Why alts? Weekly lock-outs, as others have said. RP. Some of us just like looking at more than one character, having some variation. Different races, visual styles, aesthetics; for the enjoyment of designing another character, or just because we feel like it. I have eight characters, and I play all of them to varying degrees. Some of us just don't LIKE the idea of doing everything on a single character, and we shouldn't really be inadvertently penalized for that, should we? It'd be great to have a bit of accessibility for those of us who choose to play more - especially given that we're paying a higher sub price to have those eight character spaces, instead of just one. Account-wide item trading for everyone!