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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 9065523" data-attributes="member: 6799660">I would say this is a fair assessment. Video games certainly provide a good example of a 'checkpoint' or 'try again (with proscribed setback)' methodology (also a notion of 'artificial difficulty' where something pads the playthrough by making you play through the first 8 levels for another chance at level 9, simply because you missed a jump). Beyond that, the actual benefit of loss=starting over was never well communicated. I know plenty of early groups that also quickly switched to death meaning you brought in a new character only a few levels behind the one that died, in which case what difference does it make (except having/getting to create a new personality)? I've played it all sorts of ways (no res, res often unavailable, res usually available... heck, non-D&D games where death isn't a serious likelihood) and tend to enjoy them all (with whichever I haven't played recently being the one I want to play next, as opposed to having a static favorite). And yes, I do think there's quite a lot of... subtle associations people impute onto these things (deadlier is more challenging, challenging is a virtue onto itself, miserable makes better stories, etc.). At the end of the day, the best games are the ones where the player feels their decisions contribute to the outcomes and the challenge of the game rises to the level against which they are challenging themselves. All the rest is details.</blockquote>

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