Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
General: Community Blog Spotlight: Alts
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
Every Week, Community Manager Laura Genender takes a look at one or more of the entries being created in our MMORPG.com blogs. This week, she looks takes a look at a member blog about playing alts in MMORPGs.
Many of us MMOers not only play multiple games, but we play multiple characters within those games; these are called alts, and user neschria is certainly one of the most prolific alters I've ever heard of. Sporting over 72 EverQuest characters, 50 WoW characters, and more spread over other MMOs, neschria's latest blog entry in Tastes Gamey tells us about her personal altaholism, and talks about alters and the allure of alternate characters in MMOs - the entry itself is aptly titled "I wish I could have alts in real life too."
Read the whole column here.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
When I logged in to EQPlayers for the first time and looked at my own account and saw how many alts were there, I was shocked. It took me years to get to the numbers I reached in EQ, though. It's amazing what you can do given enough (or too much) free time.
These days, I have a lot less free time. That's probably also a factor that has reduced the number of alts that I roll. If you know you're only going to play 5-7 hours a week, replaying the beginning of a game again isn't all that attractive as a way to pass those few hours. And these days, most games don't have much variety in the newbie experience-- most of the time, you'll be in the same places, doing the same things you did before.
Interestingly, EQ2 has diversified its newbie experience a little by adding Kelethin and Neriak, while EQ1 now funnels everyone, regardless of race, through the same tutorial and newbie city. I
the newer cities in EQ2
. As for EQ1, it was a good move in a game with low newbie population, since it gets newbies in the same zones, but it sure does make starting over feel like a rinse-and-repeat experience. In fact, as I've noted, I am thinking about going back to EQ1 with a clean slate, but I can't see playing through the beginning more than once now, having done it a couple of times while test driving the drakkin race. So, I imagine I'll be alt-free for as long as I play there.
...
This is where I draw the line: __________________.
By having many alts you increase your experience (and pleasure) from a class based game
. Certainly, by trying out all the classes in a game like Guildwars you will become you a more rounded combatant (essential for this pvp centric game that utilises 2 classes in one) and luckily it does not take overly long to max out.
Probably one of the many reasons I could never enjoy EQ, WOW, LOTR is it takes too long (GRIND ahhh) but with Dungeons and Dragons Online I had 2 accounts with max alts so I guess many gamers have been there - with too much time you can do the grind if the game entertains you.
However, a non class based game removes this need
Albeit, without the desire to make more alts you are more responsible about your actions as you will remain judged by them; or require to start from scratch and that is often too painful.
Alt lust only shows how lacking the core gameplay in most of theese games realy is.
I find if I make an alt, I get bored of my main, then get bored of my alt and end up quiting altogether. An odd trend, I just try to avoid making alts until im sick of my main.
---
Some of you may know me as Neschria's husband. What most of you may not know is that we disagree on nearly EVERY point in any MMORPG. And the subject of alts is no different I just wanted to show how hard playing an alt could be in EQ.
I started playing EQ waaay back in June of 1999. I started a dwarf cleric (Dikmer Orless. Dik to my friends.) For the first 2 years I didn't even have a second character on my account. For 3 years after making some alts, I still only played Dik. I was a regular poster on EQ Clerics and considered by many to be on of the best clerics of my time. I couldn't even tell you how many times I'd see a conversation go like this:
group/raid leader: "Where going to do..."
prospective player(s): "you wanna do WHAT??!?! no way""
group/raid leader: "Dik is coming"
player(s): "oh, ok I'll come"
One day, while I was at work, my wife made a human mage on my account (female at that). I found I REALLY liked playing that character but I also found I had trouble finding time to play her. Too many nights of "can you just log in Dik for this, or that, or the other thing?"
Finally, one day, I put my foot down. I showed up to a raid (planes of power era) with my mage who had just hit 55. The raid leader was like "switch to your main, dude, we need you" and I said "no, this IS my main" The raid leader called off the whole raid. I felt like a schmuck. A whole raid canceled because I wanted to play a mage after 5 solid years of playing a cleric. How could I be so selfish? And the other 3 clerics there were all like "what are we? druids?"
But I stuck to my guns and retired Dik. He eventually hit level 66 sometime after they raised the level cap, but you can blame that one on neschria as she had him out doing some power leveling or something and accidently got him some EXP. I played Sodi all the way.
Other than those 2 characters, the next highest was a troll SK I got to 30 and my wife eventually played him to 35 so he could cast feign death. Below him, none of my alts ever got past 20-25. I don't think I ever deleted a character over level 10 "just to make room for a new one".
Neschria, on the other hand, has deleted more levels of characters than I ever had. The top 3 of note were a 65 gnome SK, a 52 ogre warrior and a 45 high elf cleric. Not to mention the dozens (scores? hundreds?) for 20 something and under that got the axe over the years. How she ended up with 72 still on her account is simply amazing to me. And just goes to show you how different she and I feel about the whole Alt subject.
