Games with a character creator will always attract role-players, fantasy fanatics and anyone who enjoys multiplayer settings. They let you decide what you are, your history and even customize your appearance. When you enter the game world you are not just an avatar -- you are unique and in control of your destiny. You travel the world and make friends and enemies and create your own story by not only making yourself familiar with the area, but by letting others become familiar with you. If you choose to remove your character from the virtual world to play an alternate character you will experience a new aspect of RPGs -- the side where you have no friends.

Multiplayer games necessitate some interaction with other players, and even as early as level one you can run into another new player and choose to cooperate as a team. Though they may go AFK every twenty minutes and can't seem to find that auto-follow button, you enjoy the company and the experience. If you choose to solo until level ten inevitably you will be aided by another player in battle, purchase an item from one or garner some useful information. Sooner or later your quest log will require you to travel through a dangerous passage, and outside you will find a new ally to traverse it with. At some point, you are making relationships with others, and begin to establish decorum.

The bonds of these on-line friendships are based on a very simple premise -- You know your role and do what you say you will. As long as people get some sort of consistent behavior from you, and you make an effort to stay in touch you will always be welcome in any group they are in. The benefits of your promptness and loyalty in the past pay off when one day you logon and are immediately invited and teleported into the best group of your virtual life. Beyond the usual greetings you aren't required to say anything, and if you like you can just be a mute. The group will see how you play, and your style will speak for you.

As people get more familiar with you your friends list grows, and you begin to stick with the same group of players on a regular basis. Eventually you are an integral part of their game, whether you submit to that role or not. People depend on you, and you on them. Codependence holds a positive connotation here since you are enabling each other to succeed in your unique goals for the game. But what happens when someone's fun factor needs a boost or wants to escape their responsibilities, and one lonely morning they start the character creator and decide upon a new set of goals?

Players with alternate characters create conflict. Their patterns of play with one character are now affected by new patterns with another. The bank account of one becomes the bank account of many. Time and effort are not distributed equally, but are redistributed to the newest character. These are all internal conflicts and seriously change the game dynamic for anyone who feels like starting over a lot.

The gratification of new experiences on your own will distract you from how your level of communication has dropped. It's easy to neglect thoughts like: who you haven't gotten a /tell from in a while, and who you used to group with. The people that you once depended on are not even saying hi when you logon, because your new name still isn't familiar at level twenty-five. When you try to join guild groups people always ask you who you are, and you have to explain. Soon you don't even group together because you just don't mesh, and the experiences shared are so disparate that you barely have anything to talk about. Later you remember the way things were before the nerfs, the bad PVP experiences, the hype, the competitiveness, or whatever it was that created doubt in your first choice.

There wasn't any need to change, and you and your friends were just messing around and exploring the unknown. Equipment was admired and not judged. Caverns and dungeons were explored and not camped. Crafters were desired, but not required. Merchants sold what you needed and bought what you didn't. You played for fun and not levels. No one used acronyms and nothing was abbreviated -- Except maybe bro, and only in familiar company.

Nic “Kap” Stransky

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