Permadeath

What is it? What does it mean? Will it work? If you follow the forums of any new MMORPG out there you have probably seen this buzzword brought up quite a bit. (Mayhaps even by me!) But though it is hotly debated it also very misunderstood. So lets define and discuss it.

‘Perma’ is a latin root which means to stay to the end, last or endure. Death is also derived from a latin root, most commonly Mort… but other roots are related, namely: “nex, mortalitas, mors mortis, letum, plecto aliquem capite, excessum, decessus”. (As a side note many of those would make great character names). So essentially we’re talking about a word that means to stay dead.

In a permadeath MMORPG the idea is to implement a system where a character could end up in a permanently dead state. Some examples are:

PdoT: You will permanently die over time. This has two subclasses, ‘Subclass A’ that accounts for skill and ‘Subclass B’ that does not. In the first you are given X lives and when you run out of them you must reroll but in the latter you are given X time and irregardless of your actions or skill you will reroll when that time is used up.
Iron Man Permadeath: You get one life. When you die you reroll. (There is the Dungeons and Dragons variation of this that allows you to be resurrected from the dead state by a friend but each resurrection uses up a hard limit. Commonly related to a physical attribute such as health or constitution.)
Watch your step: This is actually a combination of both Subclasses of PdoT. You are given X lives for X time. Commonly it is X lives per 24 hours. Should you die more then X times in this specific time period then you will reroll, however every X period of times that number will reset. Some allow roll-over lives like a cell phone plan and some don’t.

Permadeath is a great departure from current games that treat death like unconsciousness. You black out briefly and then awake at some distant spawn point. In fact there is no real death and the concept doesn’t actually exist in most games.

The fact that most MMORPGs don’t feature a state of permanent death is a big turn off for those that crave a virtual world. It is near impossible to accurately portray a virtual simulation of life that is missing something as common as death. It removes to a degree the concept of skill. Those with more time invested in the game will become more skilled and more powerful then anyone else. It indirectly places too much value on your avatar rather then your avatar’s actions and deeds. It allows players to win against other players.

Why are MMORPGs just now beginning to incorporate this exciting new feature? Well first of all it’s not really an exciting new feature. Anyone who has played pong or any other arcade game is familiar with the ancient feature. The question really is why has it taken so long for MMORPGs to begin to use it. Well likely because they are designed by older people who believe they will lose players if their ‘Main Avatar’ permanently dies. MMORPGs are designed around credit cards and thus most make it impossible for you to lose. Death can only slow you down, it can never kill you and you can never lose thus you must stick around to win, bubble by bubble, dollar by dollar until the end. Game expansions are designed to be so tedious that even the most skilled player could not conquer it before the next planned expansion can release. It’s a bait and hook tactic and it works for a large majority of the players. The rest get bored and move on to a new game. They normally attribute their move to a new game to boredom, graphics or their whole guild left so their going with them but few every analyze what it is they truly left for.

As a matter of personal opinion I like PdoT Subclass A in combination with unrestricted PvP and skill based character development. (As opposed to level based) I would like such a game to feature real world simulated physics. I would go so far as to say characters should have to eat, drink and keep their avatars appropriately dressed for their environment. Unrealistic features which turn games into chat rooms should be removed, that is things like Clan talk, Tell, gossip etc. Long distance communication should only be feasible through magic or messengers. The number of lives characters receive should be enough to compensate for lag deaths, network unreliability and bad decisions but few enough to bring about Challenge. Trials of Ascension is such a game that promises to offer this to us players and if it releases I will be there. Comments?



 
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Alignment Systems

If you don't know what an alignment system is allow me to update you.

Praebeo mihi ut doceo vos...

When we refer to alignment we are essentially refering to the moralities of your avatar. Is he aligned benevalently, malovently or somewhere in the middle. An alignment system is in its basic essence designed to be a good thing. It is designed to help the players to behave and get a long and is a means of instantaneous justice.

But are alignment systems needed in a virtual world that is portraying reality? Are we disallowing evil characters or punishing them? Are we encouraging and rewarding players who are deemed to be good? It would seem to me that the online society, were it capable of doing so, would reward those that should be. However you answer there are a few things I want to make I address..

• There is no all seeing eye that judges us always and instantly punishes us for doing something wrong. (Unless you live with your mom) We want to emulate a real virtual world and yes if someone catches you and chooses to do something about it then your caught, but should you pull of the perfect robbery or murder (virtually speaking) you should be allowed to reap the rewards.


