What's the deal with "retirement" here? Is this a common thing in online games? It looks ridiculous. "I'm retiring from my long career on warlight. I have built up a sizeable pension after my many months here and I plan to live out the remainder of my days at my lakeside cottage in peace." Why not just say what you are really doing -- quitting, not planning to play again? Better yet, just quietly disappear. And when nobody hears from you and we see you have stopped playing games, others will have realized that you have become inactive. Your inactivity will not be special enough to be considered retirement. You have not been paid. Your wars were not real. You shed no blood, sweat or tears. A meaningless leisure activity that is best measured in months and whose players' average age level is in the early 20s does not warrant the word "retirement." Stop abusing my language with stupid euphemisms.

To retire has a broader meaning than perhaps you realise. It is not simply to do with one's career. :P

New Oxford American dictionary

retire |riˈtīr|
verb
1 [ intrans. ] leave one's job and cease to work, typically upon reaching the normal age for leaving employment : he retired from the navy in 1966.
• [ trans. ] compel (an employee) to leave their job, esp. before they have reached such an age : the home office retired him.
• (of an athlete) cease to play competitively : he retired from football several years ago.
• (of an athlete) withdraw from a race or match, typically as a result of accident or injury : he was forced to retire to the bench | [with complement ] Stewart retired hurt.
• [ trans. ] Baseball put out (a batter); cause (a side) to end a turn at bat : the pitcher retired twelve batters in a row.
• [ trans. ] Economics withdraw (a bill or note) from circulation or currency.
• Finance pay off or cancel (a debt) : the debt is to be retired from state gaming-tax receipts.
2 withdraw to or from a particular place : she retired into the bathroom with her toothbrush.
• (of a military force) retreat from an enemy or an attacking position : lack of numbers compelled the cavalry to retire.
• [ trans. ] order (a military force) to retreat : the general retired all his troops.
• (of a jury) leave the courtroom to decide the verdict of a trial.
• go to bed : everyone retired early that night.
DERIVATIVES
retirer noun
ORIGIN mid 16th cent. (in the sense [withdraw (to a place of safety or seclusion)] ): from French retirer, from re- ‘back’ + tirer ‘draw.’

stop acting like a smatass

in case you didn't see the bolded text or don't understand it. :)

'2 withdraw to or from a particular place : she retired into the bathroom with her toothbrush. '

In this case, I have played warlight for a period of time. Now i have decided to withdraw from using this service. Does that make sense?

I assumed you were talking about Brett Favre.

gui is jus jealous that some ppl can actually quit the game, while he is 2 addicted to do that

No schizo, you confused me and Gui.

In other contexts retire can work. But why do gamers say retire when they mean quit, stop playing? Did Nike the HK high school boy think about what the best word would be? Or did he just write what he's seen hundreds of other gamers write? So, it is gaming jargon. Does that make it good English? Tell a non-gamer you will retire from warlight. They will think you are being too serious and not using the best possible word to describe the situation. Word choice is important. Can you retire (permanently) from playing a game? Can you retire (permanently) from engaging in a leisure activity? Can you retire (from) a habit? I'm retiring from playing Legos (ie I'll never play Legos again). I'm retiring from taking walks at night (ie I'm going to stop my habit of taking walks at night).

Let's not kid ourselves. Warlight is a game. People play more for fun, leisure or out of habit. It's not a career that you can retire from. It is a habit or game that you continue doing/playing or you quit/stop. You can't retire permanently from playing a non-career game. Saying you can shows how much a bad habit the game has become: you are starting to use gaming jargon's euphemisms to make you think the leisure activity or bad habit is a legitimate career. "When I was 5 years old I retired from playing competitive Lincoln logs with my friends."

The same goes for such gaming jargon as "noob" and "pro(fessional)".

Noob: a non-word created by and used by gamers. It is a shortened version of newbie (novice). Instead of writing newbie someone shortened it to "noob" and gamers fell in love with the non-word. Plus, it's easier to spell and easier to remember than newbie (if you don't know both words, learning noob would be easier).

Pro(fessional): Is anyone really a "pro" at warlight? Or is this just gaming jargon used to sound cool or used because your English is limited (pro is easy to write, especially if you don't know a lot of English, since it gets your message across).

Gui are you trying to replace x as the Warlight Grammar Sheriff?
I don't think he retired from that role yet...

Not really. I get paid to edit and translate. I would never write "I'm retiring from playing a video/board/internet game." Seeing how gamers write has always made me laugh. Imagine some greasy, unemployed man living at home tapping on his computer "I'm retiring from gaming." What he really means is "I've wasted too much time on this bad habit and I have nothing to show for it. I've come to the conclusion that I need to take my life more seriously." Or maybe he means "I've become bored with this game and/or chatroom/forum, so I will instead play a different online game. So I won't actually retire from all internet games, just this one because I am bored." (Nike got turned down by multiple clans a couple weeks ago and now has decided to 'retire'? Coincidence? Nice euphemism.)

