I think that what Posi was saying is that single character investment is generally a more powerful motivator for people than "and now you do the same thing all over again, just with a different character!"
This will not always be the case. Some people love alting. But I would bet that for the majority (possibly even the vast majority) of people, being able to progress a single character, because there is always something to do on that character, is preferable.
Or, to put it another way, before Inventions, how many people had "finished" the game, and quit because they didn't want to alt? Same question before Incarnates. Even CoH's legendary retention figures could have been better.
I just strongly disagree, both with this and with Positron's position. His article very much smacks of a "my play style is really the right way to play" even in giving lip service to those who play differently. He even identifies "good" and "bad" reasons to reroll, and I think his reasoning is entirely backward to my preferences.
You can try and argue that he isn't saying it was really a "problem" in the way we typically use the word, but he also uses the phrases "it had become so
rampant", that it's "
terrible that our focus gets split between two characters", and that it's a "
bad reason" if you're just wanting to see how that combination works. When he adds in that "
these are lessons other MMOs learned from and are subtly acting upon" and explains fixes like preventing any real customization at character creation, it's clear he really DID see it as a "problem" and overall, a negative trait to have in an MMO. And he makes it clear by talking about Rift's approach as a good model, which made him never want to roll an alt.
One of the things that makes many people like myself stop playing the other MMOs out there is the fact that alting really isn't useful/doesn't work. TSW is the best City of Heroes replacement I've found, but really, once you've played through the entire game, there just isn't much to do but "raid" the same raids over and over. And since you're doing so on the same toon, with the same powers, it gets entirely redundant. Since that game does exactly what Positron was applauding, allowing your ONE character to fill any role, it means you don't even need to reroll to see the game from a healer's perspective, you just raid on the same character with a different build. And since people who are high end raiders tend to also be min/maxers you really end up with a bunch of carbon copy builds and never change anyway.
I go back to TSW for about a week, every new moon when they release new content. I run through it. Then I shelve it again. That appears to be the case with most in the game, save for the few who stay around to do the end game raiding, which is, literally, the same six raids you've run the entire game.
City of Heroes, I ALWAYS had something to do, because players were always trying out new power combinations. Running content you'd run fifty times before, even raids, always felt a little different because your approach was based on your new character's mechanics and style. The fact that these were ALSO much more personal since they had unique looks, etc. was only icing on the cake.
Most studies suggest that the average player blasts through new content in a matter of
hours, not weeks. It's simply not feasible to use "new content" as the draw to maintain a strong player base. You have to choose between relying on:
- end game raids for "gear" to keep them logging in, which appeals to a sizeable but limited type of player
- a strong PVP based MMO, which appeals to a smaller pool of players (and the entire game must be built around to really work)
- or a reason for players to keep replaying the older content, which is where alting comes in.
What CoH did right is focus on the last one, but not ignore the other two.
I submit that had City of Heroes NOT had the "problem" he describes, it would have closed down years before it did. PvP was ALWAYS contentious in the game, and I think a super hero MMO focusing heavily on players fighting each other would be doomed to fail, since the player base likely to want to play a SuperMMO wants to feel heroic and super, and PvP tends to leave a great many players feeling neither. Raids worked, but I know many players can't stand gear grinding, and this was actually one of the real complaints of the "End Game" Posi did introduce. It was a raid grindfest, and like most MMOs it really was grinding for powers and gear that we didn't NEED for anything but those grinds. They started to address that with the DA revamp and solo incarnate content. The addition of new power sets, and then the ability to sidekick with your friends regardless of your character's levels is what kept the game feeling "fresh" for as long as it did.
