This issue bleeds into so many areas of the game, saving and character death are directly related there is no doubt. What if death is not the end. Allow the player to continue on into the game from the point of death with a new character, a character that can pick up all the stuff that the old one had. Reducing the value of a characters death should reduce it essential in the earlier parts of the game to get the playthe desire to constantly save the game. Find a way to have the death of a character dealt with. Make it a normal part of your game where character/player avatars are meant to die. In fact make er used character death. This should bring back the focus of playing and enjoying the game rather than it just becoming another performance orientated effort to get through the game. Game Design Rule 1: Its all about fun Rule 2: Never blame the player [edited by - Paul Cunningham on March 25, 2003 4:24:32 AM]

quote: Original post by Paul Cunningham
This issue bleeds into so many areas of the game, saving and character death are directly related there is no doubt. What if death is not the end. Allow the player to continue on into the game from the point of death with a new character, a character that can pick up all the stuff that the old one had.

There has to be a logical reason for the new character to pick up all the stuff the old one had. Also, does the new character magically come into existence at the point of demise of the old character, or does the new character have to journey a (small) distance to get to the corpse - by which time the old character''s possessions may have been looted?

Reducing the value of a character by making its death essentially meaningless then begs the question "why let it die in the first place?" Why not make the character fall into coma, or lose consciousness, or "fall asleep"?

If characters are meant to die - if they routinely die - then what incentive do I have to keep a character alive? Why don''t I use a character as sword/cannon/laser fodder, and keep on doing so until I get where and what I want?

There are answers to these questions, of course. I just want to hear yours.

The problem in most games isn''t dying as such, because the game is designed so you stand a chance even if you''ve died. The problem is the extra time you have to spend getting back to where you were, with the same character started over, or a new one as you suggested. The essential problem is still that you dont want to spend time on getting through somewhere you''ve already been before you died

---------
Life is like a grapefruit. It''s sort of orangy-yellow and dimpled on the outside, wet and squidgy in the middle. It''s got pips inside, too. Oh, and some people have half a one for breakfast

Spoonster: You could also have it so that you go futher ahead in the game when you start a new character as a form of compensation.

Oluseyi: Why wouldn''t one pick up that stuff from that corpse? The issue of letting a character die would inevitably give a character a greater value imo. Players would come to realise themselves that they have gotten attached to their little avatar. The idea of letting a character die early in the game is to toughen up the player for this experience later. This doesn''t neccesarily mean their character will die, it just means that its not the end of the game. All in all this would reduce saves and maybe a little bandwidth too.

I was primarily thinking about an fps this is why i didn''t approach the issue of second character experience thats if you have to have experience levels in the game.