so... why exactly multi-ing is cheating?

[Hitchkok]

Hi everyone.
i just started playing a few weeks ago, and a querry leaps to mind.
why should multi-ing be considered cheating?
the way i see it, cheating is playing the game not as it is meant to be played, in order to gain an unfair advantage.
now, multi-ing only gives an advantage to those who are willing to put in the extra time in maintainning multiple accounts. that can hardly be considered "unfair".
allowing multi-ing will open up a whole new realm of possibilities and tactics.
besides, it will enable players who like to experiment with different game styles to do just that.
by the way, if we stick to the definition of cheating given above (i.e. "playing the game not as it is meant to be played, in order to gain an unfair advantage"), than sending someone all of you're trained units etc. pre-ascension so as not to lose them, is "playing the game not as it is meant to be played, in order to gain an unfair advantage" and therefore cheating.
so what is the difference?
i'd like to read your thoughts on the subjects.


p.s.
for all of you jumping out and saying "multi-ing is banned, and brokering your units isn't":
a) thank you very much for pointing out the obvious.
b) let me rephrase: why is multi-ing banned?

[BenjaminMS]

As for exact the reason you said... 'gaining an unfair advantage'. Sure, not everyone who multies transfers resources between their accounts, but 95% or more does. There comes the unfair advantage, and that's why it became an bannable offence. Exit discussion

EDIT: And LMAO at the comparison... your example after sending resources pre-ascension is something admin implanted to use, while the second is recognized as an cheat in the ToC. There goes your argument. Byebye

[Z E R O]

To play devil's advocate, if multying were to be legal, it wouldn't be an unfair advantage because everyone could do it.

On the other side of the coin, it would flood the game with resource accounts and make turn lag pretty much unbearable. So it's a bad idea.

[Juliette]

you allow multis you open up a whole new world of sniper accounts.

Really? Consider this, if I make a multi, ascend it/get SS with it (which is cheap as dirt), and I have .. Jill, transfer resources to my multi (which works, because Jill is not me, and doesn't share an IP), which then proceeds to build a **Filtered** of fleets to take planets.. or to otherwise annoy people.
Admin won't know instantly. Heck, if your main account behaves properly and you use a proxy consistently, no one will know you multi at all.

So honestly, what does it change? The way I see it, it's already an option, if you're that anxious to get yourself an advantage. (Or a new start without ditching the old account..)

Ah well. It's wrong. Don't do it. The boogeyman will get you if you do.

[Hitchkok]

i thought i was covered posting this:

for all of you jumping out and saying "multi-ing is banned, and brokering your units isn't":
a) thank you very much for pointing out the obvious.
b) let me rephrase: why is multi-ing banned?

but then i got this as an unswer:

And LMAO at the comparison... your example after sending resources pre-ascension is something admin implanted to use, while the second is recognized as an cheat in the ToC. There goes your argument

so let mr clarify:
this was meant as a hypothetical discussion on what should be, not on what is.

[Tek]

you allow multis you open up a whole new world of sniper accounts.

[Psi Kiya Trist]

allowing multi-ing will open up a whole new realm of possibilities and tactics.

actually, no. what you will see is alot more sniper style accounts, which cannot be touched, since no one can truly be destroyed in this game, the tactical advantage gained by having an "extra" account would be that your "main" would avoid the retaliation. hardly fair for those who insist on playing a honorable war game.

resources are plentiful if you know where to look(the market forum springs to mind). means the generation of the extra accounts won't be as big of a factor.
you can't be completely destroyed no matter what you do(except cheating), so the protection issue is moot.
the only other reason i can think of, would be to avoid the plague limit, which quite frankly, makes plague practically moot anyway.

in short, the benefits of multi-ing basically evens out against good players anyway. the main advantages are cheaper resources(due to the multi actually generating them), and removing the option of retaliation.

the benefits actually cause more harm then good imo. market flooding, and degradation of the community moral as people realize, even if they play fair, they'll not be able to hit the person who took them out without playing the underhanded political games, which not everyone considers fun.

in short, it undermines the spirit of the game as it is now. that is why it should continue to remain banned.

