Why do people use alts?

[MS]

Hi all,

I have a question for everyone here that is familiar with CS:GO. Why do people use alts? The reason for this question is that I come from a server that prohibited the usage of Alt Accounts. Their reasoning being if you're using an alt account it's likely merely to break rules. I personally agree with this ideology. From my experience, new / alternative accounts are much more likely to break rules or be disruptive to the server.

While there may be very niche needs to use alternative accounts, I personally believe it would be best if eGO simply disallowed them. As a result, this would prevent ban evasions and cause less annoyances to players on the servers. One example of why I don't understand why eGO allows alt accounts is taken from a quote from a ban contest that was made.

its my alt that gets banned for ban evasion cause i frequently get on alts cause im bored

Does eGO simply turn a blind eye to this? It doesn't make sense to allow players to use alternative accounts, especially without a valid reason. This contester simply used alts because they were "bored". To me, this implies that they used an alt to avoid punishments on their main account.

So what are the reasons people use alt accounts? From a "regular" player's perspective, why would you need to use an alt account?

 

[K1NG]

I've personally never came across someone who used and alt on a community server other than to ban evade. That being said, I know people use alts to smurf on either mm, or other third party clients like faceit or esea. People also use alts to ban evade on CS because of a vac or game ban.

 

[kuantum]

i got vac banned omegalul

 

[sopheyy]

i know that some people use alt accounts to smurf in competitive (matchmaking, faceit, esea) and simply forget to switch accounts, or can't be arsed to.
not that its any excuse, but its at least some kind of reason.

 

[Space]

people use alts on jb and shit to play with their friends without getting recognized.

 

[Nekkk]

For real, most of alt accounts users are ban evaders in general. But aswell, there are some guys using an alternative account because they are VAC banned on their main (and we can ask ourselves why would we allow those kind of players to play on the EGO servers).
And also, as sopheyy said, they can occasionally forget to switch between their accounts.
But for my own experience, I use an alternative account to only play Faceit because my main wasn't mine back in the days when it has been created. And my friend, the first owner who gave me this account to start playing CSGO with him, forgot the Faceit logs and therefore, I can't play faceit on my main.
So it depends but in majority, I guess that it's very often they are cheaters or banned people who want to go unnoticed

 

[$LTC Lytham]

Because of matchmaking. It is just easier to not have to switch onto a account for community server.

 

[alien 3]

Because of matchmaking. It is just easier to not have to switch onto a account for community server.

+1. I need to play on a alternative account because I am so famous that I get recognized almost every mm game I play. I suffer from success, but that's what comes with being super rich and famous. So I play on a super secretive alt account.

 

[Iconic]

I see lots of people on alts on jb playing ct i know there voices sometimes

 

[santa]

A lot of people don't like to be recognized, some play comps and dont switch back to main acc bc its a waste of time tbh

 

[Rezan]

“I had an alt to play MM, because my rank was too high to play with friends.”

 

[Nekkk]

“I had an alt to play MM, because my rank was too high to play with friends.”

"I went back to the noobs land for a moment where cheaters rule everywhere"

 

[4g0tt3nSou1]

As others mentioned, in the context of CS:GO; they have a variety of legit purposes. They also can be used for people with notary not to be noticed and to play in peace. I knew some "Famous" YT personalities frequently use alts to mask who they actually are and just enjoy the game without being bothered. Some like to also repeat challenges, For example, one might find it a challenge to try and get Global Elite as fast as possible, etc; the point being they might use an Alt to do that.

Security is also a valid point to bring to mention. Think of how much data a "Main" account has on its holder. Some I'm sure use alts for that reason, as to "Containerize" things. (Not a common one, to be sure)

Of course, there is cheating, hacking, & the likes; to that degree, Alts are essential to the craft. Cheating and Hacking are often associated with being the lowest scum in gaming, but not all cheaters are equal. Sure, not so honorable in competitive games like CS:GO, but there is a certain art of it that dates well before gaming as you know it, hell to the days of Pong. Stigma sentences these people to be outcasts to the gaming world, but again for some, it is an art, or to improve the game for others. Yet still the risk of being booted by developers because of it, they must hide their ID.
I use the game Beat Saber as a good example of "Good Hacking". Beat Saber while fun on it's own is MUCH BETTER when it is a song you enjoy or know. BMBF is a popular tool for adding these custom songs to the game. The mod makes the game what it is for so many, but to the developers of Beat Saber, it violates the ToS and not allowed. You can imagine the authors of that mod would hear it from the devs and the music industry if there identities were ever made to light, so they stay in the shadows. They make great use of alts to keep it that way.

