The reasons I have so many accounts/characters in Second Life

[Katherine Heartsong]

Two, Kat and my male alt.

[SlammedSam]

I have 12 different characters/toons, though maybe half come out with any real regularity.

Though Samantha here is relatively new, she is based on a comic character I created in high school, so she's pretty much been promoted to main, as it were. She also has a sister named Kristen. Maybe someday, I'll get around to creating the Martians as well ...

Most of my other alts/toons were characters in a now defunct RP storyline I had with my late partner.

[Akane Nacht]

I had several alts, but one by one they were killed. Now it's just me and my last alt... staring at each other...

[Phil Deakins]

At one time I had over 70 accounts, and I still have around 70. Most were created before 2010, but a couple were created after COVID started.

This was my first account. I never socialised with any account except this one, although I have used the 2 new ones within a small group of people, but they knew that the alts were me. My first alt was created in early 2007 when alts had to be paid for. She was created to earn some money as a pole-dancer, but I'd no idea how to go about it, so she never did it. Since then, her role has been for testing and positioning animations.

The rest were created specifically to improve search rankings. About half were created as traffic bots, which produced top rankings in the legacy search (the only search system at the time). Traffic bots were perfectly legal at that time, I hasten to add , and I stopped using them when they became illegal. The others were created after LL started to use the GSA for the search system. With that system, Picks were the #1 way to get top rankings by a country mile. Specifically, it was the web link in a Pick, to the parcel that was Picked, that mattered. The traffic bots were used for Picks too.

These days I use 30 of the accounts to pay the weekly L$30 fee for the Group to be in search. It's because there is someone who I don't want to be paying for that. This way, that person could only ever pay L$1, and not always.

Edited November 7, 2022 by Phil Deakins

[Lewis Luminos]

I have seven accounts including my main (this one) and the main reason for me having alts is because I get ideas for a character (sometimes related to a story I've written) but I cannot bear to alter the appearance of my main account. Lewis looks like this, always. So if I am going to make another character, it has to be a different account.

1. Casidy Craig, my original account, which I made in 2006, based on a character I wrote. I forgot about him and resurrected in 2014. This one is my other Premium account and gets the L$500 a week stipend. Casidy is the only one who currently has no fixed or particular appearance because his original role was replaced by Casteylan. He's largely just a building/banking alt at this point.

2. Casteylan Hawker, 2007 replaced Casidy as the proxy for the above character because the last name was much better.  Intended for roleplay but never actually used, save for a couple of visits to Avilion way back. He's still non-mesh.

3. Lewis Luminos. Me. Made in 2008 and intended to represent the RL me, or at least the way I would look if I could customise my look in RL too.

4. Ryder Palfrey. 2010. Made solely for the funny/clever name. I actually made quite a few for the names, back in the day, this one is the only one I kept. Last time I used him (years ago) I turned him into a white-skinned angel called Frost.

5. Indra. Made in 2011 as an experiment to do a female avatar but largely unused until around 2018.

6. Frankie Noir. Made in 2013 to be the bartender at my club. He's also still non-mesh and not been used since I closed the club.

7. Tammi.  Made in 2019, another girl, originally intended to be an avatar-on-a-budget. Yeah, that didn't last long. 

I made a bunch more over the years which have since been deleted. Maybe Ordinary and Rusty Raza, both made for the funny names. Rusty was a fox furry, abandoned because I decided that I didn't like being a furry, or hanging out with other furries.  Dalia Digfoot, who was made to be a hobbit woman, abandoned when mesh came in and made dressing a hobbit nearly impossible. Bailey Britton, another early attempt at a female avatar, abandoned because at the time I was uncomfortable with being female in SL. A few others whose names I don't even remember any more. 

With the exception of Casteylan and Frankie, who are 100% roleplay charactes with actual fictional backstory, the rest are really just me, in different "costumes". There are slight personality differences; for example Indra is more sophisticated, Tammi is sassy, Frost is brooding and serious. I like to think of them not so much as friends, but more as my children (I made them, after all). But really, they're all just me. If you have a conversation with any of us inworld, whether it's Lewis or Indra, Ryder or Tammi, you're talking to me, the man at the keyboard. 

I haven't made a new account since Tammi, nearly 3 years ago. I think I have enough now. 

[Maitimo]

23 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

These days I use 30 of the accounts to pay the weekly L$30 fee for the Group to be in search. It's because there is someone who I don't want to be paying for that. This way, that person could only ever pay L$1, and not always.

You know you can set the permissions in different roles to pay or not pay the search fee? It's called "Pay group liabilities/receive dividends" or something like that. You can put yourself into a role that does pay (usually just the group owner) and everyone else, make sure their roles have that ability unchecked. There's no need to pack the group with alts.

Annyway to go back to the original question - I have two alts. One is for a specific roleplay and the other is my evil twin who is lately used solely for playing the SML gym game, although I haven't done that so much in the last few months. I made another last year, then realised that if I kept her I'd only sink a load of money, so I deleted her again before I got tempted to do that.

