I got to thinking that a lot of people are very attached to their characters and have put literal years into them and don’t really consider a time when or if they’d stop playing them.
With that in mind do any of you ever plan on shelving your main toons at any point? Not so much as you’re quitting the game, just moving on to a different character for a variety of reasons. What would those reasons be?
Alternatively how would you do it? Would just a simple race/name change suffice or would you cook something up IC to give it a sense of finality? I’d be interested in hearing about it!
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God I’ve thought about it so many times, but the name ‘Thokk’ has emotional weight and significance for me.
And as silly as it sounds, I won’t let it become ANYONE ELSE’S
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I’ve shelved a LOT of characters. Usually it happens because whatever their primary arc was at the time was fulfilled and I couldn’t really come up with a new conflict for them to resolve.
Example: my reclusive Pandaren warrior, Iwayama Jugo. Started out with a basket of issues rooted in an upbringing with an abusive father and uncle, years of confusion about sexual identity, a doomed marriage and the loss of most of his family in one day in a Saurok raid in Krasarang.
When these various points were resolved one by one (achieving healthier expressions of grief, reconciling with his ex-wife and even rebuilding a tentative friendship, accepting his true sexuality and starting a much healthier relationship with a Huojin mage, and overcoming Sha possession by fully coming to terms with his father’s abuse), there was little left for him to explore. This may change but for now he’s settled and much happier.
And sometimes… something just doesn’t click, or work out as I’d like, and they end up going back in the box. Often to stay but sometimes to be rebooted.
It depends on the character. In some cases I did rename the avatar and start it fresh with a different story. In others I just let it peacefully gather weeds.
I tried retiring a character once.
Got guilted into bringing him back because a friend said his character relied on mine’s presence.
Brought him back, friend stops playing WoW shortly after. Tried retiring him, oh, friend is back, wants me to bring my character outta retirement.
I bring him back, friend stops playing. Again.
I should just learn to not feel so much pressure to do something with a character just because others want me to.
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That’s pretty bad on your friend’s part, I’m sorry that happened. But you’re right, you shouldn’t feel pressured to play a character that other people want. It’s yours! You made it, named it, wrote it. If you want to retire your character and move on to greener pastures, then you’re allowed to.
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It can be hard sometimes to draw a line between the expectations of others and what you want for yourself and your creations. Eventually, someone somewhere is going to be disappointed. There’s a point where you’ve got to look out for yourself, though. Nobody is more entitled to your character than you.
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I have retired many characters for many reasons. Some reached their narrative conclusions and I can stop playing them confidently knowing that I don’t need to continue to RP on them. Others just didn’t work out due to me not being able to find a good concept for them or others not jiving with them.
I RPed my Sin’dorei mage for a very very long time. from Burning Crusade all the way to Legion. He evolved and changed from a young magister to a powerful archmage. Until his lust for power got the best of him. Over the years I’ve had to change his character and age just because of the things I’ve added on or the communities I’ve migrated to since it made sense for him to be that way.
My Demon Hunter was my biggest source of frustration yet my greatest triumph. I tried for years to bring him into the game in a meaningful way. Yet I constantly had to deal with drama with him because of the way I was trying to make him. A spellbreaker that became a Demon Hunter. A concept that I couldn’t really translate well. I joined an Illidari guild when Legion came out and it quickly fell apart and I was accused of being the reason of it.
I realized that it would just be a much better idea to yank my Demon Hunter away from WoW and never RP him in game again. The way he was wasn’t compatible with the way WoW roleplaying works. And to write my own stories about him using characters and concepts from positive experiences I’ve had with him in game. He’s reached a narrative conclusion that I am more than satisfied with.
I don’t think I’m going to retire my shaman anytime soon. He will always be my main character. So I will always RP on him.
Never let others tell you what character you should be playing. It is not worth it. Write what you want and be happy.
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Obligatory; Buddy I haven’t held a single character long enough to reach retirement.
Added; Any character that’s lasted long enough to see RP has always amalgamated into some effective rehash of the same character I end up making every time so. You know. Oops.
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Looks at roster of unplayed Himbo characters
I too know this pain.
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Oh it’s himbos? yeah I have plenty of those that just… standing around
I’ve retired a few, mostly because (as stated) those characters ran their course.
My dwarf hunter overcame his issues and became a farseer, retiring to the Hinterlands until further notice.
My troll hunter found a mate and family and settled down.
My human sniper lives a quiet, unassuming life in MU Shattrath’s Lower City, where he runs a small gunsmith and armory.
Everyone else just either hasn’t reached that point or doesn’t have a story to aim for.
Funnily enough I sorta did that big time in mid-Legion when I realised my Australian timezone was not conducive to regular RP with all my Alliance friends xD
From MoP to early Legion I had an almost-exclusively Alliance roster and a bunch of friends who were Alliance as well. I had a precursor to Sarestha here, and I moved her to Moon Guard for server space - there’s still a Moon Guard Sarestha as a result, in fact. My old Horde main. But other than her I was largely Alliance because of my Alliance friends, and filled all 11 character slots with alts xD
But the glory days of RP for me honestly was when I was studying at university and had somewhat more flexible hours. I kinda got depressed about it all when I could rarely RP with my regular friends (at best I could manage one day a week at times that fit best for them) and a lot of the characters were so tied up in plots that I felt I couldn’t RP them WITHOUT my friends. So I sorta started moving on innately, started exploring new RP characters. Making an WRA version of Sarestha was the first step along that road. Making my Void Elf, Fal’therin, was the next. I felt like I was getting a new beginning. I didn’t ditch my friends, but I said goodbye to the characters I guess.
