Comments on: Alts and the players who love them

By: Da Bloody Twenty - August 14 « Waaagh! A Warhammer Online Blog

Da Bloody Twenty - August 14 « Waaagh! A Warhammer Online Blog — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:51:37 +0000

[...] “Alts and the Players Who Love Them” @ Book of Grudges – I just pray that there will be an alt Tome unlock! [...]

By: arbitrary

arbitrary — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:46:21 +0000

I do not discuss Angband, because I was traumatised by a cruel incident of character deletion and I am still tracking the culprit.

By: boatorious

boatorious — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:43:27 +0000

Nice to hear somebody mention roguelikes. I used to play Moria all the time. Needs a new platform though …

And XP for your alts? In a final fantasy tactics game? Man, have to get that.

By: arbitrary

arbitrary — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:53:08 +0000

It may be a financial winner for a game to have replayability and interesting alts, but alting just isn’t for some people. I like to pour all my time and energy into one character, for the same reason as I tend to pick an RP server. I like to inhabit that one character and do everything I can to make it the best and the most fun for me.

But, I have alted, I’ve just never enjoyed it as much as I’d have liked to.

By: Paj

Paj — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:01:56 +0000

24 alts on CoX, and still lots of powerset combos I haven’t tried, yet.

The sidekick/lackey system really helps out with alting (and casual play in general). Still being able to team with your friends when you’re 20 levels below them is a godsend (I don’t know why more games don’t do this).

Ok, the lack of any real endgame content also encourages alting. As do the vast number of powersets available, along with 12 character slots per server (expandable to 36 per server, if you’re rich enough). Oh, and the ease of the game, approx 200 hours to level 50 is one of the quicker levelling MMOs out there. It’s pretty much expected that everyone has several alts.

Maybe I should roll a defender. Over 2 1/2 years, and I still haven’t tried one.

By: Regis

Regis — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:36:40 +0000

I would not survive without alts. I just love to start over and the freshness, before the character turns into a overpowered hero. Don’t know why.

World of Wacraft isn’t really alt friendly, since every expansion raise the cap with 10 more levels (even if it gets faster), but you get almost infinite character spots (over all the realms).
In EVE Online you only got 3 spots (and it’s only 1 server) and every time you want to delete on you have to wait 24 hours or something. Annoyed me endlessly in the beginning.

By: seriouslycasual

seriouslycasual — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:29:01 +0000

The best game that I ever played for alts was Final Fantasy Online. The game had a job system where you had the same character but would go change jobs. So you would constantly be on your “main” but able to change class at will.

Logistics were a huge problem as you would have to juggle equipment back and forth contstantly.

By: Hawley

Hawley — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:01:24 +0000

Wotcha Big Book of Grudges,

I think you’ve forgotten another, important alt-player: The Utility Martyr.

I should know, I am one. When the plan is put forward to get a group together, my first response is; “Which character is wanted?” I think, for me, it’s that I’ve played enough online games to know that that fat, juicy epic item is just pretty pictures and ugly code which will be gone soon enough. So whilst I hate repeating content with a passion, I appreciate the fact that having alts means more meaningful grouping. It means that if my mates need a healer, I can play the healer. If they need dps, I can provide the dps.

Any items that I get are pure gravy, as the meat and two veg of gaming *is* the gaming. It’s having fun. By having more than one character, I get to see the game from different points of view, as well as maximising my fun potential.

I pity the “purists”, and their one character…

Cheers,
Hawley.