Do you get attached with your video-game characters?

[Queen of Hamsters]

Yep, I do.

Some blame it on my Aspergers, some blame it on the fact that I'm a woman, and they all have one thing in common...they're morons.

All of my characters have a lot of thought put into them, from the class/race/gender combo to the looks and then the name. I can often make up little stories in my head for each character and NONE of my characters has a name like "Lolpala" or "Stabya". They all have names that I spent ages coming up with, or that were inspired by a story I love. Maleficënt (female human warlock), Facilier (Male undead mage) and Throín (male dwarf warrior) being the most glaring examples. Once they're at an appropriate level, I spend time for each character to obtain transmog sets that fit my "image" of the class/gender combo. Got an almost equal amount of Horde and Alliance characters.

My main is my number 1 though and that makes it difficult to switch mains for an expansion depending on how Blizztard changes classes and specs into unrecognizable shells of themselves. I have however promised myself that IF I am stuck with either BM or MM next expansion on my main, I will raid with my shaman instead. How difficult can it be to just make ALL specs of a pure dps class equally good?? Why have 3 specs if only 1 or 2 are viable at any given time?? Morons...

But I digress. Yes, I get emotionally attached to my characters...in WoW. Played GW2, ArcheAge and tried FF and the lack of attachment I felt with the characters and the world = a main reason for me to quit...well, in ArcheAge it was mostly the forced PVP with the own faction being able to fuck you over that drove me away. Loved the mount, farming and glider system.

[Jester Joe]

I find it really hard to care for characters I create and choose the choices for, I care more about the characters that are out of my control, like most of the crew from Mass Effect, yet I didn't really care about Shepard that much.

But in games where you play as a character made by the developers, I care a lot more for them, even if they're just a silent protagonist (Ex- Ludger from Tales of Xillia 2, and to a degree, Yu from Persona 4, but the animation actually does a better job with Yu in my opinion).

[Matt0193]

A RPG like Mass Effect or Dragon Age(Basically any Bioware game rofl) where I define the character through my decisions, I can put myself into a frame of mind where I can feel what they would feel. It's the same when I'm reading. It's been said already, someone ambushed me with onions when I finished Tuchanka and Rannoch on ME3.

An MMO like WoW, RIFT and to a less extent TOR, I don't feel as involved, mostly because the effects of what you do are largely superficial with only story-related effects, you save a town or defeat the big bad buy but at the end of the day, the town looks the same as it does before 9 times out of 10 and the bad guy respawns each week so you never feel like you've accomplished anything meaningful in the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbP3...utu.be&t=4m36s Future for the Krogan full score but just after Mordin dies and the cure is dispersed. So many onions.

[Zarandra]

I cared for alot of characters in Fire Emblem and was sad when they died.

Pretty attached to my cahracter in FFXIV since i think it looks very awesome!

[Dristereau]

For my WoW Characters very much so. Invested a lot of time into the game, and those Characters, and it would be difficult for me to leave the game due to them. I have lot of Characters, some who I have created a background for and such, and I've spent many an hour playing. Whilst there are some I could abandon, others I couldn't.

WoD release was a good example of this, I levelled my Paladin first as it is my oldest Character (that I still play, TBC Hordies got abandoned) out of loyalty to something I'd had since WotLK, but I realised I missed my Death Knight I created in MoP having spent so much time Raiding with it. I then blitzed my DK to 100 and began to gear it to Raid with again.

[Sansasyon]

Besides of characters, there are infinite amounts of well organized storylines in many games. By playing games, players are able to be part of the storyline or maybe just reading it or narrating it. Some may find philosophy and ideas in games which are similar with players', and some of us played a game which tells a similar story of ourselves. I call these games as Virtual Literature where we're playing in storylines instead of reading. We're one of the characters in these literature. God of War 3 and its message about hope for instance, or Mists of Pandaria and its philosophy about Taoism, Pantheism. We're living in countless of worlds. Some of them with books,movies or any ideas; and some of them with virtual reality.

You may laugh but I have to say: two years ago (when I was 20) I played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Darkness, and its storyline when my character about to disappear from the world made me cry.

[Deleted]

Always thought Snake is one damn badass and loved his character. Can't wait to play MGS Phantom Pain.

[Borfl]

Maybe back when when server reputation was a thing that meant something.

[Deleted]

I don't have any real attachment to any character in any game that I can think of. It's just not a big deal. It's not like it's real or really matters.

Then again I don't get immersed in games these days. No game I've played in the last 10 or so years has really dragged me in and made me feel part of the game. I'm acutely aware I'm playing a game. Nothing that happens in a game affects my life in any meaningful way outside of the game and the few minutes of gratification I get from achieving something in said game.

You could go into my wow account and delete all my characters and I think I'd be more upset that you somehow managed to get my password than the loss of my characters.