A question of alts.

So I've made mention a few times on tweets to other bloggers about no purple numbers showing anymore or double xp weekends being meaningless to the 40/80 player and it's always been brought back to alts, and it's a perfect chance for them.

But I don't play alts... I do HAVE alts, (rank 7 squiggy and a 40 shaman and 40 choppa) they all started as bank alts and then two levelled up for butchering mats and eventually scavenging. Is this really an alt? I have no link to them, I log them in and always feel strange not seeing Lokax there and look confused at my toolbars until I remember one button that does stuff and just hit it. I have no empathy to the characters and don't enjoy using them for gathering mats, so I don't count myself as having alts. The Choppa gets logged in once a month to grind out armour mats and the Shaman gets logged in every few weeks and then to check if I can be bothered getting scavenging levelled on him (answer every time being no).

Many do have alts though, it keeps the game fresh for them and I have no problem with that. I've put a lot of work into Lokax to hit 40/80 with good gear, unlocks and what not. It's not easy getting to that level with a Black Orc but it was worth it. If I'm bored and in WAR I'll either log out or go and do some quests, unlocks or look for new armour/weapon skins to add to the collection I have built up. In WAR especially there is quite a lot of other things you can do.

I like thinking up new specs, going out roaming in the lakes on my own or friends who are also RR80 and do the same as myself. I'm not a fantastic gamer, never have been, I can pick things up and play with them and work out bits and pieces but I'll never be in the elite. Spreading my time over alts seems to 'weaken' me, I forget rotations and certain aspects of the character if I'm not playing them so I like to put effort into one character and keep with them. I personally feel that I get the most out the character by learning more about them.

What's interesting is that I've always been like that in MMOs. In Ultima I had my Fisherman and the obligatory mule. In DAoC I had a Bonedancer. In SWG I had a Creature Handler/Bio Engineer and in WoW a warlock. I always focused my time and effort into them and didn't bother with any others unless something came up where I had to.

I guess it's why I'm always a little dissapointed when I see double xp/renown weekends, or lake buffs to grant more xp/renown. It doesn't affect me, I feel like I'm missing out as people get excited about shiny numbers rocketing on characters as I sit there wondering "Purple numberz? Wutz dat?". It IS my choice however to not have alts so there's certainly no reason for me to complain (and I try not to), but I wouldn't say no to seeing a little something added in, even if it's just a small chance of say a blue level dye or above dropping which can only be looted by a 40/80 (random example).

So really, the end of this little musing is that, is it odd now a days for a player to not have any alts, sitting at max progression and gear and not being bothered about it?