Here''s a question that I''ve been pondering recently: When I watch a movie or read a book and one of the characters die, I feel some strong emotional reaction (depending on the quality of the movie/book), but when I play a video game and my character dies, I only feel "Oh damn, I''m going to have to replay that level." How can we design games so as to make a player weep when their character dies? FragLegs

Hmm, make the character belivable, make the player able to identify with their goal, so that if the character fails the player will feel guilty.. (Hmm, I dont think I am answering your question)


--If you look to the clouds you cant see traps--

Well, in a video game they know that the character will come back when they restart the level...in a book, the character is gone forever (most of the time). Hmmmm....this is gonna be tough.

------------------
If you put one monkey at one typewriter, he would scratch his head and type something like this: "g d asds"

It doesn''t necessary have to be an all or nothing concept. However, the "invincibility factor" does have a tencency to allow people to view their character as semi-expendable. That is, they can say... "Oops! Guess I have to try again!" The further from this you get, the bigger the shock and sense of loss when the character DOES die. Also, the more that people can breathe INTO their character, the more they feel a part of it. If it is just a matter of saying "I''m controlling this guy on the screen" then they won''t get as involved. However, if they can bring their friend into the room and say "See my guy? Isn''t that a cool one that I made?" then there is a sense of ownership and attachement. This is especially powerful if, upon death, you lose all of those customizable characteristics and advancements that had been made. That way, you generate the thought process of "damn... I wish I could have a guy like that OTHER one I had. That sucked when I lost him!"

Dave Mark
Intrinsic Algorithm Development
"Reducing the world to mathematical equations!"

An example of a significant death is in FF7. You have Aeris for quite a while and then she dies. You could control her and the death happens relatively unexpectedly (unless you read spoilers like this post, heh). The death happens during a cut-scene, which is quite clever: because you must save at specific points, the cut-scene lasts long enough that you don''t get the urge to reload. Maybe that''s the answer.

Of course, character deaths have a much greater impact in RPGs than other games, especially with a party of members. Because you have a set amount of characters to control, and because you get to know about them, it means something to lose them. In a game like Medal of Honor, where you can have other folk join you, it means nothing. Personally, I find it quite amusing when some dumbass soldier in MoA can''t figure out to get inside a bunker and ends up getting the crap shot out of him.

The trick is probably the obvious one: give each character some history, and get them somehow involved in the main character''s affairs. Also, there should be an element of sacrifice. It''s harder to care about an arrogant fool than an oh-so-noble person.

Stupidly long loading times could help as well .

Alimonster

There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots.

quote: Original post by Alimonster
An example of a significant death is in FF7. You have Aeris for quite a while and then she dies. You could control her and the death happens relatively unexpectedly (unless you read spoilers like this post, heh). The death happens during a cut-scene, which is quite clever: because you must save at specific points, the cut-scene lasts long enough that you don''t get the urge to reload. Maybe that''s the answer.

The Death Of Aeris(tm) is indeed one of the better death scenes in gaming history. Especially since they''ve built up Aeris'' character by different means (Gold Saucer dating scene, for instance).

Oh, btw: What did you mean by saying that you don''t want to reload? I mean, it doesn''t make sense considering the death scene is inevitable.

One possibility would be to "change" the story in the game in a certain way so no matter if the player "starts the level over" it will not be the same as if the player had never died. In short make consequences for actions permanent. This could be done after each death so the outcome of the game could litteraly be differnt each time.

GRELLIN
Most people feel I think to highly of myself. But they just don''t know how extreemly great it feels to be me

quote: Original post by Ganryu
Oh, btw: What did you mean by saying that you don't want to reload? I mean, it doesn't make sense considering the death scene is inevitable.

Yeah, I realise that now . It might be good for other sorts of games, though - I meant that if you wrap up deaths into big-and-clever cut-scenes then the player might be tempted to go on. If there's an option to play with the character dead or alive, at least a few people might be tempted to play with the character dead. It would encourage them if they thought it was part of the story and the rest of the game might reflect it somehow.

EDIT: after all, you'd feel guilty about missing out on a beautiful, minutes-long cut-scene, wouldn't you? I guess the trick is to have a 100 strong team of amazing artists at your disposal.

Edited by - Alimonster on March 9, 2002 8:32:29 PM

I cried myself to sleep when Aeris got killed... ...
But you can't make a game player weep (have emotions), you can only try to make it more involving.
And some gamers mught find it annoying if its too obtrusive..like if one of your characters die and the other characters are weeping about it for days, the players might be like, "get over it! I wanna play!".....
(also I find really happy people/things annoying but thats got nothing to do with this topic..)

no, not really!
EDIT: "Honest!"

Edited by - stevenmarky on March 9, 2002 8:53:34 PM

There''s another, related question: should the player be able to magically revive a killed character? (My vote is no, of course not, don''t be daft.)

How about this for a weird possibility? Lots of your characters are dying and you have to decide which ones to save?

Btw...

quote: I cried myself to sleep when Aeris got killed... ...

Don''t be a big baby! Incidentally, I named Aeris "angel". Pretty appropriate, especially after I heard a character say "you look like an angel" (or something like that). I named the main character Satan, for no good reason.