Originally by: Jukhta Mein

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I was reading another thread on the purchase of ISK via GTCs (http://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=649675), and a few people commented that the person in question would never appreciate the game fully because he doesn't know the true value of ISK and hence, the ships and equipment that he buys with it.

I thought about it a while and realised the same kind of thinking can be applied to players utilising multiple accounts. Before we go into that however, lets look at some common examples at how multiple accounts, or alts, are being used:

- mission-runner + salvager
- hauler/travelling ship + scout
- trader + trader (basically having an alt in another region to check out prices)
- capital ship + cyno ship
- miner + hauler

All of these examples bring about convenience to their users. On top of that they either increase the rate of flow of ISK for their users or decrease the risks undertaken in the respective activities, as compared to single-account characters who do everything in one window. Now doesn't this undermine both the value of ISK and the value of teamwork in Eve? The value of ISK is undermined because multiple-account users generally earn ISK much faster than single-account users in the same activity, not through ingenuity or innovation but through the virtue of having paid for more accounts. Now if you think that that's all fair - after all, they paid with real-life money for that advantage, didn't they - then I assume you think that there's nothing wrong with buying ISK with money.

Same goes for the value of teamwork. I got attracted to Eve initially by its promise of co-operative play. I was disappointed when I found out that you don't need a hauler to haul for you when you mine - you can create a hauler alt. You don't need a team-mate to scout for you - you can create a covert ops alt. You don't need players to help you run through missions - you can create a few alts and zap through them all by yourself, all the while salvaging by the sidelines.

At the core of things, you don't need to balance income-generation and pvp activities - you can just create an industrialist alt and let him earn isk while you pvp. This undermines both the value of ISK and teamwork.

I'm not saying that people who use multiple accounts don't understand the value of isk and teamwork. I just feel that they would appreciate both values more when they're on a single account, working with other players on their single accounts.

And yes, I do feel a certain unfairness in people using multiple accounts. It's hard to describe or qualify this feeling of unfairness, but it's a similar feeling to when someone is able to afford that carrier simply because he bought isk, as opposed to working hard for it or pooling the isk together with his friends or corpmates. ]

Comments appreciated. In particular I would like to hear the thoughts of other single-account pilots - do you think there's an unfair advantage of multiple-account pilots over you? Would you ever get another account? Why not?

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