[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Perma-death

[Jeffrey Kesselman]

On 5/17/07, cruise <cruise at casual-tempest.net> wrote:
> Thus spake Steve "Bloo" Daniels...
> > Dana V. Baldwin wrote:
> >> Other players could not care less. Its actually only rare because it
> >> isn't much of an achievement
> >
> > Says the man who hasn't reached it and keeps telling me "Oh just go
> > die and get it over with, then you can start enjoying the game." ;)
>
> >> Tangible nbenefit or not, I almost drove over to a couple of my guildies
> >> house and beat them with a hoe (my fave) when I died at level 15. *sigh*
> >>
> >> I almost rerolled.
> >
> > Aha.  See!
>
> So it might not mean much to others, but it can mean a lot to the
> player? Interesting.
>
> To Dana - would you care so much if there wasn't a title? If there was
> no record of your achievement? If, after acknowledging no one elses
> seems to care, why does the addition of a title proclaiming your
> achievement to others bring you close to voluntarily chosing perma-death?
>
> > Because it is possible to get Undying through farming green mobs until
> > the next presidential administration, I wish Turbine would add some
> > titles that reflected how often you actually fight dangerous mobs.
> > "... the Brave" if <50% of your kills are white or above.
> > "... the Reckless" if <75% ...
> > The Cowardly, The Craven, The Foolhardy, The Wanton, The Berserk.
>
> I didn't play the beta for overly long, so remind me - can you display
> more than one title? And can others see all your titles in any way, or
> only one? Are there titles for defeating certain enemies?
>
> Unless other players can see both accomplishment titles, a lot of the
> social "wow" is lost. Being able to combine "The Undying" with "Slayer
> of XXXX" would presumably be step in the right direction?
>
> > With an early minstrel I tried, I refused to voluntarily engage in
> > combat and only fought things that I couldn't escape from.  Only managed
> > level 6 until defeat though.  I'd display "Rayvaughn the Cowardly" if
> > it were an option.
>
> This is an interesting footnote - not all players want to impress -
> amusing or otherwise RP-friendly titles/badges can be just as useful.

So to go back to the root question:

IMHO yes, perma death can be made so it isnt so hateful IF
(a) your assured a reasonable amount of time to play your character
before it dies and
(b) it doesn't represent a loss of a large amount of p layer invested
time.

Ive kicked around some ideas  on both these points for awhile but they
are too nascent to share atm.