Lack of Development & Abandoning of Characters Killing Roleplays?

[LordSuragaha]

Why is it that some users create so many "fursonas" or characters and barely ever use them after a short while. It's especially sad when I see these users request art or presets of these characters and simply toss them away after a roleplay expires or they get "tired" of using them.

Why don't more users learn to embrace and enjoy one main character or a couple of main characters and work to develop them? I find it nearly impossible to tire of a character that I've worked so hard to develop. This lack of attachment to characters is a big reason why I believe so many roleplays are so uninteresting now of days. Users create new characters and don't give themself enough time to connect to the character they are playing. This makes it easy for them to simply discard the character(s). Now there is nothing wrong with making new characters but I really do believe some should work out each character that they do make and not just throw them away to replace them with yet a new character...

I honestly think that if a person "tires" of their character that they should attempt to either recreate or give away the character. Since our characters often reflect parts of who we are it seems normal that we would change our characters with time. Rather then dumping the entire character users can find creative ways to explain why the character changed appearance, name, or attitude etc. Maybe your character could have had offspring which would allow you to develop a new character but carry on similar appearance. This could help fuel interesting story plots as well and keep rps alive and thriving.

The other option would be to allow others to take the character from you. I have seen people with such beautiful or interesting characters who no longer desire to keep them. The characters often have well developed back stories and beautiful presets. Why let all that go to waste ._.?

I will keep my opinions as to why I believe that people do this fairly broad here so as to not influence others opinions.

So...

What do you guys think of this? Have you done this yourself?

[~Stargazer~]

YES.
SOMEONE SAID IT.
THANKS YOU.
PRAISE.

I've always wanted to make a crazed, pycho-ish character, or just a bad-arse looking one. But I'm really trying to stay with the characters I already have. I currently have 4 at the moment; Starry, who's now becoming my more used/mascot character, Aela and M'ulahkrin, which I think will be used for role play, and Qahnaarin, my Ebon Circle character. The thing I personally don't like is that they're all female '?__? I was going to make Qahn male, but I think it's more of a feminine name/character.
I think that having many characters is a bit pointless. And you've already stated my eact thoughts on that, so I'll share a story about it I guess. There was a user, who I was friends with (still am, actually) and they had a lovely fursona that I adored. But then that user seemed to get on the character less and less, and I never saw that OC again. I'll admit, I got a bit disappointed when that happened, but I really can't say anything, can I? It's not really my decision anyway. But that's just how I feel.
And about the requesting a preset/drawing topic, I think it's acceptable to want a preset then change the character/design later. As long as the preset was used often and well loved, I think it's fine. The thing that makes me sad is when right after a preset/drawing is finished, and the user suddenly gets tired of the character and deletes it. All that hard work, for nothing.

[Spottedbears]

i have trouble keeping characters

why?

i get bored with their designs, their personality. and what's more fun than something new each time!? a single character can be fun to roleplay, but when you want something different, something new and possibly more interesting than your current character? go for it!

it's just hard for people with short attention spans, etc. to hold on to one character especially if they're not as good or interesting as a newer character. however, i've managed to keep my kitty Raven for over a year or two, and i'm proud of that.


and giving away characters? well, despite the fact i don't use them, i would never give away my characters. i have attachments to even the ones ive forgotten about, and i don't know if i could ever give them away- the presets, too. i don't know if they'd use them or not.

[greenart6]

I must admit that I have done this.

Before I left, my main character was Kamaria.



Now of course, I use Turtle often. I got rid of (well, didn't use, I still have her since she's in a pack) Kamaria since I just didn't find her appealing anymore. There's nothing about her that stuck out, and she just looks pretty goth.

As for selling/giving away characters, if I had a character that was used for a while, I wouldn't want to give it away. It's my character still, and I still care about it. I wouldn't want some random person to take my character and change up everything, not follow it's personality, etc.

I usually take characters after a while and sorta bring them back, sometimes with a changed personality or appearance, such as my wolf characters Cetta and Sala. Cetta was for a book I was making, but I ended up not knowing where to continue and have the book lead to and quit it. Sala was just a random drawing I made. But I've decided to bring them back a bit, redrawing them and putting them in different roleplays.

I usually abandon characters that I never used at all, but ones that I've spent a lot of time on I'll use for for a while. And some are lucky and will be used a lot after a while.

[Wyldercat]

Interesting topic... I had a few characters that I planned on using, but didn't. I mostly use my main character Astuzia, but I'm looking for interesting roleplays for my other characters. I actually deleted quite a few of them. I don't use presets, but if I were to use one, it would be for one of my main characters so it most likely wouldn't go to waste.

[Kerriki]

I must admit that during my newbie days of FH I was so fascinated with all the different ways you could create a unique character I often created a bunch of characters, played them for maybe a week, then moved on with a new character. I honestly hated doing that because I had so many characters filling up my account that I no longer had the interest to play. I often deleted characters, even if they were in roleplays, had a mate and pups/cubs, etc. I hated doing that so much. However, as I reintroduced myself to the forums in February 2013, I discovered what fursonas and OCs were, and I actually began sticking to and emotionally attaching myself to my characters.

At the moment I have one fursona, five main characters and several other "retired" characters in my account. I don't go on each one as much as some others (especially the retired ones), but I love all my current characters way to much to ever delete/give them away<3