Alts in MUDs and MMOs

Alts in MUDs and MMOs

Patricia Chan
Heidi Felder
Chris Nelson
Al Yen

Alts in MUDs and MMOs

Introduction

From its humble text-based beginnings, to it’s current 3-dimensional graphics, online gaming has drastically changed in the past 20 years. The gaming community has evolved from text-based gaming like MUDs to detailed graphic games such as MMOs. In such games, players create a virtual avatar that represents their identity in the game. Depending on the rules of the game many players create more than one avatar (character). While the interfaces for these games have changed drastically over time, the trend of using multiple characters has prevailed. The reasons for creating alternative characters (alts) have changed little in the two gaming environments. This is because while the face of these two gaming environments has changed, the motivations behind the game play have not.
Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) are synchronous persistent virtual worlds communicated to the user through text (Curtis 1992). Typically MUDs are similar to role-playing based games in which players create textual avatars which grow and evolve as they progress through the game. However, unlike games, MUDs are not goal-oriented and support multiple users connecting from different places. Players control their avatars or characters through text based commands.
Similarly to MUDs, Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) can have several thousands of players playing simultaneously in a virtual world. The difference is that MMOs represent their world graphically, as opposed to textually. Players are capable of designing characters visually and can control characters without textual commands. MMOs began to gain popularity in the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s as more powerful PCs and high-speed Internet connectivity made such intensive programs possible.
Our research focused on the reasons for creating multiple or alternative characters in MUDs and MMOs. Many of the reasons for creating alts were similar; however, there were a few differences caused by the changing style of multi-user games online. While we have tried to outline as many of the popular reasons as we could, there remain many personal and unique factors in the creations of alts that are not covered below. An interviewee said it best when she concluded our conversation with “Please keep in mind that the information I gave you may not apply to everyone, reasons for alts can be very different from player to player.”

2.0 Methods

During the course of this research we used a combination of participant observation, open-ended interviews, and structured interviews. In our research we focused on five MUDs: Discworld, RetroMUD, 3-Kingdoms, Legacies of Justice, and Naughty Muffin MUSH. We created accounts and played for over ten hours in each MUD to understand the game mechanics. The research on MMOs was centered on two popular games, Lord of the Rings Online (LOTR) and World of Warcraft (WoW). We completed six open-ended interviews with players from Discworld, 3-Kingdoms, LOTR, and WoW, and a former wizard who played various unspecified MUDs. Our semi-structured interviews were in the form on an online survey we created through www.surveymonkey.com. There were six structured questions for the MUD players and seven for the MMOs, with an additional open-ended question that asked participants for additional comments. 44 MUD players and 25 MMO players responded to the surveys. The participants for the survey and the interviews were recruited through the MUDs or MMOs or through connections we had with players outside of the virtual places.

3.0 Similarities between MUDs and MMOs

We divided our research into two parts: similarities and differences. We determined people had six similar uses for alts in MUDs and MMOs: (1) Testing “class/race” combinations, (2) having “banks/mules” for storage, (3) pretending to be the opposite gender, (4) privacy issues, (5) playing with friends, and (6) general boredom.

3.1 Class and Race combinations

One of the major factors of creating a character in both MMOs and MUDs is class. These styles of games focus on the creation and evolution of characters through the gaining of experience and levels of power. The major deciding factor of the direction of a player’s game play is their choice in class. A typical example of these classes would be warriors, or healers. Depending upon the player’s choice at the onset of the game their character will assume the particular role of their chosen class. In an interview with xsharkyx she said
Interviewer: Tired of the character or tired of something else?
xsharkyx: and bored of playing the same err crap
xsharkyx: like... rogue.. mage...
xsharkyx: druid
xsharkyx: i forgot what the umbrella term
Interviewer: So tired of the character class
xsharkyx: YES
This brings up a very interesting point of variety. The class that is chosen when a character is created sets the tone and style of play for the character. This sentiment is echoed in an interview with greenbug3 about an MMO called Lord of the Rings online, “I personally feel that playing different characters helps me to see things in other player’s perspective. Every character “class” seems to favor a certain personality or style”. By changing classes players are able to utilize different sets of skills, weapons, and magic. The difference in capabilities between the various classes is the main attraction in alternating between multiple characters. This idea of changing perspectives and trying out new character types by creating alternative characters is also prevalent in MUDs. In an interview with a Guild Helper in the MUD Discworld Miranda Sparrow professed she “wanted to try something new in the game…” so she created two alternative characters. Both of these characters were completely different from each other and her primary character. While Miranda Sparrow loved her main character she enjoyed trying out different classes and races to broaden her understanding of the game by changing her perspective. Corroborating these sentiments is the data that was collected in anonymous surveys, which shows a majority of players—“76% in MUDs, and 88% in MMOs—”created their alternative characters in order to try different classes. Alternative characters allow players in MUDs and MMOs to enrich their gaming experiences through variety of playing styles and roles. Another major factor which impacts player’s choices in character creation is that of race, and racial traits.
In both MMOs and MUDs the player’s choice in character race profoundly impacts their gaming experience through racial traits and personality. Aside from class the most basic component of any character in both MMOs and MUDs is race. A player’s choice in race can influence anything from the characters playing statistics, to their allies in Player VS. Player combat (PVP), to their starting location in the virtual world. In the two primary MUDs of the study it was found that while race had an influence on a players nationality/faction and starting location, it did not have an affect upon a characters statistics. Through participant observation it was found that the race choices players make in MUDs seem to have more to do with the role-playing aspect than game play. In both Lord of the Rings online and World of Warcraft the two primary reasons in choosing race are their statistical advantages, and factions. Depending on the game a player’s choice in race sets up characters boundaries in the game. In the two afore mentioned MMOs the choice of race determines what side of the game’s overarching conflict a character is on. Within the MUD Discworld a player’s choice of nationality has much the same effect on their experience by determining their city allegiance and starting point. In both MMOs and MUDs race, is a major factor in defining the perspective in which the game will be experienced through.

