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The Daily Grind: When do you alt?

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

We know that some of you love to roll alts and some of you just play one character until the end time. This question is not about that. No, today we want something that's much more fundamental but yet subtly more important -- when do you make those alts? When do you click back over to character creation and start fresh?

For some players, it's a matter of boredom. Some players make new characters based on roleplaying demands. Some just love to roll new characters on a regular basis whenever one character hits an important milestone. And for some of us, it's just a matter of whenever the whim strikes, whether or not that whim makes a lot of sense at the time.

If you don't make alts, of course, your answer is "almost never." But if you do, we ask you -- when do you make your new characters? What motivates you to start again from the bottom on a regular basis? When is it time to make another character?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: When do you alt? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: Are alts and mules a form of cheating?

Brianna Royce — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

In response to Beau's recent Free For All column on the topic of botters and cheaters, reader Keith wrote in to suggest that there's another form of cheating much more common and pervasive: the use of alternate characters. In games like EVE Online or Star Wars Galaxies, which limit the number of characters players can create, extra accounts are manipulated to allow a single player access to more skills through alts ("skill mules"), more storage space ("bank mules" and "auction mules"), or more avenues for safe PvP scouting. But the problem occurs in alt-friendly games too, like World of Warcraft, where it's not uncommon to see someone five-boxing an entire team of Shamans, or Ultima Online, where it's standard practice for every player to have a "craft mule" who loads up on tradeskills (to the detriment of the player economy).

What do you think? Are alts and mules just another form of cheating, one that allows players with excess character slots or extra accounts unfair advantages? Or are "slave" characters just a natural and necessary part of online gaming?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: Are alts and mules a form of cheating? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 07 Nov 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Storyboard: Army of me

Eliot Lefebvre — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous

There are, sadly, more character concepts in pretty much every game on the market than there is time for me to play them all. This is a horrible setup, and I've lodged a complaint with the management, but I'm not expecting any sort of response. Mercifully, in the vast majority of games, you can at least somewhat sidestep this issue by using up all of your character slots on alts. If the game gives us 12 character spaces, the odds are good that many of us will have 12 characters within a month, with that number only changing as we kill off some of that number or get more slots.

All of this leads to another problem, though. If you play Alice and someone else plays Bob, there's plenty of space for the two of them to interact. But if you play Alice and Claire and Bob interacts with both of them, eventually, logic would dictate that Alice and Claire ought to interact with one another. And that's not just problematic from the standpoint of interacting with yourself; in many cases the game outright disallows that sort of login-juggling. Suddenly you need two characters to talk, and there's no way to even get them sharing the same room.

Continue reading Storyboard: Army of me

Storyboard: Army of me originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: Are you protective of your alts?

Jef Reahard — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Daily Grind

The other day I realized that EverQuest II's website makes my alternate characters viewable to anyone who knows the name of my main. SOE theoretically gives me the option to toggle the public access functionality on each of my characters, but they're viewable by default (and there's currently a website bug that prevents my profile from being edited).

Character lookups aren't unique to EQII of course. Titles as diverse as Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft, and EVE Online pipe in-game information to external websites all the time. What is unique, though, is forcing players to divulge the names of their alts -- even though in this case it's unintended. Though SOE has been polite enough in support ticket communications, its insistence that it can't fix its own website (and thus allow me the option of turning off the public profiles), leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

For today's Daily Grind, tell us about your feelings on alt anonymity. Did you know (and do you care) that SOE broadcasts your alts for the world to see? What are your feelings on the practice as it relates to other MMORPGs?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: Are you protective of your alts? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 09 Jun 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: Do you make stealth alts?

Krystalle Voecks — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

If you've spent any kind of time in MMOs, you've undoubtedly run into at least one person who drives you completely insane. Perhaps your boss heard you mention World of Warcraft at the coffee machine one day and popped up in your guild shortly thereafter, ensuring that you'd never have a moment's peace in-game ever again. Maybe one of your real-life friends is the sweetest person face-to-face but when gaming becomes an unapologetic, egocentric loot-fiend prone to throwing tantrums if he can't gear up his alts over other people's mains. Or you could pick any of the many nerve-wracking examples that Justin so thoughtfully provided us in yesterday's MMO player hell top 10 list.

Most of the time, you have three ways to deal with these types of people. First, you can tell them to sod off. That's not so popular, and in the case of RL friends or bosses, it can be downright dangerous, but it works. Second, you can simply quit playing the game altogether. But that option sucks if you enjoy the game when you're not around the annoying people, and it can cut you off from other good friends you want to spend time with. That leaves you with the third option of the seasoned MMO vet: stealth alts! You know, the alt characters you don't put in-guild, the ones you keep secret purely to enjoy the game with friends who are similarly sick of certain situations. This morning we wondered, with flashbacks of MMO player hell fresh in our minds, if you too have made stealth alts to avoid people -- and if so, whom?

