A realist speaks his mind about a game..
I'm going to jump nm here and see is this possibly clears the air.. or just makes it more smoggy than a Los Angeles Skyline.
First off Let's get down to those Terms of Service (ToS) rules..
You agree to accept personal liability for all actions that occur through Your Account or through the use of Your Login Details, whether done by You or by someone else using Your Account and/or Login Details. You must notify MindArk immediately if You suspect a breach of security or unauthorized use of Your Account and/or Your Login Details. You agree to hold MindArk free from liability for any improper or illegal use of Your Account. This includes illegal or improper use by someone to whom You have given permission to use Your Account. The terms of this agreement shall extend to anyone else using Your Account.
This is a very what I call "Thin Ice' issue and in fact let me explain this..
Now what that bolded and underlined statemen means is that if you gave out your personal information to say a friend, this friend in theory could take control of your avatar.. and could do so without your knowing it.. (In short both parties in this case would ahve to agree to do this.. but a lot of times they don't..
This could cause a bit of loss of reputation as well, as we go into the crux of the Reason why Mindark has the "One Avatar Rule.. and this is why.. and I'm going to spell it out.. in nice bold letters.
The avatar you create will represent you in the Entropia Universe.
It further goes on to state this.
When you start interacting with other avatars, they will get to know you by the appearance and the name of your avatar. Therefore, we do not allow more than one account per user at a given time.
Now what does this mean? This means that you are supposed to create 1 and only 1 account.. This is supposed to represent you (the person behind the avatar) and that when you interact with people that they will get to better know you and understand you. They will see your psotive (or negative ways you act, and above all The avatar in a way represents the person
You play.
Abridged story: if you want to act like your normal self, do so, if you want to be anti-social , do so, if you want to be friendly and social do so. The thing is.. You (and in a way
You alone) are responsible for your own avatar..
Now on to the more detailed parts.. and why I think MA should actually make it one (and only one) person per account..
Now the question is.. "Why Create more than one account? The answers are quite simple.".
To gain economic advantages..
Which I might add is really frowned upon by Mindark.. After all if this was truly aone account rule per person Mindark would hae to find a way to track everyone either via IP and or credit card (this idea of the creditcard idea was suggested to me (a player ) to be able to track other players..
Now this statement that i jsut said, is a big thing.. And in fact if a person were to create say 2, 3 or more (i've seen as many as 14) , accounts then this is a distinct and absolute economic advantage here..
(your avatar is linked to the way you depo)
yet some of the more "Alluent" people (the rich ones I mean) have multiple creditcards and of coure banks evey so often replace your card (that's why there's that "Good thru (Date) on yorucredit card..
And yes again some people try to create 2, 3 or even 4, acount (in some cases I've sen as many as 14).
The thing is that when we go back to the first part, the part about you are responsible for your own account, taht means you the player are in fact responsible for you avatar's actions (even if you give a friend your ID and Password (and in some cases your gold card. (if you ahve one)
Now this makes things very muddy indeed.. And in fact this states that anyone who is creating an acount could do so..
But then there are other ways MA could track you.. like Social securityNumbers or Tax ID numbers or whatever.. (After all banking systems do this a lot.. and are able to track you even electronically..
(Big Brother is really really really Watching you..)
The point is this.. When you create your avatar, it is you the player who si the sole owner of said avatar, and yet I've seen i(as early as 2009, people sharing avatars... In some cases actually selling avatars (complete with skills). off to another totally unkown player..
Now then, I would like to relate to you a little story.. and it's short ans sweet.. A fellow (and wlel known avatar who shall remain nameless, allowed one of their children's avatars to be taken over by a person who had been banned by the company for making threats against the company.. and once MA found out what was going on. the poor player (who was really innocent yet guilty in away) , had their account locked and they spent up to 3 weeks.. explaining to Mindark as to why this avatar was given to a person who was alrady banned fro MA..
(and this is where the Economic Advantage angle comes in..)
By doing this.. the playing did unknowingly give this person Their child's avatar, to a complete stranger..
Now stop and think...and i mean think rather hard... Would any of you , and i mean anyone here who has discussed this , give your avatar to a complete and total stranger, only to have your account locked or your whole family's acocunt locked due to the fat that you knowingly gave up that avatar to a complete and total stranger..?
It's sort of like handing a gun to a criminal and then telling them to go rob a bank..
(The person you don't know could actually do that, and leav you hanging..)
But then of course we've already had folks try to do that, and in the process have hurt other people.. And in fact a bout 3 years back there awa such a person.. who inadvertantly hurt 50 other players with very honest livelihoods, jsut because this one player wanted an unfair economic advantage, and in fact he wanted to literally in a way cause this game to fail..
