Notification of other players on the same IP

[nathanstenzel]

It would be nice if the server would send you a message when it detects another character being played from your IP address. This notice could go into specifics about rules or bring up rule 5 (which should probably have its wording revised).

 

This may help avoid banning some people who are ignorant of the multi-play rules or not even aware that they are on the same IP as someone else. People at the same college, highschool, internet cafe, etc could use this warning.

 

It may also be useful if the game reported the internal IP address of the client to the game. This would help determine if they are separate computers or the same computer. That would help provide a count of internal IP addresses that characters are playing from for an IP address that is suspected of multi-play.

 

Edit: corrected the rule number

Edited August 13, 2011 by nathanstenzel

[groomsh]

It would be nice if the server would send you a message when it detects another character being played from your IP address. This notice could go into specifics about rules or bring up rule 15 (which should probably have its wording revised).

Well i think it would cause a lot of spam for some people.

 

It may also be useful if the game reported the internal IP address of the client to the game. This would help determine if they are separate computers or the same computer. That would help provide a count of internal IP addresses that characters are playing from for an IP address that is suspected of multi-play.

It would really not work that way, because it's a trivial task to compile the client yourself and send some forged IP address...

[nathanstenzel]

I am sure there are ways to make it not spammy at all.

 

It may be trivial to some to compile the client, but some of the people that are busted for multi-play are not exactly all that smart about computers. A moderator could always look at the information with the possibility of a custom compiled client in the back of their mind.

 

My main point of this is to help warn people about what the game would consider multi-play before they get accused of it, have their character locked without being talked to about it and leave the game because they got locked in their first month or so of trying out the game. In other words, to cut down on the amount of false positives when the mods are looking for multi-players. If the people can be warned, they can talk to moderators about it and figure out what the mods expect of them.

[groomsh]

My main point of this is to help warn people about what the game would consider multi-play before they get accused of it, have their character locked without being talked to about it and leave the game because they got locked in their first month or so of trying out the game. In other words, to cut down on the amount of false positives when the mods are looking for multi-players. If the people can be warned, they can talk to moderators about it and figure out what the mods expect of them.

Well people should read the rules in the first place

[Aislinn]

1. The rule is clear. (also it's rule 5, not 15).

 

2. The rules show up immediately when you make your character. You can't log in until you click "I accept" or "I agree" or whatever it is. Should we make door to door visits too, to make sure people actually did read them?

 

3. I'm wondering how you, as a non-mod, know about all these false positives you claim. Of course two legitimate people NEVER made 6 other alts too and happily traded away.

[nathanstenzel]

1. The rule is clear. (also it's rule 5, not 15).

 

2. The rules show up immediately when you make your character. You can't log in until you click "I accept" or "I agree" or whatever it is. Should we make door to door visits too, to make sure people actually did read them?

 

3. I'm wondering how you, as a non-mod, know about all these false positives you claim. Of course two legitimate people NEVER made 6 other alts too and happily traded away.

1. Rule 5 has no mention of an IP addresses or other people on a network that I can see. It does not mention other people and seems to talk about a single person. Multiple people playing from an IP may not be an intention of cheating, but it is considered as such by mods.

 

2. Sarcasm is not necessary. I am merely trying to suggest a way to clean up a bit of confusion, reduce the workload of game moderators and increase the actual player base (not necessarily character base)

 

3. It is easy to tell about these false positives. You get to read many cases of them on the forums every few months.

[nathanstenzel]

Aislinn, ignoring knowledge of rule 5 and a clear understanding of it, do you think that implementation of this would help reduce your workload or not?

[hussam]

It may also be useful if the game reported the internal IP address of the client to the game. This would help determine if they are separate computers or the same computer. That would help provide a count of internal IP addresses that characters are playing from for an IP address that is suspected of multi-play.

It would really not work that way, because it's a trivial task to compile the client yourself and send some forged IP address...

Client code can easy be hacked on so reading MAC address or 'internal IPs' isn't reliable.

You would need to instead count how many connections are coming from the external IP address to the server.

[nathanstenzel]

It may also be useful if the game reported the internal IP address of the client to the game. This would help determine if they are separate computers or the same computer. That would help provide a count of internal IP addresses that characters are playing from for an IP address that is suspected of multi-play.

It would really not work that way, because it's a trivial task to compile the client yourself and send some forged IP address...

Client code can easy be hacked on so reading MAC address or 'internal IPs' isn't reliable.

You would need to instead count how many connections are coming from the external IP address to the server.

As I mentioned to groomsh, not everyone has the brains for such things. At any rate, when you talk to anyone, you have to decide if your believe what they say or not. It is the same with computers. You can get the information and decide later if you believe it or not.

[Aislinn]

1. Rule 5 has no mention of an IP addresses or other people on a network that I can see.

Correct. We removed mention of an IP because it's not just about being on the same IP. People were having their friends log on their alts so they can trade because it was a different IP. There were other reasons we removed it as well, but "same IP" is not the main point of the rule.

 

It does not mention other people and seems to talk about a single person.

Incorrect. Please reread the rule, specifically #5 within rule 5.

 

Multiple people playing from an IP may not be an intention of cheating, but it is considered as such by mods.

Incorrect. We have plenty of families and couples playing from the same IP.

 

2. Sarcasm is not necessary. I am merely trying to suggest a way to clean up a bit of confusion, reduce the workload of game moderators and increase the actual player base (not necessarily character base)

I see that you are confused. Anybody who actually reads the rules usually isn't confused. And we'll worry about our workload, thanks.

 

3. It is easy to tell about these false positives. You get to read many cases of them on the forums every few months.

Yep and they all tell the whole truth all the time. As I stated, just because one really has a brother|mother|dog|significant other|ficus doesn't mean they didn't cheat.

 

Aislinn, ignoring knowledge of rule 5 and a clear understanding of it, do you think that implementation of this would help reduce your workload or not?

It would probably add to it.