[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Perma-death

[Craig Huber]

On 5/15/07, "Tess Snider" <malkyne at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Is there /any/ ways perma-death can be implemented without being hated
>> by players?
>
> I used to be an admin on an RP TinyMUSH with permadeath.  So, what I'm
> about to tell you is not a load of ivory tower theoretical BS.  For
> permadeath to work for the players, you need to satisfy the following
> requirements:
>
> 1.) Death must be rare.
> 2.) Death must be meaningful.
> 3.) Death must be noteworthy.
> 4.) Death must be avoidable, and it should be a *consequence* of
> something the player has consciously chosen to do.
> 5.) The player must be able to make a new character with the same --
> or roughly the same -- level of ability as the old one.

Thank you.  That has to be the most succinct and complete summation of the 
necessary components I have yet seen.

>> Well, the first question is surely why?

The answer, for me, is that it would be one way (amongst many possible 
options, admittedly) to _force_ the designers (assuming they have clue one 
about what they are doing) to NOT make Diku-WoW-clone #5439875... and 
counting...

I pre-ordered LotRO and played off and on for about two weeks total.  That's 
probably going to be about it, too, despite all their excellent work and 
solid release.  Worse, I have none of the typical excuses to fall back on... 
poor performance, buggy initial release, or any of the other old dodges I've 
used in the past to explain the problem away.

So, why?

Because I sit there at the login screen, and say to myself... "I've done all 
this before.  Why bother?"

Now, I was an early adopter, been playing these things on one level or 
another for coming up on 20 years.. first text, then graphics (and I was a 
pen-and-paper RPer for nearly a decade before that).  I'm not the typical 
player, I fully admit and agree.  Regardless... if that's not a "canary in 
the coal mine" moment, I don't know what would be.

My two cents...