Why Permadeath Matters.

Why Permadeath Matters. I have recently come to realize that the most foundational system of classic game design is Permadeath. I believe Permadeath is the dividing line between if a game feels classic and arcade influenced, or if the game feels modern and progression focused. And this may sound a bit surprising considering that Permadeath these days seems to be mostly associated with genres like strategy games, tactical RPGs (Like Fire Emblem), and even community challenges like Pokemon Nuzlocke. However, that's because in these types of genres permadeath is a more unique design element, whereas with classic arcade games permadeath is a universal constant. Demon Souls (of the Dark Souls Series) initially had permadeath planned in a form called "True Death," fun fact. I believe this is why I do have a fair amount of crossover with these kind of strategy game players, since they do need to think about their gameplay more holistically than the average gamer.

Permadeath is not a gameplay mechanic. It's not some arbitrary punishment system either. It is the core system of how a game is designed and balanced. I explain the difference in structure in the video, but it's very important to understand that its presence creates a holistic dynamic to the gameplay, where the player needs much more detailed observation of gameplay mechanics and routing, as well as the dimension of consistency becomes what separates strong players from the in-human seeming super players. In a world of free saves and checkpoints though, playing for short-form peak performance with unlimited retries flattens out this important dimension of player skill. A fun fact that I demonstrate in the vid is that early on, a lot of console games, like Super Mario Bros 1 and Mega Man 1, have true permadeath, but then as the series continues into later installments like Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World, the permadeath impact gets significantly reduced (though is technically still there).

Playing under the conditions of permadeath is also a state of mind as much as it is specific game knowledge. It is a different way to view and evaluate games vs the content progression focused that most modern gaming critics advocate for. There is a lot of talk around why giving players constant saves and progression protection is important and helps expand the wider gaming audience (which is true in a short-term sense), but I don't think there is much discussion around the loss of overall gameplay dynamics that disappear when a game is aggressively cut into self-contained chunks.

Overall, I didn't make this video to try to be snooty about modern progression based gameplay, though I am certainly critical of it, but rather because I don't think mainstream players and certainly critics don't appreciate the deeper dynamics that using permadeath as a basis of game design brings. Also, I think it's interesting that permadeath is not an inherent part of speedrunning meta, necessarily, but depending on the game design, it does tend to become a natural style of play and routes get optimized and the extra time of of resets and saves becomes a run breaker.

Awesome thumbnail created by @boghogSTG
Cool intro animation: @verygoodfreelancer

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00:00 Permadeath Determines Your Relationship with Your Gameplay
04:16 Playing For Progression Vs. Playing For Performance
07:36 Permadeath Creates Holistic Game Balance
11:20 Story of My Friend Terrified I Might Save Over His Progress
14:13 The More Valuable the Save File, The More Progression Focused the Game Design
18:12 The History of Saving, Was Once Just a Convenience Feature
21:32 The Consequences of Removing Permadeath as a True Failure State
25:30 Permadeath Redefines Replay Value and Fairness
27:53 Why Save States Break Progression Based Play
30:52 Permadeath the Games You Love (Challenge Runs, Pokemon Nuzlocke and Fire Emblem Iron Man)
33:26 The Future of Permadeath, Legacy Skill Players WANT MORE
35:21 We Never Appreciated the Beauty of Life Systems and Game Overs
37:34 Final Thoughts -- The Value of Permadeath is Deep and Needs to Be Taken Seriously Again.

#permadeath, #eldenringgameplay, #pokemonnuzlocke