How many accounts do you have?

[Danikat.8537]

This has come up in a few different contexts recently and it's something I've found myself wondering about, so I thought I'd ask. The poll is anonymous so feel free to answer honestly even if you don't want anyone to know it's your answer. Although if you want to give more detail you can of course do that too.

And yes I know this isn't going to be representative of the whole population, (I suspect people on this forum are slightly more likely to have alt accounts), but I'm ok with that because I'm mainly interested in the numbers within this sub-set of the community and not aiming to make any kind of wider statement.

Also if anyone's interested I have 3:
1) My main account I've had since launch and spend the vast majority of time playing on.
2) One I made when free accounts were introduced so I could see for myself what playing on one was like, then upgraded to the Heroic edition with a free code a few years later. The highest level character on that one is level 48 but I used to have one at about level 60 before I deleted them all to check if I could still get a free world transfer.
3) A free account I created a while after upgrading my other one because I sometimes still want to see how things work for free accounts. The only character on that one is level 10 and then only because I was doing the tutorial achievements.

[Tachenon.5270]

I have two, but I've stopped playing my alt account and won't be adding EOD to it. The time/effort involved in the getting the skyscale was a big factor. No more of that! I wish I could somehow combine them, but then again I've got characters on my main account that I never play, so... /e shrug

My alt account engi has a medium armor skin I'd like to have on my main account, but I've not seen it available in a long time and I can't remember what it's called. Oh, well.

Edit to add: my alt account dates back to the original game, when that was the only way to have more characters.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Tachenon.5270

[Danikat.8537]

I forgot that we used to be a lot more limited in how many characters we could make. (I think back then I was saying I wouldn't want more than 5 anyway which...did not last.) That and being able to play on both NA and EU are the only reasons I could see for regularly playing a second account and buying expansions for it.

Sometimes I like the novelty of not having the expansion features, but in general I don't have a problem stopping myself using them when I don't want to so I'm more likely to make a character on my main account and just decide they're not allowed to use mounts or gliding or whatever than play on my alt account where they can't. About the only exception is doing the Troll's Revenge puzzle in Lion's Arch without the annoying speed boost from the Pact Mentor line which actually makes it harder, because there's no way to turn that off once you've got it.

[Sarius.9285]

5

 

1 Main

 

And 4 alt accounts that I got from twitch prime and several giveaways. I only really use them for the quick daily login as well

[Tukaram.8256]

One.

I already have 2 empty character slots, I could not imagine any reason for more accounts.  I have like 6 or 7 avatars in GW2, but really only play 2 of them. 

In Ultima Online I paid for 4 - 2 for me, 2 for my son. The main reason was their wonderful housing system. Each account got only one, though.  That is the only game I ever had multiple accounts (closed them all in 2008). 😎

[TheWaternymphHC.1847]

These numbers you offer in your poll are kinda cute. 

I personally miss the more than 100 account option...

From my observation there are quite a number of people with 11 - 50 accounts judging from the naming of their characters that regularly linger around the guild banks during the day. I also know another person who has numbered his characters with Roman numerals, as so many multi-accounters do, and he seems to have around 250 accounts by now.

And before you ask, yes having over 100 accounts is a bit of work and no I'm not a botter or multi-boxer. All of them are paid accounts in good standing and active almost daily. And yes, I could screw around with the MC market if I wanted to.

Edited March 24, 2022 by TheWaternymphHC.1847
clarification, since people seem to be surprised

[kharmin.7683]

Just one.  With a character for each profession.  Not a huge fan of sylvari, charr and asura races, so I don't need a bunch of additional slots.

[Rendalmj.3152]

3. 1 main account i on most time. 2 alt for 2 gold daily and login reward. Fun fact one my alt account is older than my main. My main account i got for free from giveaway is include pof but no Hot .While the old alt is f2p turn heroic edition

[Za Shaloc.3908]

2. I only ever got a second account for when the fights are kitten or the matchups get stale in WvW on my main, but I rarely use it. 

