Yeah, I'd have to agree that non-optional permadeath is not favoured by myself. Even a waypoint, or sparce save-point game is more preferrable for me than a full-blown start from scratch mechanism.
It sucks to put hours into a game, doing well and then losing ALL progress. Even worse is a game bug that causes your permadeath (non-responsive controls or something), which is something not your fault.

In some cases it definitely should be only an option. I doubt many people would enjoy Witcher 2 if "Insanity" was the only difficulty level.

I dislike permadeath, as well as any mechanic designed to prevent certain (ab)uses in the save system. I didn't like it in Wizardry, and I don't like it in today's games, either.

As a matter of fact, I prefer that the death mechanic be something that a clever player can take advantage of (for example, by death warping).

A related issue is saves; if a game takes more than a half hour or so to complete, the game really should let you save at least every 15-20 minutes or so with no cost; a game that doesn't let you save as frequently is not as good because of that fact, and a game that forces you to play for over an hour between saves I consider to be unplayable.

Or, just as bad, if a game auto-saves with no manual saves, and saves you into a softlock situation.

Permadeath can be fun! Oh how I love thee!

The use of permadeath and other roguelike-related elements, such as procedurally randomized levels, started becoming a trend probably six to ten years ago; I would say their use has long since plateaued. You may be just noticing the trend now, but it's definitely become a big enough deal for a ton of people to have long ago started to get sick of (and to complain incessantly about) games advertising "roguelike elements".
Next thing we know, you'll be saying, "Say, zombies seem to be getting more and more popular recently." ;P

With regards to your question: It really depends on the game.
The mechanic fits better in some genres than others, and tends to be much more tolerable in short, "run-based" games built for high replayability.
In a long, heavily story-based RPG, for example, it's best if permadeath is just an option. Something like Spelunky, on the other hand -- a game made to be played through in under an hour -- would become far more trivial if you could continue from a level you died on.

I only enjoy permadeath in Rogue Legacy.

The new is old: these are basically arcade games, minus the quarter-munching and the addition of an ironman save.

Not necessarily. You can always turn hindu or buddhist. Up to you really.

We Christians and muslims seem to like the idea of permadeath, for some reason. I guess both have its advantages and disadvantages, like it's of course nice to be reborn to this same world over and over again in order to see how future video games have progressed (eventually reaching the "gaming nirvana", so to speak), but on the other hand it sucks if you are reborn here billions of years from now when the sun has expanded end engulfed earth into fire. At that point you have bigger problems than permadeath in video games.

Of course I refer to games where death means "restart-over".
Games like dark souls, where you dying is just a minor setback, doesn't count.

I feel many games implement/remove permadeth, without needing a "strong design decision".

I was playing Barony: blessed Addition and, to be honest, for me the game suffer a lot for using permadeath.


Even rogue, could be implemented with a more forgiving saving formula as an option.

I don't like permadeath. I don't like re-playing the same parts time and time and again just to get better. Hell I even hate Dark Souls. When I play games I just want to enjoy the game.

I don't see permadeath as very common outside of roguelikes (and I realise that "roguelike could be understood to mean a game with permadeath, but it is usually also combined with random/procedurally generated levels of increasing difficulty, and the expectation of a loads of playthroughs). Are there a lot of games that aren't roguelikes that have permadeath (aside from hardcore modes, I guess)?

People seem to be complaining that permadeath is bad because it makes the game hard? But it doesn't. Lots of easy roguelikes have permadeath too.

Certainly, i wouldn't appreciate permadeath in every game, but games specifically designed with permadeath (i.e. the expectation is that you'll be playing through loads of times), it's odd to complain about.

As opposed to something like checkpoint systems which are fundamentally a bad decision, because they are literally never implemented well (there's ALWAYS a point where the checkpoint was badly placed) :P.

Yeah, that and Spelunky are the only games with the feature I actually really enjoyed. Mainly because one isn't punished too hard and one can make progress along the way to beat the games. The "lose all your shit on death" schtick never went well with me. It just smacks of artificially padding a game's length because there isn't enough content more often than not.

Funny this should crop up. I just started a permadeath run of No Man's Sky last night. Now on my sixth attempt to get my Traveller established and not quite so squishy. Normally, I don't like permadeath, but I thought I'd give it a try on this game and I'm actually having a blast with it.

Having said that, I feel it should only be optional, never forced.

Permadeath requires a different way of thinking/playing. Instead of trying to beat every challenge in a game you must calculate risks and know when to be cautious or flee when needed. For me, it gives a bunch of extra thrill to any game. But, if you are used of running into almost every combat/challenge you see, because you can always load the game and get another approach, it can be really frustrating learning how to deal with it.
What I don't approve is that, every time a game features permadeath, there's always someone rushing to complain about it. If you don't like that, just play something else. There's a wide catalog of games around and no need to whine about each game that doesn't fit your tastes.