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- Jun 18, 2002
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I saw this on <a href="http://www.sorcerers.net">Sorcerers.net</a> and totally wanted to steal it. <a href="http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3167594">1up have a feature about death</a>. It's not entirely about RPGs but could be relevant soon given the nature of games to have insta-respawn points and a complete lack of any challenge what-so-ever. Here's a bit to get your taste buds excited:
<blockquote>Whether you believe death to be a permanent state in real life or not, in virtual territory it's generally anything but. But is game design's reliance on death as a gameplay mechanic simply a holdover from when game narratives consisted of "You're a spaceship -- shoot bad things and don't die"?
...
Some developers have come up with creative alternatives to dying -- or even creative reasons to die. In Smith's Thief: Deadly Shadows, protagonist Garrett doesn't die the first time he gets caught by city guards; instead, he wakes up in jail (a concept mimicked in Starbreeze Studios' Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay) -- transforming potential failure into a dramatic and fun story event with its own opportunities. Black Isle Studios' 1999 RPG Planescape: Torment famously required its main character to die in order to solve puzzles.
But Smith admits that Thief illustrates the challenges of this approach: How enjoyable (or plausible) is it to go back to jail again and again? How do you justify such alternatives to dying while still maintaining narrative credibility?</blockquote>
Oblivion anyone? It's an interesting article about a game mechanic which I think is actually on the verge of disappearing altogether (is that a good or bad thing?). <a href="http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3167594">So head on over and read the rest</a>.
Spotted @ <a href="http://www.sorcerers.net">Sorcerers.net</a>
<blockquote>Whether you believe death to be a permanent state in real life or not, in virtual territory it's generally anything but. But is game design's reliance on death as a gameplay mechanic simply a holdover from when game narratives consisted of "You're a spaceship -- shoot bad things and don't die"?
...
Some developers have come up with creative alternatives to dying -- or even creative reasons to die. In Smith's Thief: Deadly Shadows, protagonist Garrett doesn't die the first time he gets caught by city guards; instead, he wakes up in jail (a concept mimicked in Starbreeze Studios' Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay) -- transforming potential failure into a dramatic and fun story event with its own opportunities. Black Isle Studios' 1999 RPG Planescape: Torment famously required its main character to die in order to solve puzzles.
But Smith admits that Thief illustrates the challenges of this approach: How enjoyable (or plausible) is it to go back to jail again and again? How do you justify such alternatives to dying while still maintaining narrative credibility?</blockquote>
Oblivion anyone? It's an interesting article about a game mechanic which I think is actually on the verge of disappearing altogether (is that a good or bad thing?). <a href="http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3167594">So head on over and read the rest</a>.
Spotted @ <a href="http://www.sorcerers.net">Sorcerers.net</a>