and without skills, but retaining your name, your race, your class, and -- most importantly -- your ignore list.While even my wildest imagination cannot fathom the amount of hate comments I'm going to get over this article, I should state that I don't agree with 100% with John, I'm just presenting his idea for discussion. As a longtime MMOG player, I've seen the penalty for death gradually diminish from year to year and game to game. While I might not be entirely in John's corner on this issue I can agree that some more "serious" penalties for death might be refreshing. What are your thoughts? I'll be hiding in the WoW Insider bomb shelter. Let me know when the coast is clear.
