MMO Antiquities – The Death Penalty

Writing the MMO antiquities articles has really flooded me with memories of the old days. It has sparked conversation between me and other veteran players. Today I want to discuss a game mechanic that we think has been deluded far too much: the death penalty.

For the uninitiated allow me to explain how this was handled back at the dawn of the modern MMO age. In Ultima Online death was a rather uncomfortable thing. When you were slain everyone could loot your body. When you got back to it you’d have lost everything. That, as you might guess, turned off a lot of people but it really made you want to avoid death.

In truth, however, that mechanic was a failure because it changed behavior. Most people just ran around naked with the minimum tools required to do whatever job they were up to. This lead to the game being less entertaining simply because nobody wants to pay to run around naked with a mining pick. This penalty wouldn’t work today (although Darkfall is reportedly going to implement it) but it sets the background.

When EverQuest was released the death penalty was modified. Your corpse and all the items on it would be left exactly where you died and you would have to go retrieve it while naked. If you didn’t get to it in time it would decay and you’d lose all your items forever. If you really trusted someone you could give them permission to loot the corpse and bring your items safely to you. To add insult to injury death also cost you hard earned experience. You could even lose a level. Clerics could resurrect you and mitigate some of that loss but never all. Once more, people were careful about dying. Again, all together, this is a bit extreme.

At this point you might be interested in me cutting to the chase so I shall. I am advocating to players and developers alike that the death penalty in MMOs has become too trivial and we need to learn from the past. I’ve seen discussions on this where players tell me I’m crazy. I’ve heard that too many negatives will turn too many players off to the game. I don’t buy this and I’ll tell you why.

I’ve long since accepted that MMOs are no longer an elitist form of entertainment like they used to be. We now have to accept that the main stream is playing. With the mainstream comes what I call “the new America” where nobody loses. When I was little if your t-ball team was terrible and you lost, you lost. Now, they don’t even keep score in a lot of leagues. They never teach children that in reality, you don’t always win. MMOs are mirroring this trend and it is time someone called this practice out as both wrong and unnatural.

In real life we lose sometimes. When we lose it hurts us. Some people give up. The vast majority of people, however, pick themselves up and move forwards. Not to long ago my car was broken into and my radio stolen. It was worth less than my insurance deductible. Did I give up? Did I drive around without a radio? Did I cancel my insurance? No, I had the damage repaired and bought a new radio because I like listening to music. That is reality. I lost and learned to always take the plate off my radio when I wasn’t in my car.

Let’s put that into MMO terms. I am currently playing Warhammer Online. It is a fine MMO. The game basically doesn’t have a death penalty though. When you die you get a debuff that can be removed for a paltry 8 silver at level 40. You always respawn fairly close to where you were and at worst you’re minorly inconvenienced. At best you just got an 8 silver teleport. I say this changes our behavior and for the worst.

EverQuest didn’t involve a lot of suicidal pursuits because there was the actual potential of loss. You were certainly losing some experience and maybe your hard earned gear. You were more careful and conducted yourself as one might expect in reality. If someone went in to save you it felt tangible. They were, in no simple terms, a hero. When you barely eked out a fight that by all accounts you should have lost you were elated. When you failed you felt low but often determined (if you’re of the portion of Americans who don’t give up at every little setback). More than anything, however, everything you did earn felt more valuable.

I have not felt that feeling since EverQuest 2. In EverQuest 2 the feeling was weaker but there. After that it evaporated. I’m putting the call out to developers of future games. Put in a real death penalty. Do more than inconvenience your players. You don’t have to go UO or EQ crazy but you can certainly do more than World of Warcraft, Age of Conan and Warhammer Online. Remind your players again what it feels like to truly win and truly lose. Treat them like adults, not children. Otherwise, why not just hand out participation trophies like they do in little league and call it a day.