Breakfast Topic: Are you emotionally attached to your character?
by Andrew Ross 
May 30th 2011 at 8:00AM
World of Warcraft is a very immersive game. You pick your race/class combination on the creation screen and then take the character all the way to the level cap. Whether your avatar is a progression raider that has knocked on the Lich King's door and now taking down Cho'gall or your avatar is a gladiator who lives for PVP, it's hard to not get attached to your avatar to some degree.
I myself have been playing for just over four years, and while I have numerous alts, my pride and joy is my dwarven hunter. Not only is he good-looking, he can charm a night elf just by looking at her. I have the more time played on him than all my alts combined. He's been to Outland to take down Illidan and gone toe-to-toe with the Lich King, and he's taken down a number of night elves who think they can drink me under the table.
When I first started playing, if I died, it was no big deal (and it happened a lot). The longer I played, the more I tried to avoid death. Not only do I try and avoid death as much as possible, I find myself taking better care of my hunter. I'll log out at an inn with my favorite cat by my side and my armor fully repaired. I'm not a roleplayer, but in the back of my mind, I've developed a story for my hunter and find myself treating my hunter as more than a pixelated avatar. I treat him to all the luxuries Azeroth has to offer and keep him looking good . After all, you never know when the elusive female dwarf will appear.
Have you developed a bond with your avatar over the weeks, months or years that you have played WoW? How close are you to your avatar -- or are you close to multiple avatars? Do you do anything special for your avatar after a long night's raid or a night of battlegrounds?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
cyanea85 May 30th 2011 8:05AM
Oh gods yes.
My main right now is my Holy Paladin, but my favorite character was my first main, my Resto Shaman. She's the one that I played all the way until the end of ICC. She's got the most achievements, the most mounts, the most work. When I server transferred with my guild a few months ago, I took my Paladin because she was my main at the time, but within a month I had brought my Shaman over too just because "it felt weird" without her. I don't raid with her at all really, but it's always felt much more "comfortable" logging into her for a heroic or two every few days.
Luis Alluren May 30th 2011 8:11AM
i have always been a fan of the fantastic medieval-- I been into a few MTG grand prixes and nationals-- so, yes, I absolutely love my human discipline priest-- I have maxed the mage first, and I've maxed a paladin and a shaman-- but I really feel connected to my priest and, obviously, it's modeled to my appearance
Stenenis May 30th 2011 8:13AM
Defniately!
On all of my alts, i've come up with some kind of personality and backstory, but my main, who i've been playing for 4 years now, tends to act more (exactly) like me, and i use his "personality" as an excuse to spend outrageous amounts of money on pets and other frivolous items.
Also, every time i stop playing for a period of months, it's not the gameplay, or the people, or the story that i start to miss most, it's that one character, who i begin to think i've left sad, and alone. Those other things are great too, but that's just what i think of first.
venslor May 30th 2011 2:20PM
God, I think that this sums it up perfectly for me.
My main is a human mage and the VERY first toon I created. I didn't even try a different combination before that. He has the 100 mounts, 125 pets, 8K+ achieves and all the rest. My alts, while loved, don't get the attention, gear or anything else. And you're right, I never realized it, but when I go long periods without playing, I think to myself, god, I want to log into him and shoot fireballs at people!
A few weeks ago a guildmate was trying to convince me to race change to dwarf (because our guild needs one for the Classy achieve). The thought of him being a dwarf was unconscionable. I started him in July 2007 as a human, and he'll die when WoW does as a human.
Jay May 30th 2011 8:21AM
Oh yes indeed! I'm currently faced with the dilemma that my guild, with many of my real life friends in it, is most likely doing a server transfer and changeing faction to Horde.
My arrogant and cheap but natureloving night elf druid is shuddering at the very thought of being a Tauren; or even worse a Troll druid! He downright despises the Horde! And he can barely stand the Tauren, or for that matter the female night elves, he has to work alongside in the name of the Cenarion Circle.
