I've always been a fan of perma-death in games, though there aren't many games I can point to which include said feature. Certainly the NES games of my youth only allotted me a certain life total, which I could manipulate through the gathering of certain items. Once used up, it was back to square one - and that's the system ToA is using. 100 deaths for every player.
Personally, perma-death allows me to see the world in which I am playing in a different light. Caution, strategy, and patience become important elements to my gameplay. Not only that, but the world seems different when you only have an artificially imposed limited experience. I take less for granted.
From a purely psychological standpoint, this is exciting. There are a few things that perma-death causes to happen in any player's mind.
- Players are less invested in young characters as they perceive them to be temporary. ToA solves that problem by giving you 100 deaths to become invested.
- Players become incredibly attached to characters the longer they play.
- Player behavior changes in high tension situations.
- Players will quit your game when they lose a long term character.
There is a reason developers do not permanently take away a player's character. The character is the representation of time invested. It is the one thing in the game world they have affected. Destroying that is like destroying every minute poured into the game by the player. Once that is done, there is little reason to continue playing. You will of course get the die-hards that will come back again and again, but this kills the casual gaming market for your game.
More exciting? Absolutely. An opportunity for engaging storytelling? Oh, yes. But a viable strategy to keep the player base at a consistent level? Is it not.
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