I'm not sure, but I get the forum impression that multiple characters are viewed as some kind of vice that's disapproved of by IMMs and players, but barely tolerated: like watching porn, chewing and spitting tobacco, or listening to Alanis Morisette on repeat.

I think there are some positive advantages:

1. You don't feel like you're stuck in some untenable situation.
Less frustration, more enjoyment.

2. Players with a disadvantage in game knowledge, including newer players, and who don't cheat OOCly, can often use complementary chars to progressively explore the game. E.g., my Hamsah guild thief doesn't have a good chance exploring that dangerous forest but maybe my ranger does. My battlerager can't id anything since I don't know enough to get observation xp to buff up Lore, but maybe my gnome invoker can id that object another day. This helps the learning curve vs competition that may have years of knowledge from exploring, and may also have OOC help.

I have played multiple characters at one time for all 19 years I have been playing. I am not the greatest roleplayer, but I have always played each character separately.

I tend to play a good bit and enjoy playing, but get burned out on one character after a couple hours.

I usually take a break and then come back with the second character.

I do not see anything wrong with it. I have never (at least since 1997) lefted gear or cheated between the characters. As a matter of fact, I have been killed be a character with one of mine and then recommended for inducting that character with another of mine. All the while never knowing the character accept for the two separate independent interactions.

I believe a lot of people have two or more characters and if you ever restricted it, the population of cf would go down even further.

Just my opinion.

Normally I am quite in the forums, but thought I would speak out on this.

Loknim (aka Polmier, Bevrolmx, and many others most of which I do not remember the names)

People seem to build friendships and alliances and RP with the people they grow up with, level with etc. If you don't play all the time as your main all of a sudden you log on and your entire cabal has changed and you don't know anyone in it anymore. I don't know about you but that makes the game less fun for me.

You have knowledge of their habits. Where they rest up, where their wands are, what their non-obvious legacies are etc.

All of which you shouldn't have while playing an enemy of theirs.

I still can't get over the fact that logging off to avoid tough times was seen as on
K tho.

you will end up with that information anyways. Because while you may not have multiples, other people will and they will share enemy wand/whatever info with you anyways. The most characters I've had at a given time was 3. Generally I have a hero, one that I dump most of my time in, and an alt or another that I play when I don't want to play my hero for whatever reason. I try to keep them not in the same pk range as one another to avoid the urge of killing someone who killed me (even if justified with RP) with an alt. I will kill that person with an alt, but not right after any pk with a diff alt. That said, as far as my login/logout...I'm 33 years old, and I'll play as I damn well please? You can't tell people they can't log in/out at certain times. The only answer you will get for that is a F-U. Not to mention the fact, that if I couldn't log in an alt after taking a severe beating with my main/etc, then the mud would just be down by 1 player (because I'd simply log off and do something else) so would you rather have 14 players online, one of them participating in lowbie pk? or 13 players online.

Just sayin'

Firstly, very very few people find out my resting up points. If one of them were to be playing an enemy of mine at the time as well, they could jump me while I'm vulnerable even tho no enemy has been able to find me at them.

In terms of player numbers, I think exaggerating the pendulum swing by avoiding playing the side that is the underdog is likely to cost us more players than obliging people to stick around, at which point they are there if someone else logs in on their side. This, of course, assumes that you don't have a buddy tipping you off as to whether you'd be the underdog before you log in.

I guess I don't have an issue with someone that restricts their use of an alt in the way you describe, but the reality is that many don't.

I've played a lowbie and hero with overlap before but I would always decide which to play before knowing how tough each would have it on a given log in

nt

We grew up beating on and running from each other, and over the course of the our 'growing up' we developed a respect for each other, sort of like soldiers on opposite sides of a guard post who would bum cigarettes off each other.

Playing multiple characters tends to diminish the extent to which you see characters as people instead of just some other mob with gear and gold you might want.

I like playing one character at a time because it allows me to become fully immersed in that character. If I have two going, regardless of level/ideological differences, I struggle to maintain the correct role, not to mention I suck at PK bad enough with one character, why would I want to worry about two skill/song/supplication lists? On top of that, I find that I am able to really let a character evolve if I only have one going at a time, because my mind isn't cluttered with other RP angles for a secondary char that might interfere with my normal thought process.

...You made it so you could only have one caballed character per player, I've always thought that would make more sense. The biggest problem I ever had with multi-char'ing people is that they use whatever knowledge of your character's habits they've learned against you. It might not even be intentional, but it's knowledge that is in their head and it's inevitably going to effect the decisions they make.

Of course, to implement what I'm talking about you'd probably have to have account registration (is that a bad idea, actually?)

You can do it, and the arguments for it run as you say. It's just that - since you are taking each character less seriously than you would if you had focused entirely on one character, others are inclined to take them less seriously as well.

Less serious characters are fine, but maybe they ought not to be cabal leaders, etc.

It contributes to the band-wagon / fair-weather playing that diminishes the reward of others, immortals, and the player. The best CF memories are overcoming challenges, risk vs. reward, and pushing boundaries.

It taints the boundaries of in-character knowledge.

It lends to cheating in some regards, generally minor other than gear or leaving gear on the ground for your other character.

It diminishes the quality of roleplay and immersion into a character. This does not impact all players equally.

I think these are assumptions about how they are played -- and most of these can be easily true of players who don't have multiple characters.

I think there is an underlying playstyle that perhaps is flawed, but that doesn't specifically apply to have multiple characters.

>It contributes to the band-wagon / fair-weather playing that diminishes the reward of others, immortals, and the player.

He means that people log on with their Imperials during Imperial O'Clock and with their Forties twelve hours later. The only similar option for people with one character is to not play when their numbers are down, but that doesn't swing the balance further in the other direction.

>It taints the boundaries of in-character knowledge.

This means that your friend the Drillmaster has a quest skill that saves your Villager's life. 12 hours later your Imperial knows about it, and can plan accordingly. This doesn't happen when you only play one character at a time unless details are released via logs.

>It lends to cheating in some regards, generally minor other than gear or leaving gear on the ground for your other character.

This isn't possible when you only play one character at a time.

>It diminishes the quality of roleplay and immersion into a character. This does not impact all players equally.

This isn't necessarily true, many people will cite interest in a new character as a reason for deletion.

What you described is the bad style of play. Avoiding untenable situations. Logging on chars for specific purposes. Let's say my Mage sees a great sword. Or maybe locates it. Then I log in my sword spec to get it?

It's fair weather play that you describe. Don't like the bad times?
Then stay uncaballed. Don't take the perks without taking responsibility.

But while I may actually be playing 3 or 4 characters at a time, none of them are likely to be caballed, other than maybe Herald, but let's face it, they have no impact on anything anyway. But I don't really play the game to be taken seriously anymore. I play when I get the urge to try a combo out that maybe I haven't before, or if I feel like exploring. But maybe I make a character and level them up to level 25 or something, and I find that maybe my combo isn't working, or it is working but I am not enjoying it as much. That doesn't mean I want to delete and make something else, but maybe I just wish to try something else while keeping them on the backburner.