Permanent Death in Videogames (Arm-a-chair Hour Vol. III Pt. 2)

Check it out! http://www.egameaddiction.com/gameaddicts/content/view/350/66/

You may need to listen to the first part first. It can be found here: http://www.egameaddiction.com/gameaddicts/content/view/346/66/

You can also download it from iTunes, but I don't have the link handy. Just go to iTunes and podcasts and search World9-3.

Oh, and Twitter. twitter.com/armachairhour

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More than that, what do you guys think about death in videogames? What games have unique "dieing/respawning" systems? How is tension created in a game without making challenges frustrating? Any games you can think of that accomplish challenging the player and creating tension without the threat of the player dieing? Prince of Persia perhaps?

Do it up.

I think more games should have the "you die, you start from the beginning" type of deaths. Games are way too easy these days. Especially...terrible death "punishments" like in Prince of Persia and Bioshock...

I agree with Strubes. The real time threat of being killed and starting from scratch can set players on their seats. I'm sure we've all had the experience of being in a hopeless situation with limited ammo, low health and a bunch of baddies poited at you, and the knowledge that if you don't do something quick, it'll be all over.

I find that some games stick checkpoints in terrible spots though, which can make a game too easy, or put you in a difficult situation.

As a "mostly" RPG player i think the idea of re-starting from the very beginning can be EXTREMELY frustrating and overall it doesn't make the game more difficult whatsoever it just makes the gamer do a big amount of work that he/she has already done. dying in a videogame to me is simply not meeting the requirements to beat a certain segment of the game. That's probably why i prefer old school RPGs over old school platformers, because in old school RPGs the option of saving your progress was there but it does not take the difficulty away from the game.

on the other hand, I can say that games like megaman and castlevania (at least 3/4 from what i played) have the type of die/respawn system i enjoy without getting overly frustrated, just respawn at the beginning of a stage. Why restart from the very beginning and re-do stages that has been already mastered? it's more logical to take everything by steps and master stage by stage, if you get a game over you re-do the stage simply because you were not good enough to beat that particular stage, not the entire 1st part of the game.

the only game i can think of right now where there is not a threat of dying but can still get me on the edge of my seat is Mana Khemia, though your characters are simply sent to the infirmary (it is a game over if you die on a story related fight though) when they lose, i still feel the tension or the drive to keep them alive.

(also, does trauma center count? it has a high level of tension but YOUR character doesn't die XD the patient does)

I think the RPG category is a kinda "duh" category. Of course if you had to start from the beginning in that you'd be frustrated. I'm mostly talking action games and platformers.