The "alts" generation is here -- and its no fun anymore.

joosii

Well forsaken world hasn't been around long, but just long enough to get the second and third generation of alts flooding through and already starting to ruin the game. I've gotten my marksman up to level 50 now (80 is the cap), but decided to level a bard, cuz i just can't seem to find enough priests who actually take their "healer" role seriously. Something about the automated squading system seems to breed that kind of healer mindset.... but i digress.

Leveling a low level alt during these times has been illuminating. 

1. With PWE's ridiculous double-clienting policy, this means you have people going into instances with their alts to grab double the advantage on the precious few drops you get but pulling the weight of only 1 (or maybe 1.25 people since one goes on auto-attack mode if they are managing their two clients well enough). And because of the "everyone-in-squad-has-to-agree" rule to kick someone, the alt can't get kicked. Sometimes people name their two alts a similar name so you have a heads up that you will have to use more mana to get your boss kills done. But the problem is that people dont tell you. And when one of their alts is the priest or the tank (or god forbid, both), let me tell you, instances are NOT fun. It would be great if you could avoid them next time, but the automatic squading system, while brilliant, doesnt allow you to block certain players from your squad. And since you have a limited number of allowed runs per day, quitting is sometimes not an option. "Fill your friend list" you may say. Trust me, at these low levels, that just doesnt happen. People don't bother with forming a squad and wasting world chats for members (teleacoustics cant be bought with ingame gold) when there's an automated system that will allow you to do stuff while you wait the half an hour it takes for enough interested people to apply for the instance.

2. You will notice that when you run with a really high level, they tend to be less patient with those who dont know all the "shortcuts" and "tricks" to these instances. That's fine. They've been around longer and they can often carry the squad through (well, its not fine, but at least you can finish the instance). But get these high levels making alts and running with squads of their own level, and they become unbearable. They get "pissed off" if they dont get heals, even though they are running ahead of squad. They get mad at the squad because they aren't doing it the "right" way or going fast enough. They dont want to play with low levels, but do it out of necessity. And to make it worse, they are mouthing off to other alts of high levels, and giving us "wanna-learn-the-game" players a bad experience. No one wants to have to put up with arguing and whining, and having to watch or referree pissing matches between players. I've only been playing FW for a couple of months, and already, I've had more rude alts acting like they own the instance than regular squads. In fact, i suspect that most people i run with are alts. They are just too knowledgeable to be otherwise.

3. alts + double-clienting permission = POWER-LEVELING! (can you find anything that could make a game obsolete faster than that?)

Here's the thing. I dont know of other successful MMOs that spur on the trend for players to multi-client in their games. I admit im not a seasoned MMO player, so I may be wrong. I mean, I know people will always try to do it regardless, but allowing it is another thing. It is way out of control in PWI, but no one is addressing it because everyone loves it -- even if it ruins the game play. The same policy has been implemented in FW, and I'm only starting to realize the problem with it now. I see how it takes away from the soul of the game, and I'm glad i stuck to only one account when i moved to FW. (I'm making plans to delete my alt account in PWI as i type this... I'm so done.)

By the way, PWE limits people to only two accounts, but there's no way for them to detect more than that. I can tell you BY NAME (but im not a tattle-tale) the dozens of people i know who log onto more than 2 accounts at a time. There's no way for PWE to keep it under control. And I have a sneaking suspicion they don't mind the money that comes from someone CSing their way to all those high level alts -- juicy profit for them. (By the way, i did submit a ticket once with PROOF of triple-clienting -- I am still waiting after months and months to see if he gets a ban. My guess is, its never gonna happen.)

Sounds like i need to leave PWE games, and find games that have better management. Or perhaps the honeymoon stage with F2P is over for me... i dunno. The general comments about PWE, the company, that i read in various forums lead me to believe that I'm not alone in my frustrations with them so I hope changing developers will do the trick. I think i might be back to test-driving new games again. I hope ingame boyfriend understands. Sorry hunny. QQ

Or maybe it's time to take up the world of knitting... hm...