My alt accounts are my imaginary friends/allies/acquiantances/enemies/etc.!

[Gopi Passiflora]

I guess I never grew out of that "imaginary friend" phase.

There's Gopi the grey alien (well he is one most of the time), John the shapeshifter, a bunch of women, a bunch of men, and a whole lot of various non-humans.

Questions for you:

-What do you use alt accounts for?

-BONUS: Is what I'm doing - having alt accounts as imaginary friends/enemies/etc. - bad?

[Rick Nightingale]

Bonus first: Of course it's not 'bad'. It's your SL, enjoy it how you like as long as you don't deliberately hurt others. No judgement here.

My alts? Mostly just for testing when I'm building something. Multiple avi animations, or just the convenience of having an alt using the thing instead of 'me'.

I do have a couple that I started for RPing, but they never went far because I'm too mean to buy duplicate sets of stuff for different avis. Plus I never really got the time to RP properly; I tend to do things 100% or not at all and I refuse to be an unreliable member of anything. One of them became my store manager, so I don't get bothered with tech support etc. on my main login and can just relax.

I think people have occasionally thought my wife's avi is an alt of me, and I must admit I sometimes probably treat it as one. Mostly though that's because she has RL problems now (has for several years), can't use a mouse/keyboard very well, and struggles generally with stuff so I 'take care' of her avi. It's good fun; gives me an excuse to dress her up. A lot of the time we're online, she's just watching and talking (like telling me what to buy!) as I drive both avatars around (I wrote a follower). That might be both on one PC* or sometimes on two (the other PC is too slow really though). Quite funny when I've got her avi in focus and I answer a group thinking I'm on my own, or vice versa. Done that once or twice. Oh well, who cares, lol. Not us.

*That's getting harder though. It seems with the last few FS viewer updates, multiple logons have got considerably more prone to crashing. It used to be that I could have four accounts logged in when testing stuff for hours. Now I'm lucky if two survive for half an hour. Pretty sure it's graphics related; probably filling up the VRAM even with 8GB of it.

Edited April 6 by Rick Nightingale
typos

[Reese Wicken]

I have one for investigating new sims before I decide to frequent them on my Main and then another to just stand by my main and make others think I'm taken when I don't want to be bothered by people who want slex in adult sims when I just want to people watch and sort my inventory after a weekend of shopping.

I don't think what you're doing is bad, sounds kind of fun tbh.

[Sid Nagy]

I have 2 alts.
One is my bank account. No further details here. Other than that she is so on the money that it is hard to get money back from her.
The other one is Sid (Resident) he is almost never online, but he posts on virtualverse.one 

I like to keep my Second Life simple.

* about the BONUS: Second Life is your life, your imagination. So being friends with your alts is all good as long as you like it yourself.

Edited April 6 by Sid Nagy

[UnilWay SpiritWeaver]

37 minutes ago, Gopi Passiflora said:

Questions for you:

-What do you use alt accounts for?

Mostly for themes. I come here from assorted forms of roleplay - online and off. Every alt is her own character. The idea of changing the look one one account feels weird to me - the name is still the same.

The weirdest thing about SL to me that I have never been able to get over is that each "character" is it's own account. That I can't just have an account and then spin out multiple "characters" - different avatars that are all part of my account - like I would in "any other MMO except for Final Fantasy XIV because they're even weirder than SL."

Each one of my alts has her own identity.

3 of my accounts are premium - so this is also about holding land and trying to maximize cost / benefit. Having than on multiple accounts rather than one with tier became ideal regardless of tier breaks when Linden Homes came about - even during the old linden homes though I never held on to any of those for long.

 

Even where I have fairly similar looks for some of my alts, they still have their themes. Even where one of them might have multiple looks of her own - it will be within a theme.

 

For me, a lot of it is also basically having a 'doll collection' to play with.

[Rick Nightingale]

10 minutes ago, UnilWay SpiritWeaver said:

The weirdest thing about SL to me that I have never been able to get over is that each "character" is it's own account.

I think that's one of the worst things about SL. It's the root of having to buy multiple copies of an item if you want to use them on different alts; I hate that. As far as I'm concerned, *I* bought it, I should be able to use it on any alt I want. Not that it's going to change; sellers (except the few like me) would have a total meltdown.