I also enjoy "character progression". That's probably what I like best. I just find myself spread a little thin when my playtime is split, so I don't make a lot of progress with any one character, and then I tend to hit a high level of frustration in the high levels because I don't raid. (Despite anything I may say otherwise, I don't really hate raiding. I raided quite a bit back in the day. I quit raiding when I joined a guild that was selecting targets I didn't agree with, but was otherwise a friendly guild without a mandatory raid policy.) I just want to see where I end up if I really put my time and resources into one character, instead of having 8 that are sharing the same pool of time and in-game cash.
I am not entirely sure I can stick to one if I have more time and go back to playing games with fewer limits on the number of characters per account I can have. I am almost certain I'll wake up one morning and think, "I wonder what it would be like to play (whatever race/class combo comes to mind)." Or, "I really don't like the name or look of (character X). I think I'll delete her and remake her as an elf named Tesselberry. Yeah. That's it!"
If I start an Altaholics Anonymous group... we'll meet in different newbie cities as different characters every week.
Actually, you could feign death at 30 (before they spread spells out... now you get FD at what? the tender young level of 24?). I just played your SK because of my "No SK Left Behind" Policy.
...
This is where I draw the line: __________________.
I'm not big on these level grind games. My preference would be a great sandbox game world. Something like UO used to be, but without the constant ganking. But I do play WoW because my son plays it, and I really hove nowhere else to go for now for the gameplay I want. But one of the things about WoW (and I'm sure other games like EQ too) is the classes and abilities. I like several of them, and I often get the urge to play an alt despite my tendency to play one character.
But then again, if WoW were more like the style of game I want, I might not ever get that urge.
Once upon a time....
I sometimes make alts to try out different abilities or playstyles. Maybe I saw Player B playing a Class X in that group last night and it looked fun. Sometimes the class I am playing is not living up to my expectations I got from reading a class description, so I am trying another. Whatever the reason, my Main rarely stays "main" for long.
In some games like CoX, I have numerous alts as I enjoy the gameplay at all levels. The excellent character creation also helps with this. In EQ2 I only have 3 characters as they fill the niche of playstyles I like for that game.
I've always made lots of alts.... from my first MMORPG game, Lineage 1, where I had 3 characters level 44-48 to DAOC and my 6 level 50 characters, and WOW, with 5 level 60's. (and literally dozens of lower level characters that never got near the top)
In fact, I'm not sure what people mean when they ask me...are you playing your alt? I consider them all to be my mains.... just some are younger than others.
Most games I've played are class based, so certainly one reason to play multiple characters is to enjoy the variety in skills and abilities, and compare which class has an easier time completing a particular quest or killing another player.
Also, most class based games have end game content that doesn't really appeal to me (i.e raiding in WOW) so I end up rolling new characters to enjoy the game longer.
DAOC was an exception, in that case I really loved the RVR end-game, but I kept searching for a character that came with an "automatic I-win" button on it....sadly no such thing was ever found.
Some characters were created just to sit around and craft, and some were created just to cause trouble without having to answer for it. Some were created to hide from other people for a while (esp when I was a guild leader) just to get a little peace and quiet.
I recently started EVE back in May, and you guessed it, I already have a second character training up his learning skills to max while I continue to play the main game with my first one. Since EVE really doesn't allow for more than one character per account, I doubt I'll get up to 5 or 6... (wife would kill me over the expense) I can easily see yet a 3rd account/character in my future.
Not because EVE is class based...one character in theory could train up skills for a variety of careers, (PVP'er, Hauler, Miner, Industrialist) but it would take a huge amount of time.. (years)... I want to experience the different professions more or less all at once and within less than a year, hence the multiple characters.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Hi, my name is Trogdorn and I am an altaholic. A great reason for having alts is that you can learn strengths and weaknesses of all the classes and then use that knowledge in PvP. Sadly, I don't PvP. So what the heck is wrong with me? I find I'm just curious about spells, abilities, gear, wardrobe and the like. I also like to help out others as much as possible so having numerous high level alts that can fit into almost any group is an advantage. But then, I don't group a lot either. Geez, is it really a sickness that has no rational or logical explanation - I wonder???? I am tired of grinding till my eyes bleed, there must be a better way.......
I like many alts, but it is a pain in the ass for other people to keep track of you when you have many of them, and you have to prioritize out of one or the other with mmos being timesinks as they are.
That is nuts!I'm a fellow altaholic. I feel that to fully enjoy a game is to basically go through all the content. That leaves me with endgame and alts. Although in many MMOs it's difficult to reach endgame with several alts, it's still very appealing to create an alt to understand the characteristics of that specific class. By creating an alt, you not only experience different gameplay, but you also can apply this knowledge for PvP for some MMOs.
www.oblinq.com/SnowmonkeysTemple/