3.2 Banks/Mules

Another theme which has remained prevalent in both MMOs and MUDs is the creation of alts to create more storage space. In both the above platforms players have limited space available to their characters. Many advanced players create additional characters in order to make use of their inventories, or storage space. The typical slang for these storage characters is “mule” or “banks.” While it is not as common in MUDs the storing of items on alt’s is prevalent as shown by Dorian in a MUD called 3-Kingdoms: “I have one alt. But I mostly use it to store items.” This suggests that MUD players use alternative characters “as short term, special-purpose tools” as opposed to separate playable entities. Not only is this a trend in MUDs its extremely common in MMOs to create “mules” to store excess items. Xsharkyx mentioned she created her alts so “they could store items” for her. During our own time in Lord of the Ring’s online we found ourselves creating alt’s to store our excesses. One thing which makes this trend more common in MMOs is the difficulty in transferring items between characters in MUDs. Dorian described an extremely complicated process by which he transferred items by “dropping an item with my main, after which I then pick it up with my alt” which allowed him to transfer items, but at the risk of someone picking it up while it was on the ground. We found in Lord of the Rings online that the game has a transfer system built into it in the form of player to player mail, and private in game storage boxes independent of the player’s original inventory. While the convenience of item transference systems in MMOs has made it more common than in MUDs it is a shared commonality in both.

3.3 Gender

Often, players will create alts in order to play a different gender. Of the respondents to our survey 50% of MUD-player and 52% of MMO-players had a character that was a different gender than them. However, the reasons for making the gender-bending alts vary drastically.
In an interview with Bantlor, a player from the 3-Kingdoms MUD, he expressed that he had an alt because he “wanted to mess with people with a female character”. He did not consider this character to be in any way connected to the way he was in real life. He was only interesting in seeing the reaction from other players who were led to believe that he was a girl. Bantlor is not an isolated case. Pavel Curtis (1992) observed that some male players in LamdaMOO created female alts “just for the fun of deceiving others.”
Others create female characters in order to be treated as such. Players tend to treat those they perceive to be female better than their male counterparts. Pavel Curtis (1992) documented one such instance where “the other players in the room struck up conversations with the putative female and offered to show her around but completely ignored the putative male, who was left to his own devices”. An interview with a player from LOTR echoed Curtis’ observations.
greenbug3: I noticed that people are generally nicer to ‘female’ characters. That could just be me though.
Interviewer: Does that have a big impact on your general game experience?
greenbug3: Of course. It’s nicer to play a game where people have a tendency to help you, rather than compete against you. lol
Male players want to take advantage of the favoritism to female players. Having a female character makes it easier to keep up the illusion of being female, as people tend to assume that the sex of the avatar matches the sex of the player. An interviewee, xsharkyx, who plays a male avatar on WoW, mentioned that people only treated her differently when they realize she was a girl by hearing her voice through ventrillo, a voice over internet protocol program designed to let users speak to each other online. They assumed that she was male because her avatar was.
For some players they are just curious to “what it feels like to be perceived as female in a community” (Curtis 1992). It is a chance to explore an identity that would be very difficult outside of the virtual world. The physical labor and monetary costs of making oneself appear to be female is much smaller online than in the actual world.

