Some people have very strong feelings about the use of alts. They see it as some sort of a character flaw. Others, like the person who said that she would use an alt to sneak through a testing system, see it as a practical solution. As an entity, SL offers a certain anonymity the moment you create an avatar. The avatar is an alt in itself. Does setting up a separate account constitute a weakness of character, or the ability use the medium to a further extent?
When asked, many people have said that they have alts. I suspect that the reasons are almost as different as the amount of users. I have heard of sex alts, sub alts, Dom alts. furry alts, neko alts, vampire alts, gamer alts, transgender alts and sci fi alts. There are alts used for RP, (role play) that enrich the story line, and alts that people have created to escape the history they have written as that avatar.
Some people that create alts do so to to explore different parts of their personalities. These people refer to their "main" avatar. That would be the one that the person most closely relates to,or it can be the "banker" alt. Some create alts to wreak havoc as a griefer. (Not nice.) Some use alts as investigators, or to just have that chance to be anonymous again.
Is it wrong to have an alt? One girl told me that if she only had one character on sl it would be like having all of her eggs in one basket. She said, " I am limited in rl, why should I be limited in sl?" The question alts becomes one that each person must answer for him or herself.
Me, I think that it would be very expensive, and my time is so limited, it is not even an option that I can entertain. Besides, I am already a fairy, mermaid, OBGYN, submissive, and Alice the 'blogger.
I think that is enough, for now.
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