More about Nike, to highlight the humor in the word choice: Nike studies at an international high school in Hong Kong. I've taught history at two international schools and tutored students from a third. It's safe to say Nike's parents are well off (most likely business owners or doctors) and Nike has never had a job. So a 16-18 year-old Chinese boy who has probably never worked or learned a profession is 'retiring' from playing an internet game? Are the gamers out there sure this is the right verb for this situation? Quitting or stopping wouldn't work better?

Gui is no Grammar Sheriff, he is just trolling.

I'm no Grammar Sherriff either, I'm a warlight psychologist. Here is my pro(fessional) opinion:

Gui is attacking the phrase, used most recently by Nike, because he feels it is ostentatious. Why Gui is so vociferous and loquacious in his hounding of nike is quite obvious: our prolix friend has, perhaps recently, reflected on his own life, and found himself guilty of pretentiousness. To equilibrise this moment of self-perception with his otherwise lofty self-image, he has taken a line against Nike et al that is conspicuously extreme, in order to assuage his fears and assure himself that yes, he was always this fastidious when it came to vigilance against pretension, in himself and others.

Luckily for him, he is intelligent enough that he can mask this grandiloquent attempt at reconciling who he thinks he is with who he really is. So to the eye untrained in ways of warlight psychology, he appears to be simply a ginormous pedant (and he can even manage to justify himself in this regard). To me, however, his overcompensation reveals all too much.

im prescribing a chill pill, take it easy bro

I ought to have mentioned his recurring denigrations of his own hobby -

"Let's not kid ourselves. Warlight is a game. People play more for fun, leisure or out of habit",

he says, as if that is a revelation. This links in with my observations of his superiority complex. Sure, he is playing warlight just like all the other teenagers, but he never forgets the chance to remind himself that he is better than the rest of us, in this case, because he knows it's just a game, unlike the unenlightened trilobites he deigns to engage with.

This sudden excess of self-deprecation, if by proxy, also affirms my observations that he is unconsciously over-correcting for incipient self-criticism.

As the individual is high-functioning, and demonstrates no abnormality by my definitions, I elect to make no diagnosis.

holy crap dude why do you keep adding the word 'Chinese' in front of' 16-18 year old boy'?

anyway, looking at your comments, it seems that you completely ignored this

Definition of Retire
'2 withdraw to or from a particular place : she retired into the bathroom with her toothbrush. '

In this case, I have played warlight for a period of time. Now i have decided to withdraw from using this service. Does that make sense?'

There are a few 'Gaming gorgons' that you probably use too, gui! Such as saying'gg' even when its not a very good game at all.
As to why I quit Warlight, the main reason is school term just resumed and i think its getting tough, so i think i need more time to study. It has nothing to do with players and clans. :)

Nike, please retire quicker

I agree with Gui about these self-titled "retiring" gamers. Further more, they are rather otiose and melodramatic. I think posting on the forum that one intends to "retire" is just a form of attention seeking in an effort to gain one of the following:

1.
Enough people state that they will miss the "retiring" player and that they really want he or she to stay. So then one feels enough love and decides not to "retire" after all.

2.
Enough people state that they will miss the "retiring" player and that they really want he or she to stay. So then one feels that one can "retire" with the knowledge that oneself will be remembered as a great member of the warlight community and that bards will sing of one's great deeds. One will pass into legend!

3.
The "retiring" player" is just trolling in the hope of getting some reaction and he or she had no intention of leaving.

:P

'withdraw to or from a particular place : she retired into the bathroom with her toothbrush. '

English speakers do not use the word retire in this context. Even the example given by the dictionary comes off as someone using the word retire sarcastically, because retiring is an extremely grand way to describe anything, let alone something as mundane as brushing your teeth. I hope that wasn't lost on you Nike(retiring) because it comes across the same way when you put it in your name.

I think we all know this is less about you though Nike and more about Gui and Swenny's on going pissing contest. Long may it continue. =D

@HeyHeuHei: yes, i will soon, so that i no longer have to tolerate rats like you ;)
@Wordsworth: Not true. I never announced my retirment in the forum, if Huckleberry didn't come along with this thread, i doubt a lot of people would realize i'm retiring.
@Huckleberry: I think Schizo is right. I recall that you made a thread not long ago announcing very loudly you're leaving and also giving a variety of reasons. What happened? Can't break the addiction? I would have thought someone like you could do so with no trouble at all. I'm not 16-18 btw, i'm only 15. It does occasionally make me happy when i realize i beat people who are much older than me :D

@Nike: I never named you, although now I look at your chosen name I notice that it contains in parenthesis Retiring. I was refering to those who have posted threads declaring retirement or similar which there have been. For example Incaman declared a few weeks back that he was retiring due to obnoxious players or something like that.

I hope that clarifies my stand-point to you.