I been wondering if there is a connection between liking horror movies and liking permadeath. So here is four quick questions. The second question is just to check if people answering have been playing the genre.



- Do you like horror movies?


- Have you been playing permadeath?


- Do you like permadeath?


- (optional) Why / why not?

I worship horror films, hate permadeath.

Why? Simple:
Games, like horror films, are a break from reality, an escape. That is why I watch and I play.

If I wanted permadeath I'd turn off the TV and the computer and go outside.

Depends what you mean by 'horror' movies. I generally don't like slasher flicks, but I do like horror/suspense. Abd I hate permadeath.

My answer to all of the above would be "Sometimes". :P

I'm curious though as to what connection you would draw and why. I do like the excitement that comes with the threat of permadeath, but I hate the frustration that comes with actually dying under these conditions and having to start from scratch. I do play games with permadeath, but seldom more than a few times (depending on how long and fast-paced they are). I wouldn't enjoy a horror movie that doesn't really progress the story and always starts at the beginning again with a new character as soon as another has been killed off. Imagine a horror movie that stops halfway through, because the main character dies. You don't play side characters in videogames. ;)

Yes
Yes
Yes
Losing is fun!

- I do, just last night I watched Silent Hill for the first time. Awesome film! My favorite horror movie is Lake Placid, and I'm not really sure why. It's not that good honestly, but I find it extremely relaxing.

- I've been playing games with permadeath, yes, like Nethack, FTL, Don't Starve and Sunless Sea.

- Yes, in those games at least

- It enhances the experience significantly by amplifying the sense of danger. However, I don't think that many games would benefit from it. The game probably needs to be designed with it in mind, including how 'perma' it should be. At least with those 4 games I mentioned, it's not 100% permadeath, i.e. it's not 100% loss of progress. In nethack you can come across a coffin of a previous character and get your old loot back. In FTL you unlock new ships. In Don't Starve there are items that can save you in the event of death. In Sunless sea you can leave a will with items and experience for your next captain. I uninstalled DF just 10 minutes ago. I couldn't stop thinking about my fortress and it was seriously distracting me from my work :P

I love horror movies but, only if they are actually good movies, not just because there are horror elements. It's hard to find good horror in my opinion because most of it is reliant on shock value and a stupid audience. It's very hard for me to find a movie that genuinely scares me or puts me on edge, but I love to feel that way from entertainment. Games tend to do it much better than movies, generally, but even then I don't find a lot of horror games scary that others do find scary.

I play very few games with perma-death, but I do have some. FTL and Tales of Maj'Eyal, specifically.

I am okay with the death system in FTL, I realllly don't like it in ToME, but not enough so that I switch to the non-permadeath mode. I do anticipate reaching a certain breaking point of frustration with dying in that game and switch to the other mode. I wouldn't say I like it or hate it either way.

My time is just too limited and it is just too stressful to actually LIKE it.

I have no idea why you would connect these two things, but I'll answer anyway:

I hate horror and I never watch horror films, read horror fiction or play horror games.

My favourite genre of game is turn-based roguelike and I love permadeath, and I generally play some sort of game that involves permadeath on a daily basis. Nothing makes you care about your character and their actions more than knowing that everything you do is permanent. Just like life, right?

My idea is that both horror and permadeath has the same appeal. Its about experience some negative emotiions under safe curcumstances. 1) Theres a supernatural killer clown on the loose 2) you could lose this game any second.
My guess is that the excitement in both triggers some pleasure drugs in the brain. But only for some people. No drugs, no fun.
Both areas are pretty much divided: either you are a horror fan or you don't like it. Either you love permadeath or you don't. Yeah, even if the progress is an illusion - you can damage 10x as much, and your enemies has now 10x life points - it gives a certain pleasure which permadeath just can't deliver. Loren the Warrior Princess! Here, the player takes the role as the title characters sidekick!

