The third installment of MMORPG.com's Outside The Box editorial addresses the issue of permanent character death in massively multiplayer online games. While the author acknowledges "permadeath" wouldn't mesh well with current online games, he goes on to examine the possibility of introducing some form of permanent death in future titles to add variety to MMOs. A collection of potential uses of permadeath are explored including inheritance of items and stats by future characters.

As for attributes and skills, perhaps the subsequent character would only gain an aptitude for those that the former character had developed to high ranks, so that Son of Super Warrior gains strength a bit faster than he normally would because of his lineage. Maybe an heir has a talent for a skill in which the former character had reached high ranks, so that he not only advances faster, but tops out 5-10% higher than usual. If this bonus was cumulative, one could imagine people playing entire lineages of characters, each time producing an heir with a bit more potential. Suddenly there’s a bit of persistence to a permadeath system, and it’s not as bad, is it? You might play for six months and then voluntarily retire your character so you can start over with an heir to achieve even higher skills, but the second character dies in a castle siege after only one month. Never fear, for the family line lives on in a third heir with distant bonuses from the grandfather and somewhat fewer bonuses from the father.

MMORPG.com: Permadeath in MMORPGs

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