Forum fun: does Tabula Rasa's cloning system cure alt-itis?
Do you or somebody you love find yourself constantly rolling new characters? Are you infatuated with that new toon smell? Have you maxed out the number of characters in your stable on not just you main server, but on two or three other servers as well? You may just be suffering from a condition widely known as alt-itis. There's no known cure for alt-itis, but there are some experimental treatments being used in mainstream MMOs that you might be interested in hearing about.
One of these, is Tabula Rasa's clone system. A discussion on the topic sprouted up on the Planet TR forums on the topic, with the OP going so far as to call the cloning system Tabula Rasa's "lady in a red dress." While I was not sufficiently persuaded that the thread wasn't just an excuse to make a Matrix reference, I think the larger discussion is a salient one. Does a cloning system like Tabula Rasa's really represent a cure for alt-itis? Some would argue that it's a boon for casual players who don't have time to level eight different characters independently to the end-game, but who want to see the content. Others would argue that Tabula Rasa's tiered system means that most cloning opportunities save you a negligible amount of playtime - after all, you only have two ways to go with a clone at level 30, you can't jump branches. It's an interesting discussion worth checking out (even if the topic has since wandered a bit).
