mastermesh
Mutated
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2007
- Posts
- 16,461
- Location
- Auction room somewhere...
- Society
- Freelancer
- Avatar Name
- Maria Mesh
Per PM request from John Capital I am starting this thread. It is, at least in part, an extension of the discussion that was in the closed thread over at
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...d-and-banned&p=2592845&viewfull=1#post2592845
Officially, we all know that having a second avatar in game is against the rules... However it seems that some do it anyways. I cannot prove or disprove this completely, nor is it really my place to do that, but some of the threads I was starting to link to in the posting listed above show some examples of where this sort of thing might be happening, or has happened in the past. I only base my opinions on what I've read in the forums, society websites, and other info that's been put out in the public... at least for the most part.
To me, the issue is a BIG one... in part because before I started participating in Entropia Universe, I participated/still participate in Diablo II. DII has tons of spambots and junk like that in it nowadays... I DON'T WANT TO SEE ENTROPIA UNIVERSE DE-VOLVE IN TO THAT MESS. It's also a big issue because games like DII allow, or even encourage the use of multiple characters/avatars for a number of different reasons... EU is different because it's classless. However, people new to the community may not understand that, and definitely won't understand why they have to pay to transfer their avatar between servers on different planets, so likely will try to find way to get around that costs, possibly by making multiple avatars on multiple planets...
I suspect the reason MA and/or any planet partner including FPC has not started to be more strict about that is because there's no way to really identify who is using a second avatar as sometimes more then one individual uses the same IP, one player might talk his siblings/parents/grandparents, etc. in to letting him/her use their name to make second avatars, etc., it's easy to get multiple email accounts, one credit/debit card might be used to do deposits to multiple accounts sometimes when relatives are using the same card to deposit, etc.
In my opinion, discussed in some various other threads, some of which were closed and others which might not have been, and that I might re-emphasize here, the adviser program seems to indirectly encourage this sort of thing on some level because as it is now, the advisers have an avatar in the gate and another on the main part of Calypso and can be logged in to both at the same time. That, in my opinion, is giving the individuals involved in the adviser program a taste of what it might be like to "be on two planets at once" as the Gate is a mini-planet sort of, and also is showing new people entering the game that some folks are able to do that, so they might try to eventually emulate such activity and make two avatars, share an avatar with others, or whatever. In my opinion, this issue is only going to get bigger as the virtual universe continues to grow and new planet partners are introduced in to the system because more more planets, all of which are in direct competition for avatars, are going to be temptations to new folks (or maybe even old ones too) to make more avatars to be on more then one planet at once...
The main reason I'm posting this thread here is not really to criticize the adviser program so much as to ask the community in general, what steps do you think MA, FPC, planet partners, and even us folks in the community can do to help lower the ability of people to be able to use multiple avatars? IP checking might work on some level, but not really since some can spoof IPs, and/or multiple people in the same community (school, family, etc.) might be sharing the same IP or a similar IP address. Gold cards do help with security, but they are not "required" and even if they were it would not keep people from sharing or passing around a gold card as some have done in the past for various reason...
What can be done? Technically, should some new system be created to help with this sort of issue? I suspect that the issue will grow worse over time as new planets come in to being (unless travel fees between planets is eliminated, which I don't see happening)
Can anything be done? Should anything be done? As mentioned in the link above this issue is an ongoing one that has been going on a long time.
A few things that I think should be done:
- FPC should eventually alter the adviser program to let the advisers only be logged in one avatar, ultimately doing away with the need for second avatar in the Gate since the advisers could TP there themselves.
- Have MA and FPC crack down on some of the "known" shared avatar accounts -- see the link above for some places which might be suitable places to start investigations...
- start checking which avatars are coming in on shared IP addresses... and watching if the avatars in those cases are interacting with one another in trades, auctions, etc., possibly manipulating the markets. Similarly, watch to see if they are on the same planets/astroids as it seems that one of the main reasons someone would want a second avatar would be to avoid interplanetary travel fees.
