death in video games

[Captain Rapeface]

okay, this is a topic that has fascinated me for a while now, and one that i never read or hear discussed about video games except for a few stray studies here and there in ludological publications.

what have you thought about death as it manifests in video games, and how does it work on you, if at all? how do you feel about games becoming more life friendly, and moving away from death and therefore difficulty? are you against the general eradication of and denial of death in video games today, perhaps designed to appeal to gamers who just don't feel like dying anymore? thus minimizing the amount of diehard dedication required to be successful in a given game and avoid punishments, and appealing more to new gamers, with a kind of paradisal gaming experience? do you think this has any wider ranging implications outside the realm of video games?

it seems now that as games move towards fostering a complete narrative experience developers must also make the games finishable so that gamers can have that experience. they're just less dangerous. but maybe that's a good thing, and the medium is evolving.

what are you favorite video game deaths?-player death or NPC death, mebe used to advance story. (aerith?) (your whole family in oregon trail)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDgtOcjFwlM

[RunAmokRampant]

I remember when I played Goldeneye and i loved all the diff ways ur enemies died depending on where u shot them.

And Hitman ragdoll physics was quite amusing when i first played it.

[nevertoolate]

any of the FATALITIES in any Mortal Kombat game................

[RunAmokRampant]

yeah mortal kombat was quite memorable. Especially when bodies explode and there is way too many limbs, heads, organs etc lol

[Meatplow]

one thing I dislike in certain games is where you kill enemies by the truckful but when it comes to a crucial cut scene where somebody important dies it's a huge event (come on Aeris in FF7, you died way too many times in battle why can't I just use a phoenix down here).

[bette midler coming back]

yeah that is interesting. the battles are meant to be a device to foster participation or discipline / ingenuity in dealing with rules and death's are ramifications within that context. but then out of that context, aeris dies to conve narrative. its a trade off


the best game involving death as a theme has to be planescape torment

[MattSharpIsCool]

what are you favorite video game deaths?-player death or NPC death, mebe used to advance story. (aerith?) (your whole family in oregon trail)

I used to float my wagon across the river every time in Oregon Trail just to see how many people in my party died when the wagon tipped over.

Is that bad?

[christsimpson]

death is good in games. but I hate it when you don't have (unlimited) retries. dying at the end of a game, becoming game over, then having to play THE EXACT SAME THING all over again to get to the ending is bullsh'it. Call of Duty wins with their start right where you died formula.

[GreyHam]

death is good in games. but I hate it when you don't have (unlimited) retries. dying at the end of a game, becoming game over, then having to play THE EXACT SAME THING all over again to get to the ending is bullsh'it. Call of Duty wins with their start right where you died formula.

you mean having absolutely no penalty whatsoever for death, meaning that as long as you have time to spare its impossible not to finish a game no matter how retarded you are?

Sounds challenging

[christsimpson]

I don't want to play the exact same thing fourty times. if I don't make a challenge, I want to retry that challenge. not waste my time on challenges I have already accomplished. that's ridiculous. "oic you can't do this... maybe if you do all of this easy crap that you've already done thirty times just *one* more time, you will get it right?". f'uck that. if I want to restart the game, I will do so.


also hail Lucas Arts for their adventure games in which death is close to impossible.

[Tripp_chaos]

Thats why I tend to stick with fps online granted I'm going to get back up and start again but who knows who and how I'm going to be shot. I think the "pansy" way they try to make games now for "all ages" screw little kids they have there E-T-10/whatever ratings to play if you don't want your kid playing gruesome challenging games "don't buy them"... I do agree also with the fact that most games are getting easier FarCry 2 is a good example like half way if not less through the game and it just gets easier... The F.E.A.R saga is proving to be somewhat worthy but again it's fairly easy yet the deaths are still amazing and they have check points causing you to normally go back to the last load or right before the thing that kicked your ***... Best game of the day (90's) would have to be Perfect Dark basically because it was golden eye with more options and freedom a little better graphics and a whole mess of things to do... It does suck though having no form of punishment for screwing things up it's almost as if you have a challenge to complete and you completely screw it up where normally you would probably die you just get a pat on the back and are told it's ok lets try this again we'll make it a little easier for you, so eventually after screwing up enough times the npc/challenge is so easy you could let a 5yr old complete it for you(can't really think of any games off the top of my head but I know they exist). There was this one online game I used to play like 3+ years ago that if you died you couldn't play for like 20 mins thus causing you to praise your life more and not be completely stupid/noobish, granted on consoles it would ridiculous to do but to have it at least mean something more than just "I died" click ok,respawn (with everything you died with), Keep going and repeat...
Doesn't anyone else think that games should be more demanding of the player making the character your playing as more worth your time, hell I've passed up allot of games after I found out that no matter how many times I screwed up and died I'd just be able to do it again sometimes even over my last few corpses letting me pick up my old ammo along with what I spawned with...
/rant...

