The Daily Grind: Leaving your last love behind

by Krystalle Voecks Mar 16th 2009 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Roleplaying

Let's face it - we invest a lot in our characters over time. Maybe you have that one devoted main that you come back to, no matter what happens. Perhaps you've spread your love over a series of alts. Whatever the case may be, the truth is that many of us tend to get emotionally invested in our characters as time passes. We've worked hard, gotten them nice gear, picked up a nice mount, gotten an in-game house, etc. (depending on game). So, when the shine has worn off your old favorite game, and you're at the point where it's time to move on, how do you say goodbye?

The team here have done everything from visiting favorite zones one last time; logging out in a particularly pretty area; throwing a party with friends as a way to burn off back-stocked food/drink; or logging out in the place where we felt we had the most fun in the game. There again, others on the team just logged out and didn't really care, although it seemed like more often than not, that was the case in games we didn't really click with anyway. This morning we thought we'd ask you - when you've moved on from game to game, retiring your old adventuring 'friend' as it were, did you do anything special before you signed out and shut the account down? Or did you just sign out without a second thought? If you did something special, what did you do?

Tags: cancel, goodbye, last-day, logging-out, moving-on, role-playing, rp, tdg, the-daily-grind

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Shuttler said on 8:08AM 3-16-2009

To me it doesn't matter where I log out for the last time, it's all about one last blast with friends or PUG will do as second choice.

Pick a dungeon or an encounter and have fun, leave on a high.

I do find it hard to leave MMO's though, beat myself up over the decision to drop it. Then when I do it feels like a lost limb for a while.

Tom said on 8:12AM 3-16-2009

Sign out without a second thought. Seriously.

Oueddy said on 8:26AM 3-16-2009

I second that, its only a game. Played WoW religiously for a year then, after a 2 week holiday, realised it was a waste of time and deleted my account.

Dlangar said on 8:34AM 3-16-2009

I'm convinced all of my characters from previous and currrent games are sitting together somewhere, in a Dollhouse-esque room in the ethersphere, waiting for their opportunity to be played again. Mostly chicks, but a few guys as well, playing cards, working out, swimming laps -- eyeing jealously those characters from whichever MMO is my flavor of the month.

But my characters are never truly abandoned, and no MMO is ever truly left behind. Just like that girl I knew in college.. I often say goodbye, but we both know in six month's time or so we'll be calling each other up again..

Dlangar
http://ofcourseillplayit.com

Yahree said on 9:17AM 3-16-2009

Usually if I'm sure I'm never coming back, I will sometimes delete my character.

In the case of everquest 2 I was on a station exchange server and when I decided it was time to quit I sold off both my high level characters. Somewhere out there they ARE still there, being played and possibly even enjoyed.

With eq1 I didn't really have a choice to sell since they don't allow it and so my 66 cleric and my 65 necromancer are still sitting there.

Andrew said on 1:59PM 3-16-2009

For wow, I think I just logged off, never deleted, never gave anything away.

For Eve-online, I did a different approach. My characters were to valuable and I spent too much time working n them to just let them sit collecting dust. So I game them to friend, in the hopes that they will be of continued use and enjoyment. As far as I still know, they are still out their... making my friends happy. *sniff*

Ironically thought, I very much considering going back to wow, though being out of the grind for 2 years. Glad I didn't delete my dwarfpriest now.

papagouda said on 9:50AM 3-16-2009

I played WoW for 3+ years and quit without a second thought. I have enough of a life outside of a video game to not get that wrapped up in a virtual personality. It was the same way when I stopped AoC.

It's fun, and a bit sad, to see some of my friends who play MMOs refer to themselves as their character's name and tell people who don't play, and who could care less, about their virtual adventures. The friends who play EQ are the worst of the lot.

I enjoy my MMOs and play a good bit, but I just can't let myself become that absorbed in a character. It's just weird to become defined by a video game 'toon as opposed to your real life accomplishments and relationships.