- remove "founding" members listings in the society terminal when the avatar in question listed there is/was "known" to be second avatar because this sort of thing gives an impression to new participants/society recruits that it's ok to have a second avatar because the "founding fathers" did it, and look at that, their name is in the terminal now for all to see... in order to get rid of the "If they can do it why shouldn't we be able to?" mentality. In the far flung past some individuals may have created multiple avatars and made each of those the founder of a society to create "multi-society societies", where one person was behind multiple avatars in charge of multiple societies, etc...
Perhaps the entire society system can be altered to change the reasons that some of those individuals did that in the first place (maybe increase the max number of people allowed in friend list, in a society, etc.)
- investigate multiple avatars that have deposits tied to the same debit or credit card, and watch activity on those accounts to see if they are doing things that might indicate that the individual avatars involved might be doing things such as trading between themselves in auction to manipulate market prices, etc.
- change the Banking system so that the bankers don't have multiple avatars (new folks in the game might not understand why Neverdie's name isn't on the estate terminal at the Bank, etc.) Use of multiple avatars in cases like this and the adviser system seem to put off a bad message that some folks are special and above the "rules" that apply to everyone else, which seems to lead to division in the community instead of cohesion, and away from the idea that "all avatars are created equal"
- create a "free ride" system that would allow ALL avatars the ability to TP to ANY TP in the entire Virtual Universe ONCE per month for absolutely free. This would allow avatars that want to not deposit and only sweat forever the ability to explore different planets then the one they were "born" on. It'd also allow lower cost of playing for estate owners that have estates on multiple planets as each estate needs to have it's monthly fees paid, and that can only be done by accessing the estate terminal for each estate, on whichever planet that estate is located on by physically going there... A nice addition to this little idea might be to give those that own estates on different planet the "free pass" once a month for EVERY planet they own an estate on. Right now that might not mean much, but eventually, if there is say, 5-20 planets or more that exist, this would definitely be something I think the community would love to have.
Can you come up with other suggestions? Is it a pointless effort because people will always find ways around the system, meaning the RCE is not really as "safe" as the general populace perceives it to be? What can we do?
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...d-and-banned&p=2592845&viewfull=1#post2592845
Officially, we all know that having a second avatar in game is against the rules... However it seems that some do it anyways. I cannot prove or disprove this completely, nor is it really my place to do that, but some of the threads I was starting to link to in the posting listed above show some examples of where this sort of thing might be happening, or has happened in the past. I only base my opinions on what I've read in the forums, society websites, and other info that's been put out in the public... at least for the most part.
To me, the issue is a BIG one... in part because before I started participating in Entropia Universe, I participated/still participate in Diablo II. DII has tons of spambots and junk like that in it nowadays... I DON'T WANT TO SEE ENTROPIA UNIVERSE DE-VOLVE IN TO THAT MESS. It's also a big issue because games like DII allow, or even encourage the use of multiple characters/avatars for a number of different reasons... EU is different because it's classless. However, people new to the community may not understand that, and definitely won't understand why they have to pay to transfer their avatar between servers on different planets, so likely will try to find way to get around that costs, possibly by making multiple avatars on multiple planets...
I suspect the reason MA and/or any planet partner including FPC has not started to be more strict about that is because there's no way to really identify who is using a second avatar as sometimes more then one individual uses the same IP, one player might talk his siblings/parents/grandparents, etc. in to letting him/her use their name to make second avatars, etc., it's easy to get multiple email accounts, one credit/debit card might be used to do deposits to multiple accounts sometimes when relatives are using the same card to deposit, etc.
