What is the Point of Alts?

[Sgt. Dante]

That's sort of like saying "I already have Halo 3, why would I want Halo 2 or 1?"

More like saying "I've already finished Halo 3, why would i play it again?"

A lot of people set up an alt as a way to try and do something different or play the game in a specific way. Most MMO's don;t allow you to experience all the content from a single character, in the WoW example the sheer existence of both the alliance and the horde can create two very different play experiences. and that's before you experiment with different classes. To be fair tho I've seen the WoW allows for several characters in a single account, which is good, as it save people having multiple subscriptions to play as more than one class.

 

[geldonyetich]

As a massive alt-a-holic myself, I've pondered this question up and down, and I came up with a pretty solid answer:

• 1. I'm bored of the game mechanic.
  
  2. By rolling up an alt, I might find a part of the game mechanic I haven't bored of yet.

That's pretty much it. Because a healer plays differently than a tank who plays differently from a rogue who plays differently from a mage (for example) rolling up an alt will often deliver a different play experience when you're bored of the ones you've done already.

It can even become addictive. What we basically have here is a variable reward schedule [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement#Effects_of_different_types_of_simple_schedules]. Not every new character I roll up will be entertaining but a few of them will, so I will keep rolling up new characters whenever I'm bored with the ones I have.

 

[Abedeus]

Having 5 characters so I can PvE in any team, and later PvP in any team.

Alts usually mean playing the same, but with other character, and by having 9 characters available for questing/grinding/raiding, you have bigger chances of having one that people require at the time than a person with 1 character.

 

[Chipperz]

That's sort of like saying "I already have Halo 3, why would I want Halo 2 or 1?"

...How?

It's a different game...or it can be.

Ahhh... That's a very good point. My apologies for doubting you.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

That's sort of like saying "I already have Halo 3, why would I want Halo 2 or 1?"

...How?

It's a different game...or it can be.

Ahhh... That's a very good point. My apologies for doubting you.

Wow...an apology. You, sir, are a gent amongst men. Have a cookie.

 

[Louzon]

Why in games, MMO's specifically, do people feel the need to create alternitive accounts. I can understand it if the game has seperate class like FF XI

Actually, you can be any job you want in FFXI, any time, so it's not that in the game...nothing huge there, just showcasing my nerdiness with that game.

Actually, I play FFXI, and I have one alternate character, but I know many who have 3 or 4, mainly for extra storage space. My alternate character, however, is for an inside joke-slash-showing my respect that I have had for the Final Fantasy series.

My main guy is just a normal character, but my alternate is a tarutaru female (which looks like a child, and is the race most adept for magic), and my best friend also plays, and he made a tarutaru male character, and we named them Pallom and Porrom...they wouldn't let us use the proper spelling for it, so we had to be a tad creative. It's mainly fun for ourselves, but it's always a good feeling to see other characters who understand from where our characters come from.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Alternative accounts? I'm not sure. Maybe so they can dual-box?

Unless you're talking alt characters, in which case the point is that one character can't do everything. Sadly, my Night Elf Hunter can't turn into a bear, summon demons, move while stealthed, or call down holy wrath, nor can he cut gems, forge swords, brew potions, or sew shirts, nor can he enter Orgrimmar to speak with Thrall without dying dozens of times.

And that's just WoW. Not creating alts in, say, City of Heroes would be absolutely unthinkable.

 

[DragonChi]

Starting over is fun, trying different classes or factions for a new/different experiance, adds a lot of replayabilty so you keep playing the game longer, want to play privately on occasion, guild needs another class so someone makes an alt to fill the needed slot, make an alt to use as an item mule and or guild bank....list goes on.

 

[Darkblazer]

A lot of people in WoW and Runescape make new accounts so they can have more bank space to put certain things in to

Another reason i thought of was that, if you're a very good player of the game, and you've accumulated a good amount of equipment for low levels, then if you start a new character you can have such an upper hand over players your level who don't have the things you do.

