Amount of dead characters!

[Kyleite]

I just want to know how many, on average, people have died in there IC characters. Or better, how many a good roleplayer has created till they got the hang of it. :?:

[Vositus]

I thought you could only die once...

[Anonymous]

There can be only one!

[crymerci]

Everyone dies, sooner or later...I think the answer really varies from person to person. Also, some people may "get it" about combat characters, then go through a slew of deaths when trying to create a 'rinther or a political character, or vice versa.

[Kalden]

I'm on my fourth or fifth character, only my last one was even sorta long-lived, and I still haven't learned too much.

[Gawynn]

Er, I replied to this thread in the other posting under role-playing discussion - I saw it there first. *shrugs*

Gawynn

[ShaLeah]

I've been here approximately 19 months I think and have died 17 times, I think my longest character has been 4 months. I know someone whose first character is still alive and kicking and I believe it's been over a year now, great roleplayer too.  Getting the hang of it isn't really difficult, most can grasp it within the first couple of weeks.  I think, for me anyway, it's getting past the hurdle of making a character, dying quickly, coming up with a new concept when you were really looking forward to playing that last character and starting all over again. We can't all be as lucky as some are, right?  It's a dangerous place, surviving it can be seen as either luck or skill, I think it's a combination of both.

I don't think roleplaying ability has much to do with how long lived a character is. I have seen phenomenally played, interesting characters die within a week, that's always a disappointment for me as a player, I always wonder what would have happened -had- they lived.

Personally, it seems any time I really think out a character and -want- it to live long and proper, it dies. My throw away characters live -forever- and eventually become the ones I mourn the most.


ShaLeah
-who has had a couple characters killed that she thought were going to end up being cool as hell and ended up being scrab food instead.

[Gawynn]

Personally, it seems any time I really think out a character and -want- it to live long and proper, it dies. My throw away characters live -forever- and eventually become the ones I mourn the most.

It's amazing how that happens.  My current character I figured would die pretty quick, but surprisingly has been my longest lived (nearly 5 months, I think), so ya never know.

Gawynn

[Delirium]

The characters that you never expect to live any length of time usually end up being your longest-lived, and vice versa.

I've been through 5, I think, and I've been here since November 2002.

[Angela Christine]

A coward dies a thousand deaths, a brave man plenty more.

I think I'm up to 40 or 45, in two years of play, for an average lifespan of about two weeks.  Most of them lived for much less than that, and a few have lived up to 5 months.  What can I say, I like living dangerously but I'm not very good at it.

AC

[Canadian Beaver]

Hey, still going strong on my first char here. 40 days and counting!!!!(does this make me an uber char?) I've ran into my fair shar of problems though. The best I can recommend is finding some experienced chares to hang out with at the begining. Joining a clan, etc...

[creeper386]

Ooh... I've been arounds since June 2002... Have had thirteen characters, one stored. Play fairly often. Normally about 5-6 playing days when I've died out from one thing or another. Haven't had a really long lived character. Not going to hope for one either, when I start looking ahead or think I'm doing good I get killed.

Never think you are doing good, never plan ahead, never do stupid things. And if you really want to die, number one rule, don't die.

Creeper

[Sandferret]

I am currently averaging about 15 days played/character. The variance is from just a few hours to over fifty days.

Real time my average character lifespan would be just over one month, but it too varies from just two days to over four months.

And so you don't need to calculate it...I am on my sixth character now and have played a little over seven months.

[deviant storm]

I started an account on Aug. 8 of 2001, which means 20+ months of Arm.

I've gone through over 40 characters. Some died fast, some lived a while. I think 20 days online playing time for a couple. Hey, I like risks, I guess.

Like ShaLeah, it's the ones I don't expect to live that last nearly forever and have the most interesting lives at the end.

[Quirk]

Warning: poster rambles, semi-coherently and at length, through an analysis of his character survival rates and his thoughts on role-playing. Read on at your peril.

I've played Arm for something over 18 months and am now on my 18th char; I don't remember exactly when I started. I had some experience of role-play back when I began, though I was still ironing out a few twink impulses.

I think it was sheer bloodymindedness that kept me going through my first six characters. They didn't live long, on average, and I believe I tended to have significant gaps between them. The seventh stretched to about 10 days playing time or so. A few more short-lived characters in risky occupations followed before I got a grip on keeping my characters alive longer and if I count back over the last six characters, stretching through exactly 8 months of regular play, they've averaged about 7 days playtime apiece before snuffing it, a couple almost reaching twice that. (Of these six, one died to a definite code bug, one to what probably should be taken as a bug, and one to a "feature" of the code that did make sense when considering it after; a fourth fell to an incautiously taken toilet break. Those were incidentally the four longest-lived of the six. So it goes.)  The longer your character stays alive, the easier it is, generally, to keep them alive.

I don't tend to produce throw-away concepts, but some concepts appeal to me on a level others do not. My personal experience is that the characters with more appealing concepts have stayed alive at least as long if not longer, on average, than those crafted with equal care which failed to get me excited. Maybe I'm lucky that way.

