Saying goodbye to a deleted character
by Mike Schramm 
Nov 10th 2007 at 1:00PM
Timekeeper on WoW LJ had to say goodbye to a friend recently. After 70 levels, countless instances, gear upgrades, and raids, circumstances lead him to decide that his mage should no longer exist, and so he typed "DELETE," and sent her to the big graveyard in the sky.I can't bear to do it, myself-- I think I've deleted maybe one or two characters for space ever, and even then, though they were only level 5 or so (about 20 minutes of leveling, probably), I still cleaned out their bags and sold off and mailed away their gear. Like most people, I couldn't imagine deleting one of my 70s on purpose-- even if I don't ever play them again, I couldn't be the one to wipe out all of those accomplishments (virtual as they are) forever.
Have you ever killed a character past level 60 before? Did you just delete them, gear and all (like a bandaid), or did you strip them down and send the parts to your other toons? And do you regret it at all? We should all keep in mind that these are just characters in a game, of course, but having your progress wiped in anything you do is always a loss that can be felt.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Features
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Hokuto Nov 10th 2007 1:17PM
I've deleted two Lv60s:
My druid, way before BC, where we could only heal and nothing else at all. I remember I deleted him on utter frustration, I was feral and my guild forced me to heal at ZG. I had no hopes for him on end-game back then, so I had no regrets.
My lock, a week before BC. Was on half-epics, some T1 gear, having cleared MC, killed Ony and stepping into BWL. That was my last try to leave WoW... It failed miserabely: I came back few weeks later, with another lock.
Got both of them restored, tho :>
toole11 Nov 10th 2007 1:51PM
I've only ever deleted one level 60 character. My first character was a Human Paladin. I leveled him to 60 then quickly became disenfranchised with the Alliance. When BC came out I rerolled a Belf Pally. Once I was in Outland with him I didn't see any purpose of having another high level Paladin so I deleted the Human and sent all his gold to my troll alt on that server.
Glavil Nov 10th 2007 1:51PM
I deleted my 60 Hunter in December of 2005. I sold off everything, and sent the gold off to a friend (who had gotten me into the game) so she could buy her Epic Mount. 4 months later I came back and they were unable to restore anything besides the toon itself because too much time had passed. I was totally naked with only 29 Silver to my name. Thankfully, my wonderful guildies got me back on my feet, and within a month I was raiding Molten Core.
robodex Nov 10th 2007 1:55PM
I've never understood why people delete their characters. There's absolutely no reason to--just cancel the account if you don't want to play it, for god sakes.
even then, you can get a character restore pretty easily =\
Thallid Nov 10th 2007 2:03PM
@4.
The only reason I think people have for deleting characters is to reroll to the other faction on a PvP server. (Yes, I know people have reasons for doi8ng that.) Since you can only have one faction of characters on PvP servers, the only choice to reroll to the other side would be to delete all of your characters and rerolling, or making a new account.
It comes down to whether you want to sacrifice a character or money for another account.
mike Nov 10th 2007 5:52PM
I technically haven't deleted her, but she's pretty much gone. I had a level 63 undead priest, who is now on my RP server, and I'd gotten tired of playing her. I had a new draenei priest on the server with a great guild, so I stripped her, sold everything she had (lots of enchanting mats) and it ended up being about 700g - which I then transferred to my level 20ish Draenei for mount fund and twinkies.
Technically, Aphakia the Undead is still there, but I have no horde guild on the server, no money hordeside, no epic mount, nothing. I'm not sure why I've been keeping her around.
Dave Nov 10th 2007 2:17PM
Aside from the reasoning behind rerolling the other faction on a PVP server (which is sorta silly, since if you're wanting to play with random strangers anyway, why not just reroll on a new server?)...
I think deleting high level characters is kinda stupid.
Same faction, at least you've got a good bank alt. If you hate your server, transfer or reroll and you've got the L70 hanging around if you like your new server and wouldn't mind having your old character again for whatever reason.
Unless of course you're maxed out on characters. I'm a little scared of anyone with 10 L70's personally, and I really can't fathom why you'd need to make a new character if you really already have 10..
Mostly I figure anyone who does this just doesn't really think a lot of things through when they do it. I'd suspect most people just want some sorta e-sympathy for doing it. "oh no you deleted your mage here's some moneys!!!".
I "retired" my warrior, but it's not like I'm doing to be stupid and delete a 375 blacksmith with epics. I'm going to use it when I need to beat the snot out of someone trying to be a little PVP god in STV. I'm going to use it when someone needs a runthrough of a lower level instance. I'll use it when I need an extra chunk of change from daily quests, etc etc.
Deleting a high level character, especially a well-geared one, is just kinda stupid until you HAVE TO.
vlad Nov 10th 2007 2:23PM
deleted a 60, about a year later i petitioned a GM and had it restored and moved it to another server for a family member to play.
Byron Nov 10th 2007 2:31PM
Yeah, I can't fathom why anyone would delete a high level character either. For example, I actually wanted to see how many total characters I could have, so I kept creating the same guy, orc hunter on as many diff servers as I could. After 45 total characters I hit Bliz's limit. With the ability to create that many characters, why ever delete one? All that time you put into a lvl 60+ surely is worth the $25 to transfer it to another realm if you need to make space on your main realm.
Tophy Nov 10th 2007 3:04PM
I have never deleted a 60+. I did, however, delete the first character I made, a level 24 druid. My friend and I rerolled together and I made a pally, and at some point I decided to delete my druid. No reason, just did it....rookie mistake. I would love to play a druid, but I just can't bring myself to do it because I know that I had one at 24 already. If I feel that way about a level 24, then I highly doubt I will ever delete a 60+.
binarygeek01 Nov 10th 2007 3:05PM
When I got bored of my level 60 hunter, I just moved him to a new account and sold him on eBay, might as well get some return for my game-time invested.
Rhiandieynna Nov 11th 2007 11:42AM
Couldn't do it to mine. I don't have great gear or none of that, but my character is special to me and it would make me said if she was gone.
This made me think since my bf spends his time getting gear and raiding. like if something happened to his account. he'd probably think i did it. yeah, i got a little more honor than that. :D
Poxus Nov 10th 2007 7:35PM
Deleted a level 70 Undead Warlock on Undermine before. There have been times I have wished I still had him but not recently.
Fletch Nov 10th 2007 8:58PM
I've deleted a 60 and a 70. Both times it was when I temporarily quit playing and wanted to make it easier. I stripped them down, sold their equipment and handed the gold over to the first person I saw.
flatrabbit Nov 12th 2007 3:18PM
I've deleted low level alts before but never anything I spent a considerable amount of time playing. Even when i quit WoW for the first time I still kept my character and most of his gear...I did however give my guild the contents of my bank and nearly 700 gold. Then I let my subscription expire.
Then about 9 months later I found the time to play again and started up a new Hunter alt....which I proceeded to level to 60 pretty quickly. Eventually I came back to my first character and regained my love for the Rogue class.