Is this allowed?

[RicardoRix]

You can still play against each other in the same household. Just not in a competitive setting.

Is this written anywhere? I am aware of an account who has a lifetime restriction. They were found guilty of using multi accts in arena several times but they claim they are innocent and were playing against their children. From what I was told the restriction didn't come from allegedly cheating but from challenging the moderation.

Couldn't anyone being accused of using multi accts use this defense? I am guessing that the only way bga can make judgments in these cases is by looking at the games and seeing if one account clearly let the other win? But I also thought it was bga policy that they do not rule on kingmaking.

This is just my assertion as to what the BGA rules should be.

I think the alternative (preventing multiple people in a household from all enjoying BGA) would be worse.

There is at least a hint from the post by nik to suggest that you can't enforce a rule like this simply because it stops partners legitimately using the site to play each other. I am saying it's only a restriction to play in an competitive setting against each other.

I believe 2 players playing from the same household should not be able to play competitively (arena) against each other. Simply because it's impossible to distinguish this from cheaters with multi accounts. Let alone that, if this happens then the 2 players have purposefully manipulated the pairing system to play each other.
Ultimately you don't really want this practice to take place under the shelter of white lies.
It's a common cheating practice with on-line games like this, and the 'oh it's just my brother' excuse.

[nik592]

I believe 2 players playing from the same household should not be able to play competitively (arena) against each other.

I mean, I don't need to play against my partner in Arena (he typically doesn't play Arena anyway), but how exactly would you enforce this? Anyone with a multi-account household can't play Arena? Arena filters people with your same IP (or who have ever had an IP in common with you, which I believe is the current determination for "same household")? Isn't that the same as the issue that people complain about with red thumbs, where you shouldn't be able to red thumb in the context of Arena to avoid certain players?

I'm not saying it's a bad plan, but if the solution to it means anyone in multi-account households can't play Arena, that doesn't seem a good solution. And other solutions (that I can see) seem problematic as well.

[RicardoRix]

If it's all about the Alt accounts thing, firstly I don't really understand why people do it, but it seems limited to the damage they can do if they are not actively playing against each other. Taking rightful top-spot spaces, possibly forcing games against their competitors. I guess alt-accounts may serve a legitimate purpose sometimes, but the alt-games should not be played in a competitive setting.

One possible solution to this I could see, is this. Accounts from the same household, only multiple premium accounts allowed for a given game. This at-least means if someone is wanting to cheat like this then they will be deterred by a pay wall.

If you and your partner want to both play Splendor arena together say. Then you'll both need premium accounts. If only one of you has premium then tough noogies for the non-premium account, you can't. You can still play different games however. I guess in that situation the premium player squashes the non-premium player. But they will soon be aware of that situation and will need to deal with the consequences together. If it's 2 non-premium accounts, then it's first come, first served. Again it's not that you can't play those games at all, just not in Arena.

And definitely can't play against each other in Arena. Is someone suggesting this is already enforced? (sounds like it might be).

In the OP there were 2 players, let's say they are different players from different households, but they are colluding with each other in Arena. I can't see why BGA can't at-least enforce that you cannot play 2 consecutive games against the same player. Most people would like this anyway for variety.
BGA already have ELO penalties for consecutive plays (with some nasty side-effects), but I don't see why they don't just enforce this on the pairing level in Arena. In really popular games like Ark Nova (OP) there are lots of potential players.

[nik592]

If you and your partner want to both play Splendor arena together say. Then you'll both need premium accounts. If only one of you has premium then tough noogies for the non-premium account, you can't. You can still play different games however. I guess in that situation the premium player squashes the non-premium player. But they will soon be aware of that situation and will need to deal with the consequences together. If it's 2 non-premium accounts, then it's first come, first served. Again it's not that you can't play those games at all, just not in Arena.

I'm still not clear how you mean. Assuming both non-premium, the first player to play Splendor Arena locks out the other forever? For the season? Only while they're playing an active Splendor Arena game?

To be clear, my partner seldom plays Arena, and if there was a paywall (because of me playing), he'd skip it for sure. I am currently premium, but we consider that a household subscription so we can play premium games (and also so we can play with our friends). Between us, I use BGA more, so mine is the premium account and I think we get our value from it, but we'd be unlikely to get value from my partner having one. But my point is, I don't care too much if Arena for multiple accounts in a household became premium - but I'm betting there are plenty of people who probably would (and I'd guess mostly from households where no one has a premium account).

In the OP there were 2 players, let's say they are different players from different households, but they are colluding with each other in Arena. I can't see why BGA can't at-least enforce that you cannot play 2 consecutive games against the same player. Most people would like this anyway for variety.
BGA already have ELO penalties for consecutive plays (with some nasty side-effects), but I don't see why they don't just enforce this on the pairing level in Arena. In really popular games like Ark Nova (OP) there are lots of potential players.

Oh please, YES! I have said this on multiple occasions, particularly in amongst the thread on the ELO changes. You have no ability to choose your opponent in Arena, yet I find myself paired against the same person over and over. While this doesn't especially affect my ELO (as I don't typically embark on huge win streaks), it does make games stale. I wish they would make it so it preferenced players you hadn't played before, at least in subsequent games, if not throughout the season. Sure, everyone can't play everyone, but the more unique match-ups, surely the more valid the result of the season?

[RicardoRix]

Locked out for a given season.

A paywall perhaps for the 2nd player to play exactly the same game in Arena. A very limited restriction. There are hundreds of games to choose from, and you don't just have to play Arena.

But this is all futile talk.
BGA don't play Arena, and they don't acknowledge sensible feedback from the user base. Look at the latest ELO penalties debacle and it might just be best practice to not ask for any changes at all. Very totalitarian when it comes to site-wide changes. At least this particular OP issue ended well.

[Jellby]

Do your realize premium does not mean paywall? You can get free premium from gift points by playing new games, for instance. It's some work, sure, but people wanting to cheat would do it (and honest people would probably not). You can even get gift points by getting new players to join BGA, which looks like the perfect way for alt-cheaters to get tons of free premium and work around any "paywall" restriction you could imagine.

[RicardoRix]

Well they can do it even easier currently without any barriers.
And because there are little to no barriers, lots of people join in without thought of any ramifications. And it will make it easier to spot when they do cheat.

Very naysayer. What work am I forcing honest people to do exactly?

Would you prefer to take the warnings down about joining tables with same household players because it might detract players from playing on those tables?

[Cile]

The easy solution would be the server just doesn't match players from the same household in arena. This wouldn't result in the "red thumb" issue because I have no way to tell BGA I'm from your household in order to avoid being matched with you in arena.

[richyfourtytwo]

I have no way to tell BGA I'm from your household in order to avoid being matched with you in arena.

Other than moving in with your archenemy of course!

[ChiefPointThief]

In the OP there were 2 players, let's say they are different players from different households, but they are colluding with each other in Arena. I can't see why BGA can't at-least enforce that you cannot play 2 consecutive games against the same player. Most people would like this anyway for variety.
BGA already have ELO penalties for consecutive plays (with some nasty side-effects), but I don't see why they don't just enforce this on the pairing level in Arena. In really popular games like Ark Nova (OP) there are lots of potential players.

This would be very bad for any game outside of the top 20 & games with more than 2p.

I do agree w/ the idea that accts in the same household shouldn’t be allowed to play in the same arena season. There are almost 1000 games here. If they both want to play in arena choose separate games.