As far as role-playing goes, I think there are a number of factors affecting how much and how fast you improve. Being round other good role-players is one of the most obvious ones. It's usually not terribly difficult to spot characters better-realised than your own, and it's always good to study your IC interactions with them on an OOC basis, considering what they do that you don't, and why it makes them better. Getting clear in your own head how your character thinks and how his or her worldview differs from your own is also very important; you're emulating another personality inside your head. Time alone with the "think" command can prove exceptionally valuable there. Different people take different paths and different lengths of time in their journey toward being better role-players, so I think that linking a certain number of characters or a certain length of time taken to role-playing prowess would be misleading at best.

On the subtly different measure of karma, there's a large element of trust involved there, and "remain patient" is the best advice I can give. It was likely a year before I got my first point; the others were faster to come.

Quirk

[Fedaykin]

I believe I've had eleven characters since 95/96. Although, I did take a pair of extended breaks durring those years, each being somewhere from 6 months to a year in length.  I tend to play longer lived characters.

[Moe]

I've played arm on and off for almost ten years now... I think I've had probebly around 50 chars... back in the day I used to think that making it to two or three days woudl be a great accomplishment.

In my most current run of about 3 years playing arm again, I think I've had mabey 5 chars, three of them (including my current) all had at least 20 days, the other two where basically transition chars. My current char has close to 70 days on them... I think a large part of this, is that as a player, I've explored most of the known world, and seen a lot of things.. so as a player, I don't feel the need to put my char in any kind of situation that could possibly lead to being dead.

I also think that in the past five years or so, the average lifespan of a PC has greatly increased. I think its pretty simple for a char to get up to 10 days now, because people are more concious about acting realistically.

-Moe The Schmoe
:twisted:  :evil:

[Gawynn]

I think I've played off and on about seven years or so, though sometimes with a year long break, or months in between. Sadly, on my account, I only have three characters listed, including my present one, and I have no idea how many I've had over the years. I wish there was a way I could find out. Either they weren't listed back when I first started playing, or else when they fixed up the karma system the previous characters were erased from the list or something.

[naatok]

"Do you know how pale and wanton and thrillful comes death in the strange hour, unannounced, unplanned for, like a scary overfriendly guest you've brought to bed?"

                   -James Douglas Morrison-

I've gotta say.  I'm enjoying my current pc, but I recently lost a pc I had 22 days playing time on and it SUCKED!  It sucked because I really got into the PC's personality and background.  It sucked because the PC was involved in all sorts of REALLY cool plotlines including a twisted soap opera-esque plot that had my PC ready to commit various horrid acts of murder, though he somehow managed to cling to the frayed ends of sanity and restrain himself.  But MOST of all, it SUCKED because the death wouldn't have occurred if I had been paying attention to what the fuck I was doing as a player.  heh.

So typical.  I've lost four cool PCs in this manner so you'd think I would learn something from it!  Heh.  You'd think!   :evil:

I don't mind losing PCs.  Even long-lived ones.  I just REALLY hate it when I do something as a player (or don't do something as a player) that really cheeses things up IC and gets a great PC of mine killed (to the hell-pits with YOUR PC.  I mean, C'mon!). :twisted:

I guess that's my rant on this subject.
For the record, I've been playing Arm for ten years at least.  I remember when there were halflings in Tuluk (and in Allanak!)..and I don't mean in the arena.  I remember when there were metal weapons and equipment all over the friggin' place!  I have no idea how many PCs I've created for this game, but I'd say its in the neighborhood of forty something.  I've gone from clueless twink to decent player to staff to idiot not paying attention to his prompt at the bottom of the screen!  
Not bad, I guess, for ten years of play.  I'm probably losing PCs now to senility!
"Honest, Lord Templar, I have no recollection of that!"   :twisted:

[Hot_Dancer]

I started getting the hang of it after I stopped making 'rinthi characters..
Around a 3 year and 15 character count..

Hot_Dancer

[krelin]

Naatok.  Dude.  Dawg.  Man.  I had the EXACT same thing happen to one of my FAVORITE characters ever!!!  I died SO stupidly, and I was SO upset.  And it was TOTALLY me being an idiot.  Me me me me me.  It wasn't HIS fault.  He would NEVER have done that.  And he would've fled MUCH sooner.  And then I had to lay there passed out for minutes (RL minutes) waiting for him to finally die.

And then I had a character die to what I still totally insist is a combat bug.  Then again, I was being an idiot then, too.  An idiot!

Being an idiot makes playing this game a -lot- harder.

[Margo]

I used to play Arm alot, way back in the day before growing up, joining the Army and seeing the world.  I was pretty good, need practice, only just started back up with it.

For me, it bothers me if I don't atleast have some kind of skill to support my role playing.  If I have to stand my ground, it helps me to know I have atleast a chance of surviving.  So in the begining I push to develope my skills a bit more then I should. (with in reason of course).

That being said, I did play a Templar once who had absolutely the WORST stats I have ever seen on a character.  They were so bad, that I really fears "practicing" at swords" with anyone, because I didn't want it to get out I was weak and my hps were so bad I might not survive the ordeal.

So I roleplayed him as one really mean Templar and people got out of my way when I enter a room.  Which was ok by me, because anyone of them could have taken me out.

Where as if he was a half way decent charatcer I would have role played him entirely differently.

[mansa]

Since November 1998, I've had 44 characters.
3 of them are stored / retired.
One is alive.

One was alive for 50 playing days, another at 38, another at 19, and a bunch just under the 10 days playing time.

And a heck of a lot at the two days mark.