3.4 Privacy and Escaping

Players also expressed that at times alts helped in order to maintain some privacy or as an escape from the normal game play routines. As MUDs and MMOs are multi-user worlds, players may have expectations of each other similar to the actual world. In MUDs and MMOs, alts can provide an escape from this. Players may make several characters without the knowledge of others. It is up to their discretion whether or not to inform other players about their alts.
Miranda Sparrow: Well, a main account can get cluttered and demanding. For me, its nice to escape to a quiter account every once in awhile.
Interviewer: what exactly do you mean by cluttered when you mentioned your primary can get demanding and cluttered?
Miranda Sparrow: Well, right now IM chatting to several people listening to about three channels and listening for the newbie channel. Main accounts tend to know a lot of poeple, and are often the main sorce of income. . . This creates lots of tells and jobs. Alts (in my case) know less people and require less attention.
Interviewer: do you know different people on your alts, or just fewer of the same people from your primary?
Miranda Sparrow: Hmm. . . I know several of teh same people on my alts. And I think one or two people solely connected to that alt. My alts tend to have closer friends connected.
Miranda has a lot of responsibilities when she plays the Discworld MUD. With an alt designated as a “quitter account” she can sign on as a character that only a few people know has the same user behind it as the character Miranda. At times people may just be trying to “avoid getting into a conversation, either because of the particular other player involved or because of some other activity that one does not wish to interrupt” (Curtis 1992).
In an interview with a WoW player, she expressed similar sentiments as to why she liked having alts. The elements of avoiding people and responsibilities were disclosed.
xsharkyx: you can HIDE
xsharkyx: from creepy ppl
xsharkyx: like ming
xsharkyx: >___>
Interviewer: So avoiding people you don’t want to play with in WoW?
xsharkyx: yea
Interviewer : Does that happen often or just with the guy you mentioned above?
xsharkyx: LOL
xsharkyx: well if you have alts
xsharkyx: you can just do your own thing and no one bothers you
xsharkyx: like you dont have guilds
xsharkyx: who want to do raids
xsharkyx: and stuff
Although the main attraction of MUDs and MMOs is their multi-player capacity, there are times where players escape to alts in order to be left alone to their own devices. The demands from other players can ruin the enjoyment. Alts allow players to do something they would not be able to in the actual world: get away from it all.

3.5 Playing with friends

The second most frequent reason (42.9% MUDs and 52% MMOs) for creating alts was in order to play with friends. It is common for friends of current players will join at a later time or to be playing a character that can interact with their friend’s character. In order to remedy this, players create alts that can play with their friend’s characters.
As players progress through both MUDs and MMOs, their gaming experience is dependent on what level, and stage they are at. Different areas are available for each character level. Most MUDs have a newbie-zone that is only accessible to new characters. At higher levels, characters can access areas that are too dangerous for new characters to enter. Characters of a high level do not gain much from playing in an area designed for lower levels. As a result of this intentional separation in the design of MUDs and MMOs, players will often create an alt in order to progress at the same time as their friends who have joined.
For the data-rich MMOs, servers may also separate characters. A character on one server will never encounter a character in a different server. This restriction prevents friends who have characters in different servers from playing with each other. One or both players usually create an alt on the same server in order to bypass the problem. (See more about servers in the section 4.2 below.)
In some cases, there are more specific game limitations that do not allow certain characters to interact. In WoW, characters are divided into two factions during character creation, the Horde and the Alliance. Characters from a different faction cannot communicate with each other. The textual messages sent through the game from a character in one faction appear as gibberish to characters of the opposing faction. Other MUDs and MMOs also separate characters spatially. After character creation, depending on the race chosen, the characters are placed in an area. This may be a remote area far from another character that one wishes to interact with. A character of a different race or faction may be made to remedy these situations.

3.6 Boredom

Games including MUDs usually have a variation of class. Because of the amount of choices they offer, players tend to grow tired of their main character. In this interview, a player describes her reasons for having several alts:
xsharkyx: you can play 9 characters per server
xsharkyx: we only played 1 at a time
xsharkyx: we just got tired
Interviewer: Tired of the character or tired of something else?
xsharkyx: and bored of playing the same err crap
The interviewee xsharkyx is a MMO player, but her reasons for making alts are very similar to why MUD players create new alts. When xsharkyx mentions she’s tired of playing “the same old crap”, she refers to the features her character’s abilities available in its class. For example, a mage may be better with spells while a class like an ogre might be skilled in physical combat.
With different types of classes available, players can explore what kind of class would fit their play style best. By having alts instead of focusing on one main character, players can prevent themselves from getting bored of their characters and continue enjoy game play by having different characters for different experiences within the game.

