What’s in a Main

I was talking to a good friend of mine this morning about “alting”, or the playing of characters other than your primary focus.  She was talking about her inability to seriously play any character other than her “main”, and that when she has alted before, it was more a shift of focus and that the new character quickly became her new “main”.  It got me thinking about the whole debate about mains and alts, and the various attitudes players have towards the two terms.

One of the key traits that you need in any leadership role is the ability to place yourself in the shoes of others, and understand who it is that they view the world.  Knowing and understanding how your players approach the game, gives you a greater understanding of their prime motivations, desires, strengths and ultimately weaknesses.

During the last five years playing WoW, I have noticed that there are three basic archetypes that exist in the way players view the main/alt relationship.  I will do my best to outline each of them and their unique spin on the world as I see it.

The Main

The Main is a very unique player. They tend to focus on one character entirely, and in many ways see that character as the virtual embodiment of themselves.  Their sole purpose in the game is to better their single character, and will do anything within their powers to progress.  These tend to be very driven players, and are often motivated by collecting items, gaining achievements, and accomplishing new goals.

The Main archetype gets very frustrated when dealing with players and their alts.  They don’t fully understand why anyone would choose to play a character other than their main, so they are quick to get annoyed when progression is stifled for the purpose of other players “alts”. 

The significant weakness of the Main archetype is that, while they are the most dedicated to their individual character, they are also the most susceptible to burn out.  When experiencing a period of significant stagnation, they do not have the ability to shift focus to another character and as a result begin to question why they are playing the game in the first place.  This can be seen with the players that rejoin WoW at each expansion, and then go on hiatus once they have reached a plateau.  This same basic action happens within raids as well, certain players are only there during the progression, but disappear once the initial challenge is gone.

The Progressionist

The next archetype is similar to the main, with a few key differences.  The Progressionist tends to have one character that is their primary focus.  When that character reaches a point where progression becomes slowed, either through raid lockouts, or inability to raid, they shift focus to an alt.  When this new focus reaches its natural plateau, the focus shifts again to a new character leaving a string of very well geared max level characters in their wake.

This personally is the category I fit into.  I focus on my main, in this case my Protection Warrior Belghast, and when he reaches a plateau where I can no longer progress other than through raiding, I begin to shift focus to a new character.  For me personally this was my Retribution Paladin Exeter, and when he maxed out and could only be progressed through raiding, I pushed up my Balance Druid Loamis. 

Much like the Main, the Progressionist tends to be very focused on each new character, doing their level best to master the class, and gear them as well as could be expected for a non-primary class.  This leads to these players being very good switch hitters, in that they can swap to alts if need be to fill necessary roles, but prefer progression on their primary character when at all possible.

The progressionist tends to get annoyed by rampant altism, but understands the desire to play characters other than your primary focus.  So as a result, sits somewhere in the middle of the archetypal spectrum being able to unit both sides of the chasm.  I feel the majority of these “alts” start out of a need to have a character for the “downtime” between scheduled and focused raiding.  Personally I find it favorable to have the ability to have multiple raid lockouts for each week, and I often times use my alts to go on instance runs with friends of the guild, and as a result network with new players.

The Altist

The Altist in its truest form is a player who refuses to designate between characters being mains or alts.  Many times the altism starts from a desire to be self sufficient, and the need to level up characters to unlock higher tiers of abilities like tradeskills.  However as the player levels each character, they become more and more attached to the point at which each additional class becomes interchangeable with the older ones.  I think the root of altism comes from a desire to do everything at once, and a fear of missing out on some aspect of the game that they might not be able to experience otherwise.

We have had multiple players in the guild that have maximum level characters of each and every class.  One of the most extreme cases of being an altist that I have seen, involved a player that would get no more than one level higher than any of his other characters.  The result was that he would rotate putting one single level on each character, slowly leveling them all up within range of each other.  While this functioned well, and kept all the trade skills and gear acquisition within the same level of each other, it made for very slow progression as a whole.

The key weakness of this method is that the altist tends to be the jack of all trades…  master of none.  They become acceptable players on each and every character they play, but tend not to really shine at any of them, as they lack the key focus it takes to truly master all of the nuances of one class.  In the best case scenario they seem to shoot for the middle, and in the worst case scenario they are the warm bodies that hold back progression.  I’ve known a few altists that did an great job at everything they touched, but they tend to be the exception not the rule.  The general lack of focus, tends to carry through to the raiding as well, and ends up with a player that may or may not accept assignments with the gravity you are expecting. 

The natural chasm forms between the Main and the Altist, since neither seem to be able to understand the others point of view.  To the Altist, the desire to play multiple characters is so ingrained that it seems truly foreign to ONLY progress one character at a time.  it is always best to lay some ground rules, when you know there is a rampant altist in your midst.  However, know that forcing an Altist to declare a primary character, will always lead to discomfort from that player on the whole.

Closing

Each individual archetype has strengths and weaknesses, and as a leader it is important to be able to recognize them.  Being able to exercise the strengths and mitigate the weaknesses, will require a good deal of planning on your part ahead of time.  Being able to chose from multiple characters that each player brings to the table, helps you tweak the balance of a raid group.  Having a character who is driven and focused on one class, makes them the natural source of detailed information on the working of that individual class.  Each of the above types can offer some very solid things to a guild or raid, if you can utilize them properly.

Granted there are grey areas between the archetypes above, just as there are grey areas in everything.  But some prior knowledge of these traits makes managing situations when they arise far easier.  Understanding the basic mindset that each player comes from, only serves to allow you to formulate better solutions in the future.