We have noticed individuals mention having alternate accounts. Is there a way to achieve this beyond simply using a secondary email address or Twitter account? And if so, how might we go about doing so? [li]
No - it’s just as you say, you need to create another SN account with a secondary twitter or email address.
AFAIK, gmail considers any amount of dots in the email to be the same, but most games don’t see it that way. So you could register several accounts with aaa.bbb, aaa…bbb, aaa…bbb, etc … (all at gmail), and have all messages go to the same mailbox.
Don’t do this, you won’t know which message is for which character.
FL seems to be more forgiving with alts since some players openly show them. Is this true?
I’ve seen Alexis refer to them as “a necessary evil” somewhere. My impression is that they would rather you didn’t, but if you do, don’t use it to break the game? But that’s only the impression I’ve picked up on the forums, since the ToS states no alts (or it did the last time I looked, but that was a while ago). Tread lightly, perhaps?
There was an issue with someone gaining fate on one account and gifting that. As long as you don’t abuse it, it’s not that big of an issue I would think, however. Basically, don’t give your main account any advantages, but play on it as an alt.
[li]
edited by Aximillio on 1/5/2014
I think there are varying degrees of things that are ‘allowed’ with alts. Like Inky Petrel said, I don’t think FBG particularly likes when people use alts for the gain of one account, or anything besides roleplaying separate characters on Fallen London. But there are some things that you outright can’t do and won’t be tolerated at all, such as the now-impossible Fate farming, and using your alts to gang up on somebody in K&C.
Personally, I made my ridiculous amounts of alts as betrayal fodder, so that I didn’t have to bother anyone else when I hit a certain stage in SMEN. I don’t particularly regret this decision, although I will say that actively keeping up with several alts can get rather vexing. Some of them have developed characters of their own, since - some have not.[li]
edited by Laluzi on 1/5/2014
I myself am rather fond of my team of Neath dwelling vagrants. As with Laluzi, I find it rewarding and vexing to keep up with them. Likewise, they have developed their own characteristics to me. If I ever had the inclination I would gladly spend money towards the benefit of any of my characters where I see it necessary.
Still, I did not know there was a stipulation against alts. Where was this listed?
I would love nothing more than for a way to merge all of my accounts together, even if there were downsides to it. Until then, Fallen London is too much fun to enjoy on just one character.
edited by Owen Wulf on 1/5/2014
[quote=Aximillio]There was an issue with someone gaining fate on one account and gifting that. As long as you don’t abuse it, it’s not that big of an issue I would think, however. Basically, don’t give your main account any advantages, but play on it as an alt.
edited by Aximillio on 1/5/2014[/quote]
Specifically, gaining free fate on (not just?) one account and gifting that.
That particular loophole is no longer possible, thankfully. Not unless someone intends to scrounge up 100 free fate on every alt.
I actually made my alt by accident.
Originally, you could only sign up for Fallen London (then called Echo Bazaar) via a Twitter account. Then, about two years ago now I think, FBG made it possible to access FL via e-mail. I tried to do the linking process and screwed up, inadvertently opening a new account–this one accessible only via e-mail.
At that point, I had a dilemma. My Twitter account and my new FL account both answer to the SAME e-mail address. I was afraid that if I linked the accounts (or asked FBG to link them for me) I would be stuck with the stats of the new account and would lose all of my considerable, prior progress.
So I kept the alt account. I didn’t play it very much for a long time, but since alts became more common (and social actions increased in game importance) I have played her more. I have enjoyed seeing different character experiences than the ones based on the choices my main character made. Still, if I had to, I would give up my alt without a qualm.
We’ll hold off creating an alt, then. As intriguing as the possibilities are, and though we didn’t intend to abuse the alt in any way (except perhaps to view the results of some of the social actions directly as opposed to viewing them as the sender), we do not find ourselves in a mood for rulebreaking at this particular moment in time.
As a reference, from the T&C:
Failbetter Games may suspend (temporarily or permanently) the accounts of any users it deems to be engaging in malicious or inappropriate conduct. Such conduct includes but is not limited to:
…
use of secondary accounts (‘alts’) to harass other players or gain unfair competitive advantage;
So if you want to have an alt to experience different branches or stories, go for it. Otherwise, they’re discouraged
I think alts are a problem when they are created as “slaves” to help the main character progress, they are not if they are a mean to interested players to explore different paths of living in Fallen London.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Alexis & Co. have held off on officially condoning or limiting the use of alts so that they still have room to forbid them, or to come down hard on unforeseen misuse. Personally, well, I hope and trust I’m causing no bother through non-competitive play and through buying all but four times as much Fate.
We’ve certainly seen Alexis talk about observing people’s social behavior as part of big events, and I suspect that some of the tweaks we’ve seen to things (K&C requiring Dangerous 50, frex) are in response to use of alts in part.