Character suicide

[Erika]

Hello,
I was wondering if there is something like a @suicide command? I have some characters I would wish to lay off.. and well it bugs me that they're still there.
poErika

[chara]

I believe it is with a huge amount of intention that there is no @suicide command. If there were ever a more drama-laden command for a mud, I haven't heard about it! I believe talking to an arch (most likely the player arch) could result in the removal of unwanted characters.

[Erika]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to turn the mood down =(
I just liked to have full control of my characters (even OOC!)

But I suppose you are right.. Thanks for the hint!

[Naga]

Oh, that could be interesting. When you arrange it, ensure that the suicide is both public and original. By this, I mean something that hasn't been overdone like hanging or slitting the wrists. We all expect you could do better than that, dear. After all, it is suicide; your character has already decided to take the extreme choice of self-destruction, ending it all, and to go out without style is unfashionably careless.

Here a couple no-fail suggestions: Have your character tear out his eyes with his bear hands before hurriedly jamming a sharpened twig into the brain through one of the profusely-bleeding, gaping holes. Meanwhile, writhe and convulse on the ground for good measure. Alternatively, you could bite your tongue in half, bleeding and swelling, either dying of bloodloss or as a result of the swollen tongue blocking your airway.

Afterwards, you would be the talk of the Forostar, and your corpse (which of course would have a grisly description of the effects of suicide) could be disposed of in some way befitting an adventurer (headstone in the Arborean cemetery, perhaps?). Naturally, the courts in their respective cities should determine what becomes of the deceased's belongings (bank account balance, locker items). This could also provide an incentive to extend court authority to wills and other documents.

[tessa]

What about the ones that want to die quickly/painlessly?

[Naga]

What about the ones that want to die quickly/painlessly?

You suggest I give advice to pansies?

[lirynel]

I agree with Erika it would be nice to have a suicide command. Maybe it could be restricted to only work on characters with less that 10 or 20 online hours. I know I have several chars I've created here in the past and never played for one reason or another and it does seem 'tidier' to dispose of them.

[shannon]

What about the ones that want to die quickly/painlessly?

hmm... visit the pub of your choice and drink and drink and drink and drink.... of course alcohol. with enough alcohol in your veins you will pass out and die without noticing... not quick but usually painless :>

[Abharsair]

I don't think a "suicide" command would add anything to the game. Here's why.

1) If it's restricted to new characters less than <put in number of hours> old: A player file is just a couple of kilobytes, which is in the era of gigabyte harddrives quite insignificant. We also run every year or two a program which purges those characters who haven't been online for a couple of hundred days, and are only a few hours old. So the only reason one might have is to re-use the name of a character they don't want to play anymore, in which case they can tell an Admin to delete him, or they can simply introduce with the desired name, because usually no one ever knows what your real-name is anyway.

2) If everyone can use the command: Hell, no! From experience I can say that more than 50% of the people who say they'll leave forever come back at some point. Some for a while, some for an extended period of time. That even happens with people who asked for being removed from the game. Therefore we are not going to make it easier for players to have a drama-laden suicide just so that they can mail us six months later and ask us to get their char restored. As a matter of fact, those who are most prone to leave and not come back are those who quietly vanish and just don't log on anymore.

[genesis]

Hmm, what about In-Character suicides: I mean those that really kill the character, but don't destroy the character file, "normal suicide", if such exists.

A simple, non-descriptive, general command
This could be reached with a series of emotes and then a simple suicide-command, like this:

Code: Select all

>emote slits his own throat. There is severe bloodloss.
You emote: Genesis slits his own throat. There is severe bloodloss.
>suicide
NOTE! This command will actually kill your character!
OOC-NOTE! You must have a roleplayed method of killing yourself.
OOC-NOTE! You cannot kill yourself with bare hands.
Do you really want to commit suicide? [yes/no]
>yes
You commit suicide. (Genesis commits suicide.)

Complicated, descriptive, object-oriented command
With this I mean the possibility of actually hitting yourself with a sword or a knife, thus causing severe bloodloss, which would create death.

This would have to be coded into each object that can be used to commit suicide separately.

Combination of the abovementioned two points
You could use the option a and optionally, option b, by either typing commit suicide (RP-prerequisite) or commit suicide with dagger (dagger in inventory -prerequisite). When using the latter option, the dagger would have its suicide method coded in it. Optionally, it could ask, like: How do you want to commit suicide? [slit throat, slit wrists, seppuku, abort], which would result on diverse possibilities, depending on the coding wizard's motivation, time and creativity.