[Norbe]

Why is Multi'ing cheating? Its simple really... It allows someone to generate an almost unlimited amount of resources. It also allows someone to circumvent several of the game mechanics to gain an advantage. (eg, you can only take one planet every 24 hours, but if you had 10 mulit accounts, you could take all 10 from one player)

The game admins' definition of a multi is "An account that exists purely for the benefit of another account". That means that if you have a friend who uses the other account, but provides you with 100% of the resources made by that account, it is by admins' definition, your multi.

Technically, if you have two accounts and they never assist each other in anyway at all, then as long as IP checks dont identify you as the owner of both accounts, chances are you will not get banned. You are still breaking the rules though.

[Psi Kiya Trist]

oh yes, forgot to mention one thing: there's only one really playing style in this game, all others get laid to waste by it.

War.

method of execution might be differant, with one person targeting Defense, one person sabbing attack, one person assassinating your spies, another suiciding their lifers to take out your assassins, a strong mothership to decimate their opponent's, and several large fleets to steal planets.

[th0r_]

Clarkey is boogeyman.

[Quina Quen]

WUM alert.

[~Massin4Christ~]

Market turns for multies would be unlimited... Making getting turns way to easy... Say I had 10, that would be 10X the amount of turns anyone one person could get... That is unfair... You could also keep planets by using just mts... Youd lose some of its attribs but some people could wreak someones planet way to easy!

[Brythalious]

Why is Multi'ing cheating? Its simple really... It allows someone to generate an almost unlimited amount of resources. It also allows someone to circumvent several of the game mechanics to gain an advantage. (eg, you can only take one planet every 24 hours, but if you had 10 mulit accounts, you could take all 10 from one player)

The game admins' definition of a multi is "An account that exists purely for the benefit of another account". That means that if you have a friend who uses the other account, but provides you with 100% of the resources made by that account, it is by admins' definition, your multi.

Technically, if you have two accounts and they never assist each other in anyway at all, then as long as IP checks dont identify you as the owner of both accounts, chances are you will not get banned. You are still breaking the rules though.

I had a friend when I first started to play that had two accounts he didn't send resources and didn't farm the other just played two different characters, we told him to get rid of one of the accounts as it was cheating and I asked a similar question or rather, should that be defined as multi accounting in the same way... I got a less enlightened response, its easy to read the rules and say that is a multi account thus it by the game rules is not allowed, but the theoretic question is similar. However, at what point when you get bored of playing both do you then send all resources to the other (if it were allowed anyway) and then that would definitely count no matter how you looked at it.

[Norbe]

Yes I think at some point you would ulimtately end up transferring resources from one to the other, even if you were just running low on ATs on one account.

Besides it takes so much time to actively play one account and make a good job of it, to do it for two accounts would be ridiculous. I guess you could alternate the PPT times but then you get no break at all ever. If you factor in playing the ascended server too you are looking at actively playing 4 accounts. If you can't ever transfer the resources from one to the other, it actually becomes completely non-beneficial. You'd be better off putting the time into just one account and constantly farming on that one. The only advantage is you can have an account in two different alliances and act as a spy. Sooner or later though someone will pick up on the similar playing style, unless you are immensely good at pretending to be two different people, have them online at seperate times, even talking to each other in mass convos using seperate language. I'm sure there are some people out there who could do it, but ultimately it really isn't worth the effort. I can tell you now if there is a spy in TAF, they really won't learn much and I wouldn't actually care if they did tell FUAll what they do know.

~Norbe~

[GOLDEN WING]

and also multiple Identities if u are a $ spender u could get USS and build up your multi to a war account and use both 2 mass.

imagine having double the amount of ME chasers or 10x Jedi tank lolif u pissed him off u should have 100 pages of Jedi tank spelt in different ways.

+ the lag like someone said and the alliances would be over populated.

the market would crash the prices will drop and the game would get ruined.

thats my point of view.