MMO Fallout

Back in my day, our games didn’t have save features. Sure, there were a select few that had the ability to save, but otherwise if you wanted to finish the game, you were going to sit down and play through, or leave your console on and risk overheating. Once save functions became more prevalent and useful (no more 20+ string codes to input), a new generation of gaming was born: The no-save play through. These were players who refused to give up on a time honored tradition of playing through a game without ever saving, ever. If you died, it was game over for good. As time progressed, some games bought into this tradition, and created incentives for players to not save as often, if at all. The Resident Evil series is well known for, in the end-game score, factoring in how many times the player saved, as well as supplying a fairly limited number of ink ribbons (required to save at a typewriter).

As far as MMOs go, death is rarely much more than a nuisance. In fact, if you saw my NIDA Online videos, you’ll see my strategy of saving on health potions by resurrecting on the spot (resurrecting at that location cost so little in gold and experience that it was barely a scratch). At earlier levels, death hits you hard, but as you level up or join a populated guild, death just becomes a minor setback. In many games, you spend a few gold to fix your armor, and you’re back in the action. In MMOs such as Darkfall, you get your guild’s crafter to make you a new set of bone armor, and you’re back in the action. Or you just pull the extra pair of armor and regents out of your bank and head back to do some ganking.

Few MMOs have attempted permadeath, and the community’s cold reception to those that did is an excellent reason why many newer generation titles don’t even bother. Although Everquest had a permadeath server back in 2003,  it didn’t last long (it was a promotional server). Star Wars Galaxies originally had permanent death for Jedi, which was scrapped considering the awesome amount of time that was invested into creating a Jedi. Titles like Eve Online and Face of Mankind are two successful titles that have managed a form of permanent death, but at a price: Experiencing permanent death in these titles is extraordinarily hard, as clones are abundant and easy to come by. In these titles, it is easier to delete your character than to die permanently.

As far as current MMOs go, virtually none of our current titles would support permanent death. With how much grind goes into games like World of Warcraft, Allods Online, Warhammer, etc, only the most hardcore of players would be willing to accept a permanent death system, even if it means forgoing any extra incentives (extra rewards or otherwise). Grinding hundreds of mobs for hours on end, just to have your efforts gone to waste because some guy and his clan decided to troll through town and murder everyone. Even more, players on PvP servers would regularly find themselves targets of griefers, high level players who would roll through and kill everyone. I mentioned in an old article about unrestricted PvP, and how there is no reason a level 80 should encounter a level 15 of the opposite faction, let alone fight them (and kill them with a flick of the wrist), and adding in permanent death would merely make the issue worse.

So it is safe to say that the “traditional” incarnation of permanent death is gone: losing your character because your died. That being said, although the feature is not coming back in any commercial MMO, we can see traits of it in other MMOs. Sandbox MMOs are more regularly adopting stat-loss, where your player loses a percentage of their stats across the board when they die. Stat loss is generally used for players marked as player killers, as a method of balancing risk vs reward, and has been well received in sandbox titles including Ultima Online, Mortal Online, and Darkfall.

In Dungeons and Dragons Online, players created a permanent death guild, where upon creating your character you join the guild, and then must leave if you ever die. Players claim it forces a lot more depth and strategy to the game, and although some players opt to delete their characters upon death, others simply treat them as an alternative character, an inviting opportunity to less hardcore players who still want to somewhat experience permanent death.

I’ve talked about this before, but there will likely never be truly meaningful death in an MMO, due to the natural fact that you will die during your game time. Although Eve Online and Face of Mankind include a form of permanent death, the system boils down to an alternate currency that must be paid upon death. Rather than simply paying your cash currency to remove death sickness (Aion) or to repair your items, you pay an alternate currency, purchased with regular currency, that you use to buy more lives. With the way both games have implemented it, it’s almost like taking Super Mario Brothers, but greatly reducing the 100 coin requirement for a 1-up. Aside from losing your items, death becomes still just a small hindrance.

Traditional permanent death will never be more than the kind of niche that Chronicles of Spellborn players look at and say “that is one tiny community.” With traditional permanent death, you set the risk v reward scale so far to one side that no one will want to risk anything, heaven forbid a lag spike come their way at a bad time, the server has a brain fart, or some magical bug causes them to die instantly (I’m looking at you, Runescape). MMOs may have free reign to do what they wish with the death system, but for all intent, the system will be small variations on a handful of features.

Instead of working on new ways for punishing players for dying, why not work on new ways to reward them for living? Lord of the Rings Online went as far as including achievements for getting to certain levels and never dying, with Champions Online including a star-like system where players gain stars (up to five) based on how many enemies they kill, that buffs the player. A little positive reinforcement can go a long way in pushing a player through a particularly long grind session, and in the developer’s benefit, give them the enthusiasm to keep that subscription going to next month, or buying that cash shop item they were on the fence about.

I know that the hardcore community is going to hate me for my belief that there is no median to the debate on death, and that the focus should instead be put on incentives for living, but I’m not the “carebear” some would think. I play a wide spectrum of MMOs, from Runescape to Dungeons and Dragons Online to Mortal Online and Xsyon. There is very little like strafing in a bank so that you aren’t pickpocketed.

I am certain I will revisit the topic if permanent death in the future. Until then, I remain unconvinced that a system will ever work.