Alt

Alt is an abbreviation for alternate character, or alter-ego. Virtually all MMORPGs permit a player to create more than one player character on his or her account. An alt is a character to which a person devotes less time and effort than the person's main character.

What constitutes "less" time and effort can be subjective with respect to the player. For most players, the main is the most powerful, highest-level, or simply the oldest character on the account while some refer to all of their characters on their main server as "mains" while their characters on other servers are referred to as alts. A few players may play multiple characters simultaneously, keeping them roughly equal in power. In those cases, players often simply use the term alt to refer to a character other than the one they are currently playing.