Did I fully retire them? Nah not ENTIRELY. Some of them still make cameos here and there. A few I did kill off or simply retire. My Dwarf Haldreth for example, I feel his story had done all it needed to and he’s now retired up near Aerie Peak, and I doubt I’ll bring him out again. I tried a while back on request but… it didn’t feel right. He’s retired. He’s done.
But the majority of my time goes into Sarestha these days, and with Lordaeron Unbound there’s been RPs most nights that I’m free, which has been awesome! I’ve really enjoyed my new beginning, in a way! Around 3 years now and I’ve not looked back.
Oh.
Oh yes.
– Without sounding dramatic, I do take the approach to characters, even in a shared collaborative space, as being products of an arc of conflict. I will not fault those who continue to write the same characters over long stretches of time, through various themes and levels of demand of ‘seriousness’. But I have a tendency to have a particular end-goal in mind for everyone I write. I find that most characters in world like our beloved Warcraft – well, they die rather than retire.
Now, sometimes that is waylaid by the efforts of incredibly talented writers that I am blessed to share the same bandwidth as. But all the same, I am believer that characters have a beginning, a middle – and an end.
I have never been one to really substantiate the claims that a long-lived character is better. Perhaps it is a digression, but I have encountered that mindset quite often. ‘I have played this character for eight years’. – That is wonderful, I want the opportunity to read that work if it is acceptable for the author – but that does not instill any kind of ‘high ground’ by default.
For those characters I have retired, whether they could exist canonically still or not – I tend to simply rename them unless I have a strong emotional attachment and/or OOC desire to retain the name for my own personhood. Retain the great memories and stories as much as I can, and move forward onto new pastures.
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Does having all your RP hopes for your characters turn to ash because you’d rather hunt mogs or level lowbies count?
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I find myself creating a lot of characters in general. Oftentimes, especially these past few years, many don’t get to see much use; either because I’m busy with other characters of mine or I can’t find a place in the community to fit them (that itself being for various reasons).
One of oldest surviving characters ooc, Rosyllyn, has more or less gone years without ic use. In her particular case this was, again, for a variety of reasons. One of the main ones was the aforementioned finding a place for her to fit. In the past I mainly engaged in walk-ups with her, using research projects as the catalyst. I’ve always wanted to do more than that however, still primarily focused around arcane magic; unfortunately few guilds seem to exist that share that focus.
Rosyllyn is pretty much one of the only characters of mine that could be considered shelved, beyond those that were deleted for space; many of those weren’t well established to begin with. Between not seeing a place for her among guilds most of the time, not really knowing what else she could do that I’d be willing to effort into again, and being occupied with other characters, I’ve more or less lost the motivation to try. These days I mainly keep her around for nostalgic reasons, being the second ever developed character I created in this game.
I’d consider her more to in stasis, as I’m still hopeful about eventually finding something for her. Ic she’s in a cozy and quiet position but I’m still willing to pull her out of it if an opportunity arises. Recently I’ve been formulating a survey for her to conduct, but in the process of that my enthusiasm for how it will turn out is already dwindling.
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As someone who did retire a character after ten long years of wonderful, if a bit inconsistent, story–it is inevitable.
While yes, people do have emotional attachment to their characters (As they should, as any creator should) there comes a time when a story is done. The character has achieved what they wanted, and now the storyteller stops the tale.
The alternative is what I call ‘Comic Book Syndrome’, where events are made to keep the character going when they should’ve stopped long ago. Take a look at famous spandex like Spider-Man (best hero) and Batman. Certain arcs shine more than others because they don’t continue–but they also need to keep the character going so, uh-oh, Spider-Man suddenly can’t bring himself to grow up and makes a deal with Mephisto, or Batman gets left at the altar and can’t put up the cape because ‘Gotham’. In worst cases, they betray what the character stood for, or muddle the message and arc that defined the character’s growth.
I’m ranting about comic books. SMH. Back to topic! All stories end, and that includes our beloved characters. It hurts, but it has to be done, in my opinion.
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Every character has an arc - fulfilling that arc is incredibly satisfying, and sometimes it’s difficult to let that characters story end. Still, I think it’s important to know when a story has run its course and it’s time to move on to other pastures.
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Vanndrel here was retired for YEARS until the Void Elves gave me a reason to blow the dust off the character and literally bring him back from the dead.
Which is slightly ironic on that front, since he’d been retired for three expansions before I’d finally put in a definitive end for him at the start of Legion (Dying on the Broken Shore assault years after retiring to Pandaria). Little did I know by the end of the expansion I’d have cause to actually utilize the character again.
He replaced (rather literally, I paid for the race change) my former Human Hunter character I’d been maining since the end of Mists of Pandaria. I wrapped up that character’s story and basically retconned it to where he’d never left AU Draenor.
My first RP character. Blood Elf Rogue. I loved Blood Elves in Warcraft 3, and I wanted to see what an RP server was.
He was young and dumb, and so was I. Though as time goes on you lose friends. Maybe they quit playing, or things went sour, or they killed off their character. So I retired him to the ruins of Silvermoon after Mist, where he helps in rebuilding the area and doing manual labor. He helped a bit with the Legion but it was back to the ruins.
Maybe someday he will be back. But hopefully instead I’ll get mileage out of this character or others. New stories and new friends.