Posts with tag play styles

While many of us have alts to try out new styles of gameplay, or to make accessing the Auction House easier, many players create new characters with specific ideas in mind. A friend of mine recently created a pink haired gnome simply because he wanted one the moment he saw one -- instead of levelling up, he just runs around with her and enjoys whatever there is to enjoy about gnomes.

After giving one of my new characters a name inspired by a series of books, I decided to create some alts with more "book-inspired" names to give her some company, but I'm sure there are far crazier reasons for making particular alts. What's your story?

It's a late breakfast today, and the topic is play styles. What do you do when normal WoW playing becomes too easy for you? You start creating meta-games, challenges within the game that add new levels of achievement and complication to the equation. Whether you've roped in some friends to see who's the first to 60 on a new server, or you're trying to beat your own high scores in terms of number of pulls or HKs, there are times when we all set arbitrary targets for ourselves ingame.

Especially if you've already taken one or two characters to 60, the game content becomes less of an interesting distraction and more a means to an end. You know all the best grinding spots, areas with decent drop rates and fast-spawning mobs that are especially susceptible to your class skills. You're gaming the game -- plotting the most efficient route through a minefield of quests and levels. If you don't level by the end of today's session, you consider it an inefficient use of your time.

Do you find you fall into this behaviour? Do you try to beat your own times to level 10, 20, etc? Or do you sit back and enjoy the ride, whichever character you're on, not caring much about what you get done in a single session?

I'll be the first to admit that I may have a slight case of alt-itis--however, with 27 characters spread across sixteen realms, it's perhaps gone a bit far. Many of my characters are placeholders, created so that I could talk with friends on the server, but I've played enough of them to have seen the first 10 levels from every possible angle.

I like being able to create a new character when I am in a "newbie" mood--sometimes levelling older characters gets slow and tedious, and the heady rush of starting again is the ideal antidote. Fortunately, WoW's mechanics support this behaviour, unlike some other games which restrict the number of characters you can make.

However, I'm now at the stage where I've got too many alts, each of which is starting to make different friends and acquaintances--my playing time is being spread thin to keep up with them all. While character transfer may help with some of this, I fear there is no permanent solution other than to lie low for a while.

Are you an alt-addict? Why do you make alts? If you only play one character, do you intend to start again once you hit 60?