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Old 07-16-2010, 10:26 PM   #66
stepurhan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ZeframCochrane View Post
So, once you decide that in the game you're designing death will be possible, you face two options:
You missed out a third, rarely implemented, option. I've only seen this option once in my gaming career. The game Dungeon Hack was a simplistic first-person RPG which created random dungeons based on a set of criteria you provided (how deep it was, whether some levels could be flooded, general challenge level of monsters, etc) There was a tick-box option called "Real Death". If you ticked this box then all your save games for that dungeon were deleted when you died. Now THAT'S scary.

I disagree with you slightly on two fronts. Firstly, the fact you know you're sitting in a comfy chair and not in a den of evil does not mean that the prospect of death won't scare you. If a game is well-designed then you'll come to empathise with the player character and the fear of their death will become the fear of yours (mentally only, of course. Players dying when a game character dies only happens in cheesy horror films)

Secondly, I don't think incorporating death in a game is just about the fear factor. It's often about the story being realistic. If the player character is in a cave full of ravening monsters then to remove the possibility of ravening monsters eating them blows the realism of the story world. That said, I'd prefer the game to alert me to the danger (a sign saying "Cave of ravening monsters" perhaps ) so I have fair warning to save my game.

Despite that, your discussion on the "scare" part of death in games was most thought-provoking.
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