~pancake~ wrote:I don’t know Sira, it feels to me that you are tap dancing with semantics to justify your play preference.
However, if you prefer to split the hair there, to say that the issue is not alts but rather the players behind them, you force me to then take the position that I have no issue with alts, but with the typists behind them. I’d rather not do that.
I don’t feel I’m bitching or witch hunting. I’m participating in an internet discussion board. One with a poll, in which I voted, then explained my preference. In world? I play with alts both known and unknown, I have alts, I’ve been partnered to a man with an army of alts, had him sell me to an alt, had alts of his I had previous not known show up in our OOC house. Trust me, I’m not bitching or witch hunting.
It’s a rare day I discuss alts in world, even rarer that I out them, even when I’m placed in the most uncomfortable position of knowing that someone is being misled and would be uncomfortable if they found out. In fact there have been some who have gotten upset with me for not warning/telling them that they were engaged with an alt of someone else I knew.
As a theoretical discussion though, I do see the potential drama and “harm” playing multiple alts in a sim could do. I find it unfortunate that you cannot see the same and separate the validity of that point from your own roleplay preference.
As for sims with open policy on alts? I’m not sure that sim owners really envisioned someone playing 4 characters of various positions and genders in their sim when they did that. Perhaps they did, but I’m not certain most consider this to be typical behaviour.
I guess at the end of the day I consider RP to be a team sport. If I know that the majority of the team prefer that I not spike the ball, I won’t spike the ball, even if it amuses me to do so and if I do? I’m going to accept that some people are not going to feel great about that. I don’t think I’d resort to calling them names for feeling how they feel and if I did I don’t think I’d expect them to enjoy having me on their team.
I think you are misunderstanding me because I think we actually agree in practice. Ala said it best though. Alts are not the actual problem. The people who do ill acts with them are the problem. And the people who assume all or even most alts are made to purposely or accidentally do ill acts are also the problem if we are speaking about the causes of sim drama.
When the view is taken that the majority of people who play alts are screwing up, then you have exactly what we see currently. A general state of paranoia and finger pointing of who might be who and why they would dare want to play another character. I don't think this contributes to the health of a sim anymore than someone actually being an asshole alt does.
This is what I meant by witch hunts and bitching. I wasn't implying that your post was a witch hunt or bitching. I was speaking about what happens in world when people start whispering and spreading info about who is who and how dare they. I think that damages a sim equally, if not more than a person playing an alt for nefarious purposes.
And I also agree that RP is a team sport. I dislike when people make it solely about them. But my issue is rooted in people ascribing certain negative qualities to alts that don't necessarily have causation, but merely correlation.
I actually don't prefer to play many alts, despite my arguing for people to be free to do so.
I prefer to get in depth with one character, typically. Maybe two at the very most. But, I have been known to play bit parts or extras in scenes. That can be pretty fun and definitely a positive use of alts, even in the same sim. And I do see the upset some people suffer because someone was a jerk with an alt. But, I've also seen the utter disruption of RP and demise of others who have been victims of witch hunts and rumors.
