The closest thing to dying : Roleplaying Death in Persistent World MMORPGs

Abstract

While digital roleplaying games allow players to engage with a wide array of experiences, both reflecting real life or concocted from purely imaginative fantasy, the incorporation of final death mechanics brings a new element which affects not just the act of dying within a game but also the complete experience of gameplay. In this paper an autoethnography is used as a research method to document the particularities of final death in the Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition online multiplayer server of EfU, in which not only is a player’s character unplayable after death but also all social relationships said character had within the game must be abandoned even if the player wishes to reincorporate themselves once again into the game world.

What was found was that the looming possibility of final death shifts the gameplay experience to both heighten the risks due to the severity of the consequences of dying and also provides a unique shade over socialization within roleplay as relationships with familiar player characters can disappear completely in a second. Final death is therefore more than an interesting game mechanic, but a tool for unique roleplaying experiences surrounding the concept of death.