A Discussion on Multiple Accounts

[Fitz]

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 analysis

Disregarding 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.
____________________________________________

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

[Olbaid]

Yes

[Xena]

# -Using an Alias - An individual wants to play under a different name.

there is already an ability to create and delete names  up to a maximum of 10 active names. So, it is not necessary really to have more then 10 names. How many names do you REALLY need to play online? 2 or 3 max? 1 name for being known in the community and a 2nd or 3rd for just for kicks.

# -Multi-Clanning - An individual wants to play/match in more than one clan

i frown on this. Mainly because the player has no loyalty to the 1 clan. What happens if the clan face each other in a match? Now you have to pick a side to play or be on the sideline. Then you as the clan will have to wonder, if this multi-account person gave away "secrets" of your clan. (whatever that secret is? i dunno). You dont see pro sport players play on 2 teams. 2 different sports yes but not the same sport.

# -Avoiding bans- If an individual is banned and wants to play under an alias, then they create another account.

that speaks for itself.

# -Accidental/Failure to Understand EULA- Creating and using an account may be difficult for some new members of the community.

I think this is where it should be a bit more flexible where no ban time is issued since accident happens. So, if someone DID accidentally create an account, there shouldnt be any consequence. An accidental account would one that is created and HAS NOT BEEN USED IN AND HAS NOT RECORDED ANY PLAY TIME.

I dont think the committee goes out and search for multi. From what I have seen, it is non-committee members that posted multi.

[Gamabunta]

My thoughts?
Having multiple accounts is fooling people. I know it's not really good example and also I know it won't do for many of you but - you don't have second life, do you? You have to deal with things having one chance only. Take responsibility for your actions, don't do things you will regret later. It would be nice to start things over, wouldn't it? Just like in rpgs, if you failed in putting stats to your character, start it anew. No, mates. Here you are dealing with people, not NPCs. Aliases are not needed, unless you are ashamed of yourself in some way. Nobody really would like to see that a player who he/she has recently 'befriended' turns out to be a player hated by him/her in the past.
One can say: "heh, online games - serious business, dude!", but if one can't even follow rules set by an online game, is he/she any good? There are many stupid, as for one it may seem, rules everywhere - and people just have to deal with it. A rule is a rule, and it shouldn't really be disscuted over and over again, quite pointlessly anyway.

As from jitspoe's point of view, and partially committee's, I believe it has been mentioned many times - it may be hard to track cheaters that use multis.

About foreigners - ignorantia iuris nocet.

In my opinion, if one is caught, he/she should serve the set ban time for multi accounting (or be it sharing), for letting others down on him/her, for fooling them with premeditation.

Those were my 3 cents, I don't like to have a say in such cases but having read your 'essay', Fitz, I felt obligated.

Edit:
As for Xena's post, there were cases of no ban time for accidentially created accounts or similar cases, just so you know. Also, committee really doesn't search for multis all over the game, most of cases we deal with is blantant multi accounting (players with id way over 100000 being too good as for newbies, VERY similar nicknames, still, almost all of these were/are posted by community that WANT these players to be banned).

[Rewind]

I have to agree with Fitz on this one, however I don't think we should just get rid of the multi account ban entirely. People should have one account, with one account name. For example I might register the name RewinD as my account name. Account should have the ability to register these 10 names, but instead of limiting the names to one person, let anyone use any number of names that may already be in use, and instead limit account names. If you're worried about aliasing, then where your clan tag like you probably should be. You can't fake that.

Either way I don't entirely see the point to banning people for multiaccounts, but I understand the reasoning behind it and I'm not going to be upset if nothing gets changed. It's fine the way it is, but there are always opportunities to improve.

[Cameron]

Yes, there are many different reasons for having multiple accounts.  But like Gama said, pretend 1 account is you life, which it technically is, digitally.  You don't get a second life, I wish I did, sort of something like an ad on tv where someone does the boring parts, and I do the exciting parts.

From my point of view being on the committee:

They are a pain in the ass, to be honest.  Rules are rules, but honestly, some people do it for the hell of it cos the rule is there just to make work.  And occasionally, those are the idiots that complain that nothing is getting done.  Jitspoe spends heaps of time working with the committee to deal with these things.  If people could just learn NOT to create another account, then we wouldn't be needing to go through all of this fuss.  To fix many of these issues that arise, people forget or don't know their passwords.  Being able to retrieve a lost password would be nice, or to generate a new one with email confirmation or the such.  Some are mistakes, yes, we have many of those.  But some use it for other purposes.  Other people even know that these people have 2+ accounts, yet they just live with it and don't care that that person is double clanning, etc.  Am I right?  For this to really be fixed, ALL of the community needs to step in and just learn that its wasting time, time that could be spent making the game a better game to play.

[Fitz]

Well said Cameron.

You've basically nailed what I was trying to say on the head. Yes, they are bad, but it seems like it's a massive waste of resources (in some cases)

Again, I feel that if there were a system that was implemented (ranking/experience system or whatever) that provided some sort of incentive for playing your own account, we wouldn't see so many multiple accounts to begin with.

EDIT:

I also never really thought about the lost password problem. Is it really that big of an issue? I never knew it was so hard to retrieve your password.

