The suicidal character

[mojomuppet]

I have been playing long enough there are a few chars I would like to give the boot. It seems no matter how worthless the char is, there is always that one thing that keeps me or someone else hanging on to it. I stand by, hold hands when its clear the another char is trying to let go. I have seen awesome rp for others that just want to move on to the green cantr in the sky....why cant I?

MM

[Doug R.]

Because you know how much it blows when people starve off characters that are relevant to yours, so you don't want to subject others to the same thing.

A character I liked starved off today, and I'm watching another that I'm quite fond of just sit idle (she's being fed though). Another requested that none of us feed their character in an OOC comment. I would understand, except that long experience with the PD has shown, over and over, that people that trim their accounts end up re-filling the slots as soon as they get bored, which is usually less than a month later. So, I just find it really irritating. If your environment is so unstimulating, move your character. If you honestly don't have time, hibernate them. I guess it's just becoming a pet peeve of mine because I can see both sides of it, and I'm tired of my characters getting emotionally invested in great characters that last three months then starve.

[Debsy]

Because you know how much it blows when people starve off characters that are relevant to yours, so you don't want to subject others to the same thing.

A character I liked starved off today, and I'm watching another that I'm quite fond of just sit idle (she's being fed though). Another requested that none of us feed their character in an OOC comment. I would understand, except that long experience with the PD has shown, over and over, that people that trim their accounts end up re-filling the slots as soon as they get bored, which is usually less than a month later. So, I just find it really irritating. If your environment is so unstimulating, move your character. If you honestly don't have time, hibernate them. I guess it's just becoming a pet peeve of mine because I can see both sides of it, and I'm tired of my characters getting emotionally invested in great characters that last three months then starve.

I was probably the one that requested you not to feed me ooc. I am in the middle of a move, not to mention rl has just gotten the better of me. And I would understand what you're saying, except for the fact that I know that it has happened to me on several occasions where my characters lives were put on hold because others wouldn't wake up for one reason or another. And I don't mean just for a couple weeks. It has happened for several months at a time. Leaders holding up the entire town because they wouldn't wake.
I hated it then, and I wouldn't do that to anyone else. So.. yeah lol

[Doug R.]

Leaders holding up the entire town because they wouldn't wake.

Turn over the keys. Not that difficult conceptually, yet no one does it, ever. Really, is it easier to kill off well established characters than hand over a few keys? Apparently so.

A woman in her fifties says to you: I need to sleep for a long time. Take my keys and look after the town in my absence, and please keep me fed.

I bet those words have never been spoken before in Cantr. I don't understand, and I never will.

[Addicted]

Leaders holding up the entire town because they wouldn't wake.

Turn over the keys. Not that difficult conceptually, yet no one does it, ever. Really, is it easier to kill off well established characters than hand over a few keys? Apparently so.

A woman in her fifties says to you: I need to sleep for a long time. Take my keys and look after the town in my absence, and please keep me fed.

I bet those words have never been spoken before in Cantr. I don't understand, and I never will.

I've had that happen twice. It does happen and it worked well. But I've been frustrated when it hasn't happened too. One particular case is really, really frustrating me.

[Doug R.]

Well, the issue of people sleeping with keys is an entirely different matter, because they're NOT suicidal. They just don't play their characters, with no consideration for the rest of the characters in their towns.

Considerate hibernation is much preferable to OOC-motivated suicide (the motives, usually conscious or subconscious excuses to get rid of characters the player finds "boring," because they then go and make new ones in relatively short periods of time. It's not that they don't have time to play that number of characters, just that they don't have time to play -those- characters.)

I think each account should have 30 maximum slots. Once you've had thirty characters, you're finished in Cantr. You'd have to appeal to the GAB to get your slots unblocked, or spend a respectable amount of time away from the game, (say, you renew 15 slots 1 year after your last character dies).

[reve]

I think each account should have 30 maximum slots. Once you've had thirty characters, you're finished in Cantr. You'd have to appeal to the GAB to get your slots unblocked, or spend a respectable amount of time away from the game, (say, you renew 15 slots 1 year after your last character dies).

I would even reduce it to 20, really... And I will support this idea 'till I finish off all my Cantr characters.

[Piscator]

So you're trying to actively drive people away from Cantr now? I reached my 30 character limit a while ago and if my only choice would have been to play chars I don't particularly care for or leave altogether I'd probably have left.

