Gaming

30562 readers

21 users here now

From video gaming to card games and stuff in between, if it's gaming you can probably discuss it here!

Please Note: Gaming memes are permitted to be posted on Meme Mondays, but will otherwise be removed in an effort to allow other discussions to take place.

See also Gaming's sister community Tabletop Gaming.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

100

What are some games that "spin" failure states? (self.gaming)

submitted 1 year ago by bermuda to c/gaming

70 comments fedilink hide all child comments

What I mean by this, is instead of when you fail and are met with a game over, the game finds some way to keep it going. Instead of being forced to reset to a previous save or an autosave checkpoint, the game's story continues in an interesting path. Are there any games like this?

Asking because in IRL TTRPG's, a lot of DM's will find reasons to keep the story going, no matter how ludicrous because I mean.. that's why you're there. Do games do this? What are some that do?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] LoamImprovement 9 points 1 year ago

Disco Elysium is probably the best implementation of the 'Fail Forward' ideology I've seen in a game - not 'Game Over' per se, because running out of Health or Morale will give you a game over, along with some nonstandard endings, but failing important story-related checks doesn't lock you out of the story, you're just encouraged to go explore other parts of the world - raising the skill associated with the check you failed opens it up again, and certain objects, thoughts, or interactions can also open them up again. In the same vein, failing noncritical checks can often lead to more interesting and/or advantageous outcomes than succeeding. As an example:

spoiler

One red check (noncritical, can't be retried) you make early on is to try to remember your name via Conceptualization. Succeed, and you'll just admit to yourself that you can't remember. Fail, and you immediately land on 'Raphael Ambrosious Cousteau.' You can then spend the rest of the game referring to yourself as RAC, with humorous reactions from pretty much everyone who hears it, and if you do it enough, you unlock a thought that raises your Savoir Faire and Espirit de Corps skills.

Great game, by the way, highly recommend.