pet death alternatives

to start: I like that actions in PsyPets have consequences! a game where your actions are without consequence is a boring game.

also, I think that, generally speaking, rewarding players for good actions is better than punishing them for poor actions, but I think there are also a few cases where, to really instill a sense of risk and responsibility, it must be possible that a poor decision could lead to some kind of loss.

and PsyPets is certainly full of these things: the more you know about how the game works, the more every decision about what you do with your items and pets seems to count... "in the past, I did X thing, but now that I know how stuff works, I realize that was foolish; that Y thing is clearly the right choice."

I worry that some of that can get overwhelming, but that's a different topic.

the topic swirling about in my head recently surrounds pet death. I like that pets can die in PsyPets. birth and death are important aspects of life, and I definitely believe that, as a simulation, PsyPets should incorporate them. at the same time, having a pet die sucks, it's very difficult to bring them back, and it can cause you to lose interest in the game (unless you are particularly devoted, and it causes you to gain a self-assigned mission of great importance! which is fantastic!)

I wonder if there are ways we can mitigate the lame parts of pet death, while still leaving room for the awesome.

I've come up with one idea, but it's not necessarily the only, and it's not necessarily the best.

in short, I was thinking it'd be interesting if dead pets stuck around as ghosts in your house. living pets could still be able to interact with your dead pets (this could require the pet to have a particular advantage - "I see dead people"? - but it doesn't have to... though I am a fan of adding more advantages ) but for the most part, dead pets wouldn't do a whole lot.

in many ways, it would largely be a stylistic change: your pet would still dead, unable to craft, eat, or be pet... but it would still have a visible presence in your home, and who knows: maybe there is something a ghost pet could do from hour to hour.

I think one change for ghost pets would be to allow you to reincarnate them. not in the same way you reincarnate a master, though! really, it'd be almost equivalent to moving on and buying a new, random pet, the only real difference being that it wouldn't cost moneys, and the family tree would remain intact.

of course, items that bring a pet back to life - like death's elixer - should retain their old use.

SO: that's all the thinking I have. I'd be curious to know what you guys think about something like this... if it completely goes against your expectations of PsyPets, or fixes ills you've long had with the game, or anywhere in between, or anything else

— posted by That Guy Ben on 2012.05.14, 11:20:07pm UTC