The penalty of death in games (part 1)

In both video games and table-top games, the death of your character doesn't always necessarily spell the end of the game. Unlike the games found in 1980's video-game arcades, there is rarely a “game over” with character death these days. Often, death is merely a set-back, though the penalties are incurred usually place the player at a great disadvantage--at least for a while. It is interesting to note that there really isn't a standard punishment for character death. Some games punish character death by removing some, or all, of your money and/or items. Others put you on a re-spawn timer, making you wait an allotted amount of time before you can rejoin the battle (and you can usually watch other players running around having fun while you wait.) Still others relocate you, placing your character back at the beginning of an area so that you have to do everything all over again. This week, we'll talk about the advantages and disadvantages to each approach, and will let you know at the end of the week what we decided for character death in Solar Echoes, and why.