People often talk about games having only a one-play sustainability. Once you've clocked it the first time, there's nothing else to discover, and if there's no multiplayer mode it renders the product pretty much obsolete. But what would happen if it truly was just a one-time experience? What if when your player dies, the game ends entirely, leaving you feeling judged about your feeble attempts to battle your way through even the first few levels. What's even worse is the thought that your death may not be the result of an enemy attack. As more and more survival-based games program hunger-gatherer features that keep players scavenging for sustenance, you could find yourself with a permanent Game Over screen because you neglected to open a tin of digitally rendered beans. And then there's dying due to your own stupidity, such as falling off a ledge or drowning in a lake. Developers would have to make games immensely easy in order for the average player to win them. Well-hidden traps would either force the player to tread so slowly, they'd probably succumb to in-game muscle aches and end up limping the rest of the way. Besides, who wants to buy a game that's less of an investment and more of a gamble?
