Do you like to make "Alternate" Characters?

Rakshneghianstein

Do you like alting? Why or why not? What benefits does it have?

Trilliana

I have alts, but I don't really like being on them. They're mainly to get away from drama I get on Trilliana. I haven't been on any of my alts for a while and I'm barely on Trilli as it is, so I'm not voting since there's good and bad from having alts and not having alts. (my opinion, mind you)

Jules

You'd have to have a lot of time (and ideally some cash) on your hands... It does make sense to (temporarily or permanently) retire a character if you have a yen to go play a character from a completely different faction.

Ruth

I like alts. I get to relax on them, and try completely new directions on them which I might not consider taking/does not make sense on my main.

However, it's true that if you are heavily invested on your main, you will have no time to invest in an alt and eventually, it's going to languish in dormancy.

Jakiro

I have an alt and I like to play him a lot when I get bored with Jakiro mainly because I like experiencing other cities and houses without having to leave my own. And since I made my alt way before plans for multi classing was announced, it was the only way I could try another class without having to leave Eleusis and (at the time) the Ancient Circle. Anonymity was a plus, too, for a while but eventually I told some of my friends and now I mainly get on the alt just because I find it fun.

The things I don't like about alts, though, is that I had to do house reqs again and that I lost a lot of the skills I got accustomed to using like the ones in Survival but those don't bother me that much anymore.

Eld

Yeah, I alt from time to time, mostly to try out new classes, but also to some extent to try out the other factions. Like @Ruth says, though, eventually, things pick back up on my main and the alts end up abandoned.

Alcinae

I've only had one alt before, and in my experience, it was just extremely confusing since I had to deal with people who I considered 'enemies' (this was during the Mhaldor-Hashan war). And since I can barely keep my mouth shut about shit, if I ever made full member in a House on an alt or learned something important I'm always going to have the fear I'll talk about it on my main, which'd be an asshole move. So, I just don't alt at all. If I ever alt, that'll be my new main.

Wilhelmina

Do I like alting? I despise alting. I do it all the time, though.

Averi

It is expensive but I tend to be pretty serious about class rp so I do not approve of class hopping.  This means if I want to try a new class, I make an alt. However, not only do you have to have the time to fulfill reqs, hunt them up, make aliases and triggers, and stuff,  it is extremely time consuming to play more than one character at once and perfect the rp of each of them.  It is also expensive to be maintaining multiple curing/venoms/defs, class skills + general skills, and multiple sets of curing if you happen to worship svo.  

However, I believe class is probably the most essential part of a character so I would never change class unless it was something my character truly desired to do. And sometimes I want to try other classes too.  

My S.O classhops instead.  He has a really good understanding of all class mechanics but I feel like his character has less depth rp wise.  He used to alt a lot too but seemed to have stopped that.  Idk why.

Achimrst

I use alts to play with certain classes, like my shaman alt who decided for me that Ach should be a shaman and before that the alt was an Alchemist, and an Apostate once, and a Sylvan once. They usually die after a while though. I only have one permanent alt and he is an lol alt.

Blujixapug

@Rakshneghianstein What the dickens is going on with your name. Even by my standards that sounds like a sneeze that couldn't find a hanky.

When I started playing this game I made a lot of new characters, discarding the old ones as I went. Easily 20 or more. None of them lasted more than a couple of weeks. I didn't stop until I found a character in a guild that I enjoyed playing so much that the temptation for change was gone. I have never been interested in playing more than one character at once - it's too much effort, doing things like bashing, maintaining items, and getting involved in Houses and cities on each one.

Boosteya

I've left a long, LONG trail of abandoned alts. Also, a few newer ones made to try this or that, and abandoned because it didn't work for me. Might spawn a few again. Bo's in a rut.

Nakari

I made the unfortunate decision to alt and not drop my alts. I now have three characters that I am far to attached to to quit any of.

