As each expansion wares on I find it hard to connect with alts.
I’ve mained monk since legion and max out every rep I was interested in since, I’ve completed the mage tower on each spec for the weapons and armour set.
I very much like to collect things that are themed to the race I like to play and class.
This weekend I decided I really wanted to play a mage, I’m currently at level 61 and enjoying it but I have this nagging annoyance that gnaws at me.
The first thing is I have to do all the quests pretty much again and all the patch content again. I know we get boosts to renown from our mains but it’s still slow.
Then it’s missing out on the class set on the trading post, I know it’s likely to come back around but still is an annoyance.
I know I can get the mage tower set but it’s a bit naff I won’t ever get the weapon skins. Now I have the skins on a few classes but not my mage. I know it’s minor but it just puts me off playing.
Do you have any niggles in wow that stops you connecting with a character?
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Did I miss the moment when we stopped treating games as, well, games, and started to “connect with alts”?
Repeat after me - it is just a set of pixels. they do not influence your real life.
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For me games means getting invested in your character, it is technically and mmorpg. I am more inclined to play a character that got a theme that I can get behind.
You’re right it’s just a set of pixels but no investment, no fun.
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They do, and can. The literal formula of the game uses basic human psyche to keep you playing. People can grow attached to anything when enough time spent with it.
I’ll admit, I don’t care nearly as much as I used to in my older age about my account, I totally understand people who do have an attachment to things in-game.
Guess we just have different ideas about “attachment”. I prefer keeping my digital “possessions” and the feelings towards them separate from the ones in real life. Thus, no anxiety or uncomfortable sensations while playing a char with no tmogs on them.
I wouldn’t go that far, but you must care to some degree about something in the game because 17k achievement points doesn’t happen on accident, and most don’t even have any rewards attached to them.
Are you saying you wouldn’t feel even a little bit peeved off if you got wrongly banned and lost your account, with the time spent, and memories had on it?
So there is an element of care.
Yes. If they’re not BM hunter, I lose interest fast.
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I don’t even know what I’m getting these points for, I just play the game and do something that interests me in this game at a specific moment.
As I told you, I wouldn’t cry over losing my account since I’m not attached to stuff like that on an emotional level. Simply don’t understand how it is even possible.
And about the memories: they are not material, and I don’t connect them to a concrete item in the game. So, if I don’t have the access to the item any longer, I’d just remember the emotion it caused, not the item itself.
p.s. It’s a funny thing you brought up this topic. It’s known that Russian and Belarusian players are forbidden from buying the new wow expansion, so it’s either starting from scratch on a new foreign account or saying wow bye-bye. I already have a back-up account with literally nothing on it, so, nothing terrible in not having something, as you can see.
Yeh, the content being repetitive for alt characters is not fantastic. I’m all for some variant of multiclassing, I made a post recently with an idea about slotting specs from different classes into your talent tree. So Elemental Shaman who can switch to Ret Paladin on the same character for example. Just make armor award all stats with only the primary one active, and confer armor amounts based on spec.
It’s not for everyone, many are happy with their main class and never want to switch but I find some class specs too much fun to neglect and it would be lovely to have the option to switch play-styles seamlessly. Imagine a BM Hunter who can switch to Feral Druid, eh? EH? Or an Unholy DK who tires of the smell of his ghouls and switches to demonology. Now we’re talking.
I have the same feeling if they aren’t a loremaster or something. I just end up deleting them because quite frankly, I don’t care.
Nim here has been my main since Legion and she was a boost; probably the only one I ever kept. So she is forever staying.
My only other real alt is a hunter that I did loremaster and all the reps on, so she is forever staying.
I try to make alts like “Oh I want to play a mage” but I just feel nothing for them and back in the bin they go.
When I RPed I had an attachment to the character but if the relationship with the people soured then so did the character.
I don’t feel like I have a personal connection really. It’s more like I feel like I can’t complete my characters look and it feels awkward. I also hate grinding out old reps I have on my main. I know warbands is fixing this but heard it’ll just be that expansions reps to begin with.
