Question about suicide button discussion.

[JsWill]

Okay, well I saw a while back a discussion about a suicide button, I was curious why there were so many arguments against it (I couldn't find it which is why I'm asking). I was also interested if anyone would be up for a way to kill off a character that wouldn't break immersion, wouldn't interrupt gaming activity by having a message that said character died, wouldn't effect role-play and allows people to do away with old and or unwanted characters that either are too old to be enjoyable anymore or are in a time consuming situation where they need to lower the character count.

I have a suggestion that I -think- would be easy and could do all those things, but I don't want to suggest it until I know the full story and more importantly if the programmers even think it would contribute to the game at all. Basically I don't want to waste anyone's time if the majority of the gaming base and or the devs don't support the idea for some reason I couldn't have concluded. I feel like posting here before posting in the suggestion forums is a great way of gauging success without making needless clutter in the suggestion forum.

[LittleSoul]

Yes please.
I don't see how it couldn't effect roleplay, but whatever. Just yes.

[JsWill]

I'm sorry for not being more clear. I meant not effecting role-play in an immersion breaking way.

[Estaar]

I'd be quite interested in such a button at the moment, I must admit. And at the same time, I would find it hard to decide which of my characters to push it for.

[EchoMan]

If I recall correctly, one of the strongest objections against this was because it would be too easy to just kill your char in a kidnapping situation, or in the heat of the moment. So there were discussions about adding a delay from clicking until the character actually died and so on. Can't really remember more detail without revisiting the topic.

[SekoETC]

Of course there should be a delay. But it's an accepted suggestion, so I'd prefer it didn't get buried because otherwise it might take years before it's implemented. I've already been here almost ten years, so I don't know if I can be expected to maintain my interest if it becomes impossible to recycle through characters because they're too slow to kill off. Last time I had to kill off a character, it took 17 days, and even then she had a bit of help. That's not realistic at all.

[Wolfsong]

I think any concerns about a suicide button would be alleviated if the button required a tool or weapon to work - for instance, it'd be incredibly jarring if a person who was placed in an empty room, naked, with no weapons or sharp objects, could still kill themselves. How do they manage that? Swallowing their tongue? Throwing themselves into a wall over and over until they're bloody putty?

I'd make it so that a sharp object (tools, weapons with an edge or a point) would be the basic requirement for suicide, and once the suicide button is pressed, the character takes heavy damage every 15 minutes or so for a set period of time (resulting in a percentage of damage over 100%), giving them time to reconsider and try to heal themselves.

[computaertist]

If I understand it, Wolfsong, what people are looking for is a way to end a life naturally, not violently. An act of God, not human. Character suicide is jarring to RP and generally unwanted. A player "suiciding" a character in the form of a heart attack or similar could be seen as not the character's fault. Requiring a tool removes that.

[Bmot]

I think any concerns about a suicide button would be alleviated if the button required a tool or weapon to work - for instance, it'd be incredibly jarring if a person who was placed in an empty room, naked, with no weapons or sharp objects, could still kill themselves. How do they manage that? Swallowing their tongue? Throwing themselves into a wall over and over until they're bloody putty?

I'd make it so that a sharp object (tools, weapons with an edge or a point) would be the basic requirement for suicide, and once the suicide button is pressed, the character takes heavy damage every 15 minutes or so for a set period of time (resulting in a percentage of damage over 100%), giving them time to reconsider and try to heal themselves.

I do like this idea, but a big drawback is that most people who want to get rid of a char don't want to have the char really commit suicide. They want an in-character way to kill off the char, so it would be from 'natural' causes (like a heart attack). There are enough chars that have hit a dead-end, storywise, but have no in-character reason to kill themselves...

PS: and computaertist just said exactly the same

[SekoETC]

Yeah, it's natural for Cantrians to have heart attacks, especially at young age.

[LittleSoul]

My reasoning for wanting this is purely for out of character purposes so that I can keep myself from quitting the game entirely as a result of having too many characters.

I'd really rather there be no delay on it because to me that defeats the purpose. It already takes forever to kill characters off. I don't want more waiting on a feature that is supposed to be faster in its primary reason of coming into existence.

As for protecting against the heat of the moment, since when is it the game's responsibility to make sure you keep control of your own emotions so that you don't make a decision you will later regret? If you are trying to kill your character out of anger at the game, or ooc reasons, or sadness, frustration, whatever.. that is on you. Control your emotions.

As for in character ways of 'suicide', heart attack works fine for me. ICly it is of course feasible, and out of character it lets me get rid of dead weight and keeps me playing. Perfect solution in my opinion.

[Wolfsong]

If it's an OOC mechanism, then there shouldn't be a delay on it, IMO. If it was IC, I can see the merit behind it - but if it's just a heart attack, there shouldn't be a delay.

[Doug R.]

I think the best option currently is to role-play a vomiting disease. If you can't keep food down, you can't eat, but at the same time, no one can claim that it's your character's fault, so you get spared most of the guilt trip that comes with a slow death.

[JsWill]

Sorry I wasn't able to reply, lots of fun thanksgiving stuff was going on. Anyways, the idea is definitely being killed by natural causes, but I add in a difficulty factor. For example, in order to kill off a character you need to find an isolated location (not a building, an actual location) and if you hit the button then it would show you were killed by wild animals or some other interesting deaths that I hope at some point would be implemented. The idea is to make it so that the characters death doesn't interfere with other characters role play, by that I mean it wont be awkward or out of character how this person died.

In my opinion, this would solve a lot of current issues that may not necessarily be issues, but to some extent some people could see as problematic, lowering the amount of sleepers being one. If a leader of a town is sleepy for the sole purpose he doesn't want that character anymore and had no way of disposing of it can be very problematic, not to mention all the other sleepy characters whose players wouldn't have their characters be sleepy if they had an IG way of disposing of unwanted characters.

Anyways, that's pretty much the idea in a nutshell, of course it would be more fleshed out once it's already made. I'll add suggestions and ways of doing it and possibly some other things as well, but from what I'm seeing quite a few people either support it or are willing to at least discuss it, but I don't want to make another suggestion if it's already accepted so can anyone give advice on what I should do in this case?

[bnlphan]

I think a quick death initiated by the character even if it shows as a heart attack or even said "death by suicide" is better than having to rp watching those commit suicide by filling their inventory with non edible items so they starve to death in front of everyone. Ive yet to see people drop their shield and attack themselves til they died. I have two charries I'm tire of playing, considering this method since its quicker. Guess others can rp it how they wish.