I'm also not much in favour of extended periods of hibernation. I find it hard enought to get back into character after not playing one for two or three weeks. If a character has been in a coma even longer, it might be not worth waking him at all. He won't know most of the people, he won't know what happened in the last years, he wouldn't be part of the social group, he might not even be his old self. You can just as well let him die and start a new char.

[reve]

So you're trying to actively drive people away from Cantr now?

Please stop acting like 13yo spending 12h/day in front of PC. I was really annoyed when 20 minutes limit was removed. That is one of the biggest causes of last massacres in english and polish zones...

I reached my 30 character limit a while ago and if my only choice would have been to play chars I don't particularly care for or leave altogether I'd probably have left.

So you are trying to say that you create chars and don't have idea how to play them? Seems to me, you have too many of them...

I'm also not much in favour of extended periods of hibernation. I find it hard enought to get back into character after not playing one for two or three weeks. If a character has been in a coma even longer, it might be not worth waking him at all. He won't know most of the people, he won't know what happened in the last years, he wouldn't be part of the social group, he might not even be his old self. You can just as well let him die and start a new char.

Another non-RP approach... It would be even funnier when you wake up from hibernation and act as completely different person. If you don't want to - you can try to come back to normal life... RP, RP, RP...

[Piscator]

It really gets old very fast if you have to do it with 15 characters every one or two years.

About the other thing, I've been constantly playing for more than four years now, having a total of slightly more than 40 characters. If you play for such a long time there are of course characters that have reached their goal in life or are simply going nowhere. If you don't want to play a bunch of 90 year olds, it's necessary to let some of your chars die and replace them with fresh ones. Some of those replacements were my most favoured charactes ever.
Anyway, I don't see the point in forcing people to stick to their old characters when they're no fun anymore and/or forcing them to take a one year break after their thirtieth char died. It's a bitter medicine for an imaginary illness.

[curious]

I haven't been playing that long myself... but I imagine that if you had to take a year out before getting new character slots after say... 30? People wouldn't bother to log back in. The internet is fickle.

I do play my characters, and regardless of whether they fulfill the 'hero' model or not (apologies if this is implying that this is what people desire most. I know it not to be true in all cases)... I quite like that heart-sink moment when you read that your character is much weaker than average, and discover it can't do a damned thing right.

I get a little annoyed when players (and not the characters they play) express their own views through a character, that mine is suicidal, when in fact, its not... but hey... live and let die right..?

[SekoETC]

I think it's healthier to have old characters die eventually and start new ones than have the old ones live forever. I have one that has been sleeping for months real life. I guess the people in the location are probably feeding him since otherwise he would've probably starved by now. Another character of mine hasn't done pretty much anything lately except made a grass basket into which she didn't put anything. Both of these characters are supposed to finish drawing some sort of a map before they die but I can't be arsed to work on it. Then I have someone in a very small town who's just being a general nice guy but he has no goals left in life. I think if the suicide option got implemented, I'd probably kill him off. Some people would be sad no doubt and the town would probably crumble afterwards, but if there are no goals, why keep going just for the old times' sake? It would be handy to have someone around to inherit the town but people either go elsewhere or die.

[Doug R.]

Make new goals.

[Debsy]

Here's one of the biggest problems with that. A lot of the older players have left the game. And several continue to leave as it is. You lose players, people lose interest. And that's what's happening now. People losing interest, and losing more players. It's a sad sad circle Especially when the most of what we're getting now SEEM to be trollers/cheaters. (No, I am not categorizing all the new players in any way, just making an observation. They SEEM to be that way) I can name off quite a few people who fit in that category, old and new, that seem to just keep getting away with it. And that alone makes me skeptical about continuing to play as well. It's not just that we get bored with the characters, it's that on top of say, being in inactive places, on top of the amount of seemingly cheaters and trollers, maybe rl issues coming up. At least that's MY issue with it. That's why I've considered quitting on multiple occasions.

[SekoETC]

I've been playing for 6 rl years and I have no intention of quitting, but I think I'd feel better if I didn't have to look at the inactive ones on my character list. Too bad we can't give characters away like in FTO. I'm sure many of people would be happy to play an old wealthy character instead of a newspawn.