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I don't actually use any of the multi player money objects by myself, so I won't give my opinion on that as it won't effect me.
However its the generalization that if you have multiple accounts (and would be making money x2) that that is cheating, I have a problem with.
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No, its not cheating, but it is an advantage over those who cannot afford two accounts.
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I'm sure EA would prefer to allow someone to run two accounts and therefore receive twice the subscription then decide that every household can only run one account because its not fair to those that can't afford to.
Life isn't fair, never has been, never will be.
Thats a bit like saying its not fair I have a better and therefore faster car then you because I can afford it and you can't. If someone has enough disposal income to be able to afford 2, 3, 4 or however many accounts then give luck to them.
Just because someone might choose to pay for multiple accounts doesn't mean they cheat in any way whatsoever. Sure there are some that do, but lets not generalise and accuse everyone of doing so.
Polly
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It's not the *having* multiple accounts that I consider to be an advantage over other players, it's playing them simultaneously. In the production cities, it was more necessary and less of a real advantage, because you only had one sim in a city per account, and therefore you couldn't have 4 sims to pizza with unless you were willing/able to fork out $40 a month. If someone's willing/able to do that, then more power to them. But somehow we've got to make some sacrifices to abolish the bot situation. And I didn't say people couldn't/shouldn't HAVE more than one account per IP, I said they shouldn't be run simultaneously once we have the ability to run all 4 of our EA Land sims at a time, on one account.
I know when Dave and I still had two computers, we were able to somehow (I dont' remember how it was done, just that it was) to have separate individual IP addresses, which allowed us to play separately at the same time, him on the desktop, me on the laptop. That's no different than two unrelated people getting together for a game of maze or whatever. Even if they pool resources and therefore have double the income, its still two individuals doing it, so they don't have any more of an advantage than anybody else who does as the game is designed and bands together with other players, however many to accomplish their goals quicker.
But one person having 8 sims, or 12 sims or 16 sims if they are so inclined to keep all four accounts, at once, could conceivably never have to get into that integral part of the game.....socialization. Even if they aren't botting, that still hurts the game because if players don't socialize with each other on some level, then the ones who crave that socialization will get bored and quit, thus losing revenue for EA. (How do I know this can happen? Because this very thing was a factor in my quitting the first time and staying gone for a while....all my friends I made in beta quit, and the ones that were still around didn't really seem all that interested in participating in any convo I started up. Pretty soon I realized I could accomplish that much with offline sims + yahoo so why keep beating my head against the wall trying to get people to reach out, or to accept the friendship offered to them.) A person doesn't have to be botting or violating the ToS to ultimately be contributing to the downfall of the game, of which downfall could lead to the ultimate destruction, since we are STIL teetering on that edge. I haven't seen any posts indicating that things are in the black yet. That means our fate is still uncertain. For the most dedicated players that really want to see the game succeed, I don't think asking them to step just a little bit outside their comfort zone is an unreasonable request, for the good of the game. If a person has some form of a social phobia, or anti-social behavior, they don't have to go to a full lot with 35 sims on it....of course that's gonna scare the hell out of them if they are not accustomed to being around that many people, just like claustrophobics. But they could go to a less crowded lot, that had say.....5-10 on it to start off with....not talk in public chat, but go investigating the people on the lot, trying to get a feel for them by what's in their profile. If they see something that catches their attention in whatever way, send the person a 1 on 1 message....that way you can forget about everybody on the lot and just pretend it is you and that person together alone in the entire TSO world. I've seen first-hand that this method DOES work in overcoming social anxiety or social phobias, so by doing so that person would not only be helping create a positive atmosphere in EA Land, but would also be helping THEMSELVES to overcome a major obstacle. Don't get me wrong, I'm by no means saying its an easy thing to do, but it is a necessary temporary uncomfortableness. It will go away with time, and before too long that same person that could not stand to be around more than just his/her closest friends, can all of a sudden handle the 35 sim lots with no other signs of anxiety than sweaty palms.
Anyway, that's my feeling on it. Until the feature is enabled that allows multi-sims on one account, then fine, let the people keep running their umpteen accounts, as long as they are not botting, and they are not locking themselves up in their own house and never getting out and mingling with the rest of the TSO world. Once we can have 4 sims running at once on one computer, thus emulating 4 accounts the old fashioned way, then I see only negative things coming from allowing those accounts to be run simultaneously.....NOT just allowing the people to have em. Let em have 20 accounts if they want to, as long as they are willing to alternate playing them one at a time.
EA has always said from jumpstreet anyway that they do not and will never support running multiple accounts, but that it was 'technically' not a ToS violation anyway, which if I can't get technical support when a problem arises because I've been running multiple accounts amidst all the rampant bugs we have going in-game right now, then why would I want to risk it, and then come here and pancake because I'd somehow locked myself out of game by doing something I was ill-advised to do in the first place?
