Multiple Accounts -- What Are The Rules?

[Ranior]

Hello,

I'm writing this to get some clarification on the rules regarding one player having multiple accounts, and if it is tacitly allowed, what restrictions there are.

Under the Terms of Service portion the website, the answer seems fairly clear:

The Player agrees to hold only one account on BGA, unless otherwise approved by BGA. We reserve the right to terminate any multiple accounts attributable to the same person.

However, under the FAQ, the answer seems a bit different:

On Board Game Arena, it is absolutely forbidden to:

Create multiple accounts and play against oneself to boost one's ranking.

I'm partially asking this question as well because through the forums and just talking with other players, I've only ever seemed to see action be taken against players that very obviously are using multiple accounts to boost some ranking/rating and engaging in very obvious cheating. It seems that players that just have multiple accounts are not immediately banned by BGA. (Which to be fair is keeping within their terms of service, since nothing says they will take action if someone is found to have multiple accounts.)

It seems then the stance is basically that they don't care if someone is ethically using multiple accounts, but if anything nefarious is happening they'll then take action (at least if it is super obvious).

I'm also partially asking as I know some players have made alt accounts and played in arena seasons with them AND with their main account. Even if those accounts never directly play each other, I believe this behavior should not be allowed/tolerated, but I'm not sure what actions are currently taken for players that do this. I think having an admin lay out much more explicitly what is allowed would be good, partially so the rest of us also know what should/shouldn't be reported regarding multiple accounts. It also would be nice for those that want to multi account to know what the restrictions are.

I'm also curious what other users thoughts are on this subject. My personal stance is that multiple accounts are fine as long as you don't play yourself, and that you aren't playing with multiple accounts in the same game in the same arena season.

[MoiMagnus]

I agree that clear rules would be great, even if enforcement doesn't follows.

It would be very difficulty to enforce "no multiple account" rule strictly, as outside of cases of obvious cheating, there is no observable difference between two brother having two accounts but using the same computer, and one person using two accounts on the same computer.

[Hardin2000]

Every old core Red7 player know that I had 2 accounts. Since almost 1 year ago.

I play Arena with one account, and I play tournaments with other. I don't play against myself. I done that since arena S1, because on Arena S1 Red7 games was 4 player games, and tournaments was 2 players. And Arena was killing my ELO, so I created an account just for Arena, and surprise. I finished 2nd that season lol. And I'm using that account for Arena Red7 since then, even with change to 1x1.

I also use that account for Kingdomino 5x5 table and my main account for 7x7.
They are like 2 different games, and 5x5 was hurting my ELO so i think would be fair If I had my 5x5 Elo separated from 7x7 Elo.
Since I know that most of top 7x7 Kingdomino players don't play 5x5 anymore to not hurt their ELO's. 5x5 is a lot more random than 7x7.

So in this case i can have fun on both 5x5 and 7x7.

If I cheated I should be banned but i never cheated.

[N_Faker]

...there is no observable difference between two brother having two accounts but using the same computer, and one person using two accounts on the same computer.

There are, loads, for any account with some significant use.

[Ranior]

...there is no observable difference between two brother having two accounts but using the same computer, and one person using two accounts on the same computer.

There are, loads, for any account with some significant use.

Really, how so? I'm genuinely curious how you think this to be true.

Just even going by the example of the poster just above. He would seem to be using multiple accounts responsibly. How could you possibly know that his 7x7 kingdomino account and 5x5 kindomino account are not just two separate people with different preferences and instead is one person?

I agree that it's basically not possible to enforce multi account usage like that anyhow, which is why there's no real point in saying it's against the rules. I don't think it's cheating to do that. I think it's super obviously cheating if you play against yourself. I think it's cheating if you use multiple accounts in one arena season (particularly for multiplayer games where you can attempt to use your alt account to ruin high rated player's games while not caring about your own finish, in effort to effectively boost the main account's standings by pulling others down). But I see no way to detect, or harm, in the sort of multi account usage described by Hardin.

[N_Faker]

Really, how so? I'm genuinely curious how you think this to be true.

Because most people are creatures of habit. The more an account is used the more pronounced it becomes and the clearer the variation.

[whatshisbucket]

It seems then the stance is basically that they don't care if someone is ethically using multiple accounts, but if anything nefarious is happening they'll then take action (at least if it is super obvious).

I am not familiar with this concept. I have never seen sufficient action taken as a result of one of my reports of nefarious behavior, to the point where I have long since given up on reporting people.

[aesche]

Yes, caring about multiaccounting, as long as it‘s not directly playing at the same table, is absent on BGA, even if it‘s totally obviously abused to wreck fair players hard earned rewards, to the point where any competitive play is pointless.