50 First Deaths - On Designing MMO Respawning

Thanks to the New York Times for its article (free reg. req.) discussing the nature of death and regeneration in massively multiplayer gaming. The author points out: "Designing death is not a simple matter", explaining: "If the 'death penalty' in the game is too severe... you may stop playing the game and, even worse, stop paying the monthly subscription fee for it. But if the penalty is too light... what's to stop you from engaging in reckless behavior... and then growing bored and dropping out anyway?" It also reveals, courtesy Turbine Entertainment's CEO, that "The online role-playing game Middle-Earth Online, expected later this year, will exclude death entirely" - instead, characters "will collapse into unconsciousness and wake up in a safe place."

Comments

bleh

[Deleted]

And instead of using swords in this game, why will use "Long sharp pieces of steel"

Also, they don't like the idea of guns. So they're going to use "lead that flies at opponent extremely quickly" .. i "wake up" in a cloning facility nightly in SWG...

Re:Um . . . Death?

[Blnky]

If the quasi immortality thing is an irritant, then might I suggest you try this one out? I have been playing it for a while now. It can be pretty though at times, with occasional treadmilling, but so far I havn't died once.

Re:collapsing and waking up..

[fuzzybunny]

Am I the only one who is having hard time seeing what's the difference between this and just losing your head and spawning up at a safer place?

Well it would be pretty interesting to be able to spot people who died all the time (they're the ones RUNNING AROUND WITHOUT A HEAD.)

Although one thing I thought would be cool would be sort of a karmic reincarnation scenario--where you come back as a better or worse character depending on how bad you've been, what you've done, etc.

playing a troll would really suck though, especially after getting stoned...

Yeah that's the idea--if you've been pkilling too much, you come back as a troll.

Or if you didn't have a head anymore, you'd have to go to a head shop (ba-dump) to buy a new one.

though maybe those wussies should just play more nethack instead. that would teach them that a mere @ sign gets much more meaningful if you can't get it back when you die.

Good call, same with Angband & friends. But to be honest, I never really minded dying in those for more than 5 minutes, because (a) they were free and (b) I could play them any old time on my laptop.

Re:Death in A Tale in the Desert

[vjmurphy]

"You can drink a 2nd shot of Speed of the Serpent a day later for an additional 24 hours of travel time, but then you'll have to drink cabbage juice every 29 days."

"So far there have been 8 deaths."

Man, if I had to drink cabbage juice every month or die, I think I'd take the easy way out.

Re:collapsing and waking up..

[TwistedGreen]

'theses'?
'thoses'?

Wow, I didn't know that Jar-Jar had a Slashdot account!

Of course, there's the NES method...

[randomizer9]

You will blink for about 10-15 times during which you will be immortal...