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[scagga]

I'm of the opinion that alts are the worst thing that ever happened to EVE, in both RP and OOC activities.

If taken beyond rp conversations I would agree they are a problem.  Caused a lot of paranoia about infiltration and dampened my trust in people.  Made me unwilling to commit to wars/interact with people's corps who were known to use alts for infiltration as part of the meta game.

[Odelya]

Was it you who created the Farsi speaking khanid?

I did this Book of Prayers with Odelya once, but it although I speak Persian, this was a crude, ungrammatical and not even orthographically correct mix of Ottoman, Persian and Arabic. I had plans to make up a Khanid dialect based on Persian and Mongolian script, but favoured to live a healthy life instead... ;-)

I have an alt myself, Odelya’s sister, but since it is her sister and she only appears on IGS or in mail folders from time to time, she isn’t so much involved and can clearly be identified as what she is.

I found it especially fun killing when during my small war against PIE, alts (not of PIE) interacted with me and had a clearly defined OOC agenda. This wasn’t about roleplay, but about politics, while the wardec was about roleplay and a bit of shooting fun. I mean, I didn’t hire NOIR to camp PIE 24/7! My decision: I won’t interact with alts anymore. When they contact me, I won’t answer, when they write stuff on the IGS I won’t reply.

[Silver Night]

I think there are up sides and down sides. I have (a lot) of alts. Many of them are closely associated, and several of those are used exclusively for RP purposes. It is not a secret who they are, or their relationships to my main. I have another alt who is also not a secret, and who is just totally separate and uninvolved with my main (really, he's sort of a main in his own right). I've certainly seen some uses of alts that had a pretty negative impact, but I  think ultimately they are a tool like any other, and it really depends on how someone is using them.

[Arista Shahni]

Yea, I think the "non-hidden" alts are generally safer to deal with - and adds to whether you're wlling to RP with someone's *main* in the first place.  If they're the type you don't trust enough to not be using "slimy cheat-y alts" to begin with, whether they exist or not is irrelevant.  But if a person has a main who you OOC trust enough to deal with, interacting with their alts can be fun (and sometimes hilarious, as some alts are far more quirky/funny than mains.)

[Morwen Lagann]

I think there are up sides and down sides. I have (a lot) of alts. Many of them are closely associated, and several of those are used exclusively for RP purposes. It is not a secret who they are, or their relationships to my main. I have another alt who is also not a secret, and who is just totally separate and uninvolved with my main (really, he's sort of a main in his own right). I've certainly seen some uses of alts that had a pretty negative impact, but I  think ultimately they are a tool like any other, and it really depends on how someone is using them.

Hilion and Malaneth are the best Silver-alts, hands down. Just saying.

[Samira Kernher]

I found it especially fun killing when during my small war against PIE, alts (not of PIE) interacted with me and had a clearly defined OOC agenda. This wasn’t about roleplay, but about politics, while the wardec was about roleplay and a bit of shooting fun. I mean, I didn’t hire NOIR to camp PIE 24/7! My decision: I won’t interact with alts anymore. When they contact me, I won’t answer, when they write stuff on the IGS I won’t reply.

By that decision, no one should interact with your alt either. You cannot really attack alts while also using one yourself, you know. I can also say that at least some of the people that contacted you during that war were primary RP toons, even if they were alts in the technical sense.


I'm not a fan of many alts myself, but they do have a use and you cannot always be certain as to what is just a quickie alt, what is an actual new player, what is a serious attempt at starting up a new primary RP character, and what is a supporting character (what I would define as an alt that is created to fill a very specific and limited supporting role for a main, such as Morijah is for you Odelya).

In EVE I see very little reason for alts beyond the as-said supporting character, due to the fact that the game punishes you for having them (by not allowing you to skill them without paying, etc). I personally only use Samira, though in past games I occasionally have multiple mains and the occasional support. I really don't see anything wrong with alts when they're used responsibility. This goes for anything in RP, alt or not, and refusing to interact with alts won't actually solve anything except make you appear rude, especially in the inevitable times that you will be ignoring a legitimately new character.

[Ayallah]

And this is why none of my alts have ever seen the summit.

[Nicoletta Mithra]

By that decision, no one should interact with your alt either. You cannot really attack alts while also using one yourself, you know. I can also say that at least some of the people that contacted you during that war were primary RP toons, even if they were alts in the technical sense.

Quite to the point. Why do you have an alt, if you hate interacting with them, Odelya? To me that sounds like some half-baked position you're taking there.

[Odelya]

By that decision, no one should interact with your alt either. You cannot really attack alts while also using one yourself, you know. I can also say that at least some of the people that contacted you during that war were primary RP toons, even if they were alts in the technical sense.

Quite to the point. Why do you have an alt, if you hate interacting with them, Odelya? To me that sounds like some half-baked position you're taking there.

Everyone is free to make that decision. I wouldn’t interact with my alt either if I were someone else. All I said about alts is valid for mine too: Nothing to gain, except for a few words exchanged, no real relation to be forged.

Anyway, I would never use alts to “spy” or do other meta shit.

