I remember listening to guards having conversations about their crappy jobs and whatnot in No One Lives Forever. Even that small bit of dialogue made me think "Damn, these are real people talking about their families..I can't kill them".
Of course I forgot all about that when they started shooting at me. Self defence you know.

That's my little story for the thread =p

Edited by - mumboi on March 12, 2002 7:47:12 PM

I agree with everyone that has been saying to make the character more realistic. I remember in half-life, when there was a guard i wouldnt need anymore, in theory, the most productive choice would be to shoot him in the head and take his ammo. But, I never (ok, once) did this because they feal a little bit real. I think that is a first step to having actual remorse for killing.

Killing the guards in thief felt more like doing them a service sometimes. I shoot arrows at them and they pace arround yelling at me. I feel glad when I put them out of their missery =)

I have to disagree with having no saves or worse penalties for dieing. Punishing the player will provide more of a reason to stay alive, but its not worth the cost of frustrating the player. I think if the player died and it casued a permanent effect, he would just load and replay the battle in most cases.

To add to that: I dont think players NEED more insentive to stay alive than there already is in most games. The effect of death is having to load a little while back (and endure a short loading period).

Penitalizing the player harshly for dieing, will also cause anger and not sorrow. The player will certainly care..but care in the wrong way.

I think there are two big issues here:

1. What can we do to make the player care? (more story oriented)
2. What can we do to keep the player from reloading? (gamplay oriented)

Does that help anyone look at it differently?