Don't worry, we won't tell them!

The Daily Grind: Do you make stealth alts? originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: How many alts do you have?

Jef Reahard — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Opinion, The Daily Grind

Most of us have a primary MMO that we play, and whether it's our only game or simply the one we spend the most time in, somewhere along the line we end up rolling alternate characters. A few games allow you a maximum of one (EVE Online) or sometimes two characters per account or per server (Star Wars Galaxies), but most current titles give you ample character slots to fill.

While some folks probably stick with their "mains" through thick and thin, I suspect I'm not the only one who has run newbie content multiple times -- or paid for extra character slots -- in order to satisfy the particular brand of OCD that compels me to try every single solitary class in a given game.

The question of the day, ladies and gents, is how many alts do you have on your main game account? For the bonus round, tell us whether you play them regularly or if they simply exist to be mules for your main.

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: How many alts do you have? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 07 Nov 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: Should multiple accounts be policed?

Jef Reahard — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Opinion, The Daily Grind

Pirates of the Burning Sea recently amended its in-game rules to reflect an official stance on the practice of "alt-flipping," a tactic used by players with multiple accounts to manipulate the game's Conquest system. In a nutshell, Flying Lab devs have labeled certain uses of the tactic as griefing and stated that it will be policed as such (including possible bans).

Interestingly, Flying Lab also goes out of its way to state it has no problem with multiple accounts per se, saying that in most cases multiple accounts are a perfectly acceptable gameplay tactic. This seemingly opens up a can of worms over what is considered legitimate and/or acceptable gameplay, particularly when the game's design intentionally features a "cutthroat, competitive [...] system that drives players to find any edge they can get over the opposing forces."

Dual-boxing is nothing new in MMORPGs of course, and games like EVE Online even advertise it and run discount promotions for alt accounts. What about you, Massively readers? Do you dual-box, and more importantly, do you feel alt accounts should be policed?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of our readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's The Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: Should multiple accounts be policed? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Anvil of Crom: Curing the alt disease

Jef Reahard — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, PvE, Opinion, The Anvil of Crom

Alas, my poor rangers. Left to rot in the aftermath of the great ranger ~~nerf~~ revamp of 2010. Twisting in the wind like those gruesome impaled corpses Funcom is so fond of sprinkling throughout Age of Conan's various zones. Yes, I've abandoned the class, simply because I don't have the desire to relearn it from scratch, which is what such a complete overhaul requires. To be fair, it's not so much a nerf as it is a re-imagining, and one of these days I'll get around to leveling at least one of them the rest of the way to 80.

For now though, the change has prompted me to return to my original character, rolled way back on the head-start weekend in May 2008. He's an assassin, and I recently got him to 80, though he too has gone through quite a revamp since his original creation. Anyway, once I heard that final, magical ding, guess what I did? Nope, I didn't head to Khitai to partake of the new level 80 content. Nay, I didn't start grinding my perks or faction either. No, I promptly logged back to the character select screen and rolled up a guardian, planting his newbie feet on the beach at Tortage and wriggling his virtual toes in the sand before beginning the process all over again.

Point and laugh after the cut.

Continue reading The Anvil of Crom: Curing the alt disease

The Anvil of Crom: Curing the alt disease originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 18 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Too late to start playing Lord of the Rings Online?

Eliot Lefebvre — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Leveling, Opinion, Academic

The trouble with any long-running game is that it gets top-heavy. This is especially a problem in games such as Final Fantasy XI, where you simply have to group to accomplish most things in the game, but it's really a problem even in the most solo-friendly game with an expansion or two. After all, more often than not there's an ever-raising level cap, gear curve, and expected knowledge about the game, not to mention stretches of previously endgame content that's no longer relevant. When A Casual Stroll to Mordor asks if it's too late to start playing Lord of the Rings Online, the question could be extended to many other games.

Of course, it's probably not exceptionally surprising that the conclusion is "no," duly pointing out that the only time it's technically too late is when the game is shutting down soon. There are also tips about making the areas at lower levels less of a ghost town, which largely boil down to being proactive. People will almost always have alts or restarted characters, and actively trying to get your foot in the door can make up for a lot of inexperience. It's as true in Lord of the Rings Online as it is everywhere: putting forth the effort makes a lot of difference, even if it won't close the expanded level gap by itself.

Too late to start playing Lord of the Rings Online? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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