What Would A Video Game Be Like Without Life and Death Scenario

[oldgamerz]

If a video game didn't include some kind of  life and death would you still be as interested in that video game

I am not a preacher talking about the violence of video games but I am curious if life and death is the only thing that would make a video game interesting to us.

Are There In fact some video games that are not sports that do not include the life and death scenario? because I'm curious (non picky) if some developers ever thought of  anything else beside the life and death event in almost all video games to date

 it seems standard in all non sports video games anything from shoot em ups to RPG's to even some fighting games although some fighting games say KO.

In fact, what is your take on this let say instead of death in a video game something you may think is funny happens to your character if you fail other then

Oops damn I died, oops damn I keep on dying.

[indenton]

Out of my own collection, I found non-sports games that do not feature any kind of death:
Animal Crossing, Ape Escape, ARMS, Billy Hatcher, Bust-a-Move, DDR, King of Fighters, every single Mario Kart, Luigi's Mansion, Professor Layton, Puyo Puyo, Rhythm Paradise, Rumble Roses, Samba de Amigo, Super Smash Bros., Tetris, Warioware. 

These games exist, they always have, they just may not be as popular as CoD

I also found a couple of games that would practically be ruined without the concept of life and death in place:
Fire Emblem, Pikmin, Trauma Center (The Sims? maybe??). 

Meanwhile Crash Bandicoot can 'Die', he has a couple 'Death' animations which do not involve a death.   

Even Cel Damage makes a joke that they're all cartoon characters, so they never get injured. 

[kamikazekeeg]

There's actually a ton of games that don't have like threats, dangers, death, etc, whatever you want to call it.  They tend to skew more like puzzle games, visual novels, walking sims, etc...

[oldgamerz]

thank you for clearing that up I hope none got offended. I am one of the people that always wondered about this question. 

[dharmajones93]

I think I can add a twist to this. There are at least two other tropes similar to this, but relevant:

First might be high stakes scenarios. Think of the first Pikmin game. There is a day night cycle; about twenty minutes or so if I remember correctly. If you didn't complete an objective or make headway during that time period, you lost a day to complete the game. There are a set number of days (30?, I'm having trouble remembering), so if you don't make headway you can play yourself into a no-win scenario and you have to restart. For me this is incredibly anxiety inducing. The system was removed in later Pikmin games. Even though it's anxiety inducing, I still feel like it was the part of the game that got me the most invested. Permideath scenarios in games like Fire Emblem (series) are the same. While in newer versions the "death" or no-win scenario was removed because of the community response, I regret this decision and praise games that let you chose permideath or higher stakes, a' la Hardcore mode in something like Diablo II. So in this sense, "death" is more figurative, but still a point of contention. Death, however figurative is the compelling motive in the game, without it it fails to deliver.

The second trope is "killing/death". I've read several op-eds and interviews with developers who feel that "death", particularly shooting, as a game mechanic are overused to the point that developers are relying on it as a mechanic, rather than innovating and pushing the craft to new levels. Like, death/killing in games are creative suicide. While even the best shooters and "killing/death" games are good in their own right, they fail to advance gaming in any substantial ways.

These are just opinions of course (I've not described them in sufficient enough detail to do them justice), and not necessarily my own, though I think they have merits worth considering. Not exactly what the OP is referencing, but sorta, I guess?

[oldgamerz]

@dharmajones93's post as well as everyone else who posted has a good point. I will admit I didn't know off hand a video game that didn't have some kind of life and death scenario. as far as other scenarios I would think that not being able to win in a game due to a clock feature and pertinently still  not being able to win the game would be a little harsh.

We do need some challenge in video games or else they would bore everyone or at least most people.


One thought I had for a boss fight. Would be when he or she is defeated he or she would have something funny happening like maybe a giant tornado picking up the boss and taken off screen kicking and screaming and possibly talking up a storm while your character just shakes their head and walks off into the sunset all the while the boss is talking garbage in the background.

or perhaps if you lost the boss fight instead of dying your character would get  a prank done on you by the boss character in some kind of short cut scene. But probably something more interesting then what I just said.

 since life and death has been in just about every single game since the Atari 2600 console in 1978 or in old primitive computer systems that came before the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972

 in fact if I lived forever I would still play some my games of video games with the life and death scenario because like most people I do find it an interesting concept for video games but maybe just maybe something different?

[hoshichiri]

It's not terribly uncommon for games not to feature a life-or-death scenario.

Every dating sim has 'ends up alone' as your worst-case scenario. In Katamari Damacy, failing a stage means getting a serious scolding from the King of All Cosmos (which, to be fair, looks a lot like a life or death scenario!) I feel like a lot more games could move away from the 'death as failstate' method, but it's become something of a trope, a quick & easy way to communicate you've messed up to the player. Kind of like having red barrels explode.

I do agree though, it would be interesting to see a game set up with the 'death as failstate' trappings, only to have that death comically interrupted every time.