On the other hand...
Do we really need an IC method of killing oneself? I think it would be cool, for extreme RP situations, and probably useable. But on the other hand, our playerbase consists of mentally unstable people... Juts kidding.

[chara]

I think IC suicide is a worse idea than OOC suicide, and I think OOC suicide is a horrible idea.

Suicide isn't something cutesy to be played around with in a game, and it's too much a tool for emotional manipulation. It's nothing to be in any way encouraged, including encouragement by enabling it code-wise.

[korsario]

I agree with Chara... Why to make the mud get so closer to reality in all aspects, mainly in negative ones? Why dont have a world without suicides? Yes, you ever can RP whatever you want... I remember when Gojin Rplayed Ara-kiri (or whatever is spelled) but was a different suicide... Anyway, I stop babbling about it, just wanted to add that I am totally against the idea.

PD: and sorry, this is not a matter to joke about...

[Abharsair]

If you want to commit suicide, go mood frenzy and attack Korsario while he wields his head-chopper.

Erm, other than that, I think an IC suicide command is bad taste and adds nothing to our roleplay. For one thing, the majority of people who'd use it would do it for personal drama ("Oh, my favourite tree has dumped me!" *commit suicide*), and that's not really desirable. For another, if someone wants to do serious roleplay and plans to go in a blaze of glory or something like that, a friendly wizard would always be willing to help. Therefore suicide is not really frowned upon on a general basis, but it has to be done in the right context, whereas a non-monitored command which is available to everyone would just be annoying.

[iza]

On ooc suicide:Your right, though i like to delete unused chars myself, its true what you say. People will eventually return and deleting a char in the heat of angry or fustration would happen alot.


IC suicide:

I agree with abha in the sense that if we wanted to get our chars killed its very easy, it tends to happen whether we like it or not. The main reason to have such a command is for drama(which i think is good even if its crying over a tree) and to go out in a blaze of glory. Each which a wizard would probably enjoy doing to someone themselves if asked. So i agree it isn't really "nessasary", i don't see the overall harm in it either.

I don't agree with chara just because there is already alot of adult content in the game, some which is supported by the code. Just because a human char can kill another human char or whip (aka torture) another human does not mean the game condones it in any way in RL. This is not to say we should be insensitive to people's RL feelings just that in the end of the day this is just a RP enforced game and in no way should affect you in RL.

In most RPI muds (role playing intensive) though there is something called the rule of consent, something which i completely support. The rule states that for serious RP situations (eg. specifically torture and rape) all parties in the room must agree it can be emoted. This is to say people can still blackout the room and say it happen, just not be allowed to emote it if someone in the room(usually the victim or bystander) does not want (consent) to actually see the process through emote. It is strongly enforced, however in this game if you don't like something you see...you can just say so and then type quit.

Having said that I personally like my RP really light: hero fights villan, hero wins, hero get the girl, they ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after. Some people find this boring and enjoy more "advanced" stuff and i don't mind but rather not be part of it. After a long day at work or school, i don't like to be reminded of some of the shitty things that happen to people in RL.

[Abharsair]

Well, we are not an RPI for various reasons. For one thing, we do not have permadeath and allow OOC-messages in the game, nor do we have a character approval system. The other reason is that we do not have an "anything goes" attitude, even if every participant gives his consent. We will never allow rape, child abuse or similar roleplay in Geas, and we will punish the participants in those activities if we notice it. Torture is a fine borderline, and it is tolerated if both the torturer and the victim agree to it. However, it has to be done in a roleplay context. On a personal level, I think roleplaying rape is similar disgusting, tasteless and unnecessary as playing out what's going on within a bathroom after you had a bowl of beans with Chili, and yeah, some people might enjoy doing that, but there are also people who like "golden shower" and "scat", and sorry guys, this game does not need that.

[Naga]

*looks up "scat" and "golden shower"* The things you learn from Germans...

[Abharsair]

Actually the things you learn from Aussies:

Drake howls in Common: include such gems as B&D, golden showers, scat and other such gems

However, when googling for those terms, neither Australian nor German sites come up, so go figure.

[chara]

That's cause you'd have to search for "goldene Dusche" and, erm, schat.

[Drake]

That quote is like totally out of uh, context or something!

I swear!

We were discussing... oh damn hell, I've forgotten now, but it was something relevant to my comment.

And no dammit, my knowledge of the terms comes from someone else who mentioned them in my poor innocent presence many years ago.

[chara]

Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh. We ALL believe you, Drake!