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Chronic reroller
ZuMonster
Member Posts: 19
I am a huge fan of MMOs. But I have a major problem of being unable to commit to a character. I enjoy most of the big MMOs on the market. But I often end up getting so paralyzed with indecision about which of my (always many)characters to play, that I often end up quitting out of frustration. Even when I still enjoy the game itself. I know it may sound silly to some, but I just keep doing it over and over again!
Anyone else find themselves being a compulsive hoarder of characters? Does it end up effecting your enjoyment one way or the other? Anyone manage to break the habit?
Comments
I am an altaholic. My worst time was when I used to play CoH/CoV. With the excellent character creation it was overload for me. I made so many characters and would jones to play another almost instantly. Getting ideas for new "looks" that I'd become giddy with decisions (if that makes any sense).
Right now I'm taking a break from MMOs. Partially a money issue, but mostly a lack of excitement over what games are currently out.
In all the years I have been gaming, I still have a hard time sticking to one character and only that one character throughout the time I spend in any MMO.
When I was playing EQ2, I ended up with a ton of alts. I paid for the Station Access pass just to get those extra slots. It was just that bad.
I have a friend, who plays EQ2, and he only has the one character. He cannot comprehend how anyone would want to play more than the one they initially chose. As I cannot understand how he'd want to stick to the one character for months on end.
I wish I could say that I've kicked the habit, but I have not. The only way I deal with it is by not playing at all. And as I sit here typing I've got this desire to play any game just to create a new character... or more than one.
Maybe I'll just walk away from the computer for now. ;P
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Now Playing:
EQ2
Prior Games (in no order):
SWG, L2, RO, PT, ROSE, CoH/CoV, AO, UO, EVE, WoW and a bunch of others.
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Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity.
I had this same exact problem. Making alts, deleting characters, just really unsure of my characters in general. All that stopped when I found the right game. It actually wasn't what was wrong with me but what was wrong with all the games I had been playing. Now I have a character that I absolutely have never thought about deleting because I think he is just awesome.
In America I have bad teeth. If I lived in England my teeth would be perfect.
Which game are you refering to, seabass2003? I'm all curious now and I must know!
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Now Playing:
EQ2
Prior Games (in no order):
SWG, L2, RO, PT, ROSE, CoH/CoV, AO, UO, EVE, WoW and a bunch of others.
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I usually experiment with several classes/races before choosing one to take to cap. I personally will, after making that decision, not play another toon until I have taken my main to the cap. Otherwise you'll get caught up in a cycle of rerolling/deleting/leveling/rerolling etc and will end up quiting the game. If you can't pick a main because no class sticks out to you, none seem fun.. then maybe thats just not the game for you.
Usually people have a preference, a general role they like to play in MMO. My first character is usually a warrior type... basic heavy armor melee fighter.. my second is usually a healer.
Figure out what you enjoy and GETURDUN... or keep wasting your time leveling and rerolling when you could have spent all your time on one character.
I had this problem in my first MMO, Everquest. I would play something get it to the late thirty's (the max was 60 when I played), and decide hey I want to be something else. So I would spend days in the tunnel in EC, and later the bazaar finding new armor and weapons to twink out a new toon. Sometimes I would have really nice gear (like my wizard with 210 intelligence, back when the max was 250), and other times it would only be subpar. I finally landed on playing a rogue that had some very nice stuff (IE Gomdurig, my favorite back in the day), and got him to lvl 60. I hit this problem in WoW somewhat, though I finally found my Tauren hunter "fun" enough to get him to 40 before just quitting all together. Now I play City of Heroes, and despite what the OP said, I actually have only once character so far, and enjoy it a whole lot. I like seeing everyone's hero and the total uniqueness (at least cosmetically) this game offers.
I, too, am an altaholic. At least, I am not a delete-aholic. (Unlike my friend that curses himself everyother week as he deletes his whole playtime :P)
I had two approaches.
My WoW approach: Make one character of each class, most optimally all of diffrent races. Play them all up to some respecable level (10), then move on to the next one. Play what class strikes my fancy at the time, this way, I don't have to create, I can just continue.
This works best on games with few or otherwise limited character options.
My CoX approach: Do alot of guide reading. Gather info. Try to decide what Archtype(class) and powersets(style) sound like they suit me most, playtest a few that sound promising. In the end, make sure you end up with 2-3, MABYE 4 "mains". Decide to get each up to a certain level, then switch. I rotate like this until I naturally find myself gravitating towords one or another. Again, I stress, Don't delete unless you need the character slots. Currently, I have a Martial Arts Scrapper and a Ice Blaster oh Heroes, and a Mastermind on Villians, and I'm playtesting a number of villian concepts to make a 2nd villian main.
This works best in games with MANY character options.
FInally, Tabula Rasa's clone system, where you make a 2nd character, a copy-clone, of your main just before makeing critical class desicions, and can choose the other desicions later. Very alt-friendly.
P.S. Games with emphasis on endgame *cough* WoW*cough* are some of the least alt-friendly in my experiances.