Even though I've put an enormous amount of time into him, and have all those nifty achievements, mounts and-what-not on him, I'm thinking that that I'll completely reroll instead to play with my friends as not to destory my poor little druid.
And then I hope it's only him that has problems with the Horde and not me to.
rovingbandit21 May 30th 2011 11:01AM
I had the same basic problem. In order to play with RL friends I had to server and faction transfer my Troll hunter to something Alliance. Considering he hated the alliance (And Blood Elves, but that's another story) it was going to be a tough transition. When he finds that Goblin and his World-a-port he's going to have some tough questions for the snake of an engineer. Like, "How could you make wake up with a tail and hooves!?", and...well that's really the only question he has before my tiger eats him...
Pam May 30th 2011 11:17AM
I understand your dilemma. I have 2 druids that I raid with, and back before ICC, our guild broke up. Both toons joined new guilds, but my 2nd one was in a guild that ended up transferring servers while my main stayed home.
She raided for a while on that other server, but then the guild changed their raid days that conflicted with my mains raid days, so she stopped raiding for a while. Then, the original guild leader came back and asked for me to transfer to his server, and roll horde.
I couldn't bear to do it with my main, but my 2nd druid was just sitting there, partially in T10, so I xfered her, and changed her to a tauren. For the longest time, she was actually more successful than my main, getting the ICC drakes and Bane title (that my main still doesn't have). I still hated the way she looked. I was lost in every horde town I went to.
Cata came around, and I changed her to a Troll. I liked her so much better than when she was Tauren, and her healing numbers totally blew away when she was a Tauren, or a Nelf. As we would fly to BWD, I would hang outside of town, reading "Stormwind" in big red letters on my screen, and cringe. By now, however, I had become attached to the Troll look.... the way she laughed, the way she danced, the way she trotted funny when she ran. RP walking made her look so majestic.
Then, our own personal shattering happened again. The guy that recruited me over said he wasn't able to raid anymore because of work. My best friend that had followed me thru all the transfers got banned for life. Here I was, a hordie, on a strange server, with no close friends, and with way better gear than my main had.
I decided it was time to move her home. She took one last trot around Orgrimmar, and I logged off to flip her to Worgen. I actually cried right before I hit that 'faction change' switch, because being a Troll seemed to fit her personality to a T. I was going to miss her hair, her tusks, the way she covered her face when she giggled. She is comfortable in her Worgen body now, but she will always have the fond memories of the time in which she was with the other side.
Merrena May 30th 2011 8:25AM
A little, but mainly just a small backstory and whenever I quest I roleplay a little in the back of my head.
But what you were saying about dying is just normal gaming routine, as in trying not to die as much as possible
Lloren May 30th 2011 8:29AM
So much so that when I made the decision to faction change, I was truly upset about it, and worried that she'd be gone forever. I spent some time visiting her hang out spots in SW, and logged her out flying in to the sunset. I even made a bank alt later with a similar name and the same features so I could still see her in a way. /nerd
Silversol May 30th 2011 8:29AM
Given the time I've spent playing it, I sure am.
Gaelthas May 30th 2011 8:37AM
my character represents time and effort that I have put into him in order to perfect him in some way, He's been a medium to allow me to make countless friends. I don't understand how you could not be attached to him, for some people you've spent years of your life with this character as an important and defining part of you. So yes, I am emotionally attached to my character.
Prissa May 30th 2011 8:39AM
Oh absolutely yes. I have two mains, my raiding toon and character toon. By character I mean I collect on her, and do stuff that my healer has a little more trouble doing on her own.
My mage was my first toon ever. I carried her over as a character from a previous roleplay game I'd had with a few friends. The universe translated rather well so her appearance and character remained exactly as I had always imagined it from her 'birth'. Since then, there's been the barber shop, a faction change, a race change and another faction change.
