But it is true that Diablo II can't really be considered a MMORPG. Quote:You can have perma-death in the online version of Diablo II, it is called 'hardcore mode'. Hopefully this will spur some developers into not discrediting the permadeath concept into the next generation of gaming. And then of course, there also needs to be injuries that if recieved, will simply kill you without a chance of survival (decapitation, evisceration, disentegration). These techniques would work equally good for higher level characters as well simply make it scale against the character's level (a level 20 character needs a level 20+ healer to have a % chance of reviving him). Shelter them with lifeguard characters (newbie adoption or NPCs), give them items that make them automagically gain back a certain amount of health to help them get away from a situation, advance medical sciences so that a person may be revived within a certain amount of time of death (and give exp to the medic class for doing it ). In every situation, there is a way to deal with younger, lower level characters. But, this should not discourage a developer. One last point: this isn't a very popular idea, especially when it comes to people just getting into a game new players are often discouraged by dying often, and permadeath would amplify that discouragement at lower levels.
The game would actively evolve a history that is created soley by the players of the game, and isn't bound to the imagination of a programmer. Family wealth could be pooled for the creation of towns, cities, armies, nations.
Characters would be created under the families to recieve goods from the older, passing family members. Many people would play and defend their characters with such gusto as to try for legendary status on their servers, and thus, bring honor to their family. In my opinion, permadeath actually would lend the game replayability that is lacking in a lot of MMOs. These things simply don't happen in MMOs. Sometimes the body is burned, sometimes the body is buried. Many times earthly belongings are burned to indicate the passage into an afterlife. In real life, across multiple cultures, when a person dies, some of their belongings are packed up, and their wealth is redistributed amongst their families. Permadeath gives a strong, honorable out for a level 60 character. And what happens to your old character? It just sits around, sometimes wasting slots you could be using on that server, sometimes just collecting dust. At that point you either start a new character, or drop the game. There just gets to a point where there is simply nothing left to do, everything's old hat, and you get bored with the game.
Most games just simply drag on and on, and once you've hit that magical level 60, you're done. #2) What to do with high level characters. This is a level of involvement that I've felt is missing in every game I've ever played, including Diablo which had permadeath. A game could easily have an internal legend system characters who attain that mystical high-level in life that everyone's hunting him, and his name alone can buy followers. When he dies and respawns with half of his equipment that he magically dropped where he died, there is no finality, and no reason to remember that character. Why can't a player simply become so reveered that he is held as a legend? Because he never permanantly dies. MMOs usually have pre-generated legends people who have significant historical value because some game designer sat down and said "hey, this character should have historical value". While it might be player deturing, it is a very natural thing for a character to eventually die and just be dead. It's been a big wonder of mine for a while now on why more MMOs don't have permadeath.