I don't mind the use of many alts. Just because I'm too clumsy to manage more than one character at a time doesn't mean I should ask others to refrain from doing so. Of course, I don't mind : if a person has the talent to manage two or more screens at once, good for them...
Where I do see a problem is if the characters are not managed individually by the player, but by an exterior software that makes it so one pressing of a key affects them all at once. Then the alts become robot minions.
It's not the use of alts that I blame... with the current server population, helping yourself can be understood. But the moral issue I see is between coordinating an army of characters played by different players and a set of pre-programmed macros that will make your bot squad focus fire at a determined target in a split second... by pressing one key. Split second death for someone who never stood a chance to react. Very deadly. I call it a weapon of mass destruction : just like a nuclear bomb, it might anihilate the server population, leaving very few, if any, survivors.
Get better at the game ? You're asking for many humans to coordinate in a split second, there. THEY are not robots. THEY are not controlled by a single key click. Hell, even if they could read each other's mind instead of using Ventrilo or Teamspeak to communicate there would still be a reaction delay. Yet, they aren't less skilled or experienced than the bot users. Oh, yeah, sure, there must be a lot of work invested in the fine tuning of those macros in order to remove the delay that would be required by manual coordination of all those alts individually... and it removes alot of the player's required talent I mentionned above. You're asking them to be superhumans in order to win against an army of robots... it IS a game, right ?
I think skilled players are supposed to be skilled enough not to NEED those softwares in order to perform efficiently... Well they USED to be. What the hell happened in the mean time ? Jena knows... stolen Kara technology ? Curses ! If you HAVE to rely on a third party software to control all your alts, it's most probably because you have too many alts running at once. Period.
Most people who have alts use 2-3 at once maximum... I've seen 12 of them apparently running from the same computer and controlled by the same player... I even benefitted from their support to help me level... and it didn't make my game any more enjoyable. Overkill gets boring after a while.
Where's the challenge ? Where are the thrilling "keep you on your toes until the very end" tight fights that I used to love ? Gone ? Forever ? Am I the only one who has an ethical dilemma with that ? Apparently not. I don't want to point fingers nor say names. I haven't been a "victim" of it yet, but I would still be against the idea if the "other side" used the same methods. Same goes if they are on the "same side" as I am. I'm playing Ryzom, not Star Wars - Clone Wars. It is the use of third party softwares that I have to rebel against, I don't care if it's by the Empire or the Tryker Federation.
I'm affraid, that when I'll return at the end of the semester, there will be nothing but 12-20 players and an army of soulless bots to welcome me back on Atys.
Tell me that I'm wrong, that I'm as paranoid as Iala, as negative as TPM's -knight people... that a minority of players isn't actually ready to drive the majority away just to achieve their domination over a deserted server. Please wake me up from this nightmarish vision where I'm seeing people that I've always liked and admired cancel their subs and leave the game because they see no hope of ever winning anymore... even if they ARE skilled and knowledgeable.
Has greed blinded you all ? All the outposts and the NPC sets of Atys won't ever buy the presence of great people, allies or foes, to fight with or against. Oppressing people to impose your authority won't buy you respect. Buying all those alts will maybe keep the server running with the money income... but they'll never be as fun to hang out with as actual other players.
No matter the hard time that Atys has come across through times, the community has always been its greatest asset. The community, more than any game mechanic, upgrade or patch is what made me come back ; all those great friends and their warm welcome. Drive them all away, and I won't have much to come back to. Even if I do like the few that will still be there, I probably won't be too happy with them for letting IT happen.
I don't give a damn if I never have all the elite stuff the game has to provide. Even that wouldn't buy my presence here. If the server is dead when I come back, if everyone has been driven away by a few people's insatiable thirst for domination and control, I might never return again. And from such a loyal homin, that has been defending the game's reputation for so long against the meanest of naysayers, I do hope you get a clue what it means. Just THINKING about it pains me !
Don't you dare make TPM be right !
Is the end of Atys really scheduled for 2011 ? If so, it is your responsibility to wake the hell up and find a way to prevent it. Remember how I hate doomsayers and how I would hate even more to be one of them.
"STOP ! You must absolutely stop doing whatever you were just about to do ! Else, this is what will happen..."
-freely translated from a French series called "Le Visiteur du Futur"