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E'irawen · **06-21-2013, 10:21 AM**

So, I was talking to a couple people and I was just sort of wondering, and wanted to see people's opinions on alt characters.

And I mean like..for actual RPing and stuff. Some communities I've been in hate them, some don't really care. I just wondered where people on the RPC stood?

If a person can balance them well and keep track of them, do you think it is okay? Or should people just stick to one?

Personally, I have been having difficulty- I don't really want to make people avoid me, or feel uncomfortable or something. But it's tricky, and difficult. I have multiple ideas, and they can't all be squashed onto just one character, y'know? Some things just don't mesh.

So yeah. What's the general opinion of you guys? (I mean, not as a group. But each person.)

Mycroft · **06-21-2013, 10:30 AM**

This is a subject that I think I have come upon in every single RP community that I've been a part of to date.. And I am afraid that I simply do not understand the anxiety surrounding it.

In regards to RP, I never have more than 2 active characters, but that certainly doesn't prevent me from creating alt upon alt upon alt upon alt.

For me it is just as much to experience what the game has to offer besides the RP that my "main" partakes in, as it is an outlet for various character concepts that I've come up with on various occasions.

I thoroughly enjoy having a variety of characters to pick and choose from, although I still do have a tendency to delete and recreate certain characters when the time where I want to RP them arrives..
In fact my altitis/altoholism/alt-(insert medical sounding suffix here) often serves as my primary way of experience the game, as those characters that I RP with tend to get stuck at a certain level every now and again, when part of an over-arcing story.. Which means that I end up spending more time playing on my various alts.

Huzzah for Alts!

Eva · **06-21-2013, 10:43 AM**

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. Dazed

That's my 2 gil.

Magellan · **06-21-2013, 11:32 AM**

I'm an alt-aholic. I run with several different classes and characters in every game I've played, until I settle on 2-3 I love.

Rp wise, if a char's story dies, or they die, or I just lose interest, I shop some alts til one of them tells me an interesting story ^^

I have never run into any pushback on this. I have seen other people, who have 5-8 alts, be told that maybe they should focus on fewer chars, but that is usually after they complain about leveling too slowly.

Anyway, I think its a matter of balance. Don't take on more than you can handle. For me that magic number seems to be 3. Anything beyond that seem like throwawy chars, whom I only use when I'm bored. Which is fine, but don't expect to be able to build solid rp stories on a char you only log on once a month, or five minutes here and there.

Sticking with just one char. Might make you bored to the point of not enjoying playing, which is bad.

Having too many chars may result in your time being far too scattered for others to enjoy rping with you, unless its very light, casual rp.

So find a happy medium.

Gideon Aryeh · **06-21-2013, 02:14 PM**

Altaholic here. When I ran a guild in GW2 I played an entire family including supporting characters. I did this mainly to entertain my members and to provide story to the house itself. As far as active playing characters I usually handle 2-3 well.

Averis · **06-21-2013, 02:43 PM**

(06-21-2013, 10:43 AM)Eva Wrote: But I tend to think of it this way. Â After you factor in time for work, sleep, RL stuffs, your play time is going to be somewhat limited. Â Further dividing this between multiple characters, in my opinion means there's less opportunity for adding more depth to each of those characters. Â 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. Â 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. Â I have to keep notes. Â Juggling two characters I might be okay, but any more than three or four and I'd probably just have a perpetual headache. Â

That's my 2 gil.

I think this is a good point. There's something to be said about really living that "second life" through another character in a way. I typically have alt-itis as well. Even though it's not at all needed in this game, from an RP perspective each character is likely too different to fit multiple job roles etc. However, I really admire those that stick with one character for RP. They usually seem to have a lot of depth, and when you see them again and again in game, they feel almost more real. To me, I would like to be that dedicated and often I set out to be, but my wanderlust seems to typically get the better of me. It's hard to resist a new idea sometimes. It's often sparked by seeing another character in the game and then dreaming about the stories that they could tell.

So I think both sides have their place. The depth of a single character and the variety of alts. But when I see dedicated players like Eva, I too would like to strive to stick it out with one character and see how their life progresses, even through the low times. Maybe this time I can do it. Thumbsup

ArmachiA · **06-21-2013, 04:32 PM**

I generally have two characters I consider my mains in RP: Loki and Armi. They're pretty much in every game I'm in (Though their names may change if the names don't exactly fit lore. For example: Loki in SWTOR was Mahla as I just couldn't justify a Nordic name, of a god no less, in a Star Wars game). As I have a lot of time on my hands, I roleplay both of them pretty well equally, but will favor one over the other if a story is going on that one is involved in.

However, when it comes to the guild or just light RP, I have about 5 or 6 "NPC" alts that, while they have backgrounds and could easily have important roles if necessary, are only there to facilitate guild rp or help others main characters be more social.

For example: My Highlander male alt is an important "NPC" character for facilitating bringing people into the Night Blades. That's his whole job come launch and he'll be RPed A LOT in the beginning to help bring new people (And older guildies too) into the NB.

I have an alt for different situations that require them, just to keep the ball moving RP wise.

This kind of solves my problem of wanting to roleplay all kinds of characters, but knowing that trying to roleplay 7 or 8 characters full time would be nearly impossible. So, I have situational alts to help with storylines or just as "Friends" to guildies characters who's players are a bit shy, and then I have my full time characters Armi and Loki.

Gerik · **06-21-2013, 06:09 PM**

I think it's fine, I think the main problem with too many alts is less individual screentime for each of them. But I wouldn't write it off that it couldn't be done. I think personally for me I'd get overwhelmed by anything over 2 alts x_x

FreelanceWizard · **06-21-2013, 07:40 PM**

Personally, I like to focus on one or maybe two characters at a time. Even when I have more fleshed out characters than that (for example, in CoH, I had about 6 such characters), I'll usually end up only playing the other alts on an as-needed basis -- to support others' scenes and such. Sometimes, I'll get bored with one of the two "mains" or their story line will peter out, in which case I'll tag in one of the alts as a main for a time or, possibly, permanently.

That said, I don't have any issue with people who want to play a lot of alts. It's your choice how many characters you want to RP on a regular basis and not really any of my business. The important things are to make sure you don't capriciously leave others' stories stranded and to not abuse your alts. In the former case, that usually means not getting too deeply involved with others' story lines, which may or may not be a problem for you. The latter case is a function of good RP: don't have your alts magically appear to solve problems for your (or others') characters, don't have them magically share knowledge, etc. For me, at least, I find it's best if my alts don't know each other at all or, if they must -- say, because they're in the same LS or FC -- they don't know each other particularly well and certainly wouldn't stick their necks out for each other.

Out of curiosity! (Your opinions?)

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes