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General: Confessions of an Altoholic
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
"Hi. My name is Isabelle and I'm an altoholic." Sound familiar? In today's Player Perspectives, Isabelle Parsley takes a look at the travails of being an altoholic, a person who collects alternative characters the way some collect stamps. Check out the signs of being an altoholic and see if you are one too!
I cannot suffer an empty character slot to live. It’ll nag at me and nag at me, especially if I’m trying to “save some space” for new character classes, expansions, or just to be more restrained once in a while. And, while some games are worse than others for encouraging rampant altoholism (I’m looking at you, City of Heroes/Villains!), they’re all bad if you happen to be predisposed. Hell, I had three accounts in SWG at one time just because back then, when Jedi characters were just a wild rumor, you could only have one character per server on each account.
Read more of Isabelle Parsley's Player Perspectives: Confessions of an Altoholic.
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Comments
I'm an altoholic. My first fantasy MMO was FFXI, and that game allowed me to switch classes ("jobs") whenever I wanted. I just had to visit my mog house, and then switch my job and subjob. This paved the way for my altoholism.
I acutally prefer playing games that force me to have only one character, that way I have no choice.
Interesting article, thanks Isabelle.
Excellent article, did you come out of my mind today? Seriously. This is me in a nutshell and usually one of the very first things I critique about MMORPGs. If the game has huge Alt potential, much like WoW does and the upcoming SWTOR it will be a game I play for longer than 3 months.
Games that don't have a good Alt leveling option, like Age of Conan and sadly the upcoming Rift don't usually last long past my first character only because I need to have a blast on all characters not just one.
Although there are a few exceptions to the rule, mainly FFXI with how it handles one character all jobs but that's a rarity I think.
Interesting subject indeed! I'd be interested to know if empty friend list & soloing mentality have tendency to go hand in hand with altoholism.
I've been bad case of altoholic, but trying to settle for one character. There's much more of a bonding happening with the character and it's abilities, when I play just one. I can actually get into the role that way, and other classes seem more of mystery as I don't know every little detail about them. Then again, when I have bunch of alts I have many roles for different moods (sometimes I want to play dainty elf, sometimes big, fat orge) and it helps with leading when I know exactly what other players should do, and indeed I guess it's the anonymousity of altoholism that attracts as well.
Helped me to learn what I like though, so I don't need to have more than 2 or 3 characters these days, depending on the game. I know I can skip the pure damage dealers, unless there's something super special going on about them, and mostly other pure classes as well. The niché role I love above everything is healing and damage dealing, tactical, offensive utility class, that isn't able to tank. :-D So I'll make second character as tank, and I'm settled! Although then I still have stuggle with the race and possible stat allocation problems etc...
good point, because I tend to solo and LIKE it and I have like 2 to 3 people total in my friend list in WoW and none in any other game. And I play them all quite a bit. Not that I don't like people, I just tend to me a Lone Wolf. I'm like that in RL. I have very few friends outside of my wife and sons if any at all. None I would call "close". And it doesn't really bother me too much.
I wonder if there is a psychology behind it. I'm sure there is but I don't think I've ever seen it tackled before and brought to life as much as other psychological aspects in society.
@ Vaen -- "Interesting subject indeed! I'd be interested to know if empty friend list & soloing mentality have tendency to go hand in hand with altoholism."
I don't think so. I have a pretty big friends list in and out of the games I play and I'm really quite sociable. If anything, I think it has more to do with one's playstyle -- the real achievers I know tend to find alts distracting and a waste of effort, whereas the socialisers/explorers I know consider alts part of the exploration process for a game. That's a vast generalisation, of course, but it's more or less true in the main, at least in my experience.
I'd also take issue with the idea that being a soloer makes one automatically unsociable, but maybe I'll cover that in another column.
Personally I'm not an Altoholic. I may create multiple characters on an account, but that is because I am loooking for "The One". The one class that fits me in that game. In EQ it was a ranger. CoH it was a Kat/SR scrapper. WoW was a hunter. Aion was a Gladiator.
To me finding the one character that just makes me love playing is what it's about. Once I find it, any alts I have are never touched again. EQ was the best at keeping a person busy on 1 character for so long that they never really had a reason to roll other characters. CoH, WoW, and Aion are altoholic games though. Probably why I couldn't play them for great lengths of time.
Good article.
I'm a hopeless altaholic. Character slots are meant to be populated and it takes me little time to ensure that this happens. I even get a kick out of just reviewing my creations. Seeing them all waiting there, eager for me to take them out for a spin. Sometimes it's tough to decide exactly what kind of game experience I'm looking for that day, and I 'hmm' and 'haa' for a while before I can make a decision. So many choices. So many flavors.
One thing that will always turn me off a game, no matter how good the other elements are, is the level of character customization available. If I don't feel I'll be able to find enough diversity in my stable/family of creations, I won't play. Of course, games that use a system of allowing players to morph just one single character into whatever type of character they need at a given time, is anathema to me. A game like this is not even worthy of my consideration because they just don't get it. Every character is a unique creation derived from my imagination, and my imagination boundless. Having just one character and slapping a new set of skills on them like you would change their hat, just misses the whole point.
