Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post - What types of games are impacted the most by permadeath?

DonathinFrye · 03-10-2010, 05:57 PM

Exactly. This is just one of the ways that you can give people the opportunity to make the most of a death scene. My overall point is that death scenes are potent, the events leading up to death are potent, the aftermath of a character's death is potent. It is such an undeniably real part of life that affects us all in profound ways: our outlook on good decision making, our fear of death, our belief in something after death, the stigma against the finality of the act murder, coming to terms with grief involving a loved one's passing, self-sacrifice or cowardice. Even if not every death is entirely satisfactory, players are very rarely entirely satisfied. Never-the-less, you can strive for satisfaction with a permanent death system, while still making use of possibly the most realistic constant that exists in both fiction and real life -- Death.

I'm not trying to advocate that every roleplaying-focused MUD should have permanent death; I, personally, believe that the possibilities and play that stems from the feature far outweigh the negatives. There are a lot of people on both sides of the fence, and it is probably the most stark contrast between "RPIs" and Roleplaying-Enforced games without permanent death.

It is strange, though, that there is so much animosity directed towards the feature. There are so many different kinds of games, you have to wonder why such offense would be taken over something that is extremely common in even RPGs dating back before the birth of MUDs.

03-10-2010, 05:57 PM	#71
DonathinFrye Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Name: Donathin Frye Location: Columbus, OH Home MUD: Optional Realities Home MUD: Atonement RPI Home MUD: Project Redshift Posts: 510	Re: What types of games are impacted the most by permadeath? Exactly. This is just one of the ways that you can give people the opportunity to make the most of a death scene. My overall point is that death scenes are potent, the events leading up to death are potent, the aftermath of a character's death is potent. It is such an undeniably real part of life that affects us all in profound ways: our outlook on good decision making, our fear of death, our belief in something after death, the stigma against the finality of the act murder, coming to terms with grief involving a loved one's passing, self-sacrifice or cowardice. Even if not every death is entirely satisfactory, players are very rarely entirely satisfied. Never-the-less, you can strive for satisfaction with a permanent death system, while still making use of possibly the most realistic constant that exists in both fiction and real life -- Death. I'm not trying to advocate that every roleplaying-focused MUD should have permanent death; I, personally, believe that the possibilities and play that stems from the feature far outweigh the negatives. There are a lot of people on both sides of the fence, and it is probably the most stark contrast between "RPIs" and Roleplaying-Enforced games without permanent death. It is strange, though, that there is so much animosity directed towards the feature. There are so many different kinds of games, you have to wonder why such offense would be taken over something that is extremely common in even RPGs dating back before the birth of MUDs.