I played an online RPG a long time ago that had perma-death in it, but only in a certain area. It was NWN on AOL.
There was an area called the Triboar Arena and if you died in a PVP match there, you stayed dead. But this all worked only because it was easy to hit the level cap and the community was very active on the message boards. Also, the PVP/PVE combat was turn-based so you didn't have to worry about lag.
There, it was all about losing the name you were known by which for some, was a big deal. If you died, you couldn't use that name on the boards either. You had to start with a whole new name/character. But that was years ago, before the MMO hit mainstream so I'm not sure how it would work now.
Permadeath can be implemented for sure it just takes some creativity to get it worked in. you can go with Aging, limited lives, etc. you can also provide opportunities to earn a new life. make progression fast. might fit in well with a PVP focused skill based game. There's ways to work in the concept
or you can go lighter like OP recommends or mix in his idea with true PD. Like, if u can find a priest within X amount of time you get rezzed
or do something like PRey did like whereas u lose life and end up in another realm. have chance to come back. maybe friends can wish u back like in dragonball Z
theres many, many ideas you'll see them on NWN 1 & NWN 2 servers
You know war movies and how when someone shoot the other guy and he does that dying animation, well, in real war most of the people that died, died from injuries and infections, not from geting hit = dead. So, for a permadeath game with some RVR or whatever kinda PVP gameplay there need be so that if you realy wanna kill kill someone you need to take your time and risk your own life by taking so much time on one person, so this way there could be prisoners of war ( yaaay, a prison MMO too ) or healers could patch up the fallen and those that actualy die, well someone has to die or what's the point of PD, but not so that every time your "hp" or whatever reaches zero you are bye bye. that way it realy would be hard to have some meaningfull PVP.
I don't think perma death would end up being as popular as some of its proponents think. I think a lot of people would try it at first, and then switch back to 'normal' once their third level 22 mage was slain by a lucky critical strike (or failed save, or whatever).
Man! You think people get pissed at the healer NOW. I can only imagine if a healer was blamed for some tanks death because the heal missed by a milisecond.
I DO propose a solution. - A PAINFUL death server where you cannot play that character for an hour after a death. That would bite - but just enough to make people play an alt for a while.
Of course, I have alt-itis anyway. So maybe it's just acceptable to me.
Hmmmm...
_____________________________ "Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit"
First of all, WoW is fun. It's a matter of perspective.
Secondly, I don't care how fun the game is. Starting over from scratch and doing the same thing you did a million times before would get boring.
You can say the same for permadeath . Some people like it, some (ok, a lot ) don't. From my limited experience in MMO's (Coh/Cov and DDO) the endgame is doing the same thing you did a million times over and over again. Some prefer the high end game and some like the getting there.
I enjoy permadeath play but I don't see a PD MMO working anytime soon. I do think that a PD server on most MMO's would attract enough people to justify running it though.
No, no, no, I wasn't trying to say perma death would be a bad idea. I'm all for it if they do it right. I was just telling him how nothing is fun if you have to do it a million times.
Well i think that we have enough Perma death in real life as we know it let alone have to implement it into something that was meant to Entertain us, i honestly dont want to have to spend a monthly sub on something to then lvl my char to a decent level ,make a simple mistake, die, then have to reroll again, No thanks not for me not only has it wasted my time but it has now just wasted all that money i have spent to get there in the first place. Games are meant to be entertaining and fun not something that should take up your life and make your life frustrating which in my honest opinion this is what perma death will do. I'd like to see how big it would get it is an interesting thing to add but i just dont think it will stick to well.
If i were to play Perma-Death this is how it should work.
If you die you can not respawn at your local city or respawn spot you either get someone to res you or you have to wait the time period for you to be taken to the starting medical area. (i.e this is the scenario if you wait, You have been dead for some time now (30 min?) and no 1 rezz you some passing by caravan finds your body on the side of the road and escorts you back to the starting area for medical treatment it is here that your character can be revived with big death penalties i.e exp loss,hp drain e.t.c then you will need to travel all the way back to where you were so the further you get in game the harder and dearer it will be to progress i.e travel cost e.t.c.