As someone who holds over 100+emails because when I was but a wee lad I aspired to milk free trials dry, I suppose I am biased on the topic of alts and their uses; but I figured this info might be some intrigue on this thread, while not directly how you intended it to be focused. My point being is don't condemn someone for having an alt, let their actions judge them

Though, to your points:

While there may be very niche needs to use alternative accounts, I personally believe it would be best if eGO simply disallowed them.

How would you propose we do this? I have alts that look like normal accounts to be sure, and it doesn't take much to spoof playtime, achievements, and scrape random data from steam to make a steam account look more legit, short of account age, but all the same, a determined person could craft a persona so deep you would be hard to tell the difference.
We already ban new accounts with no identifiable info on the regular with as little of a suspicion of ban evading, what more can be done? My point being on this matter without some extreme resource usage to check and ID every player who joins, we can't accomplish this easily.

 

[Buster]

i know that some people use alt accounts to smurf in competitive (matchmaking, faceit, esea) and simply forget to switch accounts, or can't be arsed to.

This

or

avoiding people knowing who they are

 

[Hero]

Hi all,

I have a question for everyone here that is familiar with CS:GO. Why do people use alts? The reason for this question is that I come from a server that prohibited the usage of Alt Accounts. Their reasoning being if you're using an alt account it's likely merely to break rules. I personally agree with this ideology. From my experience, new / alternative accounts are much more likely to break rules or be disruptive to the server.

While there may be very niche needs to use alternative accounts, I personally believe it would be best if eGO simply disallowed them. As a result, this would prevent ban evasions and cause less annoyances to players on the servers. One example of why I don't understand why eGO allows alt accounts is taken from a quote from a ban contest that was made.



Does eGO simply turn a blind eye to this? It doesn't make sense to allow players to use alternative accounts, especially without a valid reason. This contester simply used alts because they were "bored". To me, this implies that they used an alt to avoid punishments on their main account.

So what are the reasons people use alt accounts? From a "regular" player's perspective, why would you need to use an alt account?

you can use an alt as long as you don't have your pfp or forum name, admins use alts so they can play without being annoyed by reports and players

 

[4g0tt3nSou1]

you can use an alt as long as you don't have your pfp or forum name, admins use alts so they can play without being annoyed by reports and players

They shouldn't be doing that, I get the mentality but that's part of "Game First, Admin Second". There is a reason why we don't have admin ghost modes or stealth-admin stuff.
It's not I don't see the appeal but it's as simple as call someone else to hop on and keep going about your day.

What if something serious happens? It can take a fat min to switch accounts and all the while someone causing an issue of serious nature could be absolutely destroying the servers. 2 minutes matters with things like Doxxing, and while game first admin second exists, common sense clearly states that if something severe like that occurs they need to act on it.

 

[Hero]

They shouldn't be doing that, I get the mentality but that's part of "Game First, Admin Second". There is a reason why we don't have admin ghost modes or stealth-admin stuff.
It's not I don't see the appeal but it's as simple as call someone else to hop on and keep going about your day.

What if something serious happens? It can take a fat min to switch accounts and all the while someone causing an issue of serious nature could be absolutely destroying the servers. 2 minutes matters with things like Doxxing, and while game first admin second exists, common sense clearly states that if something severe like that occurs they need to act on it.

late reply, you can clip it, then make a report. but it is true. although for example, im a eG admin, there should be a eGO in the server.

 

[4g0tt3nSou1]

late reply, you can clip it, then make a report. but it is true. although for example, im a eG admin, there should be a eGO in the server.

Except every minute in those situations is mission critical. I'd be PISSED if I was getting doxxed and some admin was online on an alt when they could've banned them and maybe stopped them at my full name, now everyone has Mt address because instead of banning them they recorded it and ban requested it.

Situations like that are EXACTLY why Admins aren't supposed to be on alts.

Ideally it'd be nice to have at least one O-Level on all the time, but we all know that isn't gonna happen. Additionally, eGs can do GREAT work, and this is exactly something leadership looks at.

I get it, sometimes I just want to play. But we are the difference between people feeling safe yo game here and having a good time. And while Game First Admin Second is a rule, Common Sense would tell you that certain things need handled immediately, and being on a alt where you can't do anything other than ban request goes against the reason why people are given admin in the first place.

I digress, this isn't what this thread is about, just needed to be said tho.

 

[Damon]

For attention, people like the feeling of being praised for being good when no one knows who they are.

 

[DeerFat]

A lot of alt accounts are ban evaders, some just don't want to get recognized, some don't want to admin, and others. Lets just say they do a kuantum. (Get vac banners)