I'm using my experiences in WoW as a reference point. I have played other MMOs, but did not even attempt roleplay in them and only played them briefly. Because this game's class system is so different from the usual, most of this won't apply, but it was fun to answer anyway. I did roleplay a bit in WoW, but had a markedly different policy (and some issues I won't have here) than I do here, which resulted in me having no lasting stories or effects. That's not to say that there was no care put into the scenes though--I wish some of them had stuck around.
1. I could say a main is the one you put the most work into, but as someone who could not raid and disliked the random instance/gear treadmill, I was absolutely crazy about leveling every single class, and I got most of them pretty high in level. All eleven classes--and I had ones I leveled first, but I generally played whatever I felt like, and didn't even give consideration to the main/alt label.
2. See above. At this point, playing all the classes was the entire game for me, as I don't work either and had plenty of time to kill. Gearwise most of my characters stopped at level-cap quest gear or dungeon gear, so I had no real way of measuring time spent--although by the time I quit, I did have one character I used "twice" and quite liked. (Note that I put a lot of effort into all characters' backstories and profiles even though I hardly ever got to RP. The first thing I did upon creating a character was to fill out their profile addon, in detail.)
3. I don't think so. People should do whatever best fits them and talk it out ahead of time. I actually think most of the roleplay I did was with people's alts, and as they had a lot of characters, this was fine with them. We'd typically ask each other OOC if the other person was bored and wanted to RP with X character. I do think that people should at least try to dedicate a reasonable amount of time regularly to whatever characters have active storylines though.
4. I've been paired off with alts, but as far as I can remember things never stopped out like that (unless I left a guild or switched servers, which I don't plan on doing here.
5. That they like one specific class or gameplay style, and might (but not always) be better at it.
6. I keep all my characters and do invest a lot of time in them, even though I had a great deal of them, but, based on myself, I'd say that people like me either don't care for endgame or just really like leveling.
7. On most traditional games, one of each if possible--to maximize the lifespan of the game. On ARR, I really only plan to have one--this game is a significant departure for me in numerous ways: gameplay, socially, characters, roleplaying style... I'd make another for different servers or such, but it would have to depend on how open I am to releveling. I can't really play something without leveling it and having a great deal of detail, but I've given some thought to this; one of the reasons Kevaraan was selected as my main is that he's probably the only character who is fluid enough to "be everything" That is only one reason, though.
8. I played whatever class or character I felt like on WoW, but I would also go out of my way to swap if I did run into someone who wanted RP, and another character would be better. This was especially true at the end of my time in WoW, because I was desperate to have something to do, and got very bored with the game itself. Looking back, I probably shouldn't have bothered with RP there, as it was more trouble than it was worth for me, but that's another topic.
In this game, I'm going to play whatever discipline I feel like, but I'm going to take it very slowly and prioritize RP, in a sense. I certainly plan to level and even do endgame things if I can, but I'm also going to actively seek out RP/story progression.
1. I could say a main is the one you put the most work into, but as someone who could not raid and disliked the random instance/gear treadmill, I was absolutely crazy about leveling every single class, and I got most of them pretty high in level. All eleven classes--and I had ones I leveled first, but I generally played whatever I felt like, and didn't even give consideration to the main/alt label.
2. See above. At this point, playing all the classes was the entire game for me, as I don't work either and had plenty of time to kill. Gearwise most of my characters stopped at level-cap quest gear or dungeon gear, so I had no real way of measuring time spent--although by the time I quit, I did have one character I used "twice" and quite liked. (Note that I put a lot of effort into all characters' backstories and profiles even though I hardly ever got to RP. The first thing I did upon creating a character was to fill out their profile addon, in detail.)
3. I don't think so. People should do whatever best fits them and talk it out ahead of time. I actually think most of the roleplay I did was with people's alts, and as they had a lot of characters, this was fine with them. We'd typically ask each other OOC if the other person was bored and wanted to RP with X character. I do think that people should at least try to dedicate a reasonable amount of time regularly to whatever characters have active storylines though.
4. I've been paired off with alts, but as far as I can remember things never stopped out like that (unless I left a guild or switched servers, which I don't plan on doing here.
5. That they like one specific class or gameplay style, and might (but not always) be better at it.
6. I keep all my characters and do invest a lot of time in them, even though I had a great deal of them, but, based on myself, I'd say that people like me either don't care for endgame or just really like leveling.
7. On most traditional games, one of each if possible--to maximize the lifespan of the game. On ARR, I really only plan to have one--this game is a significant departure for me in numerous ways: gameplay, socially, characters, roleplaying style... I'd make another for different servers or such, but it would have to depend on how open I am to releveling. I can't really play something without leveling it and having a great deal of detail, but I've given some thought to this; one of the reasons Kevaraan was selected as my main is that he's probably the only character who is fluid enough to "be everything" That is only one reason, though.
8. I played whatever class or character I felt like on WoW, but I would also go out of my way to swap if I did run into someone who wanted RP, and another character would be better. This was especially true at the end of my time in WoW, because I was desperate to have something to do, and got very bored with the game itself. Looking back, I probably shouldn't have bothered with RP there, as it was more trouble than it was worth for me, but that's another topic.
In this game, I'm going to play whatever discipline I feel like, but I'm going to take it very slowly and prioritize RP, in a sense. I certainly plan to level and even do endgame things if I can, but I'm also going to actively seek out RP/story progression.
