Give me a reason for alts...

[Eldevern]

Hum... just because?

Joking apart, I do alts just to do levelling and train. Sometimes I just don't want to play my main.

Or

Roleplay.
Weekly lockout.
Playing on another datacenter.
Mule.
Playing as other race/gender without paying for fantasia.

[SenorPatty]

Alts for glam "previews" on different races and gender is the biggest draw-in for me. I plan to make more across different worlds to explore them as well.

[Awful]

For me I made an alt recently to reinvigorate my love for the game been at a big slump of sadness as my friends left FFXIV, I'm not raiding anymore, just upkeeping on my main on Leviathan it came to the point where I was like should I just let everything decay and wait for ShB? What I ended up doing was going into the game fresh on a new server at first I dreaded it as I was like man I don't think I can do ARR again since it takes so friggen long but I found an FC as I was bout to log off in Limsa and at first they thought I was new. I ended up joining their Discord and what not till about lvl 30 I told em yeah I'm not new and I just want to relive the game again and just play for fun and they were understanding, really fun to hang out with too having FC nights where they do stuff and then I hit 70 yesterday and started partaking in all the stuff.

That's what kept me going just finding those people who just wanna have fun and talk all my friends are so negative towards XIV which in turn led me to be negative and whenever I talk to one of my IRL friends all he ever talks about is BLU which I'm blue in the face at this point. It's nice to talk to people about unbiased topics and have fun on a brand new character I'm even gonna do O9S and stuff with them too since I have raiding experience while I may not be the best and I'm rusty I can't wait to raid and have fun again.

This is just my personal experience sometimes you just need to start from scratch to just find your meaning for fun at the end of the day you pay for your entertainment and you know what's right for yourself, as someone who played from ARR launch till now SB was the first xpac that I'd ever just wanted to let things end till ShB but creating an alt honestly helped me.

[HappyHaunt]

Oh yikes I did not expect to get so many replies so quickly. o.O

I was thinking of having at least three characters (including my main) as somebody pointed out I could specialise in all the DoH this way which might be a reason I will go with. XD I want to stay an Au ra for my main; but I also want to make a Miqo'te and when Shadowbringers comes out, a Viera.

I really wish you could post things to your alts; also mounts and minions account wide would be the best thing ever.

[Dualgunner]

That's a question you have to answer for yourself. I have alts so I can dabble in maining different jobs during a raid cycle, as well as to have fun with playing a different race for a while, personally.

[LineageRazor]

On the topic of New Game+, one thing to consider is that I doubt it will allow you to see the starter quests for the two cities you did not start in. All three starter cities have their own questlines until they all converge. Alts can be useful for that.

Other folks mentioned weekly lockouts, but didn't go into detail; basically, the rate at which you can obtain endgame gear is strictly rationed. It's really only possible to get optimal gear for a single role in a reasonably short amount of time. With alts, you can simultaneously collect gear on multiple roles, and thereby have different roles available as needed for endgame content.

As for crafting specialists, nowadays it's pretty easy to respec which crafts you specialize in, so it's not that huge a benefit. Still better than nothing.

[MsQi]

The main reason I made my first 2 alts was to see the 1 to 15 storyline for all 3 cities.

[Shougun]

I know in WoW you have account wide glamour log (nearly all the items in the game), account wide achievements, and heirlooms which are a bit like the Aetheryte earring in concept (except for other slots too, which is good and bad).

In SWTOR you have legacy which lets you create your own family tree and rewards you based on progress this family makes, including new races to play (although I've heard the system really ended up being a sort of RP only feature as it wasn't touched much beyond creation).

There is a neat skyrim mod that allows you to view your other save characters in a shrine, and even call upon them to inhabit the world (companion, enemy, etc). https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/54509/

Account wide apartment, housing, airship, etc support.

A problem though is FFXIV has the job system so giving an incentive for alts (imo) goes against that "you only need one character to enjoy this game to the fullest" experience, which I actually quite like about FFXIV - so hopefully if they gave a reason it was one that doesn't move the "one character can rule them all" feeling. Like QoL account wide glamour log or easier leveling up via heirloom items (account bound) could work here, or if any of the alt features had counterparts like that skyrim mod would use delivery NPC/retainer/Trust instead if you don't set it up with an alt.

[MsQi]

I know in WoW you have account wide glamour log (nearly all the items in the game), account wide achievements, and heirlooms which are a bit like the Aetheryte earring in concept (except for other slots too, which is good and bad).

In SWTOR you have legacy which lets you create your own family tree and rewards you based on progress this family makes, including new races to play (although I've heard the system really ended up being a sort of RP only feature as it wasn't touched much beyond creation).

Wow also has account wide pets (minions) and mounts. They started adding account wide stuff in the 3rd expansion after years of saying they wouldn't.

The legacy in SWOTR is on each server. All characters on any one server are technically in the same "family" which could be annoying, but it really doesn't effect gameplay much. Strongholds (their housing system) are legacy wide and last I checked you could have 4 houses on your legacy. SWTOR also has a collection system that is somewhat cumbersome, but allows you to buy many items (mounts, pets, clothing) for other characters once one has obtained it.

Rift has an interesting account wide "glamour" system. Any character obtains any item just in their inventory and it's style is added to the account collection. You can buy things on the auction house just to learn the style and then put the item right back up for sale. (however free players have limitations on the auction house)

Of course these are all games where you have only one class per character.

[HyoMinPark]

No, I mean it. I don't want why I shouldn't bother with alt characters, I want reasons as to why I should make alts, (I'm a altoholic on other games) no matter how superficial!

Yes I'm trying to level everything on my main... and yet I still want to make other characters...

Though I have leveled everything on my main, I make alts to have different mains (I have one that's an AST main, one is a WHM main, one is a lolSAM main).

I also do it for the story (doing HW again on my AST alt was amazing - story was great the second time, and I even found things I'd missed the first time going through it).

It's nice to try out different races/looks - my main has been the same since I made her in 2015; I was a Midlander Hyur for a week and immediately went back to Miqo'te because I couldn't stand changing her image. With alts, I can give them different looks that suit them (and therefore try out different glamours to also fit them).

I write, so I have a multitude of OCs. It's nice to give them a FFXIV persona. All of my characters are original and I just really like giving them a different sort of medium to live in outside of my writings.

And sometimes I just want a break from my main - my alts don't have a lot of friends and LS and stuff, and they're kind of like a "getaway" for me.