[horseypie]

woahhhh i read it the first time

[Gnarmageddon]

woahhhh i read it the first time

i didn't

[christsimpson]

I read the third one

[Jamais_Vu]

Well, one game that I did not enjoy the death scenes in was Resident Evil 4. It is still my all time favorite game, but I would have loved to have seen some limbs flying off and heads rolling instead of blowing people up with the RPG and seeing a puff of blood appear and they vaporize.

One game that I really enjoyed the death scenes in was the Max Payne series. It was just so satisfying to go in slow motion with the pump action shotgun and blast someone down a flight of stairs. I remember trying to come up with different ways to kill people each time I came across a part when you can sneak up on them. The Punisher for the PS2 was also great due to the interrogations you could do to people, which left them in a bloody mess. There is nothing better than rising up out of a coffin at a funeral and annihilating everyone in sight with a big *** machine gun. One of my favorite parts of any game I've ever played.

[-Listy-]

i'd have to add the god of war games, especially the second one.

smashing that door into Theseus's face about 10 times is funnnnnnnn

[StooTwo]

One game that I really enjoyed the death scenes in was the Max Payne series. It was just so satisfying to go in slow motion with the pump action shotgun and blast someone down a flight of stairs. I remember trying to come up with different ways to kill people each time I came across a part when you can sneak up on them.


Yes Max Payne was alot of fun for killing. I had it for PC and I'd always mess around with different weapons and always hit ESC just as I'd shoot them, this paused the game and the camera would slowly circle the action. Tbh it was a bit sad but it looked cool as.

[Understanding In a Crash]

Counter-Strike 1.6 any AWP or Deagle headshot LOL.

[ThePatient]

I miss Counter-Strike so much... No one really plays the original one anymore do they? I can't get into Source.

Best video game death was the Marine in Modern Warfare. It took balls to do that, even if it is a videogame.

[Luc214]

What is actually different about source besides the visuals?

[Jawaharal]

I miss Counter-Strike so much... No one really plays the original one anymore do they? I can't get into Source.

Best video game death was the Marine in Modern Warfare. It took balls to do that, even if it is a videogame.

what Marine? are you talking about when you crawl out of the helicopter after the bomb?

[-Listy-]

i thought he meant the execution at the start..that wasn't a marine though right? ah they're both good.

[ThePatient]

Yeah, that one. The one where you crawl out of the chopper.

Well to be honest I've only played it a little bit. My computers can't run it. I've heard there's a lot of bugs. And really, I was so addicted to the original CS for like 8 years that I can't see myself playing something that calls itself CS that just isn't.

[Nosferatu]

Dead Space has the best death scenes, hands down.

[Led_Zep_Bonham]

Sniper decapitation through the front windshield & a gas tank shot to seal the deal, compliments of GTA III.

[Jonny]

Problem with player deaths in games is that there really is no penalty now. I'd want to make a game where if you die, you end up in some paralell place with its own story and levels (like a whole other game) so dying in the first one is permanent and only the most manly men can finish it.

[Iskandar]

Problem with player deaths in games is that there really is no penalty now.Has there ever been.

[Led_Zep_Bonham]

Mayans used to play games including human sacrifice.

[Jonny]

Has there ever been.

Running out of lives meant starting the game again. You had to be hardcore to get through some of those games.

[FakeReality]

What is actually different about source besides the visuals?
It's much less realistic and more like a generic quake/unreal type fps

[burtonbassist_101]

i love gears of war, mainly because how ****ing badass it is when you chainsaw someone or curb stomp them.

just makes you feel....... giddy.

[The Transporter]

Well, one game that I did not enjoy the death scenes in was Resident Evil 4. It is still my all time favorite game, but I would have loved to have seen some limbs flying off and heads rolling instead of blowing people up with the RPG and seeing a puff of blood appear and they vaporize.

One game that I really enjoyed the death scenes in was the Max Payne series. It was just so satisfying to go in slow motion with the pump action shotgun and blast someone down a flight of stairs. I remember trying to come up with different ways to kill people each time I came across a part when you can sneak up on them. The Punisher for the PS2 was also great due to the interrogations you could do to people, which left them in a bloody mess. There is nothing better than rising up out of a coffin at a funeral and annihilating everyone in sight with a big *** machine gun. One of my favorite parts of any game I've ever played.
impaling the dude on the rhino was my favorite death in punisher. what an awesome game

[The Transporter]

Problem with player deaths in games is that there really is no penalty now. I'd want to make a game where if you die, you end up in some paralell place with its own story and levels (like a whole other game) so dying in the first one is permanent and only the most manly men can finish it.
Heavy Rain on the ps3 is supposed to continue on even if important characters get killed