To each his own, though. Maybe excelling at an MMO is someone's grandest life accomplishment.

Fess said on 10:43AM 3-16-2009

I work with a guy similar to that. 36 years old, lives with his gamer roommate and two cats, and every single thing he talks about pertains to MMOs. Literally every conversation I have with him will quickly revert back to what he's done in EQ2, or how his guild is doing in WoW, or what he's heard about SWTOR, how he had to borrow cash from his parents to register his car because he blew his entire paycheck on EQ2 crap and having multiple active MMO accounts...etc etc. I think I could honestly say that MMOs have destroyed his life, and he's enjoyed it.

When I feel like I'm getting tired of an MMO, or it's taking up too much of my free time, and I decide to quit, he's what I think about. His life (or lack there of) is the biggest motivator to just log off and walk away. Since knowing him, it's been quite easy for me to just log out and not think about it again.

UltimateQ said on 5:18AM 3-17-2009

While I agree your friend has made some poor choices, such as blowing away paychecks. The overall sentiment that he is lower than you just because he becomes absorbed in an MMO is kind of condescending. Please understand I'm not trying to knock you or anything.

Is it any worse to be recognized for your accomplishments in a video game, rather than your accomplishments in real life?

I'm not trying to be insulting, and if I have come across that way, I apologize.

Tomakins said on 10:11AM 3-16-2009

In EQ I tried to get myself banned so I 'couldn't' play again. Would trick people, who wanted a Binding, into teleporting them back where they came from. Or having a friend start a new character, invite a twink into the group, and port that twink into the Karanas somewhere so they would get wiped out and lose all their twink gear. (rotten move, I know) But I was never banned.

Finally I got rid of everything and went nekkid and invisible into Nagafen's Lair with another fellow druid. We wanted to see a dragon before we quit (were about level 30-31 at the time).

The place was cleaned out so we dueled for a while and I camped outside his entryway...not knowing (months later when I got sucked back in) that Fire Giant Wizards spawned there.

Died about 20 times before having to yank the power on my pc. This is back when you couldn't alt+tab out and I was getting killed so quick I couldn't run, port, camp, or /quit out of there.

Charlie said on 10:13AM 3-16-2009

I know that with most games I play I will be back, unless I've been banned ;-)

My first online game as a kid was diablo 2, that kinda sucked because I keep going back to that game every year or so, and all my characters have 'expired.'

With WoW I know I will be back, but it is difficult for me, my brother, and 6 nieces and nephews all play, so it's hard to break away from it. My game card is about to expire on it, and I don't think I will renew it.

I'm going to give diablo 2, AoC, and WAR another try, with a supplemental Counter-Strike: Source in there.

I think with WoW, I will go PVP on my last night, and leave my alts in the inn to get the rested XP ;-)

I know I will be back sooner or later.

littlelostrobot said on 10:22AM 3-16-2009

I used to get sentimental about leaving characters behind, but not any more. I think it was partially because (back in the day) SOE stated that they wouldn't save characters for very long once an account was cancelled.

So my EQ gang and I all kpet subscribing to Everquest or subscribed to station pass to keep our characters alive and 'active'. Later on, we realized this wasn't the case and decided to close up shop.

We went on of "Norrath Revenge Tour" with our high level toons, obliterating all of NPCs that gave us a hard time back when we are lowbies. We would roleplay small tribunals and have a quick hearing before sentencing each character to death. I took great pleasure and killing the Dark Elf Dorn D'vinn in the North Ro desert.

But now that all the MMOs save account data, I just unsubscribe without a second thought. If it's a game I KNOW I'm not coming back to, I'll hand out my junk to friends and strangers.

UltimateQ said on 10:23AM 3-16-2009

After playing Everquest for 6 years. I couldn't just "logout without a second thought".

Getting the epics for my 2 chars on my 2 accounts, playing my bard through some 10 expansions slowly becoming one of the top 10 bards on my server and becoming one of the top 50 game wide. I did become emotionally attached to him.

