MUSE Ltd.: character

character

character

noun A synonym of persona, although it can mean the entity which a player (sense 1) is using as an avatar. Aside: In the olde days, MUD used to keep information about personae in separate files, one per player, instead of having a single persona file. The name of the file was CHARAC.TER, and each player could only have one per file system. Later, they were allowed several of the form <name>.MUD, eg. NODDY.MUD, but the readiness with which players could edit these files soon led to the development of the present persona file system..! Many people, especially newbies, refer to personae as characters (or as chars), although true addicts rarely do so unless their pedigree goes way, way back.
noun What an ASCII code represents, usually with the implication that it's printable. Since keyboards can produce symbols which are neither letters nor numbers (eg. '@', '~', '^', '{', ':'), they're all (including alphanumerics) referred to as characters. Indeed, character can be used where 'letter' would suffice, eg. "You can't SYN names 20 characters long!". Contraction: char.
noun The quality of having an interesting personality. "Phred is a lovable ol' character".
noun Strength of personality. "Don't kill his first sorc, he hasn't the character to bounce back just yet". See test, take a fall.
noun The quality of having a likeable, consistent and/or powerful atmosphere. "The Tearoom has real character".
noun The quality of being well-behaved. "She's always seemed to me to be of sound character, but this business with the icons is disturbing". See restore.