Her hair remained red. She went from blood elf to human (most similar change possible at the time), to nelf as soon as it was available. During this time, I picked the features that would allow her to look just as she used to when she used the orb of the sindorei, and it remained on cd during dungeons, raids, dailies, afk time. And then when she went back horde, even though I've since lamented the original face I chose for her, I just couldn't change it. She remains today almost completely unchanged from level 1 4 years ago. Except her hair is longer, coz she's older :P
Even though I think I could have made her look a bit nicer, I couldn't change her. It's who she is, flaws and all :)
Revnah May 30th 2011 8:43AM
I'm very attached to them - all of them really but most especially my two mains (yes, I have two). When I was levelling them, my mum fell seriously ill and 8 months later, she died. I coped with that time by writing a story about my characters, about them growing up, "training" (levelling) in their class, falling in love, etc. - even experiencing the Cataclysm. I poured all of my emotion into my story, and while it's not good enough to ever see the light of day, it was my therapy and it's made me love these two characters even more.
Gendou May 30th 2011 8:42AM
Which ones?
My main RP character? Yes, absolutely.
My PvE or PvP characters? Less so.
araquen May 30th 2011 8:51AM
I've played my main since I started my trial account in 2006. I've written elsewhere about the degree of "secret" RP I have put into my druid (I am on a normal server), but frankly, if I could not play on my druid, I wouldn't want to even log.
This is why I have vague fears about the future. WoW just can't last forever and I just don't think that I have the will to invest in a toon in Blizzard's new MMO as deeply as I did with my druid in WoW.
Lucidique May 30th 2011 9:01AM
Yes. Very much.
I know, in terms of min/maxing, I should race-change into a Worgen, or into a Gnome for maximum cuteness. But my Night Elf rogue have been with me for 5 years now, it would be wrong to change that :o
Twill May 30th 2011 9:24AM
HELL YES.
But then I started raiding on alts. Now my soul feels like Voldemort -- every alt is a Horcrux.
Good god am I torn >.< I just cant handle the awesomeness of Balance/Marksman/Holy/Affliction.
Jari May 30th 2011 9:25AM
Not at all. Which probably explains why I'm an altholic.
Lweydd May 30th 2011 9:41AM
I used to.
Back in the times when I played in private servers (yes, I regret, they suck) I was really attached to my first char, a female BE -a lock. I was not a hardcore RPer, but I had a writen background for her involving a lot of lore elements. I loved her damage in pvp, pve, her apperance, her pets...
One horrible, horrible day, I logged in to find her naked, with only 1 copper in her inv. Her backpack and bank, empty. My banker alt, empty. Only I had my pass, and I'm very cautious with the mails I open / webpages I enter, so still today I have no idea how it happened, my best guess being a guildie checking my pass as I typed it (we used to have big raid parties in a cybercafe).
I reported the theft, but GMs answer was "your fault, keep whining" (remember, this was a private server, Blizz customer support is just amazing). The web for pass changing was inactive, and a few days later my account was banned for "racial insults". GMs gave a shit, again.
I had grown really attached to that little redhead, so I felt like crap for a long time. After several atempts of alts, I /ragequited that horrible server and decided to take a chance in official server. Best decision ever.
Now... I like my char (undead rogue), but I don't feel the way I felt with the BE. If I lose her today, I'll be cracking skulls with a new 85 in a few days. Another stealthy, stealthy rogue.
EidlonImp May 30th 2011 10:09AM
I hate to sound insensitive, but why would Blizzard care what happened to you on a private server? for that matter, what would you expect them to do? Aside from using software their company worked hard to make without paying it, your private server had nothing to so with Blizzard. GMs have no authoeity or influence there.
It's rather like calling McDonald's corporate offices to complain that tour friend Jim tried to make big macs at his Memorial Day cookout and got the special sauce wrong.
To add to that- you suppose that a guild mate hacked your account, but it's entirely possible that it was one of the administrators of your server, too. Why would they liquidate you when they can spawn all the fold and loot they want? Because there's no system in place to stop them if they're feeling mean or petty.