Ban account sharing?

[sajbert]

What if account sharing was prohibited, do you believe it would make for a better game?

I've heard it wasn't allowed on live but don't have any source to confirm, does anyone know what the actual situation was like?

The consequences would be many. For example,

- Guilds could no longer park armies of cleric bots. Instead players would have to level clerics of their own or raid park their mains. No more wizard bots either.

- High level enchanters would need to be more careful farming. No more parking a cleric alt up in hate and ask a buddy to res you if/when things go south.

- If we ever see legacy camps again people wouldn't be able to go 4 days straight, curbing the number of hours camped.

However, it would also be difficult to enforce outside of obvious cases, i.e. guild bots. Not that every case needs to be enforced, simply there being a rule against it would restrict much of the practice. Not everyone is willing to cheat and if they did it sometimes would be apparent to everyone in the zone.

[Seducio]

I'd have to see it to believe it but this would be a welcome and classic change.

In '99-'01 very few folks were passing around credentials that they were paying a monthly fee for.

[loramin]

It would make the server significantly better, and more classic.

However, it would be technically challenging, if not impossible, to implement it without also preventing people from playing at work, at a coffee shop, on their mobile network when their landline goes out, etc.

[Toxigen]

It would kill the raid scene.

[Seducio]

The technical infeasibility / probable invasive actions required is why I doubt we'd see it here.

Easiest way to implement this would be to simply require a $10 to $15 monthly subscription donation amount per account monthly cost. Which they won't do under their current structure even though if they hired a creative accountant and renegotiated with Daybreak they could pull it off.

[bobjonesp99]

you wouldnt have enough clerics and 1 guild would dominate even more than they already do

[Jimjam]

There would be a lot more pressure to play optimal classes instead of whatever you want as it would no longer be a case of like 6 people borrowing key guild toons and everyone else just having a bit of fun.

[loramin]

Originally Posted by bobjonesp99 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

you wouldnt have enough clerics and 1 guild would dominate even more than they already do

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

There would be a lot more pressure to play optimal classes instead of whatever you want as it would no longer be a case of like 6 people borrowing key guild toons and everyone else just having a bit of fun.

ie. it would be more classic EQ.

[Troxx]

I’m not sure how you could even enforce it …

[loramin]

There are certainly ways, they just disadvantage other (legitimate) players.

For instance, a very simple solution is to IP lock accounts: the moment you login, no one else can login to that account using a different IP for (say) 24 hours.

However, that would hurt anyone who wants to play on their home PC and at work, on a different home computer (or Steam Machine), at a coffee shop, etc. Also anyone on a VPN who resets their VPN would be locked out.

There are other, more complicated solutions (eg. allow 2 IPs per day), but they still disadvantage legit people, and impact illegitimate account sharers even less.