Most of this has been answered already but I'm glad to give my own impressions...
I'm skipping a couple of the questions since they've already been answered succinctly by others above.
3. Â Do people have a responsibility to make certain "mains pair with mains" if you sense an interesting relationship (friends/rivals/lovers/enemies/long-lost relatives) forming or is it okay that someone's just not going to be around at random or for long periods of time?
Our character chooses her own friendships based on meaningful interactions. Â More meaningful interactions means a greater affinity (whether positive or negative) from Eva. Â Those characters willing to spend more time with her will find that she opens up more to them. Â We don't really care if the other RPer has a dozen other characters they RP as long as they're willing to spend the time. Â I try not to make this distinction between 'main' and 'alt' any sort of dealbreaker. Â But I would imagine there is probably a natural correlation between how much time another RPer spends on a particular character, and how much time that particular character spends associating with our character. Â This sounds confusing, but basically if 'Main1' is logged in for 3 hours a day and spends an hour talking and interacting with Eva and others and 'Alt2' is logged in for 30 minutes and has a 10 minute conversation with Eva... than it follows that - over time - there will be a more meaningful relationship between Eva and Main1 than between Eva and Alt2 - assuming there is some consistency with this amount of time spent RPing/interacting together. Â Someone else could have a lot more free time to play more characters and spent hours on an alt, and still have as meaningful a relationship. Â Basically we don't really get 'jealous' (a term I'm using loosely here) if someone's alt interacts more with us than their main. Â Eva is friendly with a lot of people who are sort of considered kind of secondary characters.
4. Â Have you ever discovered that your main was paired off in one of those situations with someone's alt? Â They just didn't play them at all or played other characters? Â Did it stall out your story? Â What did you do?
We've been involved in a friendship where the character was regarded as a 'main' and then they started to play another character they liked better more so it sort of became an 'alt'. Â Since there was less time spent together, their friendship weakened a bit, which seems a natural thing to me. Â We've also had friends who left the game entirely without much notice only to come back several months later and wonder why there was hesitation - like life wasn't going to move on in their absense and such. Â That's perhaps one of the most frustrating things, I think.
5. Â What's the biggest stereotype you think of when you think of people who only have one main character?
I'm honestly not sure. Â I've never really heard any stereotype made, but I suppose perhaps some might say it shows a lack of creativity perhaps? To counter this, all I can really say is that Eva is a drastically different character from the one I played in FF11 - as I think most who knew both could attest to this fact.
6. Â What's the biggest stereotype you think of when you think of people who suffer alt-itis and swap characters often?
If we're talking about stereotypes I think one of the biggest here might stem from the unwillingness to commit to one character. Â That multiple characters may not exhibit as much depth and realism as could be demonstrated if they played only one character. Â I'm not sure that this is true exactly, but I believe for many of the 'alt-itis' RPers that they may be losing out a bit on more substantial experiences by doing this. Â I think there is also a misconception sometimes that metagaming happens too. Â While this is unfounded, I have known RPers to hop around from alt to alt depending on what was happening, for whatever that might mean.
7. Â Which are you? Â A single or two main characters? Â 5 main characters? Â A bunch of alts?
We are very much in the school of "one main character" - though we're considering in ARR trying to play a second character (we are a husband&wife sharing an account and one character right now - which has its own set of challenges but is getting off-topic a bit). Â If we do this, there would still probably be significant overlap between the two characters and I'm honestly not sure how this will pan out yet so it's probably too soon to say. Â But short answer here is "one main character" and we are both heavily invested in Eva's character/story/personality/etc.
Great questions and I hope my responses help a little! Â
I'm skipping a couple of the questions since they've already been answered succinctly by others above.
3. Â Do people have a responsibility to make certain "mains pair with mains" if you sense an interesting relationship (friends/rivals/lovers/enemies/long-lost relatives) forming or is it okay that someone's just not going to be around at random or for long periods of time?
Our character chooses her own friendships based on meaningful interactions. Â More meaningful interactions means a greater affinity (whether positive or negative) from Eva. Â Those characters willing to spend more time with her will find that she opens up more to them. Â We don't really care if the other RPer has a dozen other characters they RP as long as they're willing to spend the time. Â I try not to make this distinction between 'main' and 'alt' any sort of dealbreaker. Â But I would imagine there is probably a natural correlation between how much time another RPer spends on a particular character, and how much time that particular character spends associating with our character. Â This sounds confusing, but basically if 'Main1' is logged in for 3 hours a day and spends an hour talking and interacting with Eva and others and 'Alt2' is logged in for 30 minutes and has a 10 minute conversation with Eva... than it follows that - over time - there will be a more meaningful relationship between Eva and Main1 than between Eva and Alt2 - assuming there is some consistency with this amount of time spent RPing/interacting together. Â Someone else could have a lot more free time to play more characters and spent hours on an alt, and still have as meaningful a relationship. Â Basically we don't really get 'jealous' (a term I'm using loosely here) if someone's alt interacts more with us than their main. Â Eva is friendly with a lot of people who are sort of considered kind of secondary characters.
4. Â Have you ever discovered that your main was paired off in one of those situations with someone's alt? Â They just didn't play them at all or played other characters? Â Did it stall out your story? Â What did you do?
We've been involved in a friendship where the character was regarded as a 'main' and then they started to play another character they liked better more so it sort of became an 'alt'. Â Since there was less time spent together, their friendship weakened a bit, which seems a natural thing to me. Â We've also had friends who left the game entirely without much notice only to come back several months later and wonder why there was hesitation - like life wasn't going to move on in their absense and such. Â That's perhaps one of the most frustrating things, I think.
5. Â What's the biggest stereotype you think of when you think of people who only have one main character?
I'm honestly not sure. Â I've never really heard any stereotype made, but I suppose perhaps some might say it shows a lack of creativity perhaps? To counter this, all I can really say is that Eva is a drastically different character from the one I played in FF11 - as I think most who knew both could attest to this fact.
6. Â What's the biggest stereotype you think of when you think of people who suffer alt-itis and swap characters often?
If we're talking about stereotypes I think one of the biggest here might stem from the unwillingness to commit to one character. Â That multiple characters may not exhibit as much depth and realism as could be demonstrated if they played only one character. Â I'm not sure that this is true exactly, but I believe for many of the 'alt-itis' RPers that they may be losing out a bit on more substantial experiences by doing this. Â I think there is also a misconception sometimes that metagaming happens too. Â While this is unfounded, I have known RPers to hop around from alt to alt depending on what was happening, for whatever that might mean.
7. Â Which are you? Â A single or two main characters? Â 5 main characters? Â A bunch of alts?
We are very much in the school of "one main character" - though we're considering in ARR trying to play a second character (we are a husband&wife sharing an account and one character right now - which has its own set of challenges but is getting off-topic a bit). Â If we do this, there would still probably be significant overlap between the two characters and I'm honestly not sure how this will pan out yet so it's probably too soon to say. Â But short answer here is "one main character" and we are both heavily invested in Eva's character/story/personality/etc.
Great questions and I hope my responses help a little! Â
"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
