A Proposal

[Azathoth]

How about a game where, for every enemy you defeat, you grow weaker?

[A Very Super Market]

Wasn't that sort of there in MGS3? The Sorrow would take you through the plain of all the guys you had killed.

[CountArach]

I don't see that working to be honest, because by the end of it the enemies would not have progressed to harder enemies... if they did so you would be proportionally FAR weaker and in all likelihood couldnot defeat them. I would much rather something where you remain fairly static whilst the enemies grow stronger and smarter. That way you are proportionally weaker than your enemies, however you can overcome this with skills that you have honed in getting to that point.

[Azathoth]

I don't see that working to be honest, because by the end of it the enemies would not have progressed to harder enemies... if they did so you would be proportionally FAR weaker and in all likelihood couldnot defeat them. I would much rather something where you remain fairly static whilst the enemies grow stronger and smarter. That way you are proportionally weaker than your enemies, however you can overcome this with skills that you have honed in getting to that point.

Ahh, see, I thought of this.

An example (note that I'm not going to get on anyone's writing staff): you start out as an ultra-powerful godlord, but some guy casts a curse on you (you get weaker every time you kill someone personally). Then you get rushed by an army (you could choose to stand and fight, eventually being overwhelmed by thousands of enemies) or you can go underground to break the curse (you have to kill the caster, who now rules your realm). You manage to attract certain personalities to your cause, but most will be very hostile to you, and there will be constant fighting throughout the game.

Now, your allies are very fragile and can die during battle quite easily. Throughout the game you can overly rely on your allies, see them all get killed, and hope you can get through the game with diplomacy, or that you're already far enough to have a chance at the end. Otherwise, you can just power through the game and slaughter everyone who gets in your way. This means that, at some point, you will just be a regular guy up against the Usurper and his most elite forces. So the best choice would be to take a middle ground of trying to avoid cmbat and only intervening to help your party when things get really hairy. So the difficulty scales up reasonably, and maybe for the final battle you and the Usurper will be evenly matched, more or less.

Also, your allies will be very well characterized, which makes losing them painful (plus you miss out on all the exposition).

[drone]

It didn't make you weaker per se, but the "Big Head" mutator in UT2K4 did something like this. The more kills you made in a row, the bigger your head (and it's corresponding bound box) would get. Made you stick out like a sore thumb and more vulnerable to head shots.

[Kekvit Irae]

How about a game where, for every enemy you defeat, you grow weaker?

Why not go one step further? Lose/Lose is a game where, if you kill an alien, a random file on your computer is deleted. This could be anything, including valuable OS files.

If you want to cheat,

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

load it up in a VirtualPC. Nothing will be lost.

[Azathoth]

So I gather this was a horrible idea.

[miotas]

It's an intersting idea, and if someone could figure out a way to make it work then I would definitely like to play a game like that. It's just the getting it to work part...

[Sevis]

This sounds like a wonderful idea, but it requires something that very few major game-making companies are willing to do - allow the player to be as imaginative as they can. There are so many ways a person could go around achieving the target that it would have to truly be free-roam. Graphics would have to be good all-round, and not just a few brilliant panoramas (sp?) to show off. Also, your past choices could cause the task to become impossible, which would get it some bad reactions.

Now, I'm not saying that such "risky" games aren't being made any more, but if we are to see this, I'd expect it to come from an indie developer.

[Azathoth]

Well, why not have the ability to wound enemies in games? Maybe knock a guy's teeth out with your godfists instead of disintegrating him with a stare.

Would that be possible with today's technology?

Oh, and difficulties - Easy: Only destroying an entire city would lose you your powers
Normal: A thousand kills will make you a mortal
Hard: Every man you slay will drain you noticably.
Legend (unlocked by completing the game): KILL NO ONE BUT THE USURPER