Now oneof those 50 who had been hurt, was in a fact a trader (a very very honest trader, I might add) who gave some ofthe best rates for miners). To swear off this game.. an in the process.. all those depos the person had made went with them..(this in fact affects our loot pools and well you can hear the cries of "Bd Loot" screm in form the far corners of this peanut gallery.)
The point is this.. The reason why you should only have one avatar is more along the lines of "Ethics' (Be it moral economical or spiritual). but if you want to gain an economic advantage and want to cheat (and in any game cheating is really not allowed.) But people still do chea and the ehtics as to why they do so is quite easy..
They want to be rich beyond their wildestdreams, they want to be powerful and to control whoever they want.. They want to make people happy or sad, or depressed or even suicidal.
Abridged version: why do people cheat? that's the tougher question to answer..
People do these things and it all boils down to
ethics..
and the real question to playes is this..
"Can you live with yourself that you cheated and that you hurt other players by your cheating.?
Do me a favor, no wait,
Do yourself a favor. Go into the bathroom look yourself square in the eye in that Mirro for five long minutes,and ask yourself.. "Do you feel villified that you're doing this for your own selfish wants and desiers?
(and yes I would like to finally point out a simple case.. now some of you may be surprised.. and I would post a video here but I won't on the grounds it might violate some sort of rule.. So I won't..
But the experiement was this: A soecial scientist and observer did an experiment.. in this experiment he took a business jacket and had the outside covered with money of all demnominations.. and he then went down to the an area of New York city and held up a sign... and the sign read aws this..
"Take what you
need"
Now the interesting thing abut htis was.. well off to do people actually came up to the guy and took 20 and 50 dollras off his suit.. and the guy actually acsked them
"Do you really need it?"
and guess wht.. many of them
lied.. Right on in front of a viedeo camera no less.
(and you can say all you want., but videos
never lie. Really bring out the new you doesn't it.. to lie on camera..)
I mean thiese people had more than enough money, they were living comforably, one person actually was asked why they needed tthe money.. They replied "To do my nails".. that's not need, that's I jsut want the money for myself to hell with you..
Yet in this same experiment, a homeless man or a person who looked dissheveled walked up to the guy.. and how much do you thinnk he took? $50,$ 100, $200?
No..he took just $2
that's right..
2 dollars..
when the social experimenteer confronted the dissheveled guy and asked a simple question.. "Do you need this small maount" the guy answered honestly "yes.." for this guy was starving.. he was homeless, and yes he looked disshevelled because he couldn't afford clothes..
And yo uknow what happened next? This surpried even the social experiementer, that he broke down and gave the man an additional $50 because he was straight up front very honest.
IN the end, the real question here is more along the lines of ethics and the 'want' or 'need' of a situation.. Many of these people "Need" To get away from teh stress of their real world lives.. some "Need" to just chill and chat with people, and some of them need to have "Fun" and to enjoy an experience, unlike anything else..
but it seems that a lot of these folks taht cheat.. don't have a need to do anyt of tis.. They WANT to just become more rich, more arrogant, and even in some cases more stupid than the rest of us..
(An Apology: Sorry, Just had to say that. Hope that didn't lsting or leave a mark At laeast I didn't go All "R Lee Emery: on you folks)
In the end, cheating is never fair, cause what you do in a game can actually have implications on what you do in real life.. and vice versa (what i call "Art imitates life Imitates art")
For some of you , you just say it's jsut a gme.. but then my only question to you is this..
"Why do you cheat? why do you have no eithics, and above all,how can you live withourself in real life when you do this in a game? and above all. "Why do you let some complete stranger or a so call "Friend" play with the avatar you created, the one that is supposed to be "The real you?"
That's the thing..if you want to be morally unethical.. why not just go out and shoot someone? (Oh wiit, that the reason you got away from the real world.. to do the unethical tings in game that you don't do in real life.. You need to be in control. to feel powerful.. or rich.. you need to be arrogant, or stupid..
(Really sorry again there folks but again.. had to be said.)
The end of the story here is you not only have to be responsible for our character but you also have to realize that your friend, or even a single stranger you do not know can hurt your repuration as a perosn ni game.. and some times that can carry over tinto real ife..
(Pretty sobering thought for all of the folsk who do this..)
But I'm pretty much done with my long ramble here.. It's time for you guys to Go look in the mirror.. (I've done this alrady twice tonight. third time couldn't hurt right?
(Sgt.) Benjamin Ben Coytoe , IFN Military (Marines0
a.ka." The Blind Sniper" (and ) "His_Dog_Spot"