Averi

@nakari

I have 4. I feel your pain.  2 are permanent.  XD

Jacen

7 total characters, only one is non-perm (right now). I do it for two main reasons. One, to check out other classes, and two, to try and break myself of the idea that Hashan is the only place I want to play in Achaea. Out of those six alts, I haven't accomplished either task

Karai

I have two, Karai being my first and main, and then a Serpent because I was interested in the class. Neither I spent money on, but people bought her credits so they're both perm. I was told it was so I wouldn't be tempted to ever leave since I'm a bit obsessive about stuff like that. This is also why I'm not making any more. And.. its fun having them both for different reasons, and a lot of character development invested in each.

.. Karai was almost Shallamese and a Paladin, still tempted to go the Paladin route with an alt. But I just can't bring myself to just yet. One addiction at a time.

Ruth

I can be a chronic alt-er. I have 7. All are perm. One is still a novice. The rest are not >.>

Synbios

I try to play on my alt/s, but then I look at all the transed skills and arties on Synbios and qq shortly after.

Direv

I like to get an idea of what the culture is like in other cities and houses. I'm always curious about culture, so that's a great motivator for me. Particularly as I'm relatively new. Also, even though I'm not politically entrenched or relevant, certainly not compared to the likes of someone like @Ruth, it is nice to be able to take a vacation from Direv but still be able to play. 

Another reason of course is to do things you otherwise wouldn't, like play a depressed slave whose gleam habit becomes a little too apparent when she begins using, giggling happily, and hugging everyone at Stygian Crossroads, terminating in an hour long torture session with the archbishop himself which of course ended in execution (but also spiritual reformation). But that's not really a significant reason for me though. >_> 

Arador

I hate it mostly. I love the people in Mhaldor. I have built amazing relationships over the years. So an alt in Mhaldor is pointless. As for other cities...no thank you. My alts are usually loners because the people in those cities that I can stand, I usually already know on Arador. I alt when I am really bored or just want to do my own thing. That is very rare.

Silas

I prefer to make changes on Silas, or take a break entirely. It's much more fun for me when my actions have consequences, and alting takes away from that.

Santar

My enjoyment of the game is tied to my character.

Jovolo

It makes me feel dirty, now.

Zuko

Yes and no for me... I hate them because they take away from Zuko. The fact I have gotten three characters to level 85, which according to one of my little scripts is nearly 25 percent of the way to dragon, means I could have a character to dragon by now. But instead, I lay here lazily in Targossas too bored of hunting to hunt. 

But I do find alts to some use, such as testing out classes and studying the ideals of each city as a member.

Skye

I've made a lot of alts, but I've only ever played one seriously. Then again, although "Skye" is supposed to be my main, over the past few years I've spent more time on other characters than her. Sometimes I kind of feel of her as my 'retirement character'. >_>

Cooper

I don't like it too much.

Mostly because of how Cooper is a dragon and has a billion arties.

I also don't like being 'taught' on other characters. And I don't like when people don't accept that they are wrong on something just because someone younger tells them they are. Or tells you that your novice program could use some tweaks because it hasn't been updated in 150 years. Etc.

That being said, I've made two alts since I made Cooper.

Arianis

I've had mostly handfuls of small alts for when I wanted to explore other classes. It's also a way to try drastically different roleplay ideas and/or cities, but... it's most to try skillsets, haha. 

I'm not about to give up my tri-trans just to muck around a different class out of curiosity. 

Trevize

I have two alts. One is a completely rogue serpent when I want to play a loner (which is actually rare) and the other is a runewarden who is more of a 'common person'. He uses what he forges (without a hammer, only smelting what is absolutely useless), and is almost level 80 through hunting weaker things. He's more fun than the serpent, but I invariably play Trevize 90% of the time. I would feel no loss if I got rid of the alts, while I would be quite unhappy if Trevize were to disappear.

Hirst

Alts mean less arties for my main character. No thanks.

Shadizar

I agree with @Wilhelmina in that do I like making an alt? no. Do I do it? Yes. Shadizar is my biggest alt at level 93. I enjoy the casual newbie atmosphere while having a bunch of new house files to read over, playing with new class abs etc. By level 50 or 60 ish I start thinking of how I can min max lessons with the least amount of credits to get all of the "key" abs I'll need and then it dawns on me. I already have characters I've dumped hundreds of bucks on. Also I've bashed a number of hours that would rival how long it takes to get a four year degree and then I come back to my senses.

Hegua

I.. I think I have a problem.