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Nothing beats the death system in (early) Ultima Online. Not only could you lose everything you had on you. If you were unlucky to get killed while having your

by Kiro 8y ago

Nothing beats the death system in (early) Ultima Online. Not only could you lose everything you had on you. If you were unlucky to get killed while having your house key in your inventory a looter could rob you clean. Dying was a serious business and being a robber/PK/looter was super lucrative. Going outside the city was the biggest adrenaline rush ever.

scaryclam 8y ago
I really wish more games would use this sort of mechanic. I understand that many players don't want to have to worry about losing their stuff, or being hassled by other players griefing them, but I love the feeling of actually going on an adventure when you leave a safe area. Danger is a part of that, and let's face it, other humans creating some of that danger is a lot better than an AI.
- marcodave 8y ago
  Minecraft is similar to that, when you die you lose everything, but you can regain your items back in the span of 5 minutes. You respawn in the last place you slept, and the adrenaline rush is to try to get back there on the death place as fast as possible without getting killed again. It gets even "funnier" when the respawn point is reset to the world initial spawn. 90% of times, that effectively means your loot is gone forever
- xsace 8y ago
  The problem is when you have 0 chance of making it because other players outgear/outnumber you.
  - chongli 8y ago
    That's when you need to make friends. It's a multiplayer game, after all. Some of the most enjoyable moments I've ever had in a video game happened like that in UO. There were relentless groups of PKs killing our miners. So what did we do? We grouped up together and went out in force.
- Kiro 8y ago
  I agree. The problem is, like you say, that many players don't want this which means the only people playing newer games with this are hardcore themselves. There are no "victims" anymore, while in the days of Ultima Online you had no alternatives. So even people who didn't like the mechanic _at all_ were forced to interact with it. This created a unique dynamic I don't think we will ever see again. Nowadays they just pick another game.
mrisoli 8y ago
Similar to Tibia, which is one of the death systems I hated the most, but becomes a major driving force within the game. If you died, you'd lose 10% of your experience points(which amounts to multiple levels the higher you are), your inventory and there was a chance you could lose a piece of equipment. It makes you work on your survival skills both in PvE and PvP, this in turn makes PvP combat and PK an extra challenge which awarded skill, awareness and creativity. Even before Twitch or even YouTube were hits there was already a thriving community recording videos of their PvP gameplay. Premium players could use in-game currency to buy bonuses to reduce the effects of death(plus an item that would prevent you from losing any inventory), which made upgrading to a Premium account a must for anyone who plays enough of the game. And in the end it shapes the community and the ecosystem, people would separate in groups and wage wars for dominance, these were wars of attrition as getting big kills means creating major setbacks until one group has to surrender. In hindsight, it's amazing how some simple mechanics enabled people to emulate real life systems.
omnibrain 8y ago
That's similar to EVE Online.
aplc0r 8y ago
I never played Ultima Online, but I remember many stressful corpse runs in EverQuest. My favorite part was that only necromancers could use the locate corpse spell. This made for some interesting stories of befriending or hiring a necro, and occasional betrayal.

by Kiro 8y ago

scaryclam 8y ago

I really wish more games would use this sort of mechanic. I understand that many players don't want to have to worry about losing their stuff, or being hassled by other players griefing them, but I love the feeling of actually going on an adventure when you leave a safe area. Danger is a part of that, and let's face it, other humans creating some of that danger is a lot better than an AI.

marcodave 8y ago
Minecraft is similar to that, when you die you lose everything, but you can regain your items back in the span of 5 minutes. You respawn in the last place you slept, and the adrenaline rush is to try to get back there on the death place as fast as possible without getting killed again. It gets even "funnier" when the respawn point is reset to the world initial spawn. 90% of times, that effectively means your loot is gone forever
xsace 8y ago
The problem is when you have 0 chance of making it because other players outgear/outnumber you.
- chongli 8y ago
  That's when you need to make friends. It's a multiplayer game, after all. Some of the most enjoyable moments I've ever had in a video game happened like that in UO. There were relentless groups of PKs killing our miners. So what did we do? We grouped up together and went out in force.
Kiro 8y ago
I agree. The problem is, like you say, that many players don't want this which means the only people playing newer games with this are hardcore themselves. There are no "victims" anymore, while in the days of Ultima Online you had no alternatives. So even people who didn't like the mechanic _at all_ were forced to interact with it. This created a unique dynamic I don't think we will ever see again. Nowadays they just pick another game.

mrisoli 8y ago

Similar to Tibia, which is one of the death systems I hated the most, but becomes a major driving force within the game. If you died, you'd lose 10% of your experience points(which amounts to multiple levels the higher you are), your inventory and there was a chance you could lose a piece of equipment. It makes you work on your survival skills both in PvE and PvP, this in turn makes PvP combat and PK an extra challenge which awarded skill, awareness and creativity. Even before Twitch or even YouTube were hits there was already a thriving community recording videos of their PvP gameplay. Premium players could use in-game currency to buy bonuses to reduce the effects of death(plus an item that would prevent you from losing any inventory), which made upgrading to a Premium account a must for anyone who plays enough of the game. And in the end it shapes the community and the ecosystem, people would separate in groups and wage wars for dominance, these were wars of attrition as getting big kills means creating major setbacks until one group has to surrender. In hindsight, it's amazing how some simple mechanics enabled people to emulate real life systems.

omnibrain 8y ago

That's similar to EVE Online.

aplc0r 8y ago

I never played Ultima Online, but I remember many stressful corpse runs in EverQuest. My favorite part was that only necromancers could use the locate corpse spell. This made for some interesting stories of befriending or hiring a necro, and occasional betrayal.