EVE General Discussion

For me, no not boring at all.

I love to pvp and find it anything but boring, however it is not a great way to generate lots of ISK. So my first reason for having an alt, isn't so I can min-max or anything, it's simply so I can generate ISK through industry activities, while not training skills I don't need for combat on my main.

I also have a links/scout/exploration alt because that compliments my pvp needs and also allows me to run data/relic sites to feed datacores, etc. to my industry character.

If I had to classify it differently, it could be that I want to access a lot of content without having to train all the skills on a single character and lose focus on that, so I use 3 characters instead.

It's almost the exact opposite of boredom because I enjoy every aspect of the game that I utilise.

Oh this is an alt topic,

I also have a toon similar to scorpois, it's actually just incredibly useful to have an alt in a cloaky boosting scan capable ship, particularly in my line of play (mercenary btw)

The utility of the probes means I can find a wartarget and get a set of eyes (and a warp in) on them before I even enter the system.
So when I do pop in local I'm already on my way to them, leaving them very little time to get away.
It also means that gatecamps aren't something I need to worry about.

This is the first game that I've ever encountered that promoted multiple accounts. Having different areas of the game 'time gated' and with players wanting that "edge" In whatever aspect of eve they enjoy would be my guess as to why. Sadly I'm not on the bandwagon for alt use and I'm proud to say this is my only account. Maybe that's why I play/leave/play/leave --who knows.

I don't believe the tasks pve/pvp in eve are boring per se but very one-dimensional. Click, point, and maybe hit a few hotkeys and watch the screen....... and watch the screen some more. Prime example is the mining profession, need I say more?

The last official statistic I heard on this subject was 2 years ago. I think it was an average of 1.5 to 2.2 accounts per person.

Do note that this does not mean that everyone has 2 accounts.
What is more likely is that you have 4 players with one account and 1 player with five accounts... or something like that.



Not exactly.

Alts provide a player with...

- anonymity: one character/account is a badass pirate scumbag who burns everything he/she sees. The other character is a miner/industrialist/trader/hauler that is "law abiding" and doesn't have the same security issues the former character/account has... allowing the latter character to support the former character without many problems.

For example: one of my characters on this account is dedicated for industry and hauling. He has a very high security rating (see: he is "law abiding") and hauls ships, mods, ammo, and other stuff to Fluffers here... because Fluffers has been a "bad, bad boy" by shooting everything on sight and now can't enter high-sec without being shot at by people.

- straight min/max support: a lot of EVE players min/max. A LOT. And many of the mechanics in EVE encourage people to team up with each other in order to get better abilities/stats.
However, when you min/max a support character you essentially have a character that is useless in most other regards (especially in combat). And if you don't min/max that character (or you rely on an actual player who is fit for combat AND support) you lose a lot of those sexy stats (which is supposed to be the intended way of things).

For example: Many PvP players have (or know someone with) a character built specifically for maximum Warfare Link support. Fitting this character's ship with max warfare links leaves it with little tank and combat ability. So it sits next to a station or a POS and passively provides the Warfare Link bonuses to the rest of the fleet from relative safety.
Now you COULD have a regular player provide this support in a regular Battlecruiser or combat fit Command Ship... but in order to be combat capable the player can't have "max links."

For example: I know a few people who use alt characters for probing and scouting. The same deal with the Warfare Links applies here. To be a very good prober requires you give up some combat ability. And most players would rather be in the thick of things than sit on the sidelines because they can't do anything else but the one thing they were needed for.
So, players get around this by having an alt dedicated to probe.


TLDR:
It is not that some activities are boring (though, there are plenty of those)... the main issue is that it is much more EFFECTIVE to have certain characters dedicated for certain things... which really twists the spirit of the game where no one player is supposed to be able to do everything at any one time effectively.

Also... one other thing to note; when you are in the thick of a PvP engagement (or trying to avoid one) it becomes INCREDIBLY hard to multitask between different characters/accounts. Many "off-grid boosters" have died this way (see: player engages someone, player's support character comes under attack at the same time from someone else, player now has to save his support character who can't fight while trying not to die on his main character).



You'll mainly find this sentiment regarding capitals and hauling.

"I don't trust anyone to properly cyno my 2 billion ship."
"I don't trust anyone to move my stuff without keeping it for themselves."

Thankfully though... once you get into a good group of players with diverse skillsets THAT YOU CAN TRUST, alts become less and less desirable.

I'd like to think I led with a postulate, and I'm certainly asking to hearing opinions. But I could see how one might think I'm bashing them and their poor or rich gameplay.

I definitely see from you and others (not the one line zingers) that alt's are about options, not a lack of engagement in one screen alone. Consequences is a word that bounces around Eve a lot, too. Like the negative security status consequence, or the gated timer consequence. Consequence for the toon, not the player, I think.

Well this applies to alts as well, there was a rumor that code. And marmite fell out of love with each other last year over ganking the wrong alt.

Once someone recognizes my alt as mine it can spook the targets without me actually being present.
An alts anonymity is only as good as how well you can keep them hidden

I have alts because I can now focus on doing everything in the game. I have a PVE,PVP,Industry,Hauler,Miner alts all doing 1 thing because when you focus on 1 thing it is very easy to make your character very very good at it.

The funniest part is when you started alts to be specialized in certain aspects and a few years alter realize that they are now all "god" characters and overlap in almost every way possible and suddenly you just have to many characters.

Rather clumsily phrased, but enough there to demonstrate the misconception. Don't worry. It's a common one.
One doesn't "win" EVE.
I see. This is even more telling. "EVE should suit me, not you...."
I'm sure you understand if tens of thousands of us disagree.

What I find boring are all the posts by people on the MMO Seeking Binge who find us then have to tell us what they think of us. We figure you'll all move on to something you can "manage as one player" and will be no more than a fond memory to us - like that gas attack after we ate at Taco Bell that last time; only different!