blog

Aritcle

digg 4

Evolution of Death in MMORPGs

Category: Default Game: Default Posted on Jun 15, 2008 7:25 pm


Classic MMORPG games like Ultima Online and Everquest had something that new MMORPGs today simply don’t have. When you were killed playing Ultima Online there was a strong sense of defeat and loss. You actually lost something when you died. You could lose all your possessions that you were carrying. This sort of game play made it so players didn’t always carry their best sword of their best set of armor with them, as there was always a chance that they could lose it. If a group of people saw you carrying a shiny sword of vanquishing, they would be inclined to kill you and take your gear. With an open PvP environment, where anyone can attack you anywhere in the game, except while you’re in town, it’s best to make allies quickly, or you’ll quickly lose your hard earned equipment.

In Everquest death was extremely annoying. If you died in Everquest, you would spawn back in town without any of your possessions, and in order to reclaim them, you would need to return to your corpse. If you didn’t return to your corpse within a week, your corpse would disappear, and your items lost forever. Don’t mistake this with a silly corpse run in World of Warcraft, as in order to reclaim your equipment in Everquest, you would need to physically run back to your body, and without any of your equipment, that can be incredibly difficult, and if you fell into a lava pit, good luck trying to get your corpse back, as you may need to spend an entire day trying to recover your body.

In the new age of MMORPGs and MMO games it just doesn’t feel rewarding to kill another player and there is simply no sense of loss when you get killed. In World of Warcraft, if you happen to die, you basically get a slap on the wrist, as the only thing you lose is a bit of durability on your equipment. You’ll need to die 10 times for your equipment to get damaged enough to hurt your coin pouch, and you won’t even lose any experience for dying. At least some anime inspired games like Maple Story and Fly For Fun incorporate a real penalty for death. In MapleStory when you get killed, you lose a good chunk of experience. It’ll take you at least an hour to regain the lost experience.

A good penalty on death Is good for MMORPGs. In World of Warcraft, there really is no reason to be cautious while grinding as if you happen to die, it’s nothing more than a slight annoyance. In MapleStory, players constantly carry hundreds of healing potions with them, as they’ll do everything they can to avoid death. This sort of game play prevents players from acting irrationally and stupid, which can result in group wipes while raiding or just hunting as a group.

source:
http://mmohub.org/2008/evolution-of-death-in-mmorpgs

comments ( 7 )

Folder
Post Time : Jun 01,2009 11:52 am

You're right there isn't an sense when death occur, though the lost of amour really tick everyone off maybe if a complete new system on items (don't ask me how just saying) we would be capable of actually not wanting to waste hours of building our set of equipments.

Caramias
Post Time : Jun 16,2008 7:32 pm
I agree with you man i play WoW and maplestory i die alot more in Wow than i ever have in MS cause i spend all my cash on pots ^^
Sil153
Post Time : Jun 16,2008 5:20 pm
:3 mmm.. i agree  with the death penalty in the games, when dieing you lose exp and some dura in you r armor, weapon i think this help players know what 2 fight and make then more carefull who are they going 2 fight, but il have 2 disagree in the part you lose some of you r items its true that when you die you l drop some of you r stuff this can make players even more carefull , but if they are having problems in where 2 go and find strong monster by accident or some guy just waits there and kills you, or even bad luck (dunno it happens) it gets a bit boring always losing items you have alot of troubel 2 get, i know some ppl that stop playing some games becuase some !""$!(sorry) always kill then. so i think the games should have death penalty, lose some exp, dura etc. but not losing you r stuff i think thats a bit 2 far.
:3 well thats what i think
furiosknight
Post Time : Jun 16,2008 6:52 am

If the death penalty is set too high, then everyone would start killing ea h other for stuff...

If set too low, the realism will be given away and the game becomes too easy...

lozen
Post Time : Jun 16,2008 6:29 am

well having realism in a game is good i agree with that

i also agree that a penalty to death is something to get as close to reality as possible

but most players just dont like a hard time...they dont want to have a hard time getting back their equipment or money or other stuff which are relevant and necessary in the game

this is why most MMOs have penalties to death which are more like what you consider annoyances...its because the players want it

i would say this is especially true to casual players such as myself who play MMOs daily but only for around 2 hours since the rest of the time is used for whatever else is needed at hand

also....death penalties which are too severe (like losing all equipment and money to your killer) are just going to promote PKing further since the rewards from PKing are so good....in the end people who go around killing others just get stronger while the victims just get tired and quit

ThyUnholy
Post Time : Jun 16,2008 3:25 am

I don't really see how a good death has anything to do with a good game. Unless you're those PvP crazy people. I enjoy some PvP but if I achieve a weapon, or piece of equipment that is rare I'd rather not lose it over PvPing, or even the worse of it lag, many games today have lag, in which case you can never perform your best due to all these cheap mmo's with unstable servers. At any rate even if there was no lag the battle simply comes down to who has more potions, and better stuff, or more friends. PvP penalties don't not stop stupid people. There is no way to get rid of them. They will just call you a "noob", or "nub", for dying. Or just flaunt how much more superior they're. They stopped penalties for a reason. Even so ALOT of games out there have dedicated PvP servers. Some keeping the rule sets that you like.... Oh, and one more thing about the EQ thing you getting killed in a lava pit and wasting an' entire die just to get your loot back is completely nonsense, and that game clearly is not worth my life at least. That's just me.

Babeface
Post Time : Jun 16,2008 1:43 am
Hmmm, agree with your opinion, if theres no penalty on death, I think the game will be boring enough.