But that’s not what their debt system does. Half your xp gains go towards your debt until it’s paid off. It’s like garnishing wages. No, it’s not simply reduced gains on a time limit, but that’s a necessity. It keeps people from just leaving their characters afk for a while and then having no problems. Gamers would just find something better to do for a while, and likely something they could sit down and play for the length of time they choose.

No, not at all. I don’t like -debt- or loss. I’m fine with slowing xp gain for a while, but I dont like knocking someone into the negative.

“I think I’ve just realised that MMORPGs are not designed to be RPGs, they are just whack-a-mole with friends.”

That’s what I’ve been saying for a while now. MMORPG needs to be redefined and the bar needs to be raised.

I think I’ve just realised that MMORPGs are not designed to be RPGs, they are just whack-a-mole with friends. While some things are cool in an RPG (single player or pen and paper) that is because you get it tailored to you; it can be used to expand the story. In MMORPGs it sucks. It already takes long enough to wipe on a boss, run/rez 40 people back to the encounter, rebuff, reorganise and try again. That is enough of a penalty to me that I don’t want to die. Make your death penalty any harsher than that and you better make the encounters easier or I’m just going to log off in disgust.

Thought just came to me. That *is* the “softer exp debt approach as in City of Heroes”.

One of the things I like about that system in modern MMOs is that it allows for exploration and creativity. A problem I’ve often perceived of late is that developers seem to have a tendency to use the threat of expensive/frustrating death penalties to prohibit players from pushing the envelope. They want encounters defeated within their idea of the function of character classes involved. They don’t want characters going where they wouldn’t be able to handle themselves. If players have to make a corpse run, they won’t be dragging their equipment into dangerous turf. If dying will make a character too weak to try again, they won’t experiment. Too often I’ve seen death wielded as a weapon in defence of restrictive game design.

What needs to be looked at is balance and alternative solutions, rather than “what is the best death mechanic”. The weight of the penalty of death should be inversely proportionate to the ease of death. Some games are, by design, hit or miss for every encounter you go into. In City of Villains I can solo large numbers of orange and red cons if they don’t have particularly damaging power sets (2-3 levels above), but a single elite boss at my level might kill five of my six minions in one AoE, leaving me running for the door, defenseless. Equally tricky are some travel powers. Rounding a corner at super-speed into the Ghost of Scrapyard and his legion of dozens of followers is an almost instantaneous death. Small amounts of exp debt (with a debt cap, too) are reasonable, there. World of Warcraft, on the other hand, makes it rather obvious what you can and cannot take by yourself. Elite mobs marked for group encounters can present an insurmountable challenge for some characters, while three mobs of even level are not blinked at. Death there (especially as a plate-wearer) can take a reasonable chunk out of your resources for repair, gives a crippling penalty for 10 minutes if you can’t or don’t want to return to your corpse, and can end an instance run if the beginning has respawned and players can’t make it back.

The alternative that needs to be looked at is incapacitation. Death should not be absolute. A ‘One moment you’re operating at full strength, next moment you’re flatlined’ system doesn’t help the suspension of disbelief much, and it necessitates leniency in death penalties. EQ2 tried to add incapacitation, but it’s a non-functioning system, because even after a character has lost the ability to act, the mob will take the time to administer a coup de grace instead of focusing on the rather violent teammates still opposing it. A system whereby a fallen player needed to be healed to be stabilized, and would regain consciousness after several minutes, would add an interesting dynamic. Let the healers watch out for the fallen to make sure they’re not dying. Let the tank pull the mob away from their bodies so they aren’t caught in AoE attacks. Put the unconscious at the bottom of the hate list and keep them there, so they’re not going to be targetted while a fight’s still going on, but if the group wipes they’ll be quickly put to death.