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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8859545" data-attributes="member: 6790260">And there shouldn't be. If you were forced to care, it would be an onerous burden, a yoke placed upon you, fostering resentment and rebellion. Forcing people to care is the second most virulent poison for any game. The most virulent, of course, is crushing genuine, non-abusive, non-exploitative player enthusiasm. The former transforms apathy into hate. The latter transforms love into apathy.....no, there isn't. Not even slightly. I want to care very deeply, and I only want to play with others who want to care at least to some extent. I am absolutely bored to tears in any game where I don't have that care. It's the major reason why I've left more than one game in the past: not that it wasn't fun, not that the players weren't worthy to adventure beside, but because there was nothing I felt personally motivated to care about, and no prospect of such coming along. I have issues with this enforcement of mechanical consequences specifically because I care.And, again, you are conflating "there are absolutely NO consequences" with "permanent, irrevocable death is not a consequence." Furthermore, despite your clear belief to the contrary, it is not true that that being a consequence guarantees an improved player investment into the game. I have had two players explicitly tell me that they are able to enjoy my game more, and engage more fully with its contents, because they don't feel the need to be constantly paranoid about getting to continue playing the story they're playing through. They recognize that that story will have ups and downs and is practically guaranteed to go in directions they don't expect (that is, in fact, a major draw for them), but they are comfortable enough to actually participate and invest because they know their investment won't be wasted. If they had that specter of death hanging over them, even at arm's length, it would poison their joy, turning every experience from one of excitement and action into one of dread and expected disappointment.Because combat that does not result in permanent, irrevocable death is still interesting, in the same way that, for example, puzzle games remain interesting even though you don't lose the ability to keep playing puzzles if you fail to complete a particular puzzle.</blockquote>

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