Alternate character

Lore & Background

Alternate characters are typically used less frequently than the primary character, but some players use them just as often. They are distinct from dormant characters, which may be deleted for inactivity. Common uses include trying out different player races or character classes, playing characters of opposite gender, and re-living the game experience when a high-level character runs low on activities. Deleting a high-level character and starting over is often undesirable, so players create alts to see new features added since they last played a low-level character.

Reader's Guide

The significance of alternate characters lies in their ability to extend gameplay and circumvent limitations. They allow players to explore all possibilities in games with restrictive classes, such as fighters who cannot cast spells. However, their use can create gameplay problems, especially when characters interact. The term 'multi' refers to using an alternate account to benefit the primary character, often considered cheating. A common multi is a 'mule', a character used solely to hold and transport goods, or to obtain resources limited per character. Many gamers view the need for mules as a design flaw. In some games, mules are used for smuggling items between versions, circumventing intended restrictions. While frowned upon in some contexts, mules are not universally condemned; in Final Fantasy XI, additional characters are offered for a fee, and in Eve Online, mules are commonplace for piracy-related trade or disposable fronts for scams. Multiboxing, or controlling two or more characters simultaneously, presents challenges in multitasking but can make tedious games rewarding.

Did You Know?

• Alternate characters are sometimes called 'alt', 'alt char', or less commonly 'multi'.
• Players may create alternate characters to play as the opposite gender.
• A 'mule' is a type of alternate character used to hold and transport goods for the main character.
• Multiboxing, or controlling multiple characters at once, can be done with two computers or specialized software.

Definition and Core Purposes

An alternate character—commonly shortened to alt or alt char, and occasionally called a multi—is any player-created character that exists alongside a primary or main character in a role-playing game. Unlike dormant characters that sit unused and may eventually be deleted for inactivity, alts are actively played, though typically less often than the main. Players rarely hide their alts unless the game's rules prohibit multiple characters or the role-playing community might judge an alt by the deeds of its owner's primary. The most common motivations for creating an alt include experimenting with a different race or class, playing a character of the opposite gender, or simply re-experiencing the game from a fresh perspective. High-level mains often find themselves with little to do, yet deleting and rebuilding from scratch feels undesirable. An alt offers a way to rediscover early-game content or test new features added since the last time the player was at low levels.

Server Rules and the Boundary of Acceptable Play

Most multiplayer games tolerate alternate characters provided they do not drain shared resources or facilitate cheating, but they impose specific structural limits. A typical rule set caps the total number of characters a single player may own, restricts login to one character at a time, and forbids any meaningful interaction between a player's own characters. In many titles, this prohibition targets tangible benefits such as transferring equipment or currency, though stricter servers extend it to in-character dialogue as well. Spying on rival guilds or factions through an alt is universally banned. Enforcement of these rules is notoriously difficult, particularly in games that lack specialized anti-cheat tools to detect when one human is operating multiple accounts. The line between a legitimate alt and a disallowed multi often hinges on whether the secondary character is being exploited to gain an unfair advantage for the primary, a distinction that many games treat as a form of cheating.

Mules and the Economics of Secondary Characters

One of the most widespread roles for an alternate character is that of a mule, a secondary account functioning primarily as a beast of burden rather than an active participant. The mule exists to hold, transport, or gather resources that the main character cannot carry or obtain within its own limits. In Diablo II, mules were used to smuggle items between the Classic version and the Lord of Destruction expansion, a one-way transfer that circumvented the intended restriction on cross-version movement and drew accusations of cheating. In Eve Online, mules commonly serve pirates by transporting stolen goods into high-security trade zones where the pirate main cannot legally operate, or they act as disposable fronts for confidence tricks that can be deleted afterward without damaging the main's reputation. In titles like World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Ultima Online, and Lord of the Rings Online, mule characters often specialize in trade skills, crafting high-demand goods for the main account or for sale. However, crafting progress in these games is gated by character level or faction reputation, limiting what a mule can produce. Many players view the very need for mules as a design flaw.

Multiing, Multiboxing, and the Controversy of Simultaneous Play

When a player operates multiple characters at the same time to benefit the primary, the practice is called multiing, and the characters themselves are referred to as multis. This goes beyond simply owning an alt; it involves active, simultaneous control that can yield significant gameplay advantages. Weaker multis, for instance, might gather items across several areas and funnel them to the main character, granting far more loot than a single player could collect alone. In games where class restrictions limit what one character can do—such as a Fighter who cannot cast spells—multis let a player explore every possibility at once. The act of controlling two or more characters simultaneously is known as multiboxing, or two boxing, dual boxing, and multiplaying on MUDs. On text-based MUDs, a single client makes this straightforward. For modern 3D MMORPGs, it typically requires two separate computers and two subscriptions, though dedicated software now exists to run multiple instances on one machine. Purists in many communities regard multiing as cheating, and some titles, like Kingdom of Loathing, explicitly punish its use for profit.