Spiral Knights - Playing with Multiple Accounts ?

Playing with Multiple Accounts ?

10 replies [Last post]

Sun, 04/15/2012 - 20:39

Red-Rascal-Post

Although I personally have never "multi" - accounted myself most MMOGs know the phenomenon. In recent days it's become apparent to me that many SK players use several accounts to try to accumulate wealth. In particular inviting 3 drone accounts on crown runs and then having those accounts trade all of their wealth back to the main account seems a surefire way to virtually quadruple one's accumulated wealth.

I wonder whether this is, officially or unofficially, frowned upon by 3 Rings. My presumption is that it would be completely against the rules (if it isn't it should be) but I do wonder what the actual letter of the law is. Can anyone elucidate?

Sun, 04/15/2012 - 20:50

Psychodestroyer

It's accepted by the company. They only ask that you do not use third party software/other devices to 'auto-pilot' these 'drone accounts'.

In general, no third party software/devices. Multiclienting/multiboxing is something OOO frankly does not care about.

Only the players care about others multiboxing.

Sun, 04/15/2012 - 22:30

Evilnut

But the question here is that

But the question here is that those accounts can share mist, yet due to the fact that mist is only synchronized (to the account with the least amount) upon login, multiple free accounts can in fact give you more than 100 mist, as long as you keep all of them logged in at the same time, while your mist meter is full.

I thought I would burn mist faster with running two clients, but then in mid-run I found out my mist is not being used at double rate. I've since stopped doing that, as I consider that an exploit.

Sun, 04/15/2012 - 22:52

Red-Rascal-Post

Thx ... a little surprising nonetheless

All righty. I guess it's actually on some level a smart move not to try to combat something one couldn't stop ... but still I'm surprised it's not against the rules to use multiple accounts to get more money. It's very much against the spirit of the game. Sure there are some measures in place to prevent that sort of thing but just as assuredly there are players out there who bypass the system somehow or another.

Thank you very much for the thorough info.

Mon, 04/16/2012 - 03:45

Aquajag

Given that mist is linked

Given that mist is linked between accounts, it doesn't really give people that much of an advantage. Unless of course they make a purchase on each account. Which just plays in OOO's favor. So, maybe that's why they don't care about multiboxing: it makes them more money. On the other hand, if you're willing to take the time to walk 3 characters through a level, rather than buy an elevator pass and do the levels over and over and get more stuff, well, that's your call.

Mon, 04/16/2012 - 05:36

Ginungagap

Yeah.

The issue OOO's has is when someone, as Psycho mentioned above, is actively moving more than one character at once. If someone brings an alt that they can't be controlling at the same time as their main, it only serves to make the level more difficult, with the addition of an extra person, without the help of that person fighting. This helps to level the playing field a bit.

Mon, 04/16/2012 - 06:42

Juances

The main problem is how to prove it. I could simply use my main PC and and my notebook at the same time. How can they know if I'm alting or if the second account is idk, my little brother?

There are too many holes to exploit this if they ever decide to say NO.

Same goes for what Psycho said. OOO politely asked us to not use these kind of software, but unless you're dumb enough to record it and post it on youtube, I dont think any GM can do aything about it. Unless they are secretly spying us, that is.

Mon, 04/16/2012 - 08:43

Bopp

agree

"Unless they are secretly spying us, that is."

I don't see any technical obstacle to their spying on us, so I always assume that they are. I'm not talking about Three Rings employees' actively watching our games. That would be too costly. I'm talking about the servers collecting a variety of data about every run that ever happens. Three Rings can then query that database, whenever they have a question or concern about how the game is being played. For example, think about those optional treasure rooms, that you can open only by paying 3 energy. How often do people open those up? Do people spend CE on them, or just ME? I'm sure that Three Rings knows, if it wants to.

I agree with Aquajag, that this feature of the game incentivizes people to spend money on more accounts, and thus may raise revenue for Three Rings.

Running multiple knights simultaneously on one computer could be unpleasant; for example, it might bog down many users' computers. So I expect that very few people do this very often. If Three Rings regards this as a problem, they probably regard it as a small problem and not a high priority.

Mon, 04/16/2012 - 23:41

Red-Rascal-Post

It's like some of you answer without actually thinking.

The explanations BEFORE my second post were sufficient ... all the complete garbage about "it's hard to move people through levels" was a waste of your time and mine, though. Seriously not to be harsh but:

a) That is a completely stupid point of view. It is easy to move people through levels, especially compared to fighting the whole level a second, third or fourth time.

b) It doesn't take a genius to know that you can just kill a character and he / she is teleported to every player button or elevator from that point on.

Incidentally in response to those of you who wrote something useful, I will clarify that my inquiry is after not whether or not 3 Rings is *capable* of preventing players from multi-accounting, but rather what their official stance on it is. See my previous comment in which I stated that from a perspective maybe it's smart not to create restrictions that one could not practically enforce.

Nonetheless things that are largely against the spirit of a game should be (and in most cases are) against the rules of any vast multiplayer game. To suggest that 3 Rings consciously and/or publicly takes a position that they don't care "because it earns them more money" is pretty damning and I doubt it's really the case.

Tue, 04/17/2012 - 00:04

Blue-Asylum

In the past OOO has been

In the past OOO has been against using multiple accounts to loop a single profitable level and has tried to prevent that. They seem to be accepting of the use of multiple accounts so long as the user pays at least the minimum fee to unlink the accounts. Every 'drone' means a small amount of real money, more so when you consider a certain amount of energy must be spent to get the drone access to the proper tiers. This method also doesn't scale and maxes out at 4x normal profit, not something that is horribly damaging to game economy.

Tue, 04/17/2012 - 05:00

#10

Bopp

what's with the anger?

Red-Rascal-Post, just because you start a thread, that does not mean that you are the only one who cares about it. Other people join the thread and take the conversation in other directions that interest them. In this case, you got your answer, but we kept talking, and then in post #8 you got mad for some reason that I don't understand. Take it easy.

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Playing with Multiple Accounts ?