Articles
The Treatment of Death in Videogames
The Treatment of Death in Videogames
Alex goes into how death is portrayed in video games, whether it’s a
player’s death or the death of others, and their effect on players.
By Alex Avard
D
eath. It comes to all of
us. It comes particularly
often, however, to video
gamers. The majority of games
feature death in one form
or another, so the question
arises as to how the medium
is portraying the concept.
Whilst films and books often
give great emotional impact
to a characters passing, video
games often involve the
repeated demise of the playable
protagonist at the fault of the
gamer, so the implications are
inevitably going to differ. Noone screams at the telly out
of pity and mourning when
Gordon Freeman takes one too
many bullets to the zero-suit;
but they will instead scream
for a different reason. Player
death does not usually mark
an emotional tragedy in video
games, but it does mark a
setback for player progression
Issue 60 • October 2014
much to the frustration of the
gamer. It is part of the trial and
error process that defines many
gameplay experiences and
thus gamers learn from their
death rather than lament it.
Does this belittle the impact of
death? Well it certainly presents
it as a minor frustration rather
than a permanent loss, but it
also teaches players to learn
from their mistakes. The whole
point of many games is to avoid
your demise as much as you
can, which arguably goes some
lengths in painting death in as
negative a light as possible.
Of course, roguelike games,
which appear to have
proliferated lately, accentuates
18 • GameOn Magazine