It would be so interesting to study the behaviors of...

[Abemore]

It would be so interesting to study the interaction and behaviors of people in an environment where:

• Permanent Death is the only kind of death
• and people are given a murderous reputation for killing someone, thus they would be hunted down and killed themselves.

even if you were killed by mobs, you\'d be dead forever, and would have to be reincarnated (start over).
Also, PvP attacks would be nonlethal by default, so you can kick the crap out of each other (silence the foul mouths) without worrying about killing... but the truly disturbed can always opt for a lethal attack if they so choose.  They can then take all the belongings of the person they killed.

It\'s an insanely risky system, and I doubt I\'ll ever see it, but I do think it would be interesting to see how it would turn out.  
Does anyone agree?


NOTE: I am not proposing this for Planeshift.  This is just a general discussion.

[Drilixer]

seems like too many people would \'accidentally\' kill their target - but that does depend on the combat system

[Hayden]

Abemore, that sounds like an incredibly interesting idea.  A bounty system would be a nice touch too.  I don\'t know about Permanent death, I\'d like some form of reincarnation (even if they knock you down a bunch of levels and you loose alkot of skills), maybe get to reincarnate once, and the second time you get killed it\'s all over.

[Abemore]

The fact that everyone has only one life is what would make it so interesting.
This would mean that there would potentially be very few super powerful players.  People would travel in groups for safety.  Some may even choose a safer way of life, such as crafting or something similar.

But it might also be interesting to see if people quit the game because they died.  Although, because you get to start over, you get a chance to live your life in a different way.  A luxury not heard of in reality.

Also, you should be forced to use a different name when you start over, and the bodies of deceased players should remain on the ground until they decompose or are devoured by the wildlife.

[tygerwilde]

I agree on everything but the name thing, a lot of internet users become accustomed to their moniker, as I am. I would love to play a good game that had at least moderated perma death. It would add a bit of flavor to the game, sure it would be frustrating if the monsters weren\'t balanced right. I mean, getting perma killed every twenty minutes would drive me nuts. but say, if you had to be above a certain level to have perma death, or in the game more than an hour or so. Or even if there were enough \"bunny\" monsters you could fight, it would be really interesting...

[Abemore]

yeah, maybe the name thing wasn\'t a good idea... in that case, the name should be removed from all dead bodies.  That way, it wouldn\'t be terribly obvious that you are the same player thats laying there dead next to you.

I think death would be less common if animals and creatures in the game acted as they would in real life.  For example, a wolf would probably not run up to you and stop, then bite at your knee\'s while you bash it with your weapon.  Instead, realistically, if a wolf was adamant on attacking you (for food or self-defense), he would probably start acting aggressive, then you two would begin to circle each other with your weapons drawn (sword/teeth).  Then the wolf would lunge at you, and you would swing your blade, taking some damage from the claws, but dropping him in mid-air.  

If your timing had been off you would have found yourself wrestling to stab the beast or throw him off of you, and you\'d have taken much more damage.

Had you been a mage, you could have tossed a fireball at him, killing him or singeing him to the point where he runs off.

or maybe not... i dont know

[zaphar]

I find this idea quite intriguing. The point of the game becomes survival instead of questing fighting or even trade skills. In many ways you might find people doing whatever extends their life the longest. You could have ways of distinguishing the oldest characters and feature the current average life span in the game.

Then of course you have the whole rogue dynamic. One jealous \"aged one\" hires someone to assasinate his rival thus allowing him to claim the title of eldest in the land. The older you get the more important it is to hire guards for protection and private eyes who attempt to find out who was behind this latest assassination attempt. You would have to be incredibly greedy or incredibly brave to attempt an assasination as you risk your character in so doing. And older more powerful characters would probably not attempt the assassinations as they risk their own characters age in the process. They would instead pay others to do so. The sneak attack would be the favoured method perhaps by poison arrow or food. You could hire NPC Food tasters if the money was enough.

The concept bears more thinking about that is certain.

[Abemore]

...you\'re sick, man.

You\'re trying to make this about all the different ways players can kill each other, and thats not what this is supposed to be about.  We don\'t need more reasons or ways to kill each other.  Age should not be a factor; who care\'s who\'s played the game (or lived) the longest?  

Maybe the very first person to play the game decided to be a tailor.  She stayed away from danger and just enjoyed the community as a tailor.  Would you want to kill her because she\'s older than you?

All that matters on any MMO game is the power or accomplishments of your character.  If you want a more powerful character, you should go face greater danger.  Player killing is available for those who want to do it the old fashioned way, adding realism, fear, and consequences.

I expected this to show that people would rather not kill each other when the risks are realistically high.  But you seem to think people would enjoy permanently killing each other regardless of the risks.  That in mind, its possible the strongest player could kill everyone weaker than him, raising a huge bounty on his head that no one could collect.  Then this player would be God of the game \'til someone could rise up to kill him and maybe take his place.

I wonder which path this hypothetical community would choose?  I wonder if the griefers would run wild.  Maybe the perma-death of your own character isn\'t a penalty everyone will fear.  Perhaps the desire to kill one another is too great... perhaps mankind is doomed...

[zaphar]

I must admit my post was somewhat in jest

However it is a perfectly plausible outcome of the game. Not everyone would go on this way but some would.

I too wonder which scenario would win out.