1. Depends what kind of horror movies. I love Carpenter's stuff. I like Evil Dead (and love the sequel). But I hate slasher films, I hate gore (which is why I hate the new Evil Dead movie- all gore, no mood, no humor)

2. I played some games that had permadeath. Not many.

3. I hate it.

4. Because I hate starting over. I hate doing the same shit over and over. Even in games that don't have permadeath I'm pissed when I have to replay more than 5-10 minutes because I forgot to save, there wasn't checkpoints or whatever. I just hate to waste time re-doing things. If I did it once, I shouldn't have to do it again. Let me just get straight to the part where I died last time.

I like some horror movies, but not all.

Yep, tried permadeath games.

No, don`t like it.

I don`t like it, because it`s no fun to build up a character for hours only to die in some unfair situation and have to start over from scratch again. I guess that developers of permadeath games have too much sadistic tendencies and don`t understand the concept of savegames.

Well, I don't get all that much out of horror flicks because they seldom have really relatable characters that you fear for; most are just predictable slasher fodder, while the actual hero is in no real danger of dying until the very last minutes of the film. I generally prefer creepy movies that don't directly threaten the characters with death but confront them with very uncanny situations.

As for videogames, I don't think the biggest issue that most players have with permadeath is losing or the pressure-induced excitement, it's the repetition that follows afterwards. To me games with permadeath are fine to play occasionally or a couple of times, but I'm not really motivated to play them for a longer time or even try to finish them. They're like Tetris to me, survive as long as you can, just for fun, but if I've got the choice to waste hours on "survival mode" or play through several "story mode" games in the meantime, I just prefer the latter.

Of course, how often I'm motivated to give a permadeath game another try also depends on how much I enjoy the gameplay. I'm more likely to replay fast-paced and short action games like Tower of Guns than slow and long turn-based games like Swords of the Stars: The Pit. And if the sidekick dies, the game goes on? I doubt that. The sidekick becomes the hero of the story, more likely. ;)

1. Not really
2. Nethack, ToME,
3. Yes/depends
4. Good permadeath is good. In old roguelikes you've learned something from your death and you could - usually - back to the point of your death pretty fast because you've learned some tactics to beat some level/part. I don't like permadeath in new so-called rogues (rogue-lite) - just, for example, Sunless Sea (which I love!) or Darkest Dungeon (which i... don't hate). Sunless Sea is an awesome game but it's lacking roguelike experience (yeah, locations move a bit, but this is not really changing). There's no reason to play it on hard - permadeath - mod not because you won't learn anything (there're very few things you can learn from dying) but because getting to the same point of game require you to spend dozens of hours because of how slow game is. In this term - this is grinding. Not item/level grind but time grind.
Then, there's Darkest Dungeon which just was made unbeatable in a lot of configurations. And permadeath in this wy is just stupid as it can be. There's Roguelikes require fair gameplay - the game can be hard or show you middle finger sometimes, but it needs to be fair, it needs to let you learn your mistakes. In DD, you just can have "bad luck" and if developers are saying "quest will fail or must be abandon, heroes will die" then it's not "master-techniques-to-win" but rather "great that you've ranked up your heroes up to max level. Oh, look, impossible critical strike, have fun spending another 10 hours for making new ones!".

Developers need to learn difference between roguelikes and save scumming. I'm all against permadeath in the most modern game (The Biding of Isaac might be one good game with it), but I'm also against save scumming. I would love to see three versions of difficulty in modern games:
- Roguelike - permadeath, no save, only for hardcore people.
- No, save scumming - you have two autosaves, one in the current moment, another - 10/20/30 minutes ago. You failed something - go forward, mistakes happen. You died? 30 minutes earlier. No save scumming for the best possible outcome but also not a loosing game.
Easy mod - as many saves as you want.

This about describes me.

I can't stand horror movies (or books or games or anything else) as I'm a huge wuss.

But I love roguelikes and many games with permadeath. For me I like not being restricted to one character class or type or having to play the same 50+ hour game a dozen times to properly experience all the ways you can play. With a roguelike each play through is shorter and you can get a different experience by playing as a different race or class, and often you can carry over certain aspects from one play-through to another or unlock new options which adds more variety.