Alts versus one account .... I am really curious. Did I make a mistake?

[Katherine Heartsong]

Was not sure, in my still early days, how this was all going to work out given my earlier experiences with low frame rates and really laggy experiences. This time around, everything has been smooth, even with the little bumps and frustrations that always trip up newbies in SL. Heck, I even have a store in the Marketplace and an in-world art gallery all set up, and more outfits that I can shake a stick at. Yay! But my big question now is ... did I make a mistake having both a male avatar and female (preferred) avatar tied to one account?

At this point, to change over, I'd need to re-invest maybe 10,000L into recreating my male avatar in an alt account. I can afford that hit, and even the time recreating maybe 15 male outfits, but wondering what the rationale is for having two (or in some cases dozens) of alt accounts with different characters versus simply having one account with many different looks?

I have a partner with a male and female account, so am familiar with this notion, but ... did I make a mistake? What % of players with vastly different looks (male/female/trans/creature/animal/etc) are using alt accounts to facilitate this?

If you had to convince me to create a male account for something akin to the RL me ... what would be the one argument or persuasive sentence you would use? Or to flip that around, why should I seat using just the one account? Thank you for any feedback and thoughts.

[Maitimo]

I'm kinda doing both. 

When I started using a female body it wasn't originally a gender-identity change, it was simply a way of increasing my repertoire of fantasy costumes, many of which were available for female bodies only. So I kept it all on the same account. It was only afterwards (very quickly afterwards, actually) I realised, hey I actually like this, and began making my avatar more feminine.  The experience has certainly uncovered a significant amount of non-binaryness (is that even a word?) in both SL and RL, which I did not expect. But I'm not really flipping between fully male and fully female, rather, I've settled into an in-between place.

I've got some alts too, three in total now. One is an old one, he's male and staying male. He's my premium alt and only exists to acquire and decorate a Linden Home and for me to steal his stipend, so it really doesn't matter what he looks like. 

The next one is Nelya who was originally made as a challenge to make a decent avatar on the lowest possible cost. I've made Nelya non-binary too, though since they were made I've dropped the "cheapies only" restriction and spent more on improving them. Nel has both male and female bodies & heads in their inventory but tends to stick with a flat-chest female body (they're using Lucybody, not Maitreya). Nel leans more to the masculine side of non-binary whereas I lean more on the femme side. They won't wear dresses, for example, but I do.

The newest one is Valli, who got created one afternoon a month or so ago when I was bored. She's all girl, and so far she's stuck to the principle on which Nel was created; equipped only with freebies/cheapies. 

Tangents aside and tl;dr, I have two accounts which have both male and female options in inventory and two that stick with their own gender.

 

[Wulfie Reanimator]

 

1 hour ago, Katherine Heartsong said:

... did I make a mistake? What % of players with vastly different looks (male/female/trans/creature/animal/etc) are using alt accounts to facilitate this?

Even if the answer was 99%, what would that matter to you? Do you have a reason for multiple accounts and if not, why waste the money?

I understand that this thread is more of a "what am I missing" thing, but still.

For me, the reasons are

1. Privacy
2. Creative usernames
3. Exploring different aspects of myself

For some I can imagine that the name (or even profile) above your current avatar may not be "appropriate" or fitting. I don't think TurboMan6000 is going to make a very authentic female in a roleplay setting. I equally doubt that Joytoy69 with her findom kink, cashapp, and lewd profile pics is going to be very accepted in her PG kindergartner avatar.

[Jordyn McGregor]

I did that years ago...had both a male and female stuff on the same avatar - used the male avatar only for when I needed it to blog male stuff.  But then it got annoying and I wanted to do couple poses so I made a separate male alt which I now use for photographic purposes.  Thankfully this was pre-mesh and my investment wasn't as costly as it would be today.

I would look at what you want to use each identity for and if it is worth writing off the cost so far and starting over with a new ID.

