Death

From Styleguide

death

Death has two specific contexts in videogames. In the case of a narrative game, in which the player character has a life in the story, death is quite literal. When the character dies, the story is over, at least until you reload or restart. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is an example of this.

In the second context, a death is the end of one of the multiple lives a player is given as a measure of the opportunities to complete a task in a game. See life.

In most cases, these contexts are blended together to create statements such as, "Pac-Man can only die one more time," or "You can die as many times as you want in Jak and Daxter without any penalty."

Because of these ambiguities, use the term death or died to refer to specific story moments. But when referencing gameplay, use more specific terms such as "lost a life."

In first-person shooters, the score is often referred to as number of kills.

Example: Aeris' death in Final Fantasy VII remains one of the most memorable moments in any videogame story. Less memorable is Mario losing a life by falling into a lava pit in Super Mario Bros.

Wrong: The player attempted a particularly difficult jump with Mario and ended up dying.

Also see: life.