19 September 2008
Who wants to live forever?
)Published on September 19th, 2008 @ 01:52:28 pm, using 1136 words, 319 views
In an awesome display of internet cross-pollination I have decided to write a post about a post Scorpia made recently, which is in turn about a post by John Walker on Rock-Paper-Shotgun. I’m original like that 
To summarize, John wants to play a gamer where your avatar is invulnerable. And Scorpia isn’t sure that this is a good idea. Could a game where the challenge of death was removed actually be fun? Seriously? And if so, how would you make it fun and challenging for the player?
To answer the first question, I think that yes, you can make a game without death fun and challenging. Allow me to elaborate.
Firstly, we need to analyze it from a game design point of view. Is it actually death the player is afraid of in RPGs?
No.
It can’t be death. The player can’t permanently die. A quick whack on reload and WHOOSH, back to life and fighting fit. No one would actually play a game with a real threat of death, anymore than anyone would ride a roller coaster that had a good chance of actually hurling you into the ground at high velocity. So what are players afraid of?
First, failure. Simple enough. No one likes to run slap back into the “you weren’t good enough” lamppost. Failure stings. Success makes us feel warm and fuzzy and powerful. These emotions alone are enough to provide the desire to avoid death, But there is more.
Penalizing a character resource. Some RPGs require gold to ressurect a character, some drain experience or apply an experience penalty for a time after you spring back to life. Either way, players hate feeling like they’re losing out on something, even completely virtual resources. So this is another motivator to avoid death.
Thirdly, penalizing the players resources, invariably time. The old arcade games could cost you money to buy another go but this doesn’t work for a home system, so costing the player some time in the form of lost progress is essentially “it".
None of these elements are inherently tied to death and death alone, which is why I definitely believe you can make a game without it and still succeed at providing the player a challenging and entertaining experience.
The reason death is usually the main way of challenging the player in RPGs is because, usually, the player’s avatar is the main thing he has to lose. The avatar’s setback is the players. Almost all of the players interest is invested in his character or close companions, so putting them in mortal peril has been the mainstay of providing challenge to the player.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can solve the “no death” challenge simply by investing the player in factors beyond merely his own avatar.
In fact, there are games that already do this. RTS games. In these the player is an intangible, omnipresent, invulnerable force. No one can attack him directly. He can effect the world, but cannot be affected directly. What can be affected are his units. If the civilization or species he is guiding dies, he loses. If they succeed, he succeeds.
With a little imagination, we can fit this concept into the RPG mold. Sure, your character is an immortal, but that doesn’t mean we can’t base his success or failure on his ability to successfully guide or serve an external interest other than his own survival.
A simple example. Who here has watched the movie Ghost? Yes, the one with Patrick Swayze. To summarize for those who haven’t seen it, ol’ Pat gets killed early in the movie by a man hired by a work colleague. And becomes the titular Ghost. He can’t really be hurt but he also has a limited ability to affect the world and communicate with the living. Using his new ghostly abilities he determines that his still living girlfriend is in danger from the same work colleague and works to save her from the same fate.
This is a prime example of what I mean. Imagine it as a game. You can’t be hurt, but you need to achieve a goal external to your own survival. You need to ensure that your girlfriend survives and your murderer is exposed. The challenge remains because invulnerability doesn’t mean unlimited power to affect the world. You have a limited set of actions you can perform and the challenge is figuring out how to use them to achieve success in your goal. Different actions could take you closer or further away from that goal you’re working to achieve.
Or what about playing the patron god-spirit of a native tribe? You are an immortal, magical being but the denizens of your tribe aren’t, they are frail and prone to being eaten by hungry tigers. Your job is to use your power and influence to see them become a full fledged civilization. To do so you can advise the village shaman (not really that different from other RPGs, everyone is always looking to the player for solutions to every damn thing anyway), use your powers to guide and protect, decide which villagers to save from tigers (since you can’t be everywhere and save all of them, you must choose on which members to focus), negotiate and deal with other tribes and their patron spirits…pretty much an RTS, but from the ground, personal-like. You cannot die, but your goal of seeing your people successful can be thwarted based on the choices you make and the path you follow. Do you encourage war and perhaps invoke the wrath of too many enemies? Do you negotiate alliances with other spirits and together become the “pantheon” of your united tribes people?
Speaking of immortal spirits, what about an immortal, sly trickster, a Loki archetype? That could make for a fun RPG I reckon. You’re a sly, shapechanging bastard, always seeking to promote your own goals but not fond of outright conflict. Instead you use your wits, your shapechanging abilities and your silver tongue to manipulate people and factions around you to achieve the goals you desire. In fact, one of the gameplay aspects could be achieving your goals with no one the wiser. I know from playing Thief that succeeding with no one being aware of your actions is a lot of fun, pulling a great, big con over the powerful NPCs in an RPG could be a pretty entertaining.
The great thing about these kinds of design restrictions is that they often force a designer into new, creative directions. I can certainly see why John posed his challenge. Of course, there is little chance of the mainsteam taking it up anytime soon, it’s too easy to stick to the tried and true. Ah well, maybe I will get round to it, eventually. 
Permanent Link