4.0 Differences between MUDs and MMOs

We also looked at two different uses for alts: the importance of role playing in MUDs and the issue of multiple servers in MMOs. In both cases, we examined how the different game mechanics of MUDs and MMOs are the impetus behind to dissimilarities.

4.1 Roleplaying

We defined role-playing as “the conscious changing of one’s behavior to assume a role.” We looked at players in MUDs and MMOs who communicated and acted as if they were their avatars, in the same way Dmitri Williams et al.(2006) looked at role-play in their article, From Tree House to Barracks: The Social Life of Guilds in World of Warcraft.
From participant observation we noticed that the average number of role-players overall on MMOs were less than those on MUDs. In MMO PvP and PvE servers, the likelihood of finding a role-playing player is rare. In MUDs, there was a higher occurrence of players role-playing. In MMO RP servers, around half of the players role-play, the other half broke character or were never in character. On MUCKs and MUSHs, nearly all the players were in character.
“Anecdotal evidence has suggested that when there are no role-play rules, few gamers act as anything other than themselves” (Dmitiri Williams et al. 2006: 356). Our personal observation concurs with this statement. Since the game can not make players role-play, the rule has to be enforced socially. We did not see role-players on the PvP and PvE because those servers have no role-playing rules.
As for the differences seen in RP servers versus MUDs, MUSHs, and MUCKs, role-play rules are easier to uphold on the text-based games. We came up with three potential reasons why: (1) smaller player populations; (2) pre-game character approval requirements; and (3) community-maintained fantasies.
MUDs benefit from having smaller player populations. First, players join these games to role play in the first place. With most players role-playing, the bandwagon effect (people doing things because many other people are doing the same things) spreads easier (Bikhchandani et al. 1992). Game masters have fewer players to police, so that makes rule enforcement easy.
In certain MUSHs and MUCKs, players are required to undergo an evaluation process before creating a character. Game masters judge a character’s appropriateness in to the game before players are allowed to log in. For instance, in DCU: Legacies of Justice MUSH, players can play as Batman by showing extensive knowledge of the character, or as an original character after providing a detailed description of the character. This pre-game screening process likely filters out players uninterested in role-playing. After approval, players are expected to role-play. If they do not, then their characters may be removed.
On an MMO, graphics constantly remind players that they are in a fantasy world. Players can see they are in a subterranean dungeon, or trekking across a graveyard, or fighting a dragon. Players do not need to read player profiles to know the race or gender of another character. In contrast, since MUDs lack visual cues of the environment. To compensate, players are encouraged to role-play. Group interaction through role playing allows the community to reinforce the game’s fantasy environment.
With role-play factoring heavily in MUDs, players will make alts to play as new characters. From the survey:
(1)”I enjoy roleplaying and the collaborative storytelling aspects of gaming onine.”
(2) “None of my characters on the one MUD I play are human, so they differ quite [noticeably] in species. They also all have individual personalities, more or less.”
(3) “I enjoy the challenge of roleplaying different personalities in addition to different classes/races. So, while I tend to focus on one character, I will often have a second to experiment with roleplay options.”
The first response illustrates how role-playing is essential to telling a story through collaborative play. In the second response, all the player’s alts have “individual personalities,” which would imply the player assumes multiple roles while playing with his different characters. The third player admits to relishing the act of role-playing because it challenges him. The player reserves a second character for role-playing purposes. We see that because role-playing is a bigger element in MUDs compared to MMOs, people have multiple alts for the chance and the challenge to role-play multiple characters.