[Yanosh.2631]

2 hours ago, TheWaternymphHC.1847 said:

And before you ask, yes having over 100 accounts is a bit of work and no I'm not a botter or multi-boxer. All of them are paid accounts in good standing and active almost daily. And yes, I could screw around with the MC market if I wanted to.

Wow, I wish I had enough free time to be able to handle over 100 accounts on a daily basis. Then again, if I had so much spare time I probably wouldn't spend it all playing a video game. Having just 1 account keeps me busy enough for now ;]

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

Two: my main and the alt that I use just to get more daily login rewards. 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I'm not sure I could tell how many accounts a player has just from looking at their character (names) in-game, considering each account can have ~70 characters.  🤷‍♂️

[TheWaternymphHC.1847]

1 hour ago, Yanosh.2631 said:

Wow, I wish I had enough free time to be able to handle over 100 accounts on a daily basis

For most accounts it's less than one minute average per day, depending on which PC I'm using. Grabbing the login rewards takes usually around 40 seconds while doing other things like watching news or browsing the forums.

The setup takes a bit longer though... if I do a full setup with 5 characters per account, it's 90 minutes for heroic editions, 120 - 150 minutes for HoT/PoF, and EoD is 35h - 45h to unlock the legendary vendors.

Since I'm quite lazy, I still have a dozen or so accounts that aren't fully setup yet. Just to get login rewards, you only have to spend 5 minutes once to get a character to the bank/guild bank. As you can probably guess, most of my accounts aren't EoD-only ones. 

Edited March 24, 2022 by TheWaternymphHC.1847

[TheWaternymphHC.1847]

51 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

I'm not sure I could tell how many accounts a player has just from looking at their character (names) in-game, considering each account can have ~70 characters.  🤷‍♂️

Once you do it yourself, you notice others doing the same thing as yourself.

It's most obvious when people rotate multiple logins at the same spot at the same time. For example: "Name I", "Name II", "Name III", "Name IV" and "Name V" appear at the same moment at the guild bank in Rata Sum or Divinity's Reach, the most convenient cities to do this. All are level 2 (or the same level if higher), same guild tag, default appearance for their class/race combo and often wear the heroic edition armor set. Once the person is done with each character, the next batch appears... "Name VI", "Name VII", etc. Some folks spell out the numbers or add single letters like "Name A", "Name B", etc. If you add them as friend, you also notice that they often use the same number in their account name, like "Name XIX", "Name Nineteen", or "Name One Nine" happens to be something like "account-XIX.1234" or "gw2-nineteen.0987".

It's harder to spot if someone tries to disguise their alts, but the tells are similar. Since it's within the rules (ToS/EULA) to have as many alt accounts as you like, as long as you don't break any other rules, many people don't actually bother disguising them, because it makes it easier to manage logins.

I handle my accounts in a similar fashion, but usually vary the appearance a bit, since I use them to try out new face, hairstyle and color combos. My character's names also indicate their home towns, e.g. "Name X L I V" is Rata Sum, "OtherName X L I V" is Lion's Arch (for MC daily) or "AnotherName X L I V" is parked in Divinity's Reach, etc.

If you play on the EU servers and get the hint of my character name in my account name, you could easily spot my alts when I rotate through them. 

Edited March 24, 2022 by TheWaternymphHC.1847

[Freya.9075]

40 minutes ago, TheWaternymphHC.1847 said:

Once you do it yourself, you notice others doing the same thing as yourself.

It's most obvious when people rotate multiple logins at the same spot at the same time. For example: "Name I", "Name II", "Name III", "Name IV" and "Name V" appear at the same moment at the guild bank in Rata Sum or Divinity's Reach, the most convenient cities to do this. All are level 2 (or the same level if higher), same guild tag, default appearance for their class/race combo and often wear the heroic edition armor set. Once the person is done with each character, the next batch appears... "Name VI", "Name VII", etc. Some folks spell out the numbers or add single letters like "Name A", "Name B", etc. If you add them as friend, you also notice that they often use the same number in their account name, like "Name XIX", "Name Nineteen", or "Name One Nine" happens to be something like "account-XIX.1234" or "gw2-nineteen.0987".

