Finite Characters

Last week I talked about games that end, and this week I'll follow it up with a little preachin' about characters that end. Not the kind that end because the player got tired of the game or forgot to pay his bill, but the kind that end because it's time.

So far, there are no mainstream games that limit the lifespan of your character. As long as you keep your subscription up, your ranger/wizard/orc will be there, waiting for you. Which, honestly, is one of the factors that completely screws games up.

One of the interesting things about the heroes of books is their mortality. If they can't die, if there's nothing that will put them in the ground for keeps, then their accomplishments just don't mean as much. It's the difference between the old Superman and Batman - no one really cares when Superman bounces a dozen bullets off his chest and then clonks the bad guys after they've shot their wads. But there's something about Batman, armed only with his wits and gadgets, and when he takes down a cluster of evil henchmen, it just feels like more of a victory.

The same thing can be said for the current crop of online games. Everyone is, to a greater or lesser degree, immune to the ravages of time and repeated serious injury. If you want to accomplish something, it's not really a matter of skill, but more a matter of luck and time. Put in your time, and you can accomplish just about anything, regardless of your skills as a gamer.

I've touched on this topic before, but today I'm going to offer up a solution that is fairly severe. I want characters to have a finite lifespan, an allotted period of time in which to accomplish whatever it is they think they can do. Depending on the nature of the game, this could be anywhere from a few months to a few years, the important thing is to put a cap of some sort on the longevity of the characters.

The obvious consequence of this is the gradual replacement of those characters in power. As characters grow into positions of power, they know that soon enough, their skills will begin to deteriorate and the call of the grave will become irresistible.

And then there's the issue of achievement. Given a relatively limited amount of time to accomplish the various feats within the game, players will have to direct their characters more carefully, and will have less room for error. In some ways, this will enhance the need for player skill over pure character skill, and will make those achievements mean more.

It also adds a sense of the passage of time to the game. Even if the landscape of the game rarely changes, the simple fact that the heroes of the land age, and eventually die, adds a certain dynamic element to the game. The question is: Will the players buy it?

Given that most players will, over time, become bored with a game that offers little real challenge, it seems that adding a certain time pressure won't really hurt a game in the long run. An important element to this is that there must be some continuity between characters run by the same player, so that their accomplishments don't simply fade away with their character. Making them all members of the same family, or perhaps members of a close-knit guild of adventurers, is a possible solution. Perhaps there are heroic souls that travel from body to body in an attempt to accomplish some task, so that the players actually control a series of bodies that must be built up and trained by an immortal soul. By allowing players to keep their reputation and some of their accumulated booty, the impact of losing a character is greatly lessened.

Of course, since no game has tried this yet, it's possible that I'm just plain wrong. So let's hear why.