Edited November 8, 2022 by Maitimo

[Phil Deakins]

50 minutes ago, Maitimo said:

You know you can set the permissions in different roles to pay or not pay the search fee? It's called "Pay group liabilities/receive dividends" or something like that. You can put yourself into a role that does pay (usually just the group owner) and everyone else, make sure their roles have that ability unchecked. There's no need to pack the group with alts.

I did know about the roles and abilities, but....erm....it never occurred to me   So a very big thank you for mentioning it.

I'm not sure if the Owners role can be set to not pay and receive money but, if it can, I think the way I'll need to do it is by creating a role just for me, and set things so that only that role pays. It'll save me from logging 30 alts in every couple of months just to give them the L$ to pay with.

Edited November 8, 2022 by Phil Deakins

[BelindaN]

First there was just me. I stick with my look, apart from hair colour & style. Then one day I had a bake fail and that spooked me. I overcame that eventually, but soon after it happened a couple more times.

It seemed to make sense to make a reserve account, "just in case". That was Salty. I meshed her up as my younger sister. I enjoyed doing that too much! So after a while I decided to make a middle sister. Just because. A rebellious one because middle sisters are ALWAYS rebellious. And that was it. Or so I thought.

Some time later, a guy I knew wagered that if I made another avi he would know it was me. Well I did, and he didn't. This sister is the strong one. By now I was getting the hang of this. But BoM arrived and I daren't risk screwing up my sisters trying out BoM, so I made a test avi. She later became another sister, but by now I was confused who fitted where. She became the posh one. And that was it. 

Until a group of friends were thinking we could make a better job of a guy avi than most of the guy avis in world. So we all made one and hung out together  but man, that was weird. Soon after I morphed Alex into a sister. I use the male version rarely as a photo prop. And that really is it. They are all mesh & BoM. I restrict their inventories but they do OK. I make no secret of my family. They get in world when I allow it. They each have a small friends list, and each one is a slight variation of me.

[LittleMe Jewell]

13 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

I'm not sure if the Owners role can be set to not pay and receive money

Nope -- You can't take any of the abilities away from the Owner role.

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

An idea the Lab could explore is storing multiple toons on one account.  Some MMOs allow up to so many toons on one log on.  You just select the character you want. One game my man played allowed up to 6.

[Lewis Luminos]

8 hours ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

An idea the Lab could explore is storing multiple toons on one account.  Some MMOs allow up to so many toons on one log on.  You just select the character you want. One game my man played allowed up to 6.

It would be nice if those multiple toons could share inventory and L$ pool.

But.. no, that's never gonna happen. Still, it would be nice...

[Phil Deakins]

8 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Nope -- You can't take any of the abilities away from the Owner role.

I tried and discovered that, but thank you

[SlammedSam]

2 hours ago, Lewis Luminos said:

It would be nice if those multiple toons could share inventory and L$ pool.

But.. no, that's never gonna happen. Still, it would be nice...

Right? That is one plus I can say in Star Trek Online's favour. Not sure what other games do such.

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

4 hours ago, SlammedSam said:

Right? That is one plus I can say in Star Trek Online's favour. Not sure what other games do such.

I think if Linden Lab ever did that, there would probably be a charge attached to that function.

[Maitimo]

If Linden Lab ever did that, it would break the SL economy. If inventory was shareable with alts, sales of all avatar parts, accessories and clothing would drop by about 90%

[Katherine Heartsong]

10 minutes ago, Maitimo said:

If Linden Lab ever did that, it would break the SL economy. If inventory was shareable with alts, sales of all avatar parts, accessories and clothing would drop by about 90%

While I agree in general terms, I do kind of see two exceptions.

For those running cis-male and cis-female personas that's not really an issue.

Second, if you run multiple female avatars, which there would be the massive benefit of having one (large) closet, I can still see wanting totally separate looking female alts with their own unique styles and clothing, meaning some drop in sales, but fewer shared clothing items than you might think?

If I were to start a third alt (two is more than enough!) with it being a second female alt, I'd want to break far out of my ginger look and style, and try for something more fun and less serious in terms of personality and especially clothing look. I could imagine places I normally don't shop like Candy Kitten or the like getting a lot of my Lindens to dress that avatar up, in clothes I'd never wear as Kat.

Edited November 9, 2022 by Katherine Heartsong

[Brightstar7777]

Why multiple accounts? Because we had many stories to explore and discover, or maybe perspectives to consider. Because being something other, something new, makes life vivid. Because discovering magic or worlds beyond the sky changes everything. And for all the other reasons people have for disappearing into living dream.

[Rowan Amore]

But even with multiple alts, it's often amusingly easy to spot who they are.  I'm sure a few people created them when their main one was banned from the forums.  

[Sammy Huntsman]

On 11/4/2022 at 5:57 PM, Sammy Huntsman said:

I have 8 accounts, that includes my main account. 3 of them are used. 1 is my main account, 2 is my storage and photography alt and 3 is my male alt. The other 4 are never used. Heck, I rarely log onto #3. 

