Alternative Methods

One topic that I have been musing about a lot recently but doesn't seem to get much discussion is that of Alts. An Alt, or alternative character, is a second or third or twentieth in game avatar, usually requiring multiple accounts. These are most common in MMOs as there are a few things that push players towards them. But it doesn't seem like developers always take into account the impact of Alt nor if they are healthy for the game.

Players start Alts for many reasons. Usually there is some limit on character abilities. Hence players need multiple characters to have full flexibility of activities in game. In games like World of Warcraft this takes the form of actual character classes which restrict your character so they are distinct from other classes. in other games like EVE it is simply more efficient to train many specialized characters than on generalist. This is mostly a function of the fact that to have multiple characters training in any game you have to pay for multiple accounts.

From the developer perspective, Having players train alts makes things easier on them. If pa player is training more than one character, they are clearly invested in the game and will probably stay for a longer period of time. In addition, the developer is making multiple subscription fees from one person instead of needing to find new subscribers. So for developers alts are useful in capturing more revenue from invested players.

Unfortunately Alts have at least 2 major downsides. First they decrease the impact of reputation. It is very easy to have an Alt for doing unscrupulous acts. Then once the penalties have built up, simply switch to another character and ignore the consequences. In games like EVE which emphasize that actions have consequences, Alts really damage this philosophy. The other downside is they decrease social interaction. There is no need to coordinate with other players if you have enough alts to run a production empire. Or why group up if you can play multiple characters at once and do group content by yourself? This seems counter to games called Massively Multiplayer Online.

One recent example of a game company thinking about alts and doing them well, in my opinion, is Bungie with Destiny. Each account gets 3 character slots, which is conveniently the number of classes in the game. So you only ever need one account to have access to all play options. In addition, individual characters do not have unique names like WOW. Instead the account has one name that is displayed no matter which character is used. This mitigates the reputation problem as the reputation is for the account instead of the character.

The other interesting feature of Bungie's implementation of Alts is they share storage space. So instead of having to do some convoluted process to get gear from your Warlock to your Titan, all you have to do is deposit the gear in the vault. Then any character on your account has access to it. So all your characters always have access to all of your best gear, so you can quickly swap to the one you want to play and go. Granted Destiny is no where near as complex as EVE, but it shows that when developers think about Alts and how players interact with them, you get a much better gaming experience.