Account sharing

So I was having this discussion with another player, and the game rules don’t seem to be conclusive on the issue. So, I’ll ask here :smiley:

Is it allowed to give an ally your login data so he can make moves while you are away?

Me, I’m quite linear in this. One account is one person. Part of the challenge of the game is coordinating with enough people to win, but not too many to make communications impossible. Sharing account info sabotages that, I feel.
My friend, however, argues it’s a game of tactics and not a pissing contest in sleep deprivation. If you have a consenting ally, why not let him perform some planned actions while you sleep?

Convinced that despite the justification it would be against the rules, I told him so. And then I checked. Maybe next time, I’ll learn to do it in the other order, so I don’t get made a fool of in discussions so often. Probably not :stuck_out_tongue:

Here’s what I can find in the rules:
You must not:
(2) Use another’s name, username or password without their permission;
(7) Collect any information about other users or members (including usernames and/or email addresses);

(from Iron Helmet Games)

In the “acceptable behavior” bit from the ingame FAQ:
“Public accusations of a player using more that one account in a game cannot be proven and so should not be speculated. It’s offensive to accuse somebody of cheating when they are playing fairly”

None of these items prohibit me giving my ally my login information, or him using that. Item (2) only prohibits you from logging in without permission. Item (7) seems to be aimed at datamining, otherwise the exchange of contact information to do external chat should also be prohibited. The FAQ bit only makes it illegal to accuse somebody of doing it, but doesn’t say anything about the act itself.

So which is it? Am I a stickler who really needs to come off that high horse, or is my friend a dirty rotten cheater? :nerd:

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That’s weak, I’d call it cheating.

But seriously, play turn based games. It evens the playing field and IMO makes for a more strategic game. I pretty-much wish the real time games would go away, since they encourage either sleep deprivation or this kind of cheating. There’s no getting around the fact that in a real-time game players who can check the game more ticks/hours than others have a definite advantage.

Either way, like the FAQ says, if you do this you’re almost certainly not going to get caught, so it’s kind-of up to you and your conscience :slight_smile:

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I don’t see how this could be considered cheating. I had a friend who had a medical emergency who had another friend log in for them so he didn’t lose months of work in a big game and go AFK. I am fairly certain anyone in a game would prefer a player to stay in the game instead of go AFK and turn into a stupid AI that messes up the balance. I agree with the sleep deprivation comment, but the turn based games are annoying as you are unable to react at all and they move soooo slowly, so you lose a lot of strategy there.

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In my opinion one account one person. No logging in for others.

Also, if you have multiple accounts you should only have one playing in any one game.

Sure, the emergency thing sounds more than valid to me.

Turn based matches totally rock. If you choose only 2 turns per production round, you got to organize quite some stuff in a fairly big match. And if you reduce the turn limit to 18h (for 12h you barely find players), it has quite some busyness. Especially, if you talk to people and trade/coordinate stuff. And you get sleep plus a RL. Plus you do not need to worry about shared accounts of others^^