Scipaeus wrote:I've climbed the TtA ladder by playing 1v1 games, and occasionally I'd like to play 4 player games, but since that's mostly an elo-losing endeavor (if only because should anyone quit/time out, I would lose a lot of points) I'd like to make a second account to play those with.
It's not technically against the rules to have a second account if you aren't using it for cheating, but you have to be careful about doing anything that looks suspicious. Under normal circumstances, just avoiding loss of ELO I'd call "unfair" if not cheating, and as someone pointed out, it does screw with the people you're playing with since you'd be starting over looking like a beginner to the game. If games were restricted, you also wouldn't be able to get into games more appropriate at your level. So I don't think I'd do it.
You could put out your own invites with ELO off. There's nothing wrong with that if you're teaching it to someone else or that sort of thing. There's "good" reasons to play with ELO off. If your real concern is that tie situation you get when someone quits the game, I can't say I blame you for that, because that is unfair to start with. In my opinion, the solution to that is being able to not participate in that tie, not to have to avoid playing 4 player with ELO on. (In fact, I keep meaning to post about that very issue, though it'd be about turn-based games where the whole situation is different.)
I would ignore the comments about how important ELO is. It's important to some people and not to others. If no one cared about it at all, they wouldn't bother having it here. You can care about your ELO without losing sleep over or making it the most important issue on the face of the earth. I can "care" about something without it taking over my life or losing any sleep over it. You can take it to extremes, but if you don't, I see nothing wrong with caring about it to an extent.
