Did I seriously just die?

Death in video games is something that stirs emotion in gamers in many different ways. Different games have varying penalties for the death of the user’s character. When one dies in most console action/adventure games, the user would simply have to start at their last save point, or at the beginning of the level they died on. However, MMORPGs, such as World of Warcraft, give players a different penalty for death. In her article, Lisbeth Klastrup connects death in WOW to its overall unique virtual world experience. She explains that players do not completely become terminated when they die; instead, they are resurrected shortly after death. This does not mean a player has no negative effect because of their death. Usually, the player might lose experience or money, and have to work to get it back. The reasoning for this, Klastrup argues, is to add challenge to the game to encourage the gamer to work harder with their character.

I have never played WOW, or most other MMORPGs, but for a while I did get into Guild Wars. Guild Wars seems like the same concept as WOW, except you don’t have to pay an online subscription fee, hence the reason why I played this over many other MMORPGs. Anyway, whenever I died in GW, I would temporarily lose a percentage of my overall health and magic. The only way to get it back would be to defeat a boss, or to visit a major town. This added a certain challenge to the gameplay and it made me really dislike dying, especially if I was far away from a town. Overall, Klastrup argues that death is a feature of video games that engages users. It doesn’t always have to be a negative thing either, but for most gamers, it usually is.