Game mechanics vs Headcanon
Just random thoughts from while I was writing this morning, as my brain went back to "goddammit, game mechanics don't make SENSE when you try to take them literally, why does every player character in existence have unlimited revivals from every manner of death possible while the NPCs don't??"
So let’s talk, really. Let’s talk about the game mechanics, where every death, no matter what happens, sends you straight to the nearest Spirit Healer who will then cheerfully and without complaint resurrect you over and over and over again. No limit. Oh sure, you might take some durability damage, but really, no limit. There’s no difference between being stabbed to death by another player in PvP or burning to death in lava because you fell off the damned chain bridge in Blackrock Spire (*cough* yeah, that hurt). And we all do this over and over again, but in the meantime Vol’jin dies of a fel infected stab wound and Varian... ok, yeah, Varian exploded, but I’ve come back from worse, dammit! My characters have totally come back from things where there was no body left to retrieve and I had to rez at the graveyard. This nonsense of the NPCs not being able to is just that - bad RPG nonsense, no different then Aerith dying mid game and all my damned phoenix downs being useless. It bothered me then and it bothers me now.
And since I like to try to make game mechanics make sense and ‘work’ (for a given value of realistic internally consistent fantasy world working) here’s a thought - because, and I’m talking specifically about Warcraft mechanics, here - the Spirit Healers are all Val’kyr. “Spirit Healers are Val’kyr who choose to remain in the Shadowlands for those unfortunate adventurers whose spirits will soon join them” and “Val'kyr are ascended warriors of the Light who serve Odyn by bringing the spirits of the glorious dead to his Halls of Valor”. So... basically, Spirit Healers deal in one currency. Spirits. The souls of the deceased.
And what is every adventurer ever? A murder hobo.
Day in, day out, 90% of all quests, every dungeon and raid, every battleground - it’s all about how much we can kill. Our body count is in the thousands before we hit level 20, by the time we’re level 110 we’ve committed worldwide genocide multiple times over. We kill things, it’s what we do.
And the Spirit Healers, the Val’kyr, are there to bring spirits to Odyn. So why aren’t they just reaping our spirits when we stupidly get ourselves killed? Why keep resurrecting us? Because we have a pact with them - we are their earth bound agents. To stave off our own deaths, we deliver countless souls to them. Every adventurer out there has no fear of death because so long as they continue to deliver souls/spirits/energy to the spirit healers, they are IMMORTAL. They will never have to worry.
But if you never took up a weapon? If you're a civilian going about your business in town? Death is very real. Or... if you've climbed so far up the social ladder that you no longer spend every day out fighting for your life, then that pact begins to decline. Because it is a pact, it’s a transactional bargain, a subscription service to immortality so long as you pay your monthly fee. It's why every faction leader IS a fighter of some stripe, but depending on when they were last out in the field, the last time they actively fought... well, it's a pact that needs constant renewal. It’s a fucking monthly subscription fee, paid in souls delivered by your own hand, and neither Vol’jin or Varian have been out on the field in combat themselves since Pandaria.
Just a thought. ^_^ (It’s not foolproof, there’s holes in it, but it makes more sense than arbitrary “the rules are different for players and NPCs”. This does, by the way, only cover those irritating arbitrary plot driven deaths, not respawn rates. YMMV.)
Reblogged from Tumblr
Crossposted from Dreamwidth. ::
bunnies - Feed a bunny
So let’s talk, really. Let’s talk about the game mechanics, where every death, no matter what happens, sends you straight to the nearest Spirit Healer who will then cheerfully and without complaint resurrect you over and over and over again. No limit. Oh sure, you might take some durability damage, but really, no limit. There’s no difference between being stabbed to death by another player in PvP or burning to death in lava because you fell off the damned chain bridge in Blackrock Spire (*cough* yeah, that hurt). And we all do this over and over again, but in the meantime Vol’jin dies of a fel infected stab wound and Varian... ok, yeah, Varian exploded, but I’ve come back from worse, dammit! My characters have totally come back from things where there was no body left to retrieve and I had to rez at the graveyard. This nonsense of the NPCs not being able to is just that - bad RPG nonsense, no different then Aerith dying mid game and all my damned phoenix downs being useless. It bothered me then and it bothers me now.
And since I like to try to make game mechanics make sense and ‘work’ (for a given value of realistic internally consistent fantasy world working) here’s a thought - because, and I’m talking specifically about Warcraft mechanics, here - the Spirit Healers are all Val’kyr. “Spirit Healers are Val’kyr who choose to remain in the Shadowlands for those unfortunate adventurers whose spirits will soon join them” and “Val'kyr are ascended warriors of the Light who serve Odyn by bringing the spirits of the glorious dead to his Halls of Valor”. So... basically, Spirit Healers deal in one currency. Spirits. The souls of the deceased.
And what is every adventurer ever? A murder hobo.
Day in, day out, 90% of all quests, every dungeon and raid, every battleground - it’s all about how much we can kill. Our body count is in the thousands before we hit level 20, by the time we’re level 110 we’ve committed worldwide genocide multiple times over. We kill things, it’s what we do.
And the Spirit Healers, the Val’kyr, are there to bring spirits to Odyn. So why aren’t they just reaping our spirits when we stupidly get ourselves killed? Why keep resurrecting us? Because we have a pact with them - we are their earth bound agents. To stave off our own deaths, we deliver countless souls to them. Every adventurer out there has no fear of death because so long as they continue to deliver souls/spirits/energy to the spirit healers, they are IMMORTAL. They will never have to worry.
But if you never took up a weapon? If you're a civilian going about your business in town? Death is very real. Or... if you've climbed so far up the social ladder that you no longer spend every day out fighting for your life, then that pact begins to decline. Because it is a pact, it’s a transactional bargain, a subscription service to immortality so long as you pay your monthly fee. It's why every faction leader IS a fighter of some stripe, but depending on when they were last out in the field, the last time they actively fought... well, it's a pact that needs constant renewal. It’s a fucking monthly subscription fee, paid in souls delivered by your own hand, and neither Vol’jin or Varian have been out on the field in combat themselves since Pandaria.
Just a thought. ^_^ (It’s not foolproof, there’s holes in it, but it makes more sense than arbitrary “the rules are different for players and NPCs”. This does, by the way, only cover those irritating arbitrary plot driven deaths, not respawn rates. YMMV.)
Reblogged from Tumblr
Crossposted from Dreamwidth. ::
bunnies - Feed a bunny