But then again that is not perma death so i will stick with the unreal life that i can live in game and stick to the real life living out of game.
Comments
I played an online RPG a long time ago that had perma-death in it, but only in a certain area. It was NWN on AOL.
There was an area called the Triboar Arena and if you died in a PVP match there, you stayed dead. But this all worked only because it was easy to hit the level cap and the community was very active on the message boards. Also, the PVP/PVE combat was turn-based so you didn't have to worry about lag.
There, it was all about losing the name you were known by which for some, was a big deal. If you died, you couldn't use that name on the boards either. You had to start with a whole new name/character. But that was years ago, before the MMO hit mainstream so I'm not sure how it would work now.
Permadeath can be implemented for sure it just takes some creativity to get it worked in. you can go with Aging, limited lives, etc. you can also provide opportunities to earn a new life. make progression fast. might fit in well with a PVP focused skill based game. There's ways to work in the concept
or you can go lighter like OP recommends or mix in his idea with true PD. Like, if u can find a priest within X amount of time you get rezzed
or do something like PRey did like whereas u lose life and end up in another realm. have chance to come back. maybe friends can wish u back like in dragonball Z
theres many, many ideas you'll see them on NWN 1 & NWN 2 servers
You know war movies and how when someone shoot the other guy and he does that dying animation, well, in real war most of the people that died, died from injuries and infections, not from geting hit = dead. So, for a permadeath game with some RVR or whatever kinda PVP gameplay there need be so that if you realy wanna kill kill someone you need to take your time and risk your own life by taking so much time on one person, so this way there could be prisoners of war ( yaaay, a prison MMO too ) or healers could patch up the fallen and those that actualy die, well someone has to die or what's the point of PD, but not so that every time your "hp" or whatever reaches zero you are bye bye. that way it realy would be hard to have some meaningfull PVP.
I don't think perma death would end up being as popular as some of its proponents think. I think a lot of people would try it at first, and then switch back to 'normal' once their third level 22 mage was slain by a lucky critical strike (or failed save, or whatever).
Man! You think people get pissed at the healer NOW. I can only imagine if a healer was blamed for some tanks death because the heal missed by a milisecond.
I DO propose a solution. - A PAINFUL death server where you cannot play that character for an hour after a death. That would bite - but just enough to make people play an alt for a while.
Of course, I have alt-itis anyway. So maybe it's just acceptable to me.
Hmmmm...
_____________________________
"Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit"
You can say the same for permadeath
. Some people like it, some (ok, a lot 
) don't. From my limited experience in MMO's (Coh/Cov and DDO) the endgame is doing the same thing you did a million times over and over again. Some prefer the high end game and some like the getting there.
I enjoy permadeath play but I don't see a PD MMO working anytime soon. I do think that a PD server on most MMO's would attract enough people to justify running it though.
No, no, no, I wasn't trying to say perma death would be a bad idea. I'm all for it if they do it right. I was just telling him how nothing is fun if you have to do it a million times.
Well i think that we have enough Perma death in real life as we know it let alone have to implement it into something that was meant to Entertain us, i honestly dont want to have to spend a monthly sub on something to then lvl my char to a decent level ,make a simple mistake, die, then have to reroll again, No thanks not for me not only has it wasted my time but it has now just wasted all that money i have spent to get there in the first place. Games are meant to be entertaining and fun not something that should take up your life and make your life frustrating which in my honest opinion this is what perma death will do. I'd like to see how big it would get it is an interesting thing to add but i just dont think it will stick to well.
If i were to play Perma-Death this is how it should work.
If you die you can not respawn at your local city or respawn spot you either get someone to res you or you have to wait the time period for you to be taken to the starting medical area. (i.e this is the scenario if you wait, You have been dead for some time now (30 min?) and no 1 rezz you some passing by caravan finds your body on the side of the road and escorts you back to the starting area for medical treatment it is here that your character can be revived with big death penalties i.e exp loss,hp drain e.t.c then you will need to travel all the way back to where you were so the further you get in game the harder and dearer it will be to progress i.e travel cost e.t.c.
But then again that is not perma death so i will stick with the unreal life that i can live in game and stick to the real life living out of game.