I forgot too that the first few alts I created years ago were also for my land group, because it worked out cheaper to do that than pay extra tier. That brings back memories of owning 1/3 of a region with sailable water on one side and protected land on another. Sold that for ten times what I paid when I got really short of money for a while

 

[Persephone Emerald]

As long as you know they are not really someone outside of yourself, thinking of your alts as friends is not bad.

Why I have my alts:

Tasha started when I wanted to come into SL without my boyfriend judging me about how much time I was spending in here. Then I used her as a NPC servant in a roleplay sim. Then I eventually decided she would be a homage to my wolf-dog who was dear to me. I use her when I want to be left alone & not bothered by people in SL.

Alycia started as a character in a haunted house, basically like a character in a story. Later she became a kind of alter ego for me. Sometimes I imagine her being irritated with me, but she's my favorite alt, so I let her have the most clothing & stuff. 

Evan started as a furry, because I was curious what it was like to be a furry. Then he became a male model when I was creating male clothing. Now I use him to collect and save information about where to get male skins, clothing & etc. for free or cheap. 

Alycia and Tasha are the only ones that feel kind of like friends, because I can imagine how they would feel. Evan is neutral for me, without any real personality.

Having alts is useful for testing permissions and for spreading one's lindens around so they aren't all in one basket.

 

Edited April 6 by Persephone Emerald
to add video clip

[Ceka Cianci]

I don't use my alts, Those skanks use meh!! \o/

[Rick Nightingale]

Oh yes, I forgot another use of a couple of alts and my wife's avi when she wasn't around: I used to have them as dancers and household staff (ahem!) when I had a big mansion on the 1/3 region. All programmed, logged in using secondbot, and with an extensive control panel in-world. Those were the days, lol.

[Love Zhaoying]

I like how people refer to their alts in the third person; it leaves some ambiguity as to what they believe.

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

28 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I like how people refer to their alts in the third person; it leaves some ambiguity as to what they believe.

I refer to my main in third person, too.

 

 

My accounts all have different personalities.  The one I choose to log in, depends on my mood.  They are not my "friends" just different parts of myself that I feel like letting out.

[Love Zhaoying]

5 minutes ago, Cinnamon Mistwood said:

They are not my "friends" just different parts of myself that I feel like letting out.

"Can what's-his-name come out and play? The hot one."

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

11 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

"Can what's-his-name come out and play? The hot one."

Mike?  My fun-loving surfer?

I recently let him grow his hair out a bit. 

[Love Zhaoying]

5 minutes ago, Cinnamon Mistwood said:

Mike?  My fun-loving surfer?

I recently let him grow his hair out a bit. 

I was joking, but you must know my weakness!

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

5 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I was joking, but you must know my weakness!

You had mentioned you have a soft spot for the beachy types 

[Modulated]

2 hours ago, Gopi Passiflora said:

I guess I never grew out of that "imaginary friend" phase.

There's Gopi the grey alien (well he is one most of the time), John the shapeshifter, a bunch of women, a bunch of men, and a whole lot of various non-humans.

Questions for you:

-What do you use alt accounts for?

-BONUS: Is what I'm doing - having alt accounts as imaginary friends/enemies/etc. - bad?

You sure do start a lot of threads wanting to know specific information...

[Ceka Cianci]

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I like how people refer to their alts in the third person; it leaves some ambiguity as to what they believe.

Ya, I would say, that third one is the worst one of them all.

[Jaylinbridges]

4 hours ago, Gopi Passiflora said:

Questions for you:

-What do you use alt accounts for?

My alt gave me this song for you...

 

[Gopi Passiflora]

Thanks for the assurance everyone about my use of alts.

@Modulated I guess you're right, I do like to ask questions....

[Ceka Cianci]

20 minutes ago, Gopi Passiflora said:

Thanks for the assurance everyone about my use of alts.

@Modulated I guess you're right, I do like to ask questions....

Questions are good!! \o/

I always like your questions Gopi.. They are always so original even though I may come off and never serious in my replies. That's just me being me.. hehehe

But I do enjoy the topics you do bring up and look forward to many more in the future, So keep up the goodness..

