Dan Fortier returns this week to talk about Alternate Accounts in MMORPGs.
While playing some of these new-fangled interweb games on my electronic typewriter, I started thinking about of some of the things we take for granted in our surreal second lives. Most MMOs share lots of common features, but usually we are too busy grinding out XP, running instances or camping corpses to really give much thought to the them and how we use them to keep the stupid grins on our faces. This time around I'm talking about alternate characters or Alts, as they shall henceforth be called. Put on your bifocals and have a damp cloth ready for your monitor during this trip.
Most games typically allow you to roll anywhere from a few to a dozen extra toons and those that don't usually encourage folks to have multiple accounts to serve the same purpose. The idea is that when you get bored of the same stale content for one class, you can jump to another and spend the next month leveling him/her up to max level. It also allows the achievers among us to thoroughly test every class to find whichever one is currently overpowered and kick ass on everyone until it's nerfed. In general, having alts lets us enjoy a wide spectrum of a game's flavor without having our old characters fall on their sword.
Read Dan's whole column here.
