Suggestion: remove the option to create multiple players

Having shared my computer (and therefore games) with two brothers for many years, I can tell you having multiple nicknames is always nice when there are in fact multiple people using the account.  My brothers rarely play Sins, but when they do they certainly don't want to be Darvin, nor do I want them to be.

Perhaps having a master account that all subsequently created accounts are children of-- could be accessed by checking player information maybe? Is this really that big of a problem?

DrGonzo

even if you could only have 1 account at a time what would stop ppl form deleting and remakeing accounts?

That would have been my suggestion. Or as said above, worst case your name and your clan prefix and a choice of if you are playing as a clanner or a normal. But the multiple user thing would be an issue for ppl who share...

Best way IMHO is to add to the player info if it shows your master account. So even if you have more than 1 name, ppl can still see the master account that is tied to that specific name.

Yep, that's a terrific idea. 

In AoE3 you got one account, if you wanted another, you had to buy another copy....

I'm so tired of these I'