English

Given that such alts would lack the reflexes and freedom of action that a player-controlled toon has, I would say that using alts for PvP would actually be a disadvantage in most cases. Running multiple clients on one machine means only one toon will be under control at a time, and true multi-boxing will either suffer the same issue of divided attention or require superior multitasking abilities and dexterity in order to even match the performance of multiple human players.

My personal definition of cheating involves having an unfair advantage. Being at a disadvantage is not an advantage, and being beaten by an opponent because they have more skill than I do likewise does not meet my definition of cheating. If they have the nimble fingers and mental agility to juggle toons well enough to match what a coordinated team of humans can do, then they have my respect.

So unless you are talking about a situation where one side outnumbers the other by a wide enough margin to overcome the considerable inherent limitations of alts, I cannot agree. I would agree that a 5v2 fight would be unfair, but in such a fight I would not care if those other 3 toons were alts or players. And if we are talking OP wars, well, those are WAR!

I guess it's a matter of personal temperament and what guild you're in.

Personally, I find levelling slower with Widget than with fellow Rift Walkers. Swapping clients is enough of a hassle and the risk of missing a keystroke high enough that it's easier to just teaming with a guildie than to risk getting wiped by one wrong keypress. And some guilds are big enough to offer the option of leveling with allies instead of alts at most hours,

Having guildies with a collection of craft masteries allows me to get q250 gear without having to master 20+ craft skills myself gives me more free time to do things like trek, hunt, help lowbies, or basically do anything but digging and digging and digging and crafting a little before digging and digging some more. So that's another incentive to either join a guild or make enough friends that you have an "unofficial guild".

You may not see the incentive to build large guilds, but having experienced being in a large guild and comparing it to the time I spent in a tiny one (3 players and 8 alts), I see plenty of incentive to have guilds large enough to have players at all level ranges with a variety of complementary skills in numbers large enough to do boss hunts without multi-guild splitting of the mats or be able to find a training partner with ease. At worst, I have people to shoot the breeze with while I'm doing an occupation run without clogging Uni with inanity and the occasional NSFW joke that would earn me a muting if I dropped it in Uni.

In the end, a lot depends on what you want out of an MMORPG. There are many "right" ways to play, and the only wrong answer is to disrespect others just for doing things differently than you would do them.