unwinnable

From un- +‎ winnable.

unwinnable (not comparable)

1. Unable to be won.

   Synonyms: (video games) walking dead (Adjective), softlock (Noun), softlocked

   • 2007, Jeremy Douglass, Command Lines, page 88:

     The “Zarfian Cruelty Scale” rates games as Merciful, Polite, Tough, Nasty, or Cruel. The scale describes how works of IF become unwinnable, especially how and when the interactor (here a player, and one trying to win) learns this.

   • 2009 December 10, joye, “Obey the Game”, in Jay Is Games‎^[1], archived from the original on 14 February 2025:

     This does mitigate the problem of the game playing itself, but it doesn't change the fact that at higher levels a lot of the games are either unwinnable or unloseable depending on the luck of "obey" or "disobey".