3 accounts in EQ - my main (a tank), a chanter and a shaman. Mostly used to farm various things or fill out groups when certain classes weren't available. I did this for several years, before it just felt like too much work. People would get to the point where they just expected you to bot for them, and I mostly just did it to free myself from having to LFG all the time. It isn't so necessary now with Mercs.

2 in Eve - one just to haul ore and to have extra trade orders.

I haven't really multiboxed in a long while though - I'm getting too old. If I can't enjoy the game either on my own, or be able to find people in the game easily enough to group with, I just don't play it.

I guess I'm a walking advertisement for LFD - but I don't really like that tool either. It gets you a group, sure, but you don't really meet anyone - everyone just wants to speed run through whatever and get on to the next instance (where you get paired up with yet another random group). I'd much rather have my group of friends, but I can't always talk them into playing whatever game I may be playing at the moment (most of them will never leave EQ until the servers shut down).

Will just list the MMOs I have/had multiple accounts for:

SWG - 5 accounts - wish I could still play....

L2 - 2 accounts - dont play now

GW  - 2 accounts - still play but not often

EVE  - 3 accounts - still play but not often

EQ2 - 2 accounts - dont play now

WoW - 3 accounts - dont play now

LoTRO - 2 accounts - both lifetime so could still play but dont

GW2 - 2 accounts - still play

and thats it I think.

Originally posted by Maelwydd

Why?

 

If you like to be a dick to others, I can see why some want a 2nd account but I cannot see any reason for more then 1 account personally.

 

The other option are people that simply cannot play fair and so need extra accounts to gather more resources, own more land or whatever simply because they cannot achieve the same as others without effectivly cheating.

I think people that have more then 1 account for themselves and don't have them to allow them to play like dicks are failing to see the point of playing games and treat it more like a job or life replacement.

Even if I was stupidly rich I would still only have 1 account per game, just have lots of games to play. I simply don't get why it is needed for anything but player issues.

To basically have fun, and when you have a game like SWG that relies on other players, at times you can not rely on others always, especially in the final days when population was low - Need an entertainer buff but no one on to buff you, it was either quit or make another account and do it yourself. Sometimes I would play with one character and have an entertainer running on another to buff others who may need it.

I wanted to gather more resources for the sake of the server and save it, so there was more resources around, even if giving it away for free. Servers mattered in SWG, as when they shut down and you have to transfer you lose community and friends, especially player cities.

After a while you just get done with one account, and in SWG you only had 1 char slot on a server with 32 professions. It would have been nice to have had at least 3, 1 for Rebel, 1 for Imperial and 1 for Trader. As the game was stingy on char slots, it made A LOT of people create multiple accounts, and that is what mainly started my obsession with getting multiple accounts. If they let us have 3-5 slots per server, I may not have created more accounts. Then when I had more than 1 account I could run them at the same time, as when trying to log in a 2nd char on the same account it logs your other one out.

If SWG only allowed one account I would have played the game for a very short time, but the ability of playing with more accounts, expands the game infinitely, and the reason I played SWG for a solid 8.5 years from start to finish, and played for over 10,000 hours (which is only from 2005 in Xfire, hours between 2003-2005 not included)

I always made a point of using multiple accounts for my own fun, and help others, as opposed to be a "dick to others" When I played with others I mainly played with one character and one account, but mainly played with multiple accounts when no one else was available.

LOTRO I created 2 accounts as wanted more characters to create, but now can have up to 17 on one account, so in the end did not really need 2

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Originally posted by hyllstarter
I had 3 accounts in SWG.

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Me too.

1. Main
2. Musician and dancer.
3. Doctor

Originally posted by Maelwydd

Why?

 

If you like to be a dick to others, I can see why some want a 2nd account but I cannot see any reason for more then 1 account personally.

 

The other option are people that simply cannot play fair and so need extra accounts to gather more resources, own more land or whatever simply because they cannot achieve the same as others without effectivly cheating.

I think people that have more then 1 account for themselves and don't have them to allow them to play like dicks are failing to see the point of playing games and treat it more like a job or life replacement.

Even if I was stupidly rich I would still only have 1 account per game, just have lots of games to play. I simply don't get why it is needed for anything but player issues.

Nothing to do with being a dick to others, and it is not effectively cheating at all, nor is it a job or a life replacement, it is just a bit of fun.

The first MMO I had multiple accounts for was SWG, and the reason why is simple, originally, it was one character per account per server, and I wanted to try other professions but did not want to drop the professions I had, I also did not want to play on other servers, so I got another account, then another, and so on, and ended up with 5.

All the other MMOs I have had multiple accounts for, I have had them for various reasons, none of which were reasons you suggested in your post.