As well has having lots of money to pour into your new character for skills, equipment etc.

 

[Daymo]

A lot of people in WoW and Runescape make new accounts so they can have more bank space to put certain things in to

Another reason i thought of was that, if you're a very good player of the game, and you've accumulated a good amount of equipment for low levels, then if you start a new character you can have such an upper hand over players your level who don't have the things you do.

As well has having lots of money to pour into your new character for skills, equipment etc.

Oh yeah, I remeber seeing that a few times when I used to play Runescape. My friend had a level 113 character and created a new one and got it to 60 defence, so it would be a low level character with really good items like all the dragon items.

 

[Nazulu]

I know in Lineage 2 alot of people had alts (Clerics, Prophets, Elders, etc.) to get all the mean buffs to speed up the grind or to keep 'em ready for pvp.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Another reason i thought of was that, if you're a very good player of the game, and you've accumulated a good amount of equipment for low levels, then if you start a new character you can have such an upper hand over players your level who don't have the things you do.

As well has having lots of money to pour into your new character for skills, equipment etc.

I'd forgotten about that. Yeah, most of my characters have profession skills far in excess of what might be expected from their level. One comes across green items or cloths? Send it to my Enchanter/Tailor. Herb drops? Alchemist. Gems? Either my jewelcrafter or engineer. Stuff like that. And, of course, excess money for materials helps, as are the other things my sugar daddy main character supplies.

Might be kind of selfish, but eh. I solo most of the time anyway. My one-man commercial empire would span the world if there weren't that pesky "can't bid on your own characters' auctions" thing keeping me from using the Goblin AH...

 

[KaiRai]

I have an alt on oblivion, purely because I like doing different things and working my way up.
I am also aware that oblivion is not an MMO. That said, I have 2 runescape accounts, 2 chars on WoW and about 8 chars on ragnarok online. Same with tribal wars, I have a few accounts on different servers there

 

[wordsmith]

So that they can do things that they wouldn't be able to do with one account.

Grief for example

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Different classes can do different things. Having alts lets you explore more than one aspect of the game.

But then again, I don't like MMOs.

 

[New Troll]

The reasons I personally created alts... (in order of importance to me)

First, to experience as much of the game as I can.

Second, to better figure out which type of gameplay I enjoy playing.

Third, to help fight against boredom.

Fourth, to better off my main with extra muling, gathering, and creating characters.

Fifth, to better fill holes in parties/ raids.

Sixth, to play with more casual friends.

When I played WoW I had about twenty characters I played, seven of which were at max level, four of which I raided with. Though my main was the only one in the hardcore raid group. But it was nice hardly ever having to get outside help from anyone, especialy the auction house, due to being able to rely on my alts for most everything I needed.

edit: I only owned one account though I had access to a few others if I needed something from them and the owner was unavailable. I know people with multiple accounts though so they can more easily level characters or can play both sides with/ against friends.

 

[infernovolver]

Ungh.
Some decide to make an alt for:
1. A forum.
2. Try different classes/races/characters/builds/etc.
3. Have a mule account for gold/items.
4. Pvp/pking exclusively.
5. Skilling/farming/etc exclusively.
6. "Twink" lower level characters.
7. Multiboxing.
8. BREAKIN' DA RULEZ.
9. Starting over with a clean slate.

Unfortunately, in mmo's you can never have a jack of all trades. There's always restrictions on what you can and can't do, and usually alts can get around them.

 

[FailingwithStyle]

I mainly made alts to try out a class with a different playstyle. With that in mind, it also gave me an edge in PvP, knowing how to counter certain moves and whatnot.

 

[Azraellod]

i do this on AQ worlds, thanks to me getting fed up with having to round up a party whenever i wanted to kill everything. i then get preoccupied with the new account, and enjoy playing through the game again with it.

im also a bit of a control freak, and when i control everything that the party does, i feel superior to all the other people off on their little uncontrolled raids.