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-Been there, done that: Xsyon, WoW, EVE, Maplestory, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Warhammer Online, FF11, Rift
-Currently playing: Not MMOs
-Wants to check out: SWTOR, Dark Millennium
All classes perform different roles, but in the end, if you play games where you raid, you're still just pressing buttons. Whether it be a tanking button, a healing button, or a damage button.
Zu I used to have this problem back in the EQ days until I figured out what kind of class I like to play. I know that I don't like play tanks or healers, so it's either a ranged dps, caster dps, or melee dps for me. I'll usually start out a new MMO playing a ranger/archer type class, cap it and then move on.
Same here. I make alts play them to a decent level (or something) and then start another one. I can't choose which class to play. In the end I always end up playing some kind of hybrid, you get a little bit of all but you suck at it.
This usually doesn't stop me from enjoying the game though. I usually just start a new character and then it's like playing all over because you must do different stuff as the character you created is different.
CoH/CoV was a real pain in the ass though. I ended up finding myself creating characters only. The character creation page had so many options that I realized that the only thing I really did was to make different characters. Quite cool though, hope some of the new games will understand how important it is with character customization.
More power to you. There isn't any one way to play these games.
I'm a control-freak. That is why I play a healer. I don't trust anyone else to do it. If I keep that in mind and don't try classes that don't fit that model, I tend to re-roll less.
Figure out what kind of player you are and play those classes. You will be able to keep re-rolling under control.
Well i'm known as the reroller, so i understand exactly what you mean. But as some other poster said i believe it's mostly the games fault not your own.
In WoW i had a lvl 59 and a half warrior, two level 40 hunters, a paladin at around 40, a mage around 30 etc..
i'm just the opposite. i make one toon and stick with it, like it or not. i get very committed to my character and having an alt i would almost feel like i was cheating on my main with it.
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TheCore
I am the Alt King, bow down to my ever changing Avatars!
I am the worlds worse when it comes to rerolling characters. But I do it to make the game feel fresh and see if I missed anything. Also to see if that other class is cool. Not the grass is greener syndrome.
I have a habit of making my first char, getting it to level X, before finding myself a little bored with a desire to play another class. So I make a new one, get it to X level, then get bored of doing the grind I had just accomplished on my previous character and sometimes this leads me to quit. Crazy? I agree.
I also find if I make a female char, im very fussy of her appearance, if its not perfect ill reroll and sort it, regardless of what level I am. As a result, I try to avoid making female chars, no matter how secsay they are.
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I feel wiht you.
I know how it is.
It's not you that have a problem, it is the game and the game developers. They put you in a situation where you have 5-16 class options. If you dont like one, you have to start all over again, and try the next.
That's why sandbox MMO's are so much more favorable. In sandbox MMO's you still have different sort of characters, but you can almost always start on a new skill, and become something else.
Surely you can't master all skills, and become the best in all... Then you can make an alt. Let's say you want a very good fighter, and you also want a very good crafter. But at any time you can switch around on some skill points, and make your fighter from being a tank, into a barbarian. Or atleast that's the idea
Futilez - Mature MMORPG Community
Correcting people since birth.
There are two things people mentioned that I wanted to coment on, being an altaholic:
1. I tend to strongly dislike hybrid classes, especially DROODS! *Shakes fist* Damn animals. I still don't understand why anyone would want to play an animal as a PC. Don't even get me started on Furrys or Taurens.
But I like to make lots of characters, but I don't want one character who does lots of stuff. That's the opposite of an altaholic cure, it just makes you lean to one style that you want to explore further with the specilized version of that class, until you go back to your hybrind and lean another way.
2. I hate crossdress-RP. Never play a gender opposite of yours. I think this is a carry over from DnD RP, which is usually much more involved than MMO RP, and I feel that a male player simply can't 100% understand where a female would be coming from in the situation his female character is in, and vice-versa. Also, in tabletop RP, love interests can really add depth to a game... and most guys playing girls will be like "EWW I'M NOT GAY! I'M NOT RPING DATEING A DOOD!"
Now, I'm off to make another character in CoX! Away!
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-Been there, done that: Xsyon, WoW, EVE, Maplestory, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Warhammer Online, FF11, Rift
-Currently playing: Not MMOs
-Wants to check out: SWTOR, Dark Millennium
I had 28 slots per server when I was playing City of Heroes (two accounts, both with COV). My home server was full for a few weeks
. I've never been in a rush to 'beat' the game so it's never been a problem for me. All the different characters had their own personality and playstyle and kept the games fresh for me.
When I started playing DDO I saw the 5 slots per server (going up to 12 soon according to an update on the EU website) and cried
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DDO Permadeath guilds
This is pretty normal behavior I think. Basically you see what other classes are doing and wish you could do that to or you think about how great it would be to play as another class. Not many people enjoy being stuck at one role, but without specializing everyone would be marginal at everything and good at nothing. Fortunately in games we can roll alts and there isn't anything wrong with that. It's a reasons why WoW can be a lot of fun as the leveling pace is quick so making alts isn't very difficult. In a game like EQ leveling alts was painful because it required so much time to level up without PL and Twinking.