In my opinion, discussed in some various other threads, some of which were closed and others which might not have been, and that I might re-emphasize here, the adviser program seems to indirectly encourage this sort of thing on some level because as it is now, the advisers have an avatar in the gate and another on the main part of Calypso and can be logged in to both at the same time. That, in my opinion, is giving the individuals involved in the adviser program a taste of what it might be like to "be on two planets at once" as the Gate is a mini-planet sort of, and also is showing new people entering the game that some folks are able to do that, so they might try to eventually emulate such activity and make two avatars, share an avatar with others, or whatever. In my opinion, this issue is only going to get bigger as the virtual universe continues to grow and new planet partners are introduced in to the system because more more planets, all of which are in direct competition for avatars, are going to be temptations to new folks (or maybe even old ones too) to make more avatars to be on more then one planet at once...
The main reason I'm posting this thread here is not really to criticize the adviser program so much as to ask the community in general, what steps do you think MA, FPC, planet partners, and even us folks in the community can do to help lower the ability of people to be able to use multiple avatars? IP checking might work on some level, but not really since some can spoof IPs, and/or multiple people in the same community (school, family, etc.) might be sharing the same IP or a similar IP address. Gold cards do help with security, but they are not "required" and even if they were it would not keep people from sharing or passing around a gold card as some have done in the past for various reason...
What can be done? Technically, should some new system be created to help with this sort of issue? I suspect that the issue will grow worse over time as new planets come in to being (unless travel fees between planets is eliminated, which I don't see happening)
Can anything be done? Should anything be done? As mentioned in the link above this issue is an ongoing one that has been going on a long time.
A few things that I think should be done:
- FPC should eventually alter the adviser program to let the advisers only be logged in one avatar, ultimately doing away with the need for second avatar in the Gate since the advisers could TP there themselves.
- Have MA and FPC crack down on some of the "known" shared avatar accounts -- see the link above for some places which might be suitable places to start investigations...
- start checking which avatars are coming in on shared IP addresses... and watching if the avatars in those cases are interacting with one another in trades, auctions, etc., possibly manipulating the markets. Similarly, watch to see if they are on the same planets/astroids as it seems that one of the main reasons someone would want a second avatar would be to avoid interplanetary travel fees.
- remove "founding" members listings in the society terminal when the avatar in question listed there is/was "known" to be second avatar because this sort of thing gives an impression to new participants/society recruits that it's ok to have a second avatar because the "founding fathers" did it, and look at that, their name is in the terminal now for all to see... in order to get rid of the "If they can do it why shouldn't we be able to?" mentality. In the far flung past some individuals may have created multiple avatars and made each of those the founder of a society to create "multi-society societies", where one person was behind multiple avatars in charge of multiple societies, etc...
Perhaps the entire society system can be altered to change the reasons that some of those individuals did that in the first place (maybe increase the max number of people allowed in friend list, in a society, etc.)
- investigate multiple avatars that have deposits tied to the same debit or credit card, and watch activity on those accounts to see if they are doing things that might indicate that the individual avatars involved might be doing things such as trading between themselves in auction to manipulate market prices, etc.
- change the Banking system so that the bankers don't have multiple avatars (new folks in the game might not understand why Neverdie's name isn't on the estate terminal at the Bank, etc.) Use of multiple avatars in cases like this and the adviser system seem to put off a bad message that some folks are special and above the "rules" that apply to everyone else, which seems to lead to division in the community instead of cohesion, and away from the idea that "all avatars are created equal"
- create a "free ride" system that would allow ALL avatars the ability to TP to ANY TP in the entire Virtual Universe ONCE per month for absolutely free. This would allow avatars that want to not deposit and only sweat forever the ability to explore different planets then the one they were "born" on. It'd also allow lower cost of playing for estate owners that have estates on multiple planets as each estate needs to have it's monthly fees paid, and that can only be done by accessing the estate terminal for each estate, on whichever planet that estate is located on by physically going there... A nice addition to this little idea might be to give those that own estates on different planet the "free pass" once a month for EVERY planet they own an estate on. Right now that might not mean much, but eventually, if there is say, 5-20 planets or more that exist, this would definitely be something I think the community would love to have.
Can you come up with other suggestions? Is it a pointless effort because people will always find ways around the system, meaning the RCE is not really as "safe" as the general populace perceives it to be? What can we do?
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