I spoke a bit about this a bit last night. I don't suffer that alt-itis. I've only ever really played one major character in a RP setting with a number of fallback NPC's, but those usually seldom see much face time. That's just how I am. And when I'm on the other NPC's, I find myself grumbling, "This is time I could be spending developing Eva."
That said I don't begrudge anyone who does have alt-itis. There are a lot of different character types and channeling energy into more than one character may help some prevent a single character from becoming too Mary Sue (I actually do this myself only with separate writing - like if I get ideas for things I think might work for Eva, they get funnelled into another character for some creative writing or a short story instead, just because sometimes I have to get that out of my system and it doesn't make sense for Eva to be something that's kind of against her character, even though the concept/idea are fascinating and worth exploring).
What I guess would concern me a little bit would be if my character had grown close to another character, and that character was one among many alts. The limited face time could be somewhat off-putting depending on the nature of the relationship.
But I tend to think of it this way. After you factor in time for work, sleep, RL stuffs, your play time is going to be somewhat limited. Further dividing this between multiple characters, in my opinion means there's less opportunity for adding more depth to each of those characters. That's not to say it can't be done well, but I think the more alts that see less play time there are, the less overall depth those characters are given. I will go on to say that I also have a tough time tracking who said what to whom and which of my characters was involved at a certain thing, sometimes. I have to keep notes. Juggling two characters I might be okay, but any more than three or four and I'd probably just have a perpetual headache.
That's my 2 gil.
That said I don't begrudge anyone who does have alt-itis. There are a lot of different character types and channeling energy into more than one character may help some prevent a single character from becoming too Mary Sue (I actually do this myself only with separate writing - like if I get ideas for things I think might work for Eva, they get funnelled into another character for some creative writing or a short story instead, just because sometimes I have to get that out of my system and it doesn't make sense for Eva to be something that's kind of against her character, even though the concept/idea are fascinating and worth exploring).
What I guess would concern me a little bit would be if my character had grown close to another character, and that character was one among many alts. The limited face time could be somewhat off-putting depending on the nature of the relationship.
But I tend to think of it this way. After you factor in time for work, sleep, RL stuffs, your play time is going to be somewhat limited. Further dividing this between multiple characters, in my opinion means there's less opportunity for adding more depth to each of those characters. That's not to say it can't be done well, but I think the more alts that see less play time there are, the less overall depth those characters are given. I will go on to say that I also have a tough time tracking who said what to whom and which of my characters was involved at a certain thing, sometimes. I have to keep notes. Juggling two characters I might be okay, but any more than three or four and I'd probably just have a perpetual headache.
That's my 2 gil.
"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others." Â ~ Lewis Carol
Eva's Journals  |  Eva's Wiki Page (coming soon)  |  RP Handbook
Eva's Journals  |  Eva's Wiki Page (coming soon)  |  RP Handbook
