English

Noun

permadeath ‎(countable and uncountable, plural permadeaths)

1. (video games, slang) Permanent death, where the player cannot continue but is obliged to restart the game from the beginning.
   • 1996 April 21, Sax, Jay, “Re: Best features of a mud.”, in rec.games.mud.diku, Usenet, message-ID <ayudanteDq7xJB.9LG@netcom.com>:

     And yes, especially 'special' mobs coming back is a bit of a stretch. But then the players coming back is a stretch too, no? (yes, I know, many have implemented some form of permadeath).

   • 2001 February 4, Cortese, Rick, “Re: Permadeath Debate Today”, in rec.games.computer.ultima.series, Usenet, message-ID <t7s713pgas0b26@corp.supernews.com>:

     If you are doing your job right designing a game, the newbie experience should be almost good enough that people don't care about permadeath any more then they would picking up a new novel.

   • 2004 June 15, Sheldon, Lee, Character Development and Storytelling for Games, page 401:

     I don't consider permadeath a reasonable solution for most virtual worlds.

   • 2007 January 12, Dillinger, Ray, “Re: Roguelike developer diary”, in rec.games.roguelike.development, Usenet, message-ID <45a7f875$0$68978$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>:

     Permadeath is simply a way to encourage the playing of more than one game so they can try everything.

See also

• instadeath
• instakill