Creating an Alt in not a easy decision for me to make. It’s a great responsibility to bring a new character into Middle-Earth, and I want to make sure that I’m going to be able to provide for it. The biggest thing for me is: Will I have the time? Usually the answer is no, and I promptly ignore this and create the Alt anyway.
So what drives me to create an alt? There are a few different reasons:
- I want to play the game without out-leveling the group that I’m playing with at the time.
- I want to be able to play a different “role” in a group that I’m playing with.
- I want to try out a new game mechanic that is only available with that class.
- I’m bored/frustrated with what I’m doing with my main at that moment.
I have been playing MMOs for so long now that I’ve gotten fairly good at noticing the way in which the game “works.” Each game tends to have a pattern that it follows for efficient leveling, and if you figure out that pattern, and follow it, you can level fairly quickly and with minimal effort. There are some exceptions out there of course, Star Trek Online and Star Wars Galaxies being noticeable ones, that follow a different progression path than “leveling”, but most MMOs have that in common.
What this means to me is that I tend to out-level static groups that I play with. I’ll get on for an hour while my wife watches TV, or just pop on for a quick skirmish and oooops, another level. This is quite frustrating for the other members of the group, and it affects the group experience that we’re having. I’ll be overpowered compared to some other members of the group which makes it not fun, as they start to feel that they are not contributing.
So I’ll often create an Alt because I still want to play the game, but I don’t want to end up 4 – 5 levels ahead of the group.
I also find that I like to play ALL of the “roles” in a group. I’m happy tanking, healing, dps’ing or buffing/de-buffing. Both of my “main” characters at the moment are tanks, so one of my “main Alts” (now isn’t that an oxymoron!) is a hunter, so now I can experience a DPS character. It changes the way that I approach each encounter with enemies and stops me from going on autopilot as I play, which I might be known for doing with my mains every once in a while.
One of the reasons that I love Lord of the Rings Online so much is that is has a great diversity of game mechanics in the different classes. Yes, there are classes that play very similar, but most classes have some sort of game mechanic built around them. We all know about the Warden and the gambit system, but there is also the Guardian’s set of skills that only become available after you have parried or blocked an attack. There are the different tiers of ballads that Minstrels have. There are the tricks for Burglars. And the list goes on. I enjoy trying out these different mechanics, and that’s what often drives me to create another Alt.
I might also have a little bit of an attention problem. I find myself getting tired if I’m “grinding” through some content. Sometimes, however, it’s just simply that I’m tired of that class. So instead of logging on to my main, I’ll create an Alt.
Just one of these reasons is rarely enough to cause the creation of a new alt. I find that a combination of these situations leads to my alt-aholism. There are just too many cool new things to try, and you never know when a group might need an *insert class/role here.”
Hi, my name is Chris, and I’m an alt-aholic. And that’s OK.
I’m so excited to see I’m not the only person out there with main alts! I make multiple characters for the exact same reasons. I have a couple characters who started as “alts” but became mains and are now at cap. My main is rarely played anymore. I knew they had shifted status in my kin when one day, they started refering to me in chat by the second character’s name instead of the first one.
The ones in the thirties-burg and lm, have become almost second string mains, and are played almost as often as the first two.
I have all the other slots filled, and have one of each class because I enjoy playing from different perspectives. It’s much less grindy when you’re not doing the same thing the same way all the time. All of those classes are completely different from one another, and I change up who I’m focusing pretty regularly.
I kind of stopped thinking of them as alts a while back, and never really refer to them that way. In kinchat, I’ll say I’m getting on “another character,” but never an alt. I think I really just have 9 mains. Some are just younger is all.