I do have to say, even though I have multiple accounts. 4 of them I don't use. They don't have a totally different personality. I act like I would, on my main and my 2 other alts. 

[Rolig Loon]

Rolig is my main account, the one I have always thought of as "me".  She's the only one with a social life or a forum presence. She's pretty tame, although she did live on tips as a pole dancer in her SL youth.  She and I have been here since 2007.

When last names disappeared, I quickly created a new account, Rolig Resident, just to protect my good name.  I know quite a few people who did the same thing. R2 -- as she became known among friends -- was active in SL for a couple of years, but has been in limbo for so long now that I'm not sure I even remember her password any more.

I created another alt in about 2013 because I fancied having a lifelike cat avatar who could wander around incognito. That was fun for a while, but she too has been inactive for several years now.

Other than those, I have two "work" alts who have no social life at all (and hence a very limited wardrobe), but who are frequently in world at undisclosed locations, doing creative stuff, passing it back and forth to test its sturdiness, and giggling conspiratorially.  

[Zathras Afarensis]

On 11/9/2022 at 4:30 AM, SlammedSam said:

Right? That is one plus I can say in Star Trek Online's favour. Not sure what other games do such.

The moment I read Gopi's "I like to think of my characters as a bunch of friends" my mind went immediately to STO.

While the only way any of my toons could ever "meet" would be if I owned more than one Playstation, in my head I've realized that's exactly how I think of the ones I play with any regularity. Once I realized early on that they could share resources, a switch just went off that in my headcanon, somehow they all know each other, my mind even idly deciding that two of them had been roommates at the Academy. After my first and long-time favorite toon, a TOS Vulcan Tac officer, got to endgame and had amassed ridiculous amounts of dilithium and Energy Credits, she funded much better kit for my other toons much earlier than she had enjoyed. So in my inner monologue the others started calling T'Ryssa "Admiral Moneybags."

And in my head, they all basically spend their summer vacations together on Risa, cheering each other on in the dance off or Dabo, sipping drinks on the Promenade, pooling Lohlunat Favors to buy everybody powerboards and floaters and swimsuits, and wondering out loud why you see freaking horga'hns everwhere you look but not even the slightest mention or hint of jamaharon, or "is it just me, or does that Pavyl dude seem kind of sketchy?" 😁

Edited November 14, 2022 by Zathras Afarensis

[2Tessa]

I had my first male account in 2009, then I made a female avatar, which became my fav. I love to work on female shape and is much more visually pleasing.

This I have now was intended to be a Scripted Avatar (a remote controlled bot).

After I left SL for several years (~5) and when I returned I used as main simply because of the available inventory.

I made 2-3 males to work on male shapes but to have a guy on my screen just make me want to log out. 🤭 😆

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

I just made a handful of new accounts today.  I breed KittyCats and they have some special births coming up, but it is limited to one per avatar.  So I pass kitties to my alts to get multiples of the specials.  I have a few more kitties that usual breeding right now, so I needed a few more alts to handle them all.

[Marianne Little]

On 11/7/2022 at 7:25 AM, Akane Nacht said:

I had several alts, but one by one they were killed. Now it's just me and my last alt... staring at each other...

I'm curious, do you mean you deleted them?

Why not just stop using them?

I had alts to form a group and own Mainland. Prices on Premium went up, and I have gone back to Basic and are just renting.

But I want to keep the alts. I had a better economic situation before. All my alts have bodies I paid for, no free ones. Before Lelutka started to give out free heads, I had 6 Catwa heads on 5 alts and Simone (Lelutka) and one Catwa on me. The mesh bodies will stay usable a long time, it is popular ones, besides the Slink. They are not clones of me, they have different skins, shapes, different hair colors and the males are obviously different from me. 😉 It was not just to hold land, it was a hobby to make different looking avatars.

So if I delete them, and want alts for some reason later, I get noob alts without legacy names and only LL inventory.

Maybe LL makes using a group for mainland more attractive, let it hold more land without tier than today. Who knows, and then my alts are ready to step in.

Edited January 22, 2023 by Marianne Little
added a few words

[Marianne Little]

What I wish LL could do, was having Premium discounts for alts. Like, full price for the first Premium, then % discount for the second, third, and so on.

LL see it's the same payment info, one person using them all.

I can't say how it would work for LL as a business, but it would be cheaper to make a group for Mainland.

The world economy goes down the drain. But I find it easier to spend money when I feel it's a good deal, cheap, discount or sale. Sometimes I fool myself... but that's human, yes? I want land in SL, so an affordable way to own land would make me tempted. I have reasons... SL is a hobby, what else would I spend money on, subscriptions isn't free anyway, I do not waste money in RL, so I need a little luxury in SL.

But my budget for SL is shrinking. It is getting harder to talk myself into paying 100 or 250 US in one go. It is Annual payments that is more economical than monthly.