Why does the movie work, and why would it feel so weak as a game? My answer is a total lack of investment in the characters. I can''t solve that problem for a game based on the movie/novels. It does, however, bring up some secondary points that may apply to other games. Specifically, I think of two devices I have seen used to amazing effect, and the movie inspires different usage of them. First: Fate Points. These are a favourite of my Pen and Paper roleplaying buds. Basically, you get a tiny number (0-3 in most cases) of Fate Points to use throughout the lifetime of your character. Regaining them basically doesn''t happen, and the player doesn''t know how many they have. My proposal with regard to these is to combine them with a permadeath, PvP system. The player chooses moments to risk character on the possibility of having a fate point left to spend (defending the pass, say), and then at the penultimate moment expends said point, not to win the battle at hand, but simply to have something marvellous occur that enables the character to achieve a goal and survive, at least for a critical few moments. Perhaps to discourage grief players, include a level limit below which FPs can''t be used. Second: The death blow, again applied to a MMO PvP permadeath system. A character can be placed into comatose state without killing them (remember how the Final Fantasy games avoided the word "Dead"?) In order to finish a player character off, another PC must deal a death blow. This action consumes a good deal of effort, and would be undesirable for use in the middle of an action scene, since dealing such a fatal blow temporarily render the person performing the action helpless. Ergo, the risk factor goes up. Again, limits are placed on the ability in order to deter griefers. ld

The "Deathblow" idea has come up in various forms before. One of my favorites was one that required a specific item to permakill a player. Some kind of soul catcher could be used to interrupt the respawn. The item would be crazily expensive, and might even require a nod from the game''s administration.

I remember somebody proposing that it be tied to level, so that you couldn''t finish off a vastly superior character, and weaker characters would be worth less of whatever you get when you do this. It would lead to headhunting, the worst form of PvP, but could add a dynamic history to the gameworld, and prevent that core group of invincible players from forming.

Fate Points is the sort of thing that might require a DM to execute properly. I don''t think any software could be trusted to apply "miracles" in-game. Just my 2¢.