Hmm... your first point about death and the repurcussions of killing your RP character is a fairly big can of worms... although I agree that some of these storylines in which its clear to tell that someone has made a rash decision to kill their character - then two days later, comes up with some Dallas-esque BS explanation (Dallas reference to the "...and then I woke up and it was aaaaall a dream") sucks major portions of posterior - I do beleive that the very notion of death in the Matrix in relation to death in the real is such a complex and confounded one that there are a few very legitimate avenues from which your character could return.
By that, I am refering to the very fact that Matrix-related death in the real is entirely placebic - your mind beleives itself to be dead and as such your body shuts down. However - what always troubled me about that as well as the notion of becoming injured in the real due to actions in the Matrix is that while jacked in, you are no longer the docile "program" of an RSI, you are sentient - aware of the very nature of the reality before you.. would this in turn not also mean that you were mentally aware that death within the Matrix is as false as every other aspect of that world? If that was the case, then you should not be prone to placebic suggestion - and as such, when your RSI dies in the Matrix, your mind in the Real should be able to grasp its knowledge of the false nature of this "death" and not shut down your bodies systems.
Simply - if someone shoots you squarely in the face while in the Matrix - you know without a shadow of a doubt that a bullet has not entered your cranium in the Real - therefore why would your body react as though it had? The very concept of the part we play in the Matrix is that we have been able to see past the placebo (Sorry - thats my word of the day) - So how come that when it comes to the issue of death, regardless of the fact we KNOW it is not real - our minds still react as though it were?
When you dissect it further from my own shoddy attempt - if anything it seems as though this was merely a way for the Wachowski's to implement a sense of danger into the films - after all, it wouldn't be half as 'exciting' if all awakened were completely immortal - however as far as I can guage - logically - we should not actually die...
Anyway... I digress in a major way...
Going back to how the subject at hand affects my character. I do definately agree that coming back as a: 1) Ghost; 2) Zombie; 3) Frankenstein; 4) Reincarnated Poodle etc etc is pretty lazy roleplaying... however....
My characters death was one I had planned from the very moment he became involved with the Cypherites. The gist of his story as explained through my "Chronicles" was always to be one with a tragic edge - with the overall theme being the destruction that occurs when an ordinary mind is subjected to an extraordinary world... I thought long and hard about how it would play out, and as such, enacted certain plot threads in-game that provide me with an avenue to legitimately bring my character back - without having to back-peddle or try and change my story in any way. If I chose to never return King to the story - then where things ended tied up all the loose ends, and I don't feel leave any gaping holes. If I decide to bring him back, then I know exactly how it will be done and what will happen afterwards...
Now, I apologise for rambling... I have been away all weekend and this is my first post since coming back... all I would say to finish this post off is to anyone who does kill their character... think it through... do it sensibly, don't be rash, and at least have the creativity to give yourself a viable route back to the game should you decide to resurrect your character.
