PVD – FEAR THE REAPER

Welcome to the Player VS Developer, where we discus the nuts and bolts of games.

“Let ‘s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs.”
- William Shakespeare “King Richard II”

Death and Taxes
Man has pondered his mortality since the dawn of time. We are born, we grow, and then we die – in the end we are left with but one question: why? Ask that question a dozen times and you’re sure to come back with a dozen answers, the truth probably falling somewhere in one of those gray areas between various explanations. In video games however, things are a little more black and white. Death exists in games for one of two real reasons: to drive narrative and/or to serve mechanical needs (to reward or punish). Though often frustrating at the very least, both are quite necessary to the games we play…

It Only Hurts the First Time
I’m fairly certain my first experience with death was through a video game, though there was no real emotional investment when Mario was hit by a fireball. Other than of course a minor tantrum that I had to start all over. That level of involvement changed the first time I played Final Fantasy VII. The scene that has become iconic for so many gamers of my generation, the end of disc one where Sephiroth fatally stabs Aeris.

Who can forget Cloud, obviously distraught relinquishing her quiet body to the water? This Opheliac scene was enough to make me angry, but not in the same way as Bowser when he returned me to the beginning of the dungeon. I was pissed, that bastard killed her! An innocent! In that instant, it seems all bad guys before had been just bluster and no balls. None had truly been “the bad guy” till Sephiroth, a legacy which lives to this day in the minds of other gamers surely. But what was the point of this death?

Narrative Death
The death of Aeris serves two critical purposes in FFVII. First, players who’ve become emotionally invested in the character are now ready to gift Sephiroth with a red assed beat down. This death provided a motivation not possible by simple reading a description in the game manual stating, “A mysterious villain”. Secondly, the death of Aeris allowed her to utilize the Lifestream with the power of her will. In short, she had to die if the world was going to survive (of course we didn’t know that until the end of the game). This is a classic example of a narrative death. And though this is a single player RPG this type of death is not without it’s contemporaries in MMOs, consider the Lich King fight for a moment.

During the final phase of the encounter, the entire raid (10-25 people) are killed instantly. At that point a scripted event is qued and all of the players are resurrected to aid in the “final” defeat of the Lich King. The spirit of Arthas meets with that of his dead father (whom he killed in Warcraft III) and in the end seems to be at peace. However, there must always be a Lich King, right Bolvar?

Merely a Setback
Unfortunately you just can’t always keep a bad guy down. Sometimes, they come back. Onyxia for example, once a raid boss at level 60 made a return as a quick loot pinata in Wrath again at level 80. Then, more recently it seems she was brought back from the dead by the previously dead dragon Nefarian. Yes, two dragons we already killed at 60 (one at 80 as well) are back again at 85. Not that we should be so surprised, how many times have you killed King Ymiron, Flame Leviathan, or dare I say it… Ragnaros?

Moreover, how many times have you or someone you know died? Resurrection magic is pretty handy, I’ll grant you. But that’s just rationalization. While it may make sense from a lore perspective that Deathwing has brought back Nefarian and Onyxia to serve him, it doesn’t necessarily explain wholesale slaughter of bosses week after week. It also doesn’t explain how you can die and be resurrected 100 times per day, yet no one was able to resurrect poor Aeris. What we have here is the difference between mechanical death and narrative death, and it requires a fair bit of suspension of disbelief.

Mechanical Death
Games at their most basic are competition, whether you’re competing with the computer AI or a living, breathing opponent – someone has to lose. PVP combat offers a perfect example of this mechanical death concept, two rogues of opposing factions find each other in the wilderness and begin fighting. The Alliance rogue has the advantage, as he spots his target before being seen. He attacks from stealth thinking to win an easy victory, however his opponent is wearing his PVP gear and easily trinkets out of the stun, then gifts the now surprised Gnome with a stun of his own. Shortly after, the Undead Rogue makes a meal of the Gnome corpse before returning to his normal grind. In this case, death is a reward for the Undead player and a penalty for the Gnome. In the future, the Gnome may think twice before attacking another player, perhaps he’ll consider bringing his own PVP gear next time. Or maybe he’ll just avoid this particular rogue in the future.

This concept is similar to the way we learn not to put our hands in a fire, after the first time you know not to do it anymore, because fire hurts. Now, it’s up to us to interpret this negative reinforcement, but it’s important we understand that it’s there. Mechanical death serves another purpose as well, it breaks monotony…

Needs More Cowbell
Imagine a game where everyone won and no one ever died. Sounds pretty boring, right? Exactly, again we’re competing here. Death is often frustrating, but it’s necessary to make the game interesting. There has to be conflict, there has to be risk as well as reward. Otherwise people lose interest and play something that’s more fun, which is the name of the game after all. Now, of course it’s not exactly fun to die over and over again, and frankly dying over and over with no penalty other than some wasted time isn’t exactly engaging gameplay either. However, there are some alternatives to the way death is normally handled in World of Warcraft.

■ EverQuest style, once upon a time EQ ruled the scene. When players died, the came back at a predetermined “resurrection point”. The catch was, they lost experience points when they died (this could be lessened by resurrection spells). And the newly reborn character spawned naked, they had to make their way back to their corpse to loot their gear. Ouch. This of course lent itself to several abilities: track corpse, summon corpse, resurrection, and the ability for other players to “drag” corpses back to their friends.

■ Planescape Torment style, the Nameless One was an immortal. Anytime the hero’s life was reduced to zero he awoke in the Morgue where the game starts. This ability is even tied into some quests, allowing the Nameless One to die so he can get inside the morgue for information and also having a party member sell his corpse for some quick cash.

■ I’ve heard some suggest that instead of dying we become incapacitated, and can be revived by teammates. However, I’ve always felt this option was a bit too… Disney for me. It reminds me of when Mortal Kombat was first released and my friend got it for SNES, he was so pissed because he didn’t have the cool fatalities I had on my SEGA version, or the red blood. Sorry, but sometimes the gore makes a difference to the players.

In reality though, I don’t see a real way that developers can get past the current state of death in MMOs realistically. My hope, is that we’ll see more creative deaths. More narrative deaths in WOW and other MMOs. One thing is for sure though, death is an ingrained part of the human condition that doesn’t appear to be going away in video games. My advice, find a healer and make nice…

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