To me the new and improved rules doesnt make sense.
First of all, if someone has nothing better to do than play 20hrs/day throughout the
ENTIRE holidays, then oh my god please give him/her a LA, god knows s/he probably didnt get any other xmas gifts.
Second, die from EU? Cmon. If they wanna push themselves to that, then that's possible during other times aswell, not just during this event, and it's a choice you as a participant make and not on Mindarks responsibility. And it only goes to show that natural selection is alive and kicking.
Third, a Virtual Universe (in my book) would equal social interaction of sorts. Limiting a participant to 6hrs playtime per 24hrs means that those 6 hrs will be completly devoted to hardcore hunting
(with a minimum of chat, min of trade, min of chilling, min of browsing), followed by an immediate logout and then login to another game most likely. Oh the joy of being part of a virtual online experience where you're limited to the amount of time you can spend online w/o being disqualified from the (afaik) the highest prize contest so far. The change to the contest rules are not only alienating participants from the developers due to badly implemented restrictions but also from other participants due to said rules.
If account sharing is such a big issue, then set a 10 day activity cap instead of a day cap. For 10 days the sleeping time needed would normally be 60-80 hrs. Minus 30 for dedication, and you end up with say 40 hrs of minimum sleep. So just set a 10day cap of 200 hrs, and let people stay up for 2 days straight hunting or spread out their hunting as they please. Even with the 6hrs/24 hrs this is badly needed - give us a 60 hr counter and let us see how much time we have left until we're disqualified.
In conclusion, if Mindark feels the need to restrict the event-gaming to 6hrs/day then by all means: their contest, their rules. But to disqualify people from the contest because they enjoy Mindarks product and want to spend time using it? Thats a magnificently stupid move.