Oh -- City of Villains? Crack for altaholics. I'd be embarrassed to admit how much time I spent in the character creator of that seductive little gem.
I am the oposite of an altoholic.
I hate to chreate more chars bcs one char/class combination fits me the best and i never look into second best alternatives. Therefore i only create more chars for specific groupplay or storage space reasons (or to try out different starter regions/quests but usually i delete these toons very soon and i stay with my main char).
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
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Yeah, I'm like you, I have difficulty playing more than one character. Oh, I might start a character for a few levels to play around with it but I never stick with it and usually delete it.
For me it's usually about finding one class/race that fits and that's where I put all my entergy.
Recently I've been looking to change my character in LOTRO because though I love how the guardian plays, in reality, my temperment is not one of a tank. I always feel that in parties I'm not really 'up to it' as that is not what I enjoy.
However, trying to get another character through the ranks has been difficult as I tend not to really "do" alts.
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I tend to roll 2 or 3 alt's in any game I play, not because I got my main to "max" because most times it's not. Mostly do it for a new experience and I tend not to carry over my friends list to my alt's just so I can meet new people at my character's lvl.
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I think I have a sub niche of the Altoholic condition called nervous Altoholism. Generaly when I play a game for the first time I am convinced I will pick one class, put all my energy into it and never roll anything else. I read up on it obsesivly for weeks and learn everything I can about it. Whithin an hour of playing my mind always follows the same paten. I start asking myself questions like; "Did I pick the right class?" or "Hey look at that guy, he's playing that class. That looks really cool!" And it nags at me while I am playing so much it begins to distract from my enjoyment. Then the inevitable self-doubt kicks in. My brain says "Hey, you have the attention span of a drunk monkey. You are never going to finnish this game with a class you don't like. If you liked it there is no way you would be eyeing up everybody elses toons. You should re-roll." So I re-roll, and then whithin an hour the whole process starts again. And this will not stop until I have rolled every class/.charcter combo in the game. Generaly then I get very frustrated at going through the starting content 5-6 (sometimes more) times and play something else. A few days later I pick whatever class I liked the most and crack on. I find it really frustrating that I do this to myself every time I start a new mmorpg or class based game.
Raises hand, yep, I always seem to max all the character slots for the server I am on and even move on to other servers if need be. I just enjoy experiencing the entirety of a game.
Definite Monochar here. And I get attached to my main which just compounds the issue of creating other characters. I sometimes try out many classes in the beginning just to decide which I like best and then that becomes my main forever. But I don't really see those as alts because they are temporary.
The few times I have created an actual alt, which I levelled, it was without exception because I was encouraging a friend to start playing the game and thus I created a character to level with them.
I much prefer games which limit your character slots to one but have the unrestricted skill/role model. This appeals to my need to only have one digital avatar/persona per game.
As an aside, I generally feel that games which give you many character slots impact their in-game economy, due to all the crafting alts people create in an effort to be self sufficient. This leads to the decline of the in-game market/auction and thus negatively impacts the community. Just my opinion, but I think game designers should be building in features which build a greater reliance between players, not take it away.
reporting in. empty slot is a blasphemy. proper name or no go. histories. manerism. little things that make a difference. i try to keep main, but each character is a worthy facet.
Reading the article, I got the feeling the writer makes Alts over Alts because she eventually gets bored and is looking for something else. That's the vibe I got from the article.
The part where the writer says this regarding MMOs that allows players to experience everything on a single character: "The problem is, I’m not entirely sure that’ll stop me – because I’m not entirely sure whether I make alts to experience alternate playstyles, or whether part of me just likes making new characters. Sometimes one just gets tired of looking at the same backside day in, day out."
To me, this removed all doubt, it's a case of boredom. Bored of the character, or perhaps the area the player has reached, then decides to reroll to relive the content he or she (referring to any gamer suffering from the boredom issue) enjoyed or is still on the fence.
heh, in wow i had 5 alliance and 5 hoard on the first server I played. Then we got new races and a hero class and more new races. well I had to do something cause I need to play every class and race ... I am too cheap to pay to move a char so I deleted most of the hoard chars (some in their 50's) and started a new "Hoard server" group on another server. I have 4 there now, 2 in 80's and one newr 60 and another near 50.
I play each char as if it is the only one I have (which it is at the time) and they are seperate mostly. So seperate that I forgot to mail the gold and "stuff" from the hoard characters I deleted to the 2 I had left. I guess it was an impulse delete or perhaps I am just getting senile.
I really like the diversity of playing multiple characters. Besides it gives m something to do while the others are "resting" for that double XP LOL.
But I am not an Altoholic. I am sure I could quit any time. /lol
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My name is Thren and I'm an altoholic. An article I could really relate to!
I'm an altoholic aswell, hopefully RIFT will help ease the symptoms :P.
"Whats That Mr. Death Knocking At Your Door, Who's Gonna Die Tonight?"
