My thoughts on Blog Banter #5: Meta Gaming and Multiple Accounts

I know I am not a member of CrazyKinux Eve Blog Pack, and I haven’t been invited to comment, however I felt the need to comment. And, once again, it’s been quite a long time since I have posted. I really ought to post more. Lots of stuff has gone on and many exciting things to report. I have no excuse other than I didn’t feel like. Oh I have had moments when I wanted to say something about what is going in New Eden, but I haven’t taken the time to write anything. However, the recent blog banter #5 about Meta Gaming and Alts has made encouraged me to make a few points. I’ll try to keep it short.

I am one of those of the opinion that multiple accounts do take away from the game. Do I feel like forcing this posture on other players? No not really, but I would hope to encourage other players who do have multiple accounts to use them for different purposes. The game was designed to strongly encourage team-work and player-to-player interaction by making certain activities much harder to do when performed alone by providing logistics challenges or training time limitations so that a person who wishes to become an expert in a particular field really needs to focus their time on that, and not multiple fields at once. It is designed to be more realistic in the sense that one person can only do so much.

I do however believe that Alts can and should be used to play two completely different play styles. One might have a pirate character, and another industrial character, however I would stress by this I mean that they are separate operations, not facets of the same operation to used to support each other. Perhaps even in vastly different parts of the galaxy with little to know chance of ever meeting.

Anyway that’s my take on multiple accounts. In summary, I believe that multiple accounts should be used to experience different aspects of the game, but I don’t think that alts should be used as mules. Mule here being the term coined in most MMORPG games meant to mean an alternate character used to carry stuff for the main character. This game was specifically designed to be as social as possible, and I do think mule characters are just a way to get around that. Think of the social possibilities of real reliance on other player character and organizations. For PvPing players, this can provide gaming elements to give you reason to yarr when disatisfied or disappointed as well as provide rewarding and potentially profitable elements for the friendships developed outside the Circle of Yarr (tm).

DISCLAIMER: This is only my opinion, I certainly do not wish to force my ways on others.

P.S. In this vein I have more to tell soon to be posted on the next post or two later today or tomorrow, a proposal of sorts I’d like people to consider.