After my guild in Everquest had it's last raid, and we all parted ways. I tried to stick with it and join other guilds, but honestly, my heart was broken. Most of my friends, whom I had become quite fond of, had joined other guilds, transferred servers or quit all together.

I tried to stick it out and join another guild, and I quickly got accepted. But the game had lost its luster after the whole ordeal.

To leave the game once and for all, I sold both of those accounts. I got quite a pretty penny for both. Do I regret it? Sometimes. But in the end, I think I made the right choice.

Since then I've tried to play other games, including World of Warcraft and others. The game that has left the best impression on me is Vanguard. Although I think I may be able to find a good home in Darkfall if it has a good community.

But currently, I have no home. And yes, I miss the old days of EQ, but I know it will never be the same experience again.

xiphos said on 7:59PM 3-16-2009

I played WoW since closed Beta. Finally, 6 months ago, I lost interest but kept the account, thinking I would regain it. A friend offered to take the account and I gave it to him. I was only able to break free by doing that. Now I'm addicted to EVE.

danarchy said on 11:35AM 3-16-2009

Usually give away any of my non soulbound crap to my friends, park all my alts in an area where they get whatever the games version of "rested" is and log out. No melodramatic deleting or anything in case I ever care to play again. If the game has taken a turn I know I will never get over (e.g. DAoC's atlantis expansion) I will craigslist my account and use the money to take my girlfriend to the coast or something, to make up for the time I spent hehe.
I sold my eq1 enchanter for 1800 bucks back in the day to some german kid, used the money to fund my own trip to germany which i thought was ironic.

Jess said on 12:27PM 3-16-2009

The only game where I would really feel sad about shutting my account down etc would be my Dwarf in LOTRO. But since I have a lifetime membership that will never have to happen until Turbine shuts the servers down.

Skuz said on 12:34PM 3-16-2009

I've only "retired" from 1 game, namely EQ (I played others very casually but only EQ was what I considered my home for so many years).

As my main was a Troll Berserker & I very much roleplayed it a lot of the time I took him to Ak Anon for a "slap-up" dinner, consisting of slapping a lot of Gnomes upside the head hehe, then to Rivervale to spread some hate & misery among the always happy halflings (they tasted good as always full of pie), & for the finale I washed it all down with some good beer, courtesy of ransacking Kaladim (home of the Dwarves).

I then settled him back in his hometown of Grobb with a belly full of assorted short people to have a nice, permanent nap.

Until that is SoE stop f***king Berserkers over & make a decent expansion, when I might awaken him for some more slaughter.

borgy78 said on 1:18PM 3-16-2009

well the last mmo i said a big good bye to was WoW, i had got very addict by lvl 67 only (pre wotlk) and itr was really depressing when i realised i had to do the /quit and del. so i gave all my cash away to the guys i liked best then logged out in the current city i was in some random town in the end zone with the belfs, then deleted it. a little moment of pondering my action 5minutes of OMGWTF did i do. then nostalgic runs to wowinsiders for a month and now i think why the hell did i ever like that game.

LOL

Taurias said on 3:24PM 3-16-2009

It was swg and I was finally saying goodbye to the only character I've ever really loved. I took her to a solitary location out on yavin, snuck into the sith enclave, sat her in one of the tiny side rooms where she could be alone and logged out with a /sigh. And there, she died alone just as she'd lived for the most part, mourning the future she'd always wanted and knew would never be.

Qest said on 6:01PM 3-16-2009

When I was done with FFXI, after years invested, I had a small gathering for my guild on the cliffs of Sarutabaruta, outside of Windurst, where I had spent many hours with the fishbotters, praying for crabs to MPK.

We just hung out and chatted, and I put in a trouble ticket to a GM to thank them for the game, and to my surprise, the GM showed up and hung out! He chatted with us, we took some screenshots, and to prove to the afk people they had missed something major, he teleported them onto the top of big rocks and left them there. Good times.

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