First of all, why do want to delete your character? Has he or she died a lot recently, and you feel like playing your role has become impossible? I've heard this several times over the years on the forum and IRC. The usual statement is that "It's not feasible for me to play the role I want with the current allegiances/power groups/etc. in the world, so because I can't do what my character was designed to do, I'll delete." This argument sounds pretty logical -- you can't do what your character was created to do, so you should delete, right? Wrong.

It is important for you to realize that you are not the only person affected by your character. There are people that depend on that character for assistance, antagonism, etc. If everyone who faced difficulty in doing what they wanted with a character deleted, then conflict in Avendar would come to a virtual halt. Conflict is of course what drives Avendar and makes it interesting to play. The differences and altercations between various in game factions are what create an interesting atmosphere to play in. And whenever two parties are fighting, someone eventually has to lose. Immortals spend time developing story arcs for characters, and it is very frustrating when such a character up and deletes on them just because things have been rough. As well, your enemies lose an enemy and your friends lose a friend.

Each and every one of your characters will likely eventually face some kind of hardship. If you use this hardship as an excuse to delete, then you are just cheating characters, and thus, yourself. Throw in the fact that you are screwing whoever depends on you (IE: Allies, imms) and you have a recipe for not being cool (or dependable). Instead of deleting your character when things get hard, you should use the situation as an promote character development. By that, I mean that your character should be affected by his or her environment and change accordingly. This is an important part of playing a role. Use your plight as an opportunity to make a stronger/weaker/vengeful/whatever char instead of throwing in the towel. Things will eventually change, and you will be a better character.

Maybe you're with the current atmosphere of the game, but things just aren't interesting anymore. Just like we'll all encounter hardship, most of us will eventually get bored with one of our characters. Heck, I get bored with most every char I make. So, we're bored with our characters, but we can delete with moral superiority because we're not doing it for getting beat on, right? Wrong. Again, others depend on your character and invest time into his or development. If you delete, you're cheating them. "But I'm cheating myself if I continue to play!" That's true; you -are- cheating yourself by playing a character you don't want to play. "So Mitt, how do I get out of this by not cheating others or myself?" It's pretty easy, actually.