Here's one example of what it might mean to use an alt to experience other styles of play: I have an "agoraphobic" alt I play very often, and my goal with that account has been to work my way up the levels without ever accruing any new streets on the travel leaderboard. Playing under this sort of restraint has made the game challenging and interesting to me in completely unexpected ways.
I have no Alts here yet. I did enjoy three in another game. I played each one a little differently and I enjoyed building different "homes" for each account. The house building/decorating was the reason for the Alts and I had a great time with them. I also played each a little differently which added to the richness of gameplay.
I enjoy the earlier stages of the game far more than I do the plateau one reaches at higher levels. So I have started, played, and thrown away eight accounts so far.
In my first account I was very enthusiastic and subscribed at Molybdenum before the end of the first beta. But when I discovered how much I like 'starting over' I cancelled that account and got a $90 refund at the 'relaunch' point. I've accumulated a lot of 'good stuff' from previous accounts that I've passed along, but I have only this account that I play now. It's really really easy to close accounts, there's a link to do that instantly and permanently. And being 'subscribed' locked me into playing just that one account, forever, to the end, if I wanted the 'perks' of subscribing.
It's sort of ironic to be a level 5 with a 50K house and a complete set of icons, every doll, etc., but that's the deal. I'm certainly not playing with more than one account to 'get ahead.' I'm barely 'ahead' at all. I'm level 5 for goodness sakes. It's sort of a nice state to idle in while waiting to see what the re-release will be at the end of the beta period. It might even be good enough that I'll subscribe again.
- One with maxed animal skills. I find this one "easiest" to play
- One with maxed gardening skills
- One with maxed mining skills. This one generates currants the fastest ("right now" -- the value of sparkly sold to vendors is due to decrease)
- One restricted to level 5. This one was very hard, and took a lot of creative thinking, and so in many ways was my most rewarding character.
Another reason for an ALT might be so that you could log in and play without interacting with all your friends. Yes I know Glitch is a social game, but sometimes I might not feel social and might not want people IMing etc. Sometimes I might just want to play by myself.
Or what if you had real world friends in the game and you didn't want them to know that you spent every minute of the whole weekend playing Glitch? You could play your ALT and then tell your friends that you spent the weekend competing in a triathalon!
Also, having an ALT would give you more invites. I think that before giving my last invite away I would make an ALT to get 3 more invites. Is that a TOS violation?
I have two Glitches. One is a very long-standing one from alpha testing. I have always followed the same pattern with her.
With the second I have followed a completely different path, and it has been very interesting to appreciate very different aspects of the game.
Hard to tell which is the "alt" as they are both much the same level (mid to late 40s) and both have more or less the same skills, however, their activities are quite different, which is fun.
1) Sturm i' secondary goal was to get to Better Learning 5, which required a spent emblem of Lem. Collecting 10,000c worth of stuff to donate, without getting XP, was very challenging!
Oristia: There has been mention of vendors being phased out. Will the current vendors be phased out slowly one or two at a time or items at a time or will they be replaced as a whole in one huge update?A: As stated in the forums "we're going to be changing things in small incremental steps with extensive testing over a long period of time (as we have been for the last nine months or so, with changes to pricing, balance, vendor availability). There will be plenty of latitude for tweaking and adjusting as necessary."
I do know stoot is very into economics just in general, and has repeated stated his ultimate goal is to eliminate most all the game-run vendors, in favor of player-run vendors. There was also a mention of game-run vendors having flexible pricing, based on what their "needs" were and what was being sold to them. This leads me to suspect the prices of certain over-harvested items (meat, milk, sparkly) will get a market correction [downward], rather than the fixed purchase price they now enjoy.
3) "Playing an alt to gain an advantage that others cannot is against the TOS." The classic example was buying a bog house, using funds from a main, and giving the key back to the main. Just using the invites, and not playing, seems to me very similar. I suggest you make & play the alt, e.g. try a different order for learning skills -- and the use the invites!