First and foremost, I want this to be an active and intellectual discussion/debate on the pros and cons of having the multiple accounts ban. This topic is meant to address why these bans are necessary and potential fixes to any problems that people may have with the current system. Please refrain from posting if your post will offend another person - in essence, don't flame. That being said, let's begin the discussion.
As of right now (February 5th, 2010), having more than one account is a bannable offense. When you first create your DPlogin account, the EULA specifically states:
Only One Account Per Person
1. One. Uno. Un. Once you've registered an account, you can add multiple player names to it, so there should be no need for additional accounts. Registering more than one account may result in a global ban from all game servers.
Following this, one is not allowed to share an account:
Do Not Share Your Account
If your friend or brother gets banned while using your account, don't come crying to the admins to get it lifted. We won't do it. Protect your account information so other people can't use it. Logging into another person's account is also not permitted and may result in a ban.
Sharing, as proven by precedent, is essentially another form of having "multiple accounts". Thus, with sharing comes access to another account, thereby avoiding the "single-account" rule and allowing a player to play under an alias.
The reasons behind the actual rule are not exactly known. Jitspoe basically states that there is no reason for having multiple accounts, so therefore you'll get banned for creating more than one account.
Some assumptions as to why one makes multiple accounts:- -Using an Alias - An individual wants to play under a different name.
- -Multi-Clanning - An individual wants to play/match in more than one clan
- -Avoiding bans- If an individual is banned and wants to play under an alias, then they create another account.
- -Accidental/Failure to Understand EULA- Creating and using an account may be difficult for some new members of the community.
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My analysisDisregarding the last two reasons (which I will address soon), the first two reasons are of really no consequence to the game itself. Indeed, having members of the community create new accounts to join other clans or hide their real identity does not harm the game directly - it really just harms the community.
If one takes a look at other games, this can be proven. Indeed, any other major first person shooter does not have a restriction on how many accounts one person can have. Why? I'm guessing it's because the creators figure that it does nothing to harm the game, and the community deals with it in their own way. If a user is found to be in more than one clan, the clan leaders ban him and so will the server admins. Thus, it is effectively a "global ban"
The difference between most games and PB, however, is size. Most notably, paintball tends to have a much smaller community whereby each member knows most of the other members (disregarding geographical differences that is). As such, it is very easy to spot a user that has or is using multiple accounts. This in itself should dissuade members from creating another account.
Another difference is that PB really has no
incentives for using just one account other than other players' recognition. There is no ranking system - there are no guns or levels to unlock. There is no system to keep track of your wins or losses in the match seen. Basically, you play for the hell of it.
There is a vote up for a ranking system to be implemented. (
http://dplogin.com/forums/index.php?topic=11438). However, there is really no timeline for a proposed implementation of such a system.
As for the third reason (avoiding bans), this is a problem in itself. Multiple accounts is not the problem here; the issue of avoiding a ban is. It is far too easy to spoof a mac address or change one's IP.
And finally, the creation of multiple accounts by accident. Face it, the creation of an account isn't necessarily troublesome for most of us, but for non-English speakers, I'd say it is. Furthermore, when logging into the game itself, it gets even more confusing. I know I was tempted to create another account when I first started because it simply wouldn't log me in. Now if I was banned in my beginning stages of playing this game, I doubt I'd come back. Such is probably the case for users that are getting banned that aren't really hooked to the game.
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All that being said, I still question why multiple accounts are treated the way we treat them. I simply don't understand why we have a committee who's primary function is to find people who have more than one account and lay the banhammer down on them. I question why it is not left up to the community to handle such issues - if a player is in two clans, so what? Should it not be the respective clan leader's problem? Some may argue that having more than one account creates an illusion of more active members in the community. Nothing wrong with that right?
I leave this here with some thought-provoking questions with my personal analysis to boot. I'm fairly sure I've missed some important aspects of the necessity of the ban (or maybe I haven't?) so I'm asking for some educated opinions on the matters. Specifically, if you are on the committee or were on the committee, I'd like to know your opinion of the matter.
Do you think these bans are necessary? If so, why? How do they impact our community and the game? Pros, cons, whatever.
Happy discussing
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Btw, nice example to skitzo.