It's harder to spot if someone tries to disguise their alts, but the tells are similar. Since it's within the rules (ToS/EULA) to have as many alt accounts as you like, as long as you don't break any other rules, many people don't actually bother disguising them, because it makes it easier to manage logins.

I handle my accounts in a similar fashion, but usually vary the appearance a bit, since I use them to try out new face, hairstyle and color combos. My character's names also indicate their home towns, e.g. "Name X L I V" is Rata Sum, "OtherName X L I V" is Lion's Arch (for MC daily) or "AnotherName X L I V" is parked in Divinity's Reach, etc.

If you play on the EU servers and get the hint of my character name in my account name, you could easily spot my alts when I rotate through them. 

I’m confused. Do you mean amount of characters or accounts? You can’t see the account name by the character names. Unless you add them all as friends and then check? Which to me seems very odd 👀

[RyuDragnier.9476]

One. Why would I buy this game more? It's not like it's also on consoles...

[TheWaternymphHC.1847]

Just now, Freya.9075 said:

Unless you add them all as friends and then check? Which to me seems very odd

What's odd about adding 5 different characters as friends who stand next to you? It's not like you have to keep them on your friend's list. If they match the pattern, you can assume that the other 30 characters who look like their twins and follow the same naming scheme are different accounts as well, even if you don't add all other 30 as friend as well. 

It's pretty much what I did, when I noticed certain multi-accounters for the first time while figuring out how to organize my own alt-accounts once I had a few of them myself.

[Endless Soul.5178]

Just one for me, and really that's all I need.

[Kaliwenda.3428]

Just one.  Seems like enough for now.

[Maikimaik.1974]

2 hours ago, RyuDragnier.9476 said:

One. Why would I buy this game more? It's not like it's also on consoles...

Log-in rewards are the main reason, followed by time gated crafting and home instance harvesting.

 

I have two accounts but I plan on buying more

Edited March 24, 2022 by Maikimaik.1974

[Debesyla.7102]

None, I don't play the game, don't know who any of you people are

[Caitybee.3614]

One, no idea why people have multiples other than to take advantage of the game.

[Grunim.9034]

I have only one.  I know players who have more accounts that they use to farm various things and it's not something I would like to do. I am happiest when I game to relax rather than game to profit.

[JustTrogdor.7892]

3 hours ago, RyuDragnier.9476 said:

One. Why would I buy this game more? It's not like it's also on consoles...

I think many players with multiple accounts didn't buy them.  There have been a few giveaways for the full core game over the years.   So many took advantage of those for login rewards.  Some daily login rewards can be converted to gold and then transferred to the main account.   Laurels can be used to buy crafting bags and then sell the mats on the TP.  Then of course there are also the mystic coins, 20 per cycle.

Also there have been times when the game was on sale.   So buying another account at a discounted price pays for itself in daily login rewards in several months compared to buying gems and converting them to gold.

Edited March 24, 2022 by JustTrogdor.7892

[Tachenon.5270]

1 hour ago, Caitybee.3614 said:

One, no idea why people have multiples other than to take advantage of the game.

Well. As stated previously, I added my second account in the early days of the original Guild Wars, when we only had 4 character slots and couldn't buy more. 4 slots, with 6 professions... aiee! What else was an alt-oholic to do? Of course later on they made it so we could buy more slots -- and I did! Because alts are life. And they added more professions! Woo. The glory days... And I added every campaign and expansion to both accounts, in GW and GW2, until now. Skyscale was the proverbial straw. I guess I could log in to the 2nd account for the daily rewards thing, but that would require typing in a different user name and password every other time and good gosh that's just too much work for a professional casual like me! 😅