[Gamabunta]

It quite is, there is nothing like 'forgot my password' button, technically if you did, you have to email jitspoe. And as we know, jitspoe is busy, so it takes a bit of time before he resets password. Meanwhile people are tired of waiting and create another account, despite being informed it results in a ban.

[Viper]

my opinion is, that jits should increase the bantime of multi accs up to 32 and for hacking up to 128. enough said

[Rocky]

either let people have multiple accounts or increase the ban time like viper said

people still make multiple accounts because its pretty easy to get away with it and even if u get banned who cares about a 16 day ban ?

[Henrod]

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.

I thought everyone knew why we ban for multiaccounting. It's the entire point of dplogin. Maybe you haven't played long enough to remember when multiclanning was a huge problem. The community needed and wanted dplogin. If people read the rules it wouldn't be a problem. Thats why there are minimum bans for multiaccounting. A slap on the wrist should be a good way to remind/teach newer players.

[Rewind]

A slap on the wrist would be a good method of teaching kids, however, the game is desperately attempting to draw in more players, not teach kids lessons. By minimally punishing them, any sort of interest they had would likely be diminished.

That being said, people who have played this game and understand the rules should be punished for multi accounting. I still think Fitz is right that there should be some sort of incentive to play on just one account. That somewhat ties in with the GlobalGamers idea of a stat tracker as well though. If it tracks strictly your dplogin account ID, then it might be reason enough to stick to one account.

[Justinph5]

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.

It's really just annoying to me when people try to hide who they really are. I'll tell you that I wouldn't want to play the game without a DPLogin, as I'm sure others of the community would feel the same too. I also don't believe everyone should get 10 names, something like 3 is perfectly fine. But 10 names were allowed just so others wouldn't have to create more accounts for different names, which is why I think "having an alias" is not a good reason for anyone to multi-account... Thats why we have 10 name choices, which they can always change.

[Justinph5]

A slap on the wrist would be a good method of teaching kids, however, the game is desperately attempting to draw in more players, not teach kids lessons. By minimally punishing them, any sort of interest they had would likely be diminished.

We also try to take pure mistakes into account too. If a newbie purely makes the mistake of not knowing the rules of multiple accounts (by maybe forgetting his pw), (which is very rare) we wouldn't want to give him any ban. Most of the new players know that it is a rule though, and must get banned, since they know the rules and violated them.

[Leriq]

Has the community realized they only care about multi-account bans from upper tier players? It seems no one cares if a newbie has two accounts on accident, because we don't care.

On the same idea, different topic, people don't care much if some newbie is cheating. Some guy was speed cheating in the 3iob publick server for hours and hours the other day. People just joked about it, and he was never reported.

[Gamabunta]

Why you, Leriq, didn't report him then? I'm about to flame the hell outa you. Knowing nothing and arrogant, this kind of people are not to even speak in here. POINT ME EXACTLY to case where you report a newbie having multis//speedhacking and we search for some good player violating rules. Unless you do so, be quiet.

[Leriq]

Why you, Leriq, didn't report him then? I'm about to flame the hell outa you. Knowing nothing and arrogant, this kind of people are not to even speak in here. POINT ME EXACTLY to case where you report a newbie having multis//speedhacking and we search for some good player violating rules. Unless you do so, be quiet.

I don't think you understand my point, long haired friend. I am simply saying that depending on WHO the person is, causes the community to pay much more attention.

Let me guide you through an example. Two friends in high school play on eachother's accounts. Person "C" from their high school reports them using English to the equivalent of Nick123 with no true proof besides the fact of just saying it. Nothing would be done, but anything involving anyone that is remotely important to the community creates a big deal.

I personally don't care about some newbie who speed cheated for three hours. He couldn't even shoot anything. He probably downloaded the game simply to cheat. Atleast 50 people probably saw him cheating. Any reports made? I am not going to waste my time reporting someone who probably will never open dp again to see the ban.

You've lead me to think that YOU are the ignorant one. You aren't open to my point at all and simply want to deny it since you are an "upstanding member and in the committee". I completely understand what you are saying, but as i stated, don't care enough to report the guy.

[Gamabunta]

I am simply saying that depending on WHO the person is, causes the community to pay much more attention.

Isn't it obvious? Is it ever worth mentioning? When you care, another real life example, when your friend, let's say, goes to prison, or if it's some bum you never heard about? I don't quite get why would you even state such thing, thought it was clever?

If you wanted to say how upset you are with current community, you couldn't have done it better:

I personally don't care about some newbie who speed cheated for three hours.[...] I am not going to waste my time reporting someone who probably will never open dp again to see the ban.

But you took your time to post here twice (so far).

[Leriq]

Isn't it obvious? Is it ever worth mentioning? When you care, another real life example, when your friend, let's say, goes to prison, or if it's some bum you never heard about? I don't quite get why would you even state such thing, thought it was clever?

If you wanted to say how upset you are with current community, you couldn't have done it better:But you took your time to post here twice (so far).

Sorry, I cannot understand your reply on the first quote of mine. I think you are agreeing with me? Don't know...

I am not upset with the community in no way nor do i think I said that anywhere....

[Henrod]

Leriq for Committee. /thread