Indie-Resource.com

[Mod note: Split off from this topic in Project Showoff Tier I -Jack]

What's the actual concern with multiple accounts? Ganging up?

I mean in terms of gathering there is no issue - a guy plays multiple accounts, gathering on all of them and usually he's actually worse off, he'd be better off just gathering on one account.

I think where there's an issue, if you make sure a bot can't do it and if you make sure the player has to do a series of things which, once off is fine, but done multiple times gets monotonous real fast, then the monotony will protect your game from multiple accounts.

well in my game, im creating gangs, where 4 players can get together and fight eachother, excahange stuff etc ... im not sure if multi-accounts will be a problem at this stage, but will adress it if it becomes and issue.

Yeah, that is just where testing comes into play. But even before that, you just have to look at your design through the eyes of an exploiter. Try to think of any ways the mechanics of the game can be used for personal gain through any and all things allowed of the player. Oftentimes this is best done by letting others on the team or in the community review the mechanics, since the designer is mentally "programmed" to see the game's mechanics the way he/she originally designed them to be used.

lol, personal gain...not exactly the way you want to see it, as what else are players doing but making personal gain? It's just some you do want them able to, others you don't (and sometimes a third category - that which you can't control anyway). Personally I don't like the whole idea of an 'exploiter', it always blames a player for the programmers own mistake in rendering their design (I'll pay someone using dos attacks or such might be an exploiter - but really that's hacking). I don't think exploiters exist, only errors in code do.

Generally in browser games (and mmorpgs), your letting people gain X resources over Y real time. It's just a matter of checking they aren't going faster than the speed limit you decided on

If you're worried about multiple-account users then you could write a script which detects unusual behavior, like one-sided trading and such, include details on IP and email address to help further analysis. You can also apply a limit to the amount of times players can attack each other per hour or so.

Btw, I tried registering on your site, and received this:

i think ive fixed it .. i appreciate the testing lol

Hmm the whole email validation..I`m not getting the complete point i guess, but is email verification not part of the user`s experience? What if they lost an email or username? Is it not for the user to have a valid email address for the simple argument they can retrieve username/password? In case they lose it? I`m sorry, but authenticating a user simply by email is wrong. yet we all offer it, for the user in case they lose access. I have to admit, my game is using "email" as part of authentication, however it`s turned off since i`m running localhost , however, i only use it so users van verify their account as well as knowing they have a way to retrieve data. Other then that, there are no requirements for the game. It`s up to the user to do something with it.

Callan S. wrote:lol, personal gain...not exactly the way you want to see it, as what else are players doing but making personal gain? It's just some you do want them able to, others you don't (and sometimes a third category - that which you can't control anyway). Personally I don't like the whole idea of an 'exploiter', it always blames a player for the programmers own mistake in rendering their design (I'll pay someone using dos attacks or such might be an exploiter - but really that's hacking). I don't think exploiters exist, only errors in code do.

Generally in browser games (and mmorpgs), your letting people gain X resources over Y real time. It's just a matter of checking they aren't going faster than the speed limit you decided on

Well, wrong word, but it was late at night. And yes, exploiters do exist, but it is still the fault of the game developers. I mean, there has to be some distinction between players who write bot software to amass gold to sell online versus a player who logs in to play as the game was intended for personal enjoyment. I am not saying it is the player's fault, and in fact it goes back to what I was saying that the harder you try to keep players from doing something, the harder they are going to work to do it. If something is so simple it is bottable, then that is the developers fault. Or if the game can be turned on its head by players having multiple accounts, again that is the developer's fault. And trying to keep players from doing these things only sweetens the pot for them to do it, because now they are "living dangerously" and you are adding a thrill to it.

Anyway, I am going to cut this out of the thread, as we have gone way off-topic now.

One thing I got really annoyed about in Pardus (a space-themed PBBG) was the multi-account measures they made.

If you logged in from the same ip address from different accounts, they would delete both. The only way around it was either to pay them a subscription fee, or to fax them in official documentation *cringes*. This was extremely annoying especially when I knew other people in RL who played the game.

Can I log in and check I haven't been attacked - No, of course you can't

pax.

PaxBritannia wrote:One thing I got really annoyed about in Pardus (a space-themed PBBG) was the multi-account measures they made.

If you logged in from the same ip address from different accounts, they would delete both. The only way around it was either to pay them a subscription fee, or to fax them in official documentation *cringes*. This was extremely annoying especially when I knew other people in RL who played the game.

Can I log in and check I haven't been attacked - No, of course you can't

pax.

Good lord! User-friendly game design at its finest!