#perma-death

[shaykai]

So uh- just a thought- what if things could stab/kill your shade?

[qravenholme]

Darkwood | Episode One | The Prologue

[graced-but-graceless]

So I played this new game with 4 of my friends tonight called Nether.  Being the perma-death junkie I am, I absolutely love it.  Unlike other open world PVP games, the AI is actually a threat, as well as the players.  I've seen a lot of hate on this game, but I love it.

[thedisengageblog-blog]

Why Perma-Death (Probably) Isn't the Answer to Emotional Attachment Within Games

Permanent death ('perma-death') isn't something that gamers usually get excited about. It's frustrating enough when an obstacle causes you to die instantly and you have to play a section AGAIN AND AGAIN UNTIL YOUR FINGERS BLEED BLOODY TEARS OF AGONY AND DESPERATION but what if that death killed you forever?

Games like those in the Fable series have been using lasting effects successfully for some time now, and it's a great way to show persistence throughout the world. When you can look at your character and remember where you got your scars or the quirky salesman who sold you that naff haircut it feels great, and if you want to mould a perfect hero then remaining scarless is an added incentive to do well and improve.

A similar concept to get you attached to your in-game avatar has been used in One Single Life (it's - free give it a go), an iOS game released a few months ago. Gameplay is wonderfully simple to support the concept; your character will start running when you're ready and when you tap he'll jump in an attempt to bridge the gap between two buildings in 10 levels of increasing difficulty. Each level has a signpost next to it that tells you what percentage of people have died at this juncture.

As you might have guessed from both the title of that game and this post if you mess up a jump, it's curtains my friend. For good.

The pressure is phenomenal and it's compounded by the signposts mentioned earlier. It's incredibly engaging.

Now this might have you think that using perma-death will give your players an instant and strong connection to your character's well being, and you'd be right, on one level. The problem is that you don't actually care for the character's life, the princess they're trying to save, rings they're trying to collect or bad fur day they're having – everything you're emotionally invested in is outside the game.

You care about the status of being in the nth percentile, of overcoming a tremendous obstacle for your own self-satisfaction or the overcoming feeling of relief you get upon completion knowing that you're safe (at least for now).

The point is that if your players are only interested in acing your game for rewards outside of the game then they don't care about what's happening within it; they're too engrossed in whatever they're feeling.

I was having a conversation with fellow Disengage!r Tom about the CCG Magic: The Gathering and why I thought I lost interest in the game. I still think it can be a genuinely fun game to play, but let me ask you this: If someone is playing to feel better about themselves outside of the game as an end-goal, is it still a game? Of course there are a myriad of other out-of-game rewards the player might be angling for, but let's use this (particular common) one as an example.

On a very basic level people need to feel accepted, and part of that is accepting themselves. By playing games with people, winning fights or topping their class' math quiz they might get there, but that it's something that we need to go on like food, water, shelter or companionship then can indulging that desire truly be play and not work?

To be honest I'm still on the fence about the broader question, but I can say that perma-death can be an amazing way to engross players in caring for their own well-being, but a tremendous way of bringing them out of your world as a voyeur at best.

-Shaun