How do -you- stick to a character?

Kenway

What makes my character stick for me (I had about 10 or so before Kenway) is that for once when I felt like exploring something different and dissatisfied with where I started, instead of rolling an Alt I moved Kenway. Suddenly he had actual back story that wasn't just head cannon and there were consiquences for his actions and the culture shock of moving from Mhaldor to Eleusis is a huge part of what makes Kenway Kenway.

Sobriquet

Krypton said:

A complete and utter intolerance for inefficiency.

I don't appreciate when people waste my time in real life, and I consider starting anew a waste of my time, too. "Why would I want to bash to Logosian... again?" "Why would I want to have to amass all that gold/credits/supplies... again?" "Why would I want to write twenty Newcomer essays... again?" "Why would I want to walk everyfuckin'where for Achaean Ranger... again?"

15 years of only Krypton -- not once have I made a re-roll character for the purpose of trying out a different class/city/faction -- purely because the thought of "doing it all again" nauseates me.

If there's something I want to try badly enough in Achaea, it will be done on the character for whom so many investments and resources have already been made available.

This is stopping me retiring my Mhaldor character even though I've not played him in a RL year. I'm torn between starting again anew somewhere else and losing some investment or getting back into him and potentially moving him on. The one thing stopping me starting over is the boring time investment needed to get him to 80 or above. 

Nataliia

I'm kind of a one-IRE-char-at-a-time sorta girl. It's too much work to get multiple stories and characters straight in my head. So while I definitely have a ridiculous number of IRE characters spread throughout all the games (thankfully less now that retirement became a thing), Nataliia is my focus.

When I made her I did something completely unconventional for me, and way out of my box. I made her without any sort of background whatsoever. Usually I formulate a pretty in-depth past for my characters so that they have substance right out the gate. But this time I changed it up. I can't say that was particularly easy, and it caused a lot of hitches and made her feel somewhat hollow for a while, but it also allowed for RP to dictate and form who she was and what kind of person she is.

Like many have said before me, investment is a huge part of what makes me stick to her. She's my retirement baby, which means I have about 17k credits invested on her (it started out at like 13k, but uh... kinda went up in the last RL year of her being a thing). Every time I start a new character I think about the fact that she's practically omni-trans, and has 5 trade skills, and seafaring. She's also a dragon, and there's no way in hell I'm bashing to dragon twice. Nope. Nadda. Never. Not to mention having to hunt down blue dragon scales and gold dragon teeth again which I still have not managed to even get 64 of in the first place? Screw that right up the...

For me, when I'm in an RP rut or character development rut, I tend to play more with my trade skills. That helps pass the time. Selling stuff helps generate gold so I'm not broke. Getting into mining is fun for me, but time consuming. So I do a li'l bit of this, a li'l bit of that, anything that can cater to any kind of mood I might be in.

Also class. Class is huge. I don't really actually like the character concept of Knight classes. I find them incredibly droll. But I like the feel of it in terms of hunting and combat. So, even though I am a class I never ever wanted to play before, I'm also kinda in love with it.

Kafziel

Get dragon, invest hundreds/thousands of dollars, have no desire to do either of those over again.

Boom, stuck.

Shirszae

Definitely .One of the things that keep me on Shirszae is that I'd have no hope of getting even half the arties and lessons I have on her on any other character.

That being said, there's some people I enjoy playing with far too much to abandon ship as well.

Ahmet

@Shirszae technically, retirement precisely grants you half the arties and lessons you have on Shirszae on pretty much any other character you wish.

Nazihk

Ahmet said:

@Shirszae technically, retirement precisely grants you half the arties and lessons you have on Shirszae on pretty much any other character you wish.

Depends.

You won't get back artifacts you got from the wheel, or ones you bought with racetrack winnings, or Bardic/Artisanal wins, etc, etc. If you hit it big on promotions you can easily end up in a position where your retire value is like 20% of your character value.

Frederich

Artifacts gotten from the wheel do count towards retirement value.  As do credits won from the racetrack.  If this isn't the case, then Frederich's retirement value has zero right to be as high as it is.

@Nazihk

Mishgul

Adhesive

Shayde

Mishgul said:

Adhesive

Such a dad joke!

Quisse

I'm pretty sure I am in the minority here, but I am a serial altmaker (I even have a mudlet profile that I -call- "Altmaker"). As I've said before on this forums, alts are the only way to find a new main, and Quisse marks my third main character I've created since I started playing well over a decade ago now.

Why do I do it? Because I want to play with all of you, so I do. Quisse is a zealot; she's never going to strike up a conversation with @Kenway or @Dunn or @Ellodin (and really, I could @ dozen of people who don't ever cross paths with Quisse, but DO cross paths with me), but my alts can, will, do, and enjoy every moment of it. I also enjoy creating and exploring different personas. I can think of no better outlet for this than Achaea!

I've been playing IRE games for a long time. I have a secret theory that we're all the same players that have been here all along, just alting merrily away from our original mains. But the point is...even those people who are my IC rivals are people who I'd love to play this game with, and OOC bias is too strong to make that happen in any sort of organic way.

Not to mention that alting provides a much needed respite from the character I'm currently using as a main. Roleplaying a zealot is hard work. Sometimes a girl just wants to fish, you know?

Antonius

The sheer size of the investment (over 100k credits, I think) in my one and only character makes the idea of starting again - even with retirement now available - unfeasible.

Shirszae

Ahmet said:

@Shirszae technically, retirement precisely grants you half the arties and lessons you have on Shirszae on pretty much any other character you wish.

Pretty sure credits earned from the bardics don't count at least. I know people with far less arties and lessons than me with more retire value.