IDK... seeing the ghost of a former player that might have died would be pretty horrible. I find myself crying when I get emails addressed to my little brother. I don't think I could handle something like this in my 'fun place'.
I wouldn't mind seeing npc ghost from downgraded nodes though.
So the game drops and 10,000 people sign up to play on day 1, but not everyone likes it so 2,000 stop playing after 1 week. After a little while, AoC sends out an email that says, "We notice you haven't logged in lately. Did you forget your password? We can help." So some people come back, but not all. 1,500 people are still out. More time passes and AoC sends out another email. "Come see all the changes we've made since you last played. It's awesome!" Nope. Some people come back but not all. 1,250 are still out. After more time passes AoC sends out a third email. "Here's some free swag to entice you back. Use this code for an exclusive Returner character cloak." Some people come back but 1,000 are still out.
These abandoned accounts become NPCs that populate the city of the dead. When we kill them it removes their accounts from the server. Some characters are stronger than others depending on the stats they accrued while they were alive.
Depending on how often the programmers clean out the servers there could be a city siege every month, or six months, or whatever. The undead could either try to take back their city or just add to their number depending on who is holding the city when the server cleanse happens.
No.
Yes.
Long inactive accounts become ghosts and come back for Halloween...or prehaps are the NPC's in a city or two.
Dead, mindless, NPCs but dumber and with less 'purpose'
RL can be cruel. Finding out after finally getting back online that your character was wiped is heart breaking. I do not want to have that hanging over my head when playing this game that my character can be washed away because Reality is a cruel mistress.
Well obviously it wouldn't delete accounts, you'd just be a ghost 6 months after being MIA
As long as my character is around I would love seeing inactives running around as the undead. Would be interesting to take on a mob of normals and in the mix is a zerg hardcore player's zombiefied remains slamming into other players who just aren't ready for that much owie.
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I wouldn't mind seeing npc ghost from downgraded nodes though.
Everything we just said but on an island protected on all sides by dead pirates on ghost ships.