Player death and the suspension of disbelief

[Albin Bernhardsson]

The most common problem that breaks my immersion in games is that I'm not involved. I'm a spectator, a viewer, but I do not have any control. The game guides me and when I press a wrong button I am punished. Ultimately, I have no control.

Although this example is perhaps not the best (and more something out of an action movie) but assume the following scenario:
- The player's daughter has been kidnapped and her life is at danger. The evil, evil villain is going to kill her unless the player saves her quick enough.

In a game:
I would fail. And the villain kills her. Game Over. The game restarts. Nothing changes and nothing matters. I just have to press the correct button sequences to make the scenario unfold. I have no control whatsoever.

In reality:
I would perhaps fail. My daugther is killed. Life moves on.

In my opinion games would be much more interesting if what I did, my faults and errors, actually meant something. I do not deem failure in itself as such a huge problem in games. The problem is that failure means nothing. It is not an outcome, it is a punishment.

It would be more interesting if the daughter was killed, and I had to move on and try to overcome this staggering loss. But the designer doesn't want that to happen, so I get a Game Over screen.

What would be even more interesting would be if this would be applied to more interesting scenarios than these blunt action sequences that games seem to be all about.

[Dagda]

I don't think we're even talking about death.

I think we're talking about 'groundhog day' loss conditions where the player goes back and tries again until they "get it right"- creating an experience where the outcome was fated all along.

The best exception I can name is Mount and Blade. That game doesn't even let you reload, unless you wuss out and enable that option at the start of a character's game. You spend hours building up your army (for whatever purpose you might intend, from bandit raids to mercenary work to leading a revolution that'll restore a rightful leader to the throne of a nation), losing good men every time a battle goes poorly for you. Mess up too badly and your force could be crushed- you'll likely be taken captive and hauled about for weeks until you escape or someone decides to pay your ransom. You'll find yourself starting over from scratch, albeit with some better skills than the last time and a handful old friends who'll quickly rejoin you if you meet again.

It can make the game absolutely riveting at times.