penalty posts

The Daily Grind: To die, to sleep no more...

by Eliot Lefebvre Feb 13th 2010 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, The Daily Grind

There's one way in which MMOs universally mirror life -- in the words of William Shatner, you are going to die. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but sooner or later your character is going to expire. Unwanted aggro, environmental damage, unmatched PvP, misuse of skills, healer AFK... there are a lot of ways you can bite the dust time and again.

Of course, death in real life is a lot more permanent than that of an MMO -- but dying still carries consequences, ranging from losing your hard-won equipment to a slightly longer delay before your next level. On the one hand, harsher penalties make cheating death that much more satisfying, and they help encourage teamwork and community in hopes of avoiding that fate. On the other hand, you are going to get hit by those harsh penalties sooner or later, and it makes experimentation much less feasible when you're constantly on guard for death.

Where do you prefer a game's death penalty? Do you want to cautiously avoid falling, or would you rather get hit with a slap on the wrist so you can get back in the game quickly?

Tags: death, death-penalty, dying, equipment-damage, equipment-loss, experience-loss, opinion, penalty, tdg, the-daily-grind

Drugs aren't bad in EVE, m'kay?

by James Egan Sep 2nd 2008 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Guides, Crafting

One of the interesting features of EVE Online is that it has a drug trade in which players are actively engaged. Rather than merely being an illegal commodity, drugs -- called boosters -- enhance the performance of EVE's pilots, albeit with some potential side effects.

To understand boosters though, we'll need to look into the game's setting a bit first. The thing to remember is that as a player, you're a capsuleer. You're not standing on the bridge of your ship barking orders at subordinates. Rather, you're floating inside a metallic capsule deep within your ship. Your mind is interfaced with the ship you pilot via neural implants, thus your vessel is an extension of your body and its senses; you regulate the ship's activities merely by thinking about them. Not all people in EVE's setting of New Eden have the raw potential to become a capsuleer, making your character one of the elite. However, when faced with others of your caliber in combat, every possible edge you can gain over rival capsuleers helps. That's where boosters come in... they're your edge. Boosters augment aspects of your mental processes and thus provide certain bonuses when piloting your ship.

Tags: bonus, bonuses, boost, boosters, capsule, capsuleer, ccp, ccp-games, combat-boosters, crafting, crime, crimes, criminals, drugs, edge, eve, eve-online, eve-tribune, game-mechanics, illegal, kirith-kodachi, manufacturing, penalties, penalty, sci-fi, side-effects, sins

The death penalty and you

by Seraphina Brennan May 31st 2008 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Game mechanics, Opinion

No no no, we're not talking about that death penalty. We're talking about the MMO death penalties that seem to cause people to outright quit games. It's a tedious line between what's a good death penalty and what's a bad one; and no one seems to have found the perfect fit just yet.

Snipehunter at Dopass.com has the opinion that Age of Conan's tombstone debuff death penalty is too punishing. His argument is that applying a debuff to a player just means that their chances of successfully removing the tombstone from where they died (and subsequently removing the debuff) are now worse. If they couldn't kill the monster the first time round, how can they kill it with the debuff in place?

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, death-penalty, dopass.com, funcom, game-design, game-mechanics, penalty, snipehunter