[Lyn Farel]

Whenever rping in channels or writing messages on the IGS and a three hours old character in a npc corps pops out, having detailed knowledge about this or that, my desire to interact with this char drops to zero. I feel that there is nothing to gain, except for a few words exchanged. Nothing that can last longer. No relationship, be it friendly or hostile, to be woven. No storyline to be forged. I feel that there is certain dishonesty in using alts. Nothing is at stake for the alt. He isn’t a “real person” in the universe: He was just created for the sake of fast food rp. He isn’t interacting with others in space. I don’t want this. I want the real guys.

How do you feel towards alts?

Mostly the same yes. They just do not have the same depth brought by history that a main character can present.

However you can still find counter examples like I have seen here and there (cf Kilsa, Ava's alt) where there is an obvious proper care brought around the alt as well as a certain will to make it a decent character as any main could be. The alt in question of course, has to be played quite a bit for that too. It demands time.

I have myself never created alts - which was a golden rule - until the Mantenault RP event, where I decided to help the main instigator of the event (Laurentis) with what I considered characters closer to NPCs played by a GM rather than true PCs, as a mean to enrich the event itself and offer more interaction. I think that is different though.

Also yes, this is in Eve. In other games I usually tend to use 2 characters (don't ask me why 2 and not 3 or 4... maybe it would be too much for me, and that's what works for me). It's like writing, mostly. So I write one or generally 2 characters. And usually play them both as much as I can. Which is the tricky part, when one is not as interesting as another. Well it always depends on the situation.

And of course I don't hide the fact that i'm the same player behind both.

I'm of the opinion that alts are the worst thing that ever happened to EVE, in both RP and OOC activities.

If taken beyond rp conversations I would agree they are a problem.  Caused a lot of paranoia about infiltration and dampened my trust in people.  Made me unwilling to commit to wars/interact with people's corps who were known to use alts for infiltration as part of the meta game.

Same, and more : they half killed all the micro multiplayer side there is to the game. No need for a buddy to light up a cyno for you, no need for a buddy to scout for you, no need for a buddy to haul for you, no need for a buddy... for anything. The Power of 2, yeah, right.

[Mitara Newelle]

Alts have their places, both for game mechanics sake and RP.  When I was more active I used an alt for both industry purposes and RP(Nikas), then I have a couple RP only alts I've used(Pious and Kaleb).  I tried to play them all as individuals, even though they were somehow related to Mitty.  Alts in and of themselves I don't think are bad, but I do see how they could be 'played' bad in an RP context.

[Nicoletta Mithra]

Alts have their places, both for game mechanics sake and RP.  When I was more active I used an alt for both industry purposes and RP(Nikas), then I have a couple RP only alts I've used(Pious and Kaleb).  I tried to play them all as individuals, even though they were somehow related to Mitty.  Alts in and of themselves I don't think are bad, but I do see how they could be 'played' bad in an RP context.

I really agree: Alts aren't bad in and of themselves. Yes, there are alts which are merely used to do-no-good, nothing to gain, except for a few words exchanged, no real relation to be forged. There are mains for which the same is true as well though. Conversely, there are mains as well as alts which are around to do some 'serious' & fun RP, where there is something to gain and a 'real' RP relation to be forged. There are alts you'd never notice to be such, unless you're told so.

So, it all depends on the alt in particular, in my experience.
Not all alts are equal.

[Steffanie Saissore]

At this time, I would say that I have two semi-active alts.  Semi-active in that I have occasionally logged into them to setup skills and do some stuff.  Originally, one was created for two reasons, one to try a different rp environment and 2) as a break from playing a generally reserved and usually very polite non-offensive character.  The alt was a chance to just break free, have some fun in RP without having to break Steff's character.


Ellisif (the alt) has been quite fun to play and quite different from both myself and Steff's personality.  They used to IC share some info as they were both in the same corp and I had a backstory for that, but since Steff's leaving to the Stormcrows, they do not interact with each other and barely know the same group of people now.  I would like to think I have done a fair job in separation and keeping each unique, but then again, I am one who has a need to try different character styles out so I tend to have alt...in WoW, I have 11 active toons on one server alone because I want to try different things and though EVE is less forgiving about having alts, it was something I found myself wanting to try since it can get very dry and boring playing the same character...and when that character has no one to rp with for blocks of time, the urge to try something different does get hard to ignore.

[Lunarisse Aspenstar]

I echo Steff.  Sometimes it's fun trying a different character out with different motivations and mind set.  I've been pretty good at keeping ic knowledge separate but there's a reason why I keep them "related" because personality specific ic info is easiest to remember to keep separate while other info might certainly concievably be discussed between family members gossiping if I slip.
Of course there are also times when an interesting thing is going on but icly it's really hard to justify the primary character going
(*peers at odie - Like Luna icly could never come to your little event on the 18th but an alt might!*)

[Odelya]

Of course there are also times when an interesting thing is going on but icly it's really hard to justify the primary character going
(*peers at odie - Like Luna icly could never come to your little event on the 18th but an alt might!*)

Are you so sure about that? I mean Odelya despised Silas Vitalia for what she did, on the other hand she was curious, damn curious, so she wanted to come to her good-bye gathering and would have gone if I had made it oocly. So, in a sense, having alts makes choices less meaningful.

I don’t want to tell anyone what s/he should do. But in in many ways I’d find it really cool if the “real” Lunarisse would come, who shares a huge portion of the story. And not just an alt. (And this example is applicable in general.)

Not all alts are equal.

Also agreed.