[SlammedSam]

7 hours ago, Rick Nightingale said:

I think that's one of the worst things about SL. It's the root of having to buy multiple copies of an item if you want to use them on different alts; I hate that. As far as I'm concerned, *I* bought it, I should be able to use it on any alt I want. Not that it's going to change; sellers (except the few like me) would have a total meltdown.

I forgot too that the first few alts I created years ago were also for my land group, because it worked out cheaper to do that than pay extra tier. That brings back memories of owning 1/3 of a region with sailable water on one side and protected land on another. Sold that for ten times what I paid when I got really short of money for a while

 

Oh goddess, do I know that feeling well! =(

My alts are pretty much used as other characters for RP, and "extras" for taking pics. One of them is even my "sister".

 

[Henry Blackwood]

"Hello everyone, I'm Henry, and I'm an alt."

My avatars have always been about family and community. My first av is female, and lived in Caledon in 2006. Being a Victorian themed community, dances were a regular occurrence, and as male avs were in the minority, rather than being a wallflower Rachel acquired a brother, Rafe, and so the first alt arrived.

More alts were created as need demanded, and the family spread amongst various communities. Some were little more than 'flavour' in adding to a story in a community RP, but others actually developed their characters and had time spent on them. Each of the alts had their own personality and quirks, but essentially they all held my own personal ideals. None were ever used to deceive, although one is definitely the 'black sheep' of the family, and it always amazed me just how popular he was with both my friends who knew of all my alts, and friends he made that didn't know his connection to my family. He is MUCH more outgoing than I am!

As has been mentioned, the cost for establishing an alt can be substantial. After a while, I decided that one of the main ones would hold all furniture. He would buy anything that was needed and then would furnish homes for any of the others as the need arose. The others were still acquiring their own clothes and mesh body/head, but their look once established would seldom change. The last alt was made almost 6 years ago now!

This furniture holding alt became very much the main av, and as I enjoy having both male and female avs, I decided to give this main one a gender neutral name to enable me to change their appearance according to my preference at any given time. They have now taken over, with us other alts now being little more than the holders of the family Linden Homes, but that is fine with us, it's all in the family afterall.

 

 

Rachel with her personal guard, all of my male avs

 

 

My space station crew a few years ago (I think only Rachel has a mesh body/head at that time) with all the female avs apart from the last one made, and 4 of the guys. It was like herding cats getting that picture  

 

 

The last 'family photo' taken at Christmas

[Qie Niangao]

12 hours ago, Rick Nightingale said:

I think that's one of the worst things about SL. It's the root of having to buy multiple copies of an item if you want to use them on different alts; I hate that. As far as I'm concerned, *I* bought it, I should be able to use it on any alt I want. […]

Occasionally I buy a thing and decide an alt also deserves a gifted copy, but way more often I see a thing I like but there's just no way Qie will ever wear or use it, so I try to imagine it working for an alt.

That would work better if I had more diverse alts, and had interest in more diverse content. It would also be a lot more expensive. At one point I had tiny, furry, and even female alts, but I somehow couldn't be bothered to spring for their mesh upgrades. Never buying female clothes, especially, saves a lot of both time and L$s.

[Artorius Constantine]

I was an Alt. 😃 I "retired" my OG account (Lord Berchot) when I sold my old Realty business, as it was the founder of many rental groups and that was part of the deal, and the name was just a little bit pretentious.

I then turned this building alt into my main. So keep dreaming all you Alts! Any alt has the chance at becoming a main account if they work hard enough.

I do have a female alt with a modern body & head for setting up furniture and such. I also log her in when I'm scripting. I'm not a narcissist, I don't need to look at myself all day while I'm working. And she is a lot cuter on a Burlesque dance pad.

I have a "Playtime" alt for getting in trouble. That's to keep my business account separate from said trouble.

I also have an animal alt that runs around as a Werewolf or a Minotaur when I feel the need to terrorize some helpless villagers. I give him all the really fun alternative avatars to play with.

[Sid Nagy]

Sid Nagy started as an alt too.
The original main account was closed together with a bunch of further never developed alts last year. No use to have a museum of unused accounts IMHO.