Why alts?

[mastina]

There are any number of reasons. Habit, from when the alt

was

secret, can be among them. Another prominent reason is simply a permanent intent to switch accounts--mastina is my main, not mastin2 and certainly not Mastin, even though those accounts were mine and predate the creation of mastina. However, even discarding those, alts often can have gimmicks attached to them, which means that roleplaying is part of the fun behind them. There's no pragmatic function (except when there is--see below point), but an alt can be a wonderful opportunity to just have fun immersing yourself in the character established.

Pragmatically, alts are often largely used to explore. They are an escape. This does not need to require secrecy--secret alts obvious have greater freedom to explore, but even a public alt can end up able to play in a different way otherwise unavailable to them on their main. This experimentation is rather excellent for growth, since the curiosity behind "what if this were different", "what if this wasn't there", "what if this WAS there", and so on and so forth, traits easily investigated on an alt but which can be harder to do on a main which is 'established' as it were, allows for improvement and evolution in playstyles.

tl;dr, alts not only give extra fun for the game, but also give an opportunity to explore and potentially grow as a player by forcing someone to think outside their established mold.

[mastina]

I don't see why a good player can't try some alternative play styles and feel confident enough to refute any unwanted pressure if it is based on meta reads.

Peer pressure is something, and people can feel trapped by expectations of them. mastina MUST do this, mastina CANNOT do that. These are things which no amount of skill can fully cast aside the existence of them being present, especially since on some subconscious level, the user themselves may believe the sentiment expressed: "I must do this, I can't do that" may not cross their mind, but their reflected actions often suggest on some level it was influencing them.

Every player has a natural persona about them. The ability to change said persona

does

exist, but without alts it is an incredibly gradual shift by and large. There's very little revolutionary leaps and bounds in playstyle for any player who has already established firm footing. Thus, alts are an easy way to attempt this with little consequence. If it fails, then oh well.

I personally think the process works better with anonymous alts which is why in spite of having more alts than Faraday (mostly unused and of those used most have only one game), I've outed none of them. (Granted, nowadays when I use an alt, it's mostly for the gimmick I invent for that alt because the gimmicks are fun, as mentioned.) But anonymity is optional for the process I describe.