68 replies to this topic

[Mystere]

JC Daxion, on 26 September 2017 - 10:11 AM, said:

But i find it very odd about the whole personal info thing.. You have personal info on your CC no? We used to have these things called phone books.. Is your account not tied to your name?

these days.. it's OMG register software?? the humanity! Sometimes gamers totally baffle me..

I have one word for you: Equifax.

I hope you were not affected.

LordNothing, on 26 September 2017 - 10:20 AM, said:

... cell phone ownership is not 100%. i will own one over my dead body (and the bodies of those who dared force me into such indentured servitude)....

Mystere, on 26 September 2017 - 09:18 AM, said:

... all the cellphones I have ever had were all gifted to me and which I subsequently placed blocks on any and all calls except from a very short list of people.

[VonBruinwald]

JC Daxion, on 26 September 2017 - 01:18 AM, said:

Or perhaps, You would need to link the game to a steam account? (i know some people wouldn't like that idea) But in the end, if it stopped the FAKE accounts would it be worth it?

Linking it to a Steam account is stupid, people should be forced to link it to a Steam account, an Origin account, a UPlay account and a MySpace account. That way we have 5 factor authentication to keep the FAKE accounts to a minimum.

[Yellonet]

Phone number... don't make me laugh.
What I'd like to see though is membership being awarded through a written letter asking for membership, only after you've been recommended by at least three current members.
As for members they should be required to hand over access to their accounts for social media, youtube and whatever else PGI feels is necessary to conduct a proper investigation on the character of the person seeking membership.

[Nameless King]

JC Daxion, on 26 September 2017 - 07:58 AM, said:

Umm so you don't have a phone? or access to a phone? But seeing you spent 1k dollars.. I don't think you are understanding the whole point.. And account with 100's of hours of play is not the issue. Your account would already be verified because you spent money..


Not exactly sure what you have against a verification system. Don't you have to verify when you spend money on the game?




Yea they are easy.. but to switch your number every other day? I'm sure your phone provider would love you..


I also said tie to steam account as another option.. are people going to make a steam account every few days, and then a MWO account just to grief? steam has account verification already, doesn't seam to be hurting their businesses.

Lol phone provider that is funny. You dont need a provider to get a number and you can change the number 100s of times per hour with no problem.

Also setting up a steam account would be easy also.

Nice try but still would be a minor inconvenience at best.

[Cloves]

Credit cards have fraud protection, we are a small community, so it's not like most FTP games where we have a constant flow of little kids as entry fodder. No charges needed, they can just verify the number. Yes folks can get more cards, but then they are risking federal prosecution for fraud if they constantly do it.

[JC Daxion]

Cathy, on 26 September 2017 - 10:35 AM, said:

So for a few idiots in the game people are wanting every single person restricted to one account, that would stop fun events like What mech R you, from happening.

SMH

where did i say restrict everyone to one account? How on earth is what i said, limit to one account? Well i guess if you got banned, then yea maybe what you did would ban all your accounts. But no, I said nothing of the sort.



Personally i hate FTP games because of the trolling, and zero accountability. People act like jerks and then just make a new account by setting up a dummy e-mail as it is free. But as soon as you start charging someone for being a jerk it tends to curb behavior a bit. Not completely but it does help.

This is actually the only FTP game I've ever played. Every other FTP game that i can play, every single one i actually bought the game first and it went FTP later.



My actual solution to the whole thing would be Make the game a Demo, and the demo you can play a fairly active training ground with some BOT AI's to check it out, and then also using Testing grounds to look at all the maps. To actually Launch into the game you should have to make some sort of purchase. That purchase could come with things, like perhaps a choice of a mech, paint.. ect.

Even a cost of 5-10 bucks would stop a lot of the idiotic behavior that happens in the new player realm.

I see complaints all the time on the steam forums about new players getting trolled by TKers, or vets that just keep making alts to play at low levels and play like gods against them. It is a new player issue, and i think it hurts retention to begin with.

I'm all about cheap games too, so i don't want it to be high, but even a minor transaction would stop a lot of what is happening. Could some troll spend 100-200 bucks and just keep making accounts? Sure, but it would be a lot harder when then kept having to find new ways to pay.


@anti steam folks, i have to wonder if people are just anti everything? So many games these days are either steam only, or electronic store only.. In a few more years i'll be surprised if you will even be able to buy a game in any other way than a digital store outside of a console. I have a pretty large list of games, that i could never even play unless i had steam.. Unless of course you just steal them, but that is what has lead to a lot of the online DRM which so many people rage about, and why so many games are server based these days. This game can't be pirated, though many can.

Mystere, on 26 September 2017 - 10:41 AM, said:

I have one word for you: Equifax.

I hope you were not affected.

Is your credit not already frozen before that?

[Mechteric]

No, phone numbers would be just as easy to spoof as emails.


Really the only thing they can do is come up with better ways to automatically detect and disable accounts that are taking advantage of the game. Either that or require all new accounts go through the tutorials before being allowed in multiplayer.

[JC Daxion]

King Alen, on 26 September 2017 - 11:42 AM, said:

Lol phone provider that is funny. You dont need a provider to get a number and you can change the number 100s of times per hour with no problem.

Also setting up a steam account would be easy also.

Nice try but still would be a minor inconvenience at best.

i said a FEE first.. But i figured the anti FEE people would be out in force.. Funny... It was the ANTI authentication folks instead. But i guess i am not up on the latest way phones work.. I had the same one for like 20 years... (yes a cell) I did just switch like 2 years ago though cause i bought a fancy new flip phone.. It can send a text! (my previous phone could not) #oldschool


I guess i don't think like a scammer..

Edited by JC Daxion, 26 September 2017 - 12:22 PM.

[Nemesis Duck]

In Canuckland, aka Rampant Capitalism Ville, once you give your phone number to a company you also give them permission to sell your phone number to solicitors, or open yourself to solicitation from the company itself, hense people give false numbers to companies to protect themselves from what amounts to harrasment. (Calls at inappropiate times). The solution is to add your number to a national Do Not Call List that companies asked to respect in a friendly manner. If a person's phone number is on the list and they still get solicited to then the onus is on the person to submit a complaint into the ether and hope for the best. Some organizations are exempt from adhering to the list so people will still receive unwanted solicitations even though they don't want them which makes this proposal is equivalent to a belly up orca in the Salish Sea.

[Bill Lumbar]

Ummmm yeah....... Ummm no, didn't you get the memo?

Maybe they could start making you buy a dna usb stick and and insert it into a rig with only usb 3 or higher, and you have to make a deposit prior to you logging into play the game? This would kill two birds with one stone, stop the people with potatoes from playing the game anymore, and also confirm who you are, and how high your count is? Maybe a new skill ranking system can be made based on your count? 3 birds with one stone???

Edited by Bill Lumbar, 26 September 2017 - 03:08 PM.

[DivineTomatoes]

There is no way in hell I'm giving pgi my phone number.

God only knows where it will end up, knowing PGIs incompetence it'll be nowhere good.

[Nameless King]

JC Daxion, on 26 September 2017 - 12:05 PM, said:

i said a FEE first.. But i figured the anti FEE people would be out in force.. Funny... It was the ANTI authentication folks instead. But i guess i am not up on the latest way phones work.. I had the same one for like 20 years... (yes a cell) I did just switch like 2 years ago though cause i bought a fancy new flip phone.. It can send a text! (my previous phone could not) #oldschool I guess i don't think like a scammer..

I am not against anything just said a phone number would not work

[PurpleNinja]

What is exactly the problem here?
A single person with multiple accounts?
How is that hurting the game?

[ANOM O MECH]

JC Daxion, on 26 September 2017 - 01:18 AM, said:

So i mentioned this in another thread. The whole FTP, just make another account deal. You can make new e-mails often enough, but phone numbers are a little bit harder right?  So why not add a phone number and it sends you an activation code through a text?

I do realize that people could just ask friends for their phones and get numbers that way, but how many times are they going to do that? Would others be ok with letting them make new accounts attaching the account to their phone?

Another thought i was pondering was attaching it to an MC purchase, which means you'd have to use a name and a CC right?  Would it be to much to say, look we are a FTP game, but if you want to get out of cadet, you need to pay 7 bucks..  Heck maybe even make a special package that adds some bays, and some paint, or a pick your own One shot camo or something.


The point is, anyone legit making an account could still easily do it, and it would be very cheap.. But someone making account after account, would end up paying money, and i'd have to think eventually run out of people to borrow their phones.  (i'm thinking something like steam gaurd for example)  

Or perhaps, You would need to link the game to a steam account?  (i know some people wouldn't like that idea)  But in the end, if it stopped the FAKE accounts would it be worth it?

Absolutely not. Information is already a commodity and your phone number is up there as far as value to marketers. There really is not enough issues to warrant something so extreme.

[kuma8877]

The problem has been getting growing attention for several weeks on FB and here. As should be obvious, it's affecting lower tier players the most, which is not good for new player retention if they run into them several times (evidence points to a group according to the FB groups findings). So, there is a possible monetary loss for PGI as long as the problem persists (not in general, but this particular group).

If the players are logging in thru Steam, should be possible to ask for an account lockdown, taking away their entire paid for library there. I personally think the problem could be cleared up a bit by restructuring the NPE to involve more time to get to the PVP. Maybe it's a chance to freshen up and add some extra explanation to a one time mandatory Academy visit for new accounts. More info is good for the new player, a mild discomfort to the smurf, but considerably more frustrating for a griefer with each new attempt to troll.

[Lupis Volk]

JC Daxion, on 26 September 2017 - 01:18 AM, said:

So i mentioned this in another thread. The whole FTP, just make another account deal. You can make new e-mails often enough, but phone numbers are a little bit harder right? So why not add a phone number and it sends you an activation code through a text?

I do realize that people could just ask friends for their phones and get numbers that way, but how many times are they going to do that? Would others be ok with letting them make new accounts attaching the account to their phone?

Another thought i was pondering was attaching it to an MC purchase, which means you'd have to use a name and a CC right? Would it be to much to say, look we are a FTP game, but if you want to get out of cadet, you need to pay 7 bucks.. Heck maybe even make a special package that adds some bays, and some paint, or a pick your own One shot camo or something.


The point is, anyone legit making an account could still easily do it, and it would be very cheap.. But someone making account after account, would end up paying money, and i'd have to think eventually run out of people to borrow their phones. (i'm thinking something like steam gaurd for example)

Or perhaps, You would need to link the game to a steam account? (i know some people wouldn't like that idea) But in the end, if it stopped the FAKE accounts would it be worth it?

How about NO! I've used the phone one and it's only worked once. ONCE and now i can't access that email account. So how about you harden up and come to the realisation that there's nothing that can be done aside from more draconian rules and enforcers for said rules.

Edited by Lupis Volk, 26 September 2017 - 08:07 PM.

[panzer1b]

This is stupid. The biggest thing is that not everyone even HAS a cell phone (and even if i was willing to type my home phone into a game, i cant recieve codes on there), and even those that do, not everyone wants to have their gaming linked with real life.

One thing that might work is computer identification (there are other games that do it, not foolproof but you need to actually know what ur doing to hack past this). Again, NOTHING is fully hacker proof, and if someone really wants to get a new account, THEY WILL find a way (just like how virtually everything can be pirated/cracked/hacked, it just requires a good deal of effort to do it).

Anyways, i have not noticed this "duplicate account spam" problem you guys are talking about. Yeah there are a FEW trolls (what MMO doesnt have them), but most of them never leave T5, get banned sooner or later, and honestly, they are a far lower concern of mine then MM in general (too many stomps).

Finally, requiring some sort of money to open an account is stupid for a game that has a severe population problem in the first place. Im a F2P player, not by choice, but by a lack of considerable disposable income (and what little i get, i use on real life things that i cannot get free like paying for internet). Do you really want to alienate players that enjoy this game but because of real life reasons simply cannot afford to pay real money for it?

TLDR: dumbest idea ive heard in a while on these forums, even dumber then some of the proposed balance changes the potatos keep trying to push.

Edited by panzer1b, 26 September 2017 - 08:10 PM.

[Black Ivan]

I'm for every solution that prevents people like the Kodiak 3 Teamkillers to get into the game again and again

[Lupis Volk]

Black Ivan, on 26 September 2017 - 11:14 PM, said:

I'm for every solution that prevents people like the Kodiak 3 Teamkillers to get into the game again and again

i'm for people growing up and stop acting like thin skinned snowflakes. Other F2P games have this issue and they're no where near as whiny about this issue than you lot. Must be because they've acknowledge that this is a small issue.

[JC Daxion]

PurpleNinja, on 26 September 2017 - 04:44 PM, said:

What is exactly the problem here?
A single person with multiple accounts?
How is that hurting the game?

LOL i never said that.. I followed up with i never said that.. and again someone says it again.

panzer1b, on 26 September 2017 - 08:07 PM, said:

Anyways, i have not noticed this "duplicate account spam" problem you guys are talking about. Yeah there are a FEW trolls (what MMO doesnt have them), but most of them never leave T5, get banned sooner or later, and honestly, they are a far lower concern of mine then MM in general (too many stomps).

Finally, requiring some sort of money to open an account is stupid for a game that has a severe population problem in the first place. Im a F2P player, not by choice, but by a lack of considerable disposable income (and what little i get, i use on real life things that i cannot get free like paying for internet). Do you really want to alienate players that enjoy this game but because of real life reasons simply cannot afford to pay real money for it?

well they did change the leader boards because of people just making brand new accounts to get to the top of them for a single match. So obviously it was an issue enough for them to change that.


as for the no money thing.. Yes i get not having money, I am not rich by any stretch and i'm sure most people would be shocked if you knew how much money i actually lived on. that said, If your playing this game you do have a decent computer, and an internet connection.. A few bucks is what is going to stop you?




The funny part is i just tossed the phone number part in there because i figured how outraged people would be at the nerve of saying charge 5 bucks.. But instead its OMG someone has my number! Most of the take out food joints in my area ask for your number. you walk in and give um the last 4 digits and you get your food.

Its never food joints that bug me.. Its mostly charities looking for money, or IRS scams. But that is what answering machines are for.. Turn that ringer off and call screen.. I've been doing that since the 80's.

panzer1b, on 26 September 2017 - 08:07 PM, said:

One thing that might work is computer identification (there are other games that do it, not foolproof but you need to actually know what ur doing to hack past this). Again, NOTHING is fully hacker proof, and if someone really wants to get a new account, THEY WILL find a way (just like how virtually everything can be pirated/cracked/hacked, it just requires a good deal of effort to do it).

Well at least you did get the point of the thread.. Is it time for PGI to do something about account scumming and if so how..

Edited by JC Daxion, 27 September 2017 - 01:50 AM.