I don’t know how to sort the old mage tower weapons issue. I guess if the frequently release class and race themed weapons it wouldn’t be an issue. I think the reason people want old elite sets and weapons mogs is class and race themed weapons are few and far between. We don’t need removed ones back just more options going forward. I mean some races don’t even have weapons to match heritage armour and if they do it doesn’t cover all weapon types.
Some heritage armour is even lazy I mean why don’t Mechagnomes have the silver and rusty appearences to match their base limbs. Not all light forged are paladins in plate, where is the robe version.
This is the issue I am also facing currently.
I was playing Shaman since I started WoW, did everything on it, literally.
After some changes, ups and downs and years of trying to learn properly other specs then Resto I gave up and started looking for other class to main, since I would like to be able to know at least 2 specs of class in case 1 gets bad, reworked or something else. I don’t like to switch characters, I like to do everything on one and playing more then one gets me exhausted and not connected with it enough.
Currently, exploring classes and trying to find something that fits to me, and I feel overwhelmed with things I “have” to do, so I really understand your frustration.
I haven’t really enjoyed alts since the end of Legion. BFA had 3 leveling zones on each side. So I enjoyed leveling two characters. SL had four leveling zones and Threads of Fate was so slow and tedious. At max level there were the four different covenants stories (those should have been available to level through).
In DF I have two level 70s and my pally barely does anything. I did level it thinking I might do Blacksmithing but I can’t find the enthuses to jump into this new convoluted system.
Legion was great for alts, for a few reasons.
Class Order Hall had its own story.
Legion Invasions provided good xp speeding up the leveling process.
Profession quest lines made professions a bit more interesting. Although having dungeons quests was problematic at the time (follower dungeons removes the problem).
Class mounts were a good incentive.
Dauntless gear was a good catch up system (benthic was probably better but they’re close).
The alt experience of Legion should have been one of the lessons learnt for that expansion (not that AP grinds fun as they aren’t).
Did you put any thought into what your character name was or did you just hit random keys on the keyboard?
Do you transmog your gear? Did you invest any time in considering what to transmog it to or did you just randomly click on items in your wardrobe?
Did you flip a coin to decide which faction to play?
Did you roll a dice to choose which race?
Why would you do any of that if “It’s just pixels”??
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I think people have a different interpretation of the word “attachment”. Sure I also spent enough time time on it, have loads of memories. Yet its still just digital pixels. If would be perma banned for eternity.
Would I be annoyed? Yes.
But I wouldn’t mourn like I just lost a loved one either.
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Nope, I just type in anything that comes to my mind and see if that name is taken or not. I don’t sit and think “oh it’s a night elf hunter so the name has to be somewhat authentic”…
Thanks for reminding me, haven’t tmoged the cloak and 2h-swords I got on my 8th alt yesterday.
There’s a “sets” option, I just stick to what I have.
What?
What? (x2)
The answer to all of your questions is “no”. Next.
Not sure anyone (even the OP) was expecting anyone to be this invested in their characters.
There is quite some range between 0 meh up to must join a monatery and pray for the rest of my life as I can’t log into that paladin anymore.
I don’t know if this perspective may help you, but here it goes. Perhaps treat this new character as an inexperienced adventurer. Contemplate their story, who are they in this world and what drives them. What would they wear with the means available to them, or their background. And then target some mogs you’d like. Maybe some reps are very relevant to them, either because of rewards or flavour.
With this mindset, ‘completion’ is not as important. The attachment is created a different way. You don’t need to have everything to like this character, and their growth over time is only natural.
I’m aware this is more of an ‘rp’ mindset but you don’t need to roleplay to still have fun with it in my experience 
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I am the oppesite… I cannot settle for a connection with a main.
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I have a group of paladin alts that all do my professions as well as my main. I’m only attached to my main. She’s the one I do everything on.
I don’t care about alts. If I could do all professions on Puny I would. However I’ve had various characters I’ve had to level or do for achievements or heritage sets etc.