EVE 2 Accounts (still running), and Darkfall 2 Accounts

Those games requires to have multiple accounts due to the leveling system which is not Alts friendly.

Oh yes. I usually have 2 accounts for most MMOs. My most was Asherons Call, I have 6 or 7 accounts for that one.

Generally I only have two MMO accounts "active" at a time though.

4 in EVE Online: 1 Industrial character (Mining/building/research) 2 Mining characters (to help the industrial character) and 1 I used for Combat/pvp.

2 in FFXIV. had a buddy pass /shurg i power leveled myself then gave the account to a friend.

3 in Lineage 2

2 in SWG

4 in EVE

Never found a need in other games.  These were also the MMOs I spent most time playing.   Prior to that I played MUDs for years.  Since retiring from EVE, I have not found a game that has lasted me more than a month and a half.  Fearful of going back to EVE as it took up too much of my time. :)

Originally posted by Maelwydd

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by Maelwydd

Why?

 As per my post above I think it is cheating. You are achieving things that you alone, with a single account/charcater cannot achieve normally - sort of the definition of cheating in sport - And while they have stated why they did it, I think the important thing to ask is: -

Why did you feel the need to do it?

 

Well lets take it on a game by game basis.

With Lineage 2 and DAOC it was mostly to drag a buff bott around, very helpful in both titles and it wasn't always easy to find a willing buffer to run with you, especially if you were trying to solo. (didn't use them for grouping of course)

With EVE they've got a skill training plan that only works on one character at a time, and about 28 real time years to train all available skills/roles.

Since I wanted more flexibility in what types of ships I fly, or industry I could do, and better support for things like salvaging my own wrecks I bought 3 accounts to fly together. I eventually added a forth because I wanted to get into market trading, which involves spending all of your game time in station making subtle day trades to make a profit and so I created a 4th account.

What I think you might be missing is the game design for these titles strongly favor having multiple accounts, and while some folks take it to extremes, I recall one guy in DAOC having 9 accounts (usally all the same character) that he linked to a single keyboard so his private army could fight all together at the same time, good fun.

Another guy named Rock on the MLF server in DAOC would multi box 4-5 different characters at the same time and level them up from 1-50 on his own.  Since DAOC had 45 different classes he was kept pretty busy trying to get matching sets of every class.

Why did I and others do it, because we found it to be fun I suppose, and in almsot no case were other folks severely harmed by our actions.

Yes.

I had three EQ accounts, 2 DAoC accounts and 2 WoW accounts.

I have personally not.  Unless you consider me and my brother having 2 accounts and sharing them.

I have had friends who share their millions of accounts with me so I can 2 box 6 box whatever I want to do.

Originally posted by Kyleran

 and in almsot no case were other folks severely harmed by our actions.

 

 

I still really do not understand the mentality behind 'needing' extra accounts to do these things and although you may not think it doesn't harm others it does. For every extra account/character used there is a lack of requirement for another person/character to fulfil the role. Every extra account/character gathering/training/making items is reducing the necessity for anotehr player thus reducing their worth.

Some examples you gave, such as the guy multiboxing 9 accounts....at no point is the guys expecting or desireing any social interaction. And if there is any interaction then they have so loaded the dice in terms of balance that others probably didn't want to get involved.

It just seems so totally counter-productive to the point of playing a game (i.e. the challenge of winning) that it is basically the same as someone buying a rubics qube and peeling the stickers off then claiming to have done it!

It is also so obviously anti-social, and not just the usual geeky anti-social but the really borderline kind that I honestly worry about some people that play games. For these people is doesn't seem to be a game. Despite what you say you personally claim, some of the examples you gave of individuals would make me really doubt their sanity.

I guess I just don't get the whole 'anything to win' mentality as opposed to "success is an achievement not a neccessity" when playing a game.

Originally posted by Maelwydd

I guess I just don't get the whole 'anything to win' mentality as opposed to "success is an achievement not a neccessity" when playing a game.

It's not about winning in all cases - it's mostly just about having fun. For several games I bought two boxes - one to use and the other to get signed by the devs. A room full of gaming swag and signed software boxes probably seems really odd to you, but I'm a big fan of virtual worlds and online gaming so the money and time I invest has both value and reward for me.

In UO, I had multiple accounts. One was for Seer/IGM (roleplay and events) characters, another for regular characters and the third was my reckless abandon PVP/PK account. It helped me keep my assets and characters separate from each other and it also gave me more character slots for the servers I played on.

If you've never had a hobby or been an enthusiast of anything then I can see why this might be foreign to you. However, if you have had something you were rather passionate about (hobby, collection, show, sports team or sport in general), then think of the things you've bought or time you've invested (possibly, even laces you've gone) as part of that passion.