• The goal is a virtual world and people want to play and should allowed to play characters of pure evil and malice. After all, we can not have good without evil.


• Code, and normally poorly written code, will determine your alignment tendencies based on exactly what happens in game. As an example: Should you accidentally click on the ground dropping your house key and someone wanders by and picks it up, well then they own it. They refuse to give it back and you kill them and take it back... Now your evil. Now the developers want to fix this, so they allow any item dropped to be flagged with a no steal flag for 30 seconds. Now if someone picks up they key you dropped they are flagged evil... Of course this time the guy who picks up your key is your friend and he hands it back to you... Is he still evil? The devs don't have time to mull the over though as there is a bank in the center of town where larry, moe and curly are dropping platinum coins and waiting for noobs to pick them up and thus be flagged evil and slain.

But some players cry that we NEED an alignment system to protect them. No they don't. What they need is a meaningful way to protect themselves in game. A way they can respond that griefers will understand. Consider The guild of Stygian (Fictional) has stationed 10 max level (or max skill) warriors outside the gates or Noeveb. (Fictional city populated with mostly new players) Their top twitch gamers each armed with Teamspeak and a keen desire to make sure the new players stay that way. The new players are getting slaughtered. A few are confused as to how they are even dying. This goes on for about 30 minutes until the Enforcers of Justice (Fictional good guys guild) swings through and kills the invaders on their way somewhere else. Since the Enforcers have warned Stygian of these actions several times they hunt each one down assigning 5 men to each Stygian member and kill each and everyone of them. They even get the guild leader twice! This takes a whole weekend and screenshots are posted as well as a short flash movie showing Stygians Guild Leader dying twice. Its all quite humerous and the Enforcers are on the forums all busy patting themselves on the back for a weekend of fun and chumming it up on the forums. They get PM and Stygian is back in Noeveb this time with 20 members. Nothing has changed. The Stygian Guild members involved in the affair are now aligned as evil and are KOS to most people. (Of course they were before too... But now their aligned as evil.) Should they need a good guy for shopping etc, they'll just log an alternate character.

All in all an alignment system is pointless and artficially restricts our freedom as players. We should be able to creep through our town through the dead of night after curfew to burgle the rich baron. And yes maybe we'll get caught... But we shouldn't defintely get caught.

Let the players police the players... To some degree most stories don't even make sense when played in their artfical world. The great menace of evil King Nordstrom came to the Good Kings castle and killed him sending a sliver of hate throughout the world forever. When in reality... This evil red king guy tried to come to town but he was evil and the guards autokilled. He respawned 17 times before he realized he can't make it to the good kings castle while he's evil. So he spent all night befriending rabbits and giving them carrots until he was good. Once he was blue he went to the kings castle and killed him which turned him red, which made the guards kill him and now they are both spawned in the cemetary and have been fighting there all day... . Egads...

Forums and Moderators

Game forums are not free forums -- Not even if the topic you wish to discuss relates to the game. Should you ever disagree with a moderator or more likely a moderator disagree with you then your tougue will be watched closely and anything that could be interpretted as a bannable offense shall immediately become one for you. Abstract opinons and ideas of your hidden meaning could all be used against you. (Whether you have a hidden meaning or not is not really the point as if you did have a hidden meaning it would be completely missed anyways...)

I have attempted to speak to the subject of Permadeath on the general forums of darkfall. However it is considered now to be a taboo subject and others are unable to ponder the thought of it without becoming angry no matter how I have brought up the subject. The moderators seem to have made up their mind and that is that. They will no longer listen to even the ideas of such a system... I remember a quote that stated a closed mind is like a closed book, they are both just a lump of wood... (Something like that) But I also remember a Quote from Aristotle:

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle 384—322 b.c.

Even if you disagree you could consider the concept rather then outright dismiss it. Not that I blame many of the people who disagree with me. Permadeath is a completely new and bizarre concept for most people. And "one of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea." (Walter Bagehot) But I thought in my optimistic way I would get a fair chance to discuss it within the forums of darkfall espcially in light of all the new games that shall be out soon and featuring it. But a fair audience I did not get and though there were some that agreed and listened to me there were many more who hated me for 'Stirring the pot with my outlandish outsider ideas'. To be fair there is a few that listened and disagreed... Not many... In fact I can think of but one... nonetheless, "Anyone can become angry -- that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way -- that is not easy. (Also Aristotle)