Death, dying, that mortal coil...

Joined: Posts: -19

I think an open discussion should be put forth on the issue of dying in the game. There are three kinds of deaths, in my mind - all of which should probably be looked at differently. So, even if I speak with a deal of conviction, these are really just my thoughts on the matter.

1) PvE deaths: The typical, for most of us, is death due to the environment.

2) PvP deaths: Deaths due to having drunk from the Fountain of Slaughter, visited upon you by another who had done the same.

3) RP deaths: When a player decides to kill off his own character, for good.

So, how do we handle deaths?

-- The RP death is, of course, final. And the RP death of a character is NEVER to be forced unless it is welcomed by that character's handler. Deletion is also, in many cases, also final. I don't know if they changed the rules here so that you cannot create a character with the same name as the one you had deleted, so that would be the exception.

Otherwise your new character is NOT your old one, nor does he have the other's memory.

Character creation is (and this is going to be painfully obvious, I apologize) CREATION. You have different attributes, you a different name - hell, you have a different height and weight.

In my mind, we need to make a distinction between the RP death and PvP/PvE deaths-

-- The latter two types of death, as I see it, are when your physical being is no longer able to sustain you in the mortal plane but your spirit is denied entrance to the mists, nether, etc. You are neither dead nor alive. It is, in fact, limbo. The Gods grant you another vessel to carry your spirit, and you are eventually returned to the mortal plane.

Now, I can see that there should probably be yet another distinction between a PvE and PvP death. I don't think that it is anything that is hard-coded into the game or that, even, it should be.

But it seems to me that perhaps there should be some sort of penalty for both the person who falls and the person who ... fell him. (Is that right?) The consequences of the death should be felt in RP, and BOTH parties should understand and uphold the responsibility to hold their respective character to them.

It should mean something more in the social atmosphere, death in PvP probably shouldn't be taken all that lightly. From what I've heard, it's not taken lightly. However....

Your death in the game should have been delivered upon you for an IC reason. That means that any resentments (and your character should probably have some) should be IC resentments. If your character was not killed for IC reasons, or if some yellow bellied twit violated rules of the game in killing you and tried to use IC as a lame coverup, then the issue is no longer one of IC. Violating the rules of the game is generally an OOC issue.

In-character things should be handled in-character, out-of-character things should be handled out-of-character.

It keeps things tidy - this is after all, a game.

Anyways, that's my take on death - what's yours? - Auliya Rys