Re: Player Aliases for OOC Uses
I appreciate the clarification, as I had misunderstood the intent (that's what happens when your read the OP at 3am and don't respond until the next evening, I guess...) I'd have to say I'm still ambivalent, at best, about it...in some games, I like people not realizing that my characters are the same player. In others, I don't care...but in those games, I usually make it pretty clear that I'm playing multiple characters and which ones they are. It depends, for me, on why the second (or further) character was added...in at least one game, I pointed out the glaring (to me) absence of a niche role, and the GM encouraged me to fill it. However, the game, at that time, was heavily populated by players with multiple characters, some of them little more than a gender-swap and change of position. I wanted the niche filled, the GM trusted me to do it, and I didn't want to be perceived as taking additional characters simply because everyone else was...so I consciously try to keep the two characters separate in everyone's mind. Having an OOC IDdeprives me of one of the ways I do that (and, potentially, defeats it altogether, if there's anything that connectas specific characters to the OOC alias.)
So, it's not even as simple a matter as player preference...it can also depend upon the specific game, too. If you start the game withthat in place, you eliminate that factor and it does depend solely on player preference...those players who'd prefer not to have it would stay away from the game. It would not increase the appeal of a game for me, but it wouldn't be a dealbreaker, either. However, I don't really see the benefit to it. If players can't make the difference between player and character apparent in OOC behavior and demeanor, I don't know that this would help much.