Posted by The Arcane(VIP) on October 19, 2000 at 12:09:36:
In Reply to: Couple of toothpicks in the fire: posted by Jyken on October 19, 2000 at 09:29:03:
> Interesting discussion...I'll throw a few points into it. This may not be a leading cause in the shrinking elite characters, but I think it might be a small one: Delete;Delete > I'd say that most of the upper-middle class CFers (and we're measuring by skill here) are delete;delete happy. It kind of handicaps them and squashes characters that, while they might not have been Istendil, would have given you a good population of decent characters at hero level to fight, explore, or be buddies with. It's sad to see how many rank 25ishs, that had potential, delete every day. Well, I'm against deletion over one death or something stupid like that. Spur-of-the-moment deletion is never a good idea, though I was once a major practitioner (I weep to think of deleting a level 18 fire warrior with 100%s across the board because I died once). But sometimes people just aren't enjoying the character the way they'd planned, regardless of potential, and in that situation, there's no reason to stubbornly persist in what should be an enjoyable game. > I think (and I'm probably a guilty party) that this delete;delete craze is a combination of being a skill practicing/pk perfectionist and for whatever reason not having that super deep tie to your character. I age-died Jyken...and I wasn't ready to give her up. I died 6 times to Glanduin's gang in one night and rushed to log her back in, totally naked (the char you creep, not me), the next morning. For me, what has made me delete every character in recent memory, basically losing a sense of what made the character cool to begin with, and hence ceasing to enjoy the role. This has taken 30 hours in some cases, or 400+ in others. > There's also sort of that shattering of wonder that Luckety mentioned. If you're not totally awed by being inducted into a cabal, getting that empowerment or tattoo, or receiving that title...it's easier to delete. Back in those first characters, I would have never deleted a tattooed or titled character. I think that IRC and ICQ tend to help shatter the wonder much faster. It's also harder to bury yourself into a character if you know who is playing its peers...shatters that Thera illusion really quickly to know that BillyBob on the IRC is playing the guy you're now ranking with. The guy is not longer a drow warrior who hates fruit and you can't really trust...it's just that BillyBob guy. This I agree with wholeheartedly. This is basically why I haven't been on IRC in 6 months. Sure, sometimes you RP and shoot the shit to pass the time, but it's impossible to seriously roleplay on any meaningful level when you have an OOC chat window with your groupmate just an Alt-Tab away.