There are two definitions for altoholic and I fall upon both of them. One falls in RPGs and the other falls in music.
I dont believe its an addiction or symptom to be one. 
Given a game with X classes, playing X characters isn't a bad idea, specially if a game becomes 2 dimensional through subclasses.
Given X amount of classes where a main and subclass can exist, the total number of characters you would need to have one character per main and sub combination possible is ((X^2) - X). Lets take Guild Wars....:) 10 professions, each can be subclassed. 10x10, but we cant subclass under the same class and 10 of them exist...So we have (10x10) - 10 for 90. ^_^
Guilty of being not only an Altoholic, but a person with OCD & Altruism tendencies. What this means for the general person? Basically, I not only make one of every single class available in a game, i.e. RFO (Rising Force Online had 3 races, like 6 classes a race = 3 accounts needed) but I am obssessed with questing. I do EVERY quest there is to take from level 1 to whatever. In Rohan: Blood Feud, you could actually go to other Races area base thing and do their lowbie quests too, curses how that got me.
I even go further than that tho, if someone needs my help, regardless if it is a friend or a guild member or some random stranger that is questing in my general area... I will STOP all that I am doing and help them with their quest, or all of their quests. I still get EXP of course (in most games) but it equates me to grinding with minions than real questing on my own. I just can't stand to not finish something I start. I feel obligated to help everyone and anyone out, when asked of me.
I've become known across too many games to name, for the guy that just can't get enough with helping others. I also have another reputation as when I leave a game forever... I always donate all my gear/money to various passerbys. I try to aim for lowbies tho, those that truly need the starting funds. Allot of my friends have claimed I kidnapped them by doing this small deed. I do admit I have a few close friends that have came out of my intense generosity. Generally when I am asked what role I'll fill in a Guild/Clan once I join or am looking to join one... I always claim the Jester or the Mascot position. I am a situational comic, so when something happens and I can say something that will make it into a joke... Well lets just say almost EVERYTHING can be made funny. I get people to swarm around me quite quickly. So I understand the need for a Alt that is as she puts it a "Hermit Alt".
I personally call them "Ninja Alts" those that no one but a select few know the name of or get to see. Such as co-leaders of a guild and the overall guild leader. Just in case I am needed you know. I also use these "Ninja's" to spy on the guild and take notes, letting others know if the leadership is all that it is cracked up to be when the "Main" leaders are offline. I am not the first and will not most certainly be the last to do this, but I probably am the first to ever tell the general public that this is done. It isn't paranoia when they really are watching you and are out to get you.
In conclusion, being an Altoholic has nothing to do with being a "No-Lifer" it has everything to do with being intensely fond of a game so much so that you need to experience every single aspect of the game to maximize your enjoyment and to "Get your monies worth" as they say. Seize you all on the battlefield!
END
FOX
My name is Hopscotch and I am an altoholic. I have had multiple accounts across multiple games just so I could indulge my altoholism.
Lately I've cut back (recession!) and have instead bought extra character slots for the game I play most.
Some people game-hop, I character hop. I like to re-run enjoyable storylines with an at-level character every now and then. I like being able to choose the level of "danger" according to my mood, and I like trying out different skillsets and playstyles.
For me, it's nothing to do with boredom, if I'm bored of a game, I'll leave it. It very possibly has to do with enjoying particular facets of a game too much - which is not the same thing at all.
I also have privacy alts, ones I break out when I'm not feeling sociable and cba getting on Vent. I also use those as "video alts" for Fraps-ing content (or scenery!) without disruption.
I do have a "main" character though, the one I play most, the one that is at cap, and it's the one I'm (probably due to time spent) most attached to. I care about all the tohers too, just not as much.
I always feel guilty when I alt because I have a couple of friends I play MMORPGs with who don't and they make me feel bad about not levelling my main and they keep asking me which is my main and for their sake I say one is although in my head that is not it. I mean I enjoy alting but when you are forced to stop and not do it it kills the game for me and I end up leaving.
I couldn't agree more. I did not pick up FFXIV at launch because of the one character limit. And telling me that 1 character is all you need because they can do everything did not cut it. I want to try all the races, classes and playstyles a game offers. I especially agree that each toon is a unique personality and maybe I don't WANT my warrior to be able to cast magic and cook. Of course, in hindsight, I have to thank Squenix for saving me from wasting my money on the trainwreck that was FFXIV, but that is beside the point.
I have never been able to maintain an alt. My first character, even in games I have Beta-ed, has always been all that I have time for in whatever game i am playing.
I only hope that I can keep my RIFT Beta babe when the game launches.
Are you reaching endgame (something I have never done) and starting a new character?
Are you levelling several characters at once?
also, Kudos to Berzerkerfox. not quoting, just scroll up.
I generally have about 5 accounts in each game I play.
I like to multi-box... but also like making alts.
Some games drive you to alts, though. They have 'flavor of the month' cycles where if you really want to be successful (highest level of success), you need to play 'class x' with 'build x/specx'. So, I have alts.
And, yeah, I also like having a few 'secret' alts that I can play when I simply don't want to be bothered.