4.2 Servers

Whereas MUDs operate on a single server, MMOs commonly utilize multiple servers. The presence of more than one server means players will have a different reason for using alts: that is – players will make new characters to play on multiple servers.
A server houses all the game’s rules, graphics, and players’ information. Players connect to the server using a game client. Once connected, they can interact with the game’s environment and other players who are logged in to the same server. There’s a limit to the amount of information a server can hold, making it necessary for game makers to host new servers.
Modern MMOs are loaded with graphics. From World of Warcraft to City of Heroes, every game features expansive worlds, diverse landscapes, and richly animated avatars. Objects are animated to float, or glitter, or explode. There are no shortages of players on these games – today’s MMOs are international affairs, with players from around the globe playing daily.
With so much processing and storage spent on graphical data alone, it’s necessary for MMOs to host multiple servers to accommodate players. For one example, World of Warcraft (WoW) currently features 244 “realms” (servers), each “realm” is capable of hosting 20,000 players (Nardi & Harris 2006). Theoretically, WoW can hold a total of 4,880,000 players.
Due to game constraints, characters are usually not permitted to move from one server to another. The majority of current MMOs charge players money to transfer servers – WoW and Lord of the Rings Online, for example, price character transfers at $25. Regularly, players start another character on a new server instead of paying.
In our MMO survey, 40% of respondents have multiple characters to play on different servers. Players want to play on other servers because different servers operate with different rules. Perhaps a player wants to try a “Player versus Player” (PvP) server after they have grown tired of playing on a “Player versus Environment” (PvE) server. In PvE, players are pitted against the game. They have the comfort of exploring and leveling without fear of random violent encounters by other players. This safety from players also limit negative social behaviors, like “corpse camping” and “ganking” commonly found in PvP (Nardi & Harris 2006). On the other hand, maybe players want to try the unpredictable and competitive PvP servers; perhaps take part in some corpse camping and ganking themselves. Role-playing (RP) servers are another choice for players. RP servers “allow members to pretend to truly ‘be’ their characters” (Dmitri Williams et al. 2006: 345). Generally, players will make alts on new servers out of curiosity or dissatisfaction, as was the case with one interviewee –
Interviewer: Did you make new characters to play on different servers or to play with other people?
xsharkyx: yea
Interviewer: Do you mind elaborate on that?
xsharkyx: umm
xsharkyx: we made new characters on different servers because the pvp sucked on the first server
xsharkyx: so we all started new characters in another server
In contrast, MUDs operate without graphics. All MUDs use a single server because a text-based interface uses little data. The expansive landscape ands its denizens can still be found on a MUD, only they are described, rather than seen, in text form. Since a MUD uses so little space, it is possible for several hundred thousand players to play on a single server.
However, having a single server is also problematic. In an MMO, players can choose the kind of game they want to play based on the server. Using PvE and PvP as an example, players get the chance to choose which server to join based on what they would like to experience. There is no alternative choice in a MUD, so players have to choose carefully when settling on a MUD.
Players do have a variety of MUDs to choose from. The usual MUDs like Discworld or 3-Kingdoms restrict PvP, meaning players can kill other players under certain conditions (like reaching a high level). Players also have the option of playing other types of MUDs like: “Multi-User Shared Hacks” (MUSHs), “Multi-User Created Kingdoms” (MUCKs), and “MUD, Object Oriented (MOO). The difference between MUDs, MUSHs, MUCKs, and MOOs are their operating servers. They all remain text-based, only the game commands and realm building tools are different. Every MUD, MUSH, MUCK, and MOO is capable of being quest-oriented games, but the latter three are generally used for social interaction and role-play.
In our findings, people who play MUDs usually settle on one MUD or one kind of MUD.
Interviewer: What MUDs did you play?
TRICKY25: LP Muds mostly....although I’ve did try both Diku Muds, and Discworld Muds....I gave up on the MUSH, MUCK and MOO
Interviewer: What was it that turned you away from MUSH, MUCKs, and MOOs?
TRICKY25: MUSH, MUCK and MOO are basically like the current “Second Life”....
TRICKY25: you are not adventuring or killing stuff
TRICKY25: you are roleplaying and creating crap for other players to interact
TRICKY25: yawn...snooze....who cares
This player spent time experimenting with leveling and role-playing MUDs, but ultimately settled on action/adventure styled MUDs over role-playing MUDs..
In another response, one player stated, “I play mostly MUSH’s and concentrate on RP instead of ‘hack and slash’. I have a number of alts to play to others.” So players will test out multiple MUDs before settling on one that suits them. If they prefer to role-play instead of level, they will simply choose a new MUD to play.

5.0 Conclusion

The core reasons behind the use and the creation of alts in MUDs and MMOs are not very different. The only differences come with the addition of graphics into MMOs. Visuals mostly inspire players to make alts for aesthetic purposes.
There were a few areas we did not get to look at in our research due to our short schedule. We had one interviewee say people also make alts for cheating. There are also alts used for griefing. Another thing we came across, but did not examine was coders and game makers’ reasons for using alts. Generally, these behaviors were exceptions rather than the norm, but it could warrant a new area of study.
The original reasons for making new alts remain the same. Alts are still made for experimenting with different classes and races. Curiosity still drives men to play women characters. Alts are still created to overcome limitations (i.e.: high level players make an alt to play with low level friends; extra alts mean extra storage space). An urge for privacy still leads players to escape in alts. Of course the most popular reason, boredom, still conceives new alts.

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Graphs with data that did not fit in the paper