Edited December 11, 2020 by Jordan Whitt

[Morena Tully]

I feel like if you ever *wish* you had two separate avatars, then you should do it. It's eating an investment initially, when you've had them rolled into one, but a few years down the road it'd be well worth it. I guess the most important thing is if you consider two genders as two identities, or one. Sometimes people want to separate the identities, sometimes it's just two different aspects of who they are on the same person. Sometimes it's both.

I only have one male alt, only because I wanted to save his name, and I needed him to model some outfits for pictures. He's nothing more than a doll. In the end, it's all about whether or not you want to have two identities. Cost shouldn't be the reason.

[June Starlight]

I keep my male and female avatars on separate accounts. It's just more convenient to sort inventory, outfits etc. this way, and I can drag my alt in a picture any time my heart desires.

Keeping them separate also helps with getting into RP character easier, as I have to do the dance of logging in separate account - sort of "putting a hat" of this character on. 

[Katherine Heartsong]

Here he is. Still working on getting the right hair ... the demo I tested on a Genus head and loved I because it was slicked down and flat (from i.mesh). Didn't notice there isn't the same styling available on the LeLutka head I grabbed yesterday, so off to find better, more slicked down hair.

PS. Whoever mentioned the AO place called Body Language? I love you! My wallet, however, hates you. In addition to buying my male AO there, I found a female AO I may replace Erika (Vista) with.

Edited December 12, 2020 by Katherine Heartsong

[Rowan Amore]

11 minutes ago, Katherine Heartsong said:

Here he is. Still working on getting the right hair ... the demo I tested on a Genus head and loved I because it was slicked down and flat (from i.mesh). Didn't notice there isn't the same styling available on the LeLutka head I grabbed yesterday, so off to find better, more slicked down hair.

PS. Whoever mentioned the AO place called Body Language? I love you! My wallet, however, hates you. In addition to buying my male AO there, I found a female AO I may replace Erika (Vista) with.

If that hair is unrigged, you should be able to fit it to lelutka.  Stealthic has a nice hairbase for lelutka men that would work with that hair.

Edited December 12, 2020 by RowanMinx

[Maitimo]

16 minutes ago, RowanMinx said:

If that hair is unrigged, you should be able to fit it to lelutka.  Stealthic has a nice hairbase for lelutka men that would work with that hair.

Yes I was also going to recommend Stealthic for hairbases ant this style of hair. Their red shades suck but for black/dark brown they should be fine. 

[Katherine Heartsong]

Got a hair stye and hair base I liked at Stealthic. perfect, thanks.

Edited December 12, 2020 by Katherine Heartsong

[Jennifer Boyle]

I think it depends mostly on two things. One is how you want to use the avatars; the other is how you feel about usernames.

I have a male alt and two female alts. The main reasons for having the male alt is for photography and for testing couples poses, so he wouldn't be useful if he didn't have a separate account. I also use the female alts for photography, for creating a small crowd for some purpose, and as passengers in vehicles so I can get out on land I don't own without the vehicle poofing. I use them all for checking access, permissions, etc. to make sure they work as intended, all of which require that they be on separate accounts from mine. An additional use is being co-owners of groups to guard against being unable to administer the group should my primary account become inaccessible.

I have no desire to change back and forth between genders; some do. For them, one account with two or more avatars makes sense.

I would feel odd as a male avatar with my name. I am a fortunate oldie with a username that is plausible as an avatar name. I wouldn't want to change it, especially since, if I did, I could never change back. Display names don't really do what I need because they are visible in many ways.

Edited December 12, 2020 by Jennifer Boyle

[Wulfie Reanimator]

3 minutes ago, Jennifer Boyle said:

I wouldn't want to change it, especially since, if I did, I could never change back.

You could, it'd just cost you another cool $40 + premium. Your previous names are permanently claimed for your account.

[Nalates Urriah]

Early in my SL experience I was more into RP gaming leaning toward combat. I made my Alt-male avatar in a second account so it could have a unique name, which was needed for the combat systems/HUDs scoring.

Now I find there are various things in SL that he is handy for when I want to test them; product permissions, animations, etc. So, a second account is handy for having two avatars logged in.

So I have ended up with separate accounts for male and female.

[Jennifer Boyle]

4 minutes ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

You could, it'd just cost you another cool $40 + premium. Your previous names are permanently claimed for your account.

That is good to know. Thanks.

[Jenn Rowley]

On 12/11/2020 at 8:41 PM, Katherine Heartsong said:

Here he is. Still working on getting the right hair ... the demo I tested on a Genus head and loved I because it was slicked down and flat (from i.mesh). Didn't notice there isn't the same styling available on the LeLutka head I grabbed yesterday, so off to find better, more slicked down hair.

PS. Whoever mentioned the AO place called Body Language? I love you! My wallet, however, hates you. In addition to buying my male AO there, I found a female AO I may replace Erika (Vista) with.

Yea after reading this I went to body language also, their AO's are smooth.  I dont care for the ones where they lift feet or hop around but I found one that did what I wanted.  Price is as expected for a good moving ao.  And the Interface isnt intrusive, its using the standard zao hud.

[Jordyn McGregor]

On 12/12/2020 at 3:41 PM, Katherine Heartsong said:

PS. Whoever mentioned the AO place called Body Language? I love you! My wallet, however, hates you. In addition to buying my male AO there, I found a female AO I may replace Erika (Vista) with.

I love Body Language for their standing poses!  I tend to be a bit fussy though so tend to buy one or two from various sets and use them in my AO.

[Lewis Luminos]

On 12/11/2020 at 12:52 PM, Katherine Heartsong said:

If you had to convince me to create a male account for something akin to the RL me ... what would be the one argument or persuasive sentence you would use? Or to flip that around, why should I seat using just the one account? Thank you for any feedback and thoughts.

I'm one of those people for whom it was important to have a separate account for my female avatar, for two reasons. First, I am very attached to my own appearance and I don't generally like to change it - I will do so on occasion, as a "costume" but I regard that as being the same kind of thing as "fancy dress". It's just me in a costume. Second is the name. A boy named Sue is one thing, but a girl named Lewis isn't really going to work terribly well.

But it's not up to us to convince you one way or another - whichever option you choose is down to your own personal preference. If you're happy with the situation as you have it, with both avatars on the same account, there's no need to change. But if it's making you uncomfortable, and you're willing to spend the extra L$, then making a new account is easy enough. 

[CeleneHighwater]

 

Honestly, I don't see the value in having multiple accounts. I would just switch avs at will. It is less expensive and less complicated. This way you only have to remember one password.

[Fauve Aeon]

Main av, building & script/perms testing alt, store inventory alt (easiest/neatest to have one for each store inventory if you have several brands - so I hear), then at least one account designated as a bot to play with automated things (mine will also be store/demo model, I think once I make a non-detailed body skin for her and figure out how to let people change her layers and dress and redress her without stripping her! ), then one anon alt that has no responsibilities whatsoever who can run about wildly. That’s at least 5 already, lol. 

[Jenn Rowley]

On 12/16/2020 at 6:02 PM, Fauve Aeon said:

Main av, building & script/perms testing alt, store inventory alt (easiest/neatest to have one for each store inventory if you have several brands - so I hear), then at least one account designated as a bot to play with automated things (mine will also be store/demo model, I think once I make a non-detailed body skin for her and figure out how to let people change her layers and dress and redress her without stripping her! ), then one anon alt that has no responsibilities whatsoever who can run about wildly. That’s at least 5 already, lol. 

Collar with a locking core, no rlv relay and your good to go.  You can even lock underwear on to keep her legal in g Sims at that point.  And the collar is hideable, 

[Sorciaa]

id go with 2 accounts unless you have a neutral name.. you dont want to be that boy named Sue

 

 

[Bree Giffen]

There are some very good reasons:

1. Taking photos/verifying how your avatar looks to others.
2. Verify permissions
3. Verify login status
4. Verify all sorts of merchant activity
5. Verify land status

[Yuumo Ichibara]

8 hours ago, Bree Giffen said:

verifying how your avatar looks to others.

THIS! Only another person/viewer can verify if your BOM/alpha layers are f**ked.