Alt convo, from OOC meeting 10/21/2017

[Rothgar]

There is a suggestion that we change to a single character per account system, where each player can play only one character at a time. The idea behind this is to discourage a style of metagaming that is reported as prevalent, where a group of friends all play together and then when one of their alts should by rights be destroying one of their OOC friends, they can "bow out" on the premise of crossover."

Discuss and stay civil with one another.

[AlwaysShunny]

I'd be very much in favor of this. Sometimes one player can have a lot of alts that cross over all facets of RP, and it becomes really difficult to separate OOC knowledge when it's spread across so many characters like that.

I think the drawbacks to a single character system would be player fatigue and the decline in population, at least ICly. The Merchants would take a blow to members as well.

[Starstarfish]

Then maybe reduce the number of alts?

However separating OOC from IC if that's a concern can happen with one char or ten.

Also are people saying this is a reason things aren't getting handled or is this an assumption?

[Kuzco]

I dislike the concept of alts and I think less is more.
However we don't have the player population to pull this satisfactorily.
Maybe limit to three alts for now.

[Percival]

I play two or three characters on a permanent basis. I know some of the important clockwork of the game is run by alts, where players have a 'serious' role and a 'fun' role.

Alt characters should not be interacting with each other, their storylines or even having conversations about themselves or their alt's IC friends. I find it very hard to imagine a situation where the rules are being obeyed and they're having crossover issues. In the event of a crossover, it should (and currently does) go to staff for a decision.

Please don't make it a code issue - we don't have enough players for that.

TL;DR If there is suspicion of abuse please take this to policy. This is not an 'everyone is doing it' thing.

[Percival]

https://i.imgflip.com/1y1163.jpg

[Voxumo]

I will say now, this feels like an issue that was raised by the same people who raised the issue of only one alt in a guild at a time, and it was quickly seen the majority of players were not in favor of such.

However unlike that previous matter that was raised, this one would be far more devastating to the game if it was implemented. As someone above me pointed out, TI does not have the player base for such a move. If TI was a bigger game, I could see this working, but it's not. On top of that there are those of us who play alts who are frankly they're there for fun. All the times I've played a GL, I've always had an alt or two that were there as a stress relief. A character I could play that wasn't being bombarded by Duties, or who wasn't an outcast.

On top of that, I played 6 alts at once when I first joined this game... never had an issue with crossover. Because I made sure each of my characters generally fulfilled a different section of the game, different role in a way. In theory they should never overlap, or if they did it was the result of others versus myself. I even played an Inquisitor and Knight while playing a high level, highly wanted mage. Never had issues with crossover despite those three roles being very susceptible to crossover. The only issues of crossover I've ever had, was accidently forgetting which character I was on and replying to a rumor on the wrong character.

This sounds like an issue of player responsibility versus an issue with a feature. If certain players aren't responsible enough to handle having multiple alts, then take away their privileges, don't do away with the whole system because of a few bad apples.

[Whisper]

Please do not punish all of us just because a few people are breaking rules!

I play alts. I practically have to because my mood affects how I feel about playing certain characters. Sometimes I feel up to playing one and sometimes that character drains me mentally. I have a hard time focusing on just one thing or character. Its just how I am. I have done my best to avoid crossover. Yes. Sometimes my alts are on at the same time but they have NEVER interacted or used information one obtained to benefit the others. If I can do this surely others can and if not, handle it on a case by case basis.

So. Please don't take a feature away just because some people abuse it. We are not children that need constant monitoring and actions taken to try and force us to behave.

[LonelyNeptune]

I think alts are really important to the game. Sometimes we just need a bit of a break from our 'main'.

Not to mention, sometimes you will be in a position where your primary character is unavailable because they're in jail or some other situation. With alts, you can continue playing if there's nobody around who can interact with your main.

[Voxumo]

Not to mention, sometimes you will be in a position where your primary character is unavailable because they're in jail or some other situation. With alts, you can continue playing if there's nobody around who can interact with your main.

That is a good point Alts are great for that time when you're in prison or otherwise indisposed. Such as rping serious, bedridden injuries. Your character, codely isn't restricted to that bed, but icly they really shouldn't be out and about, so an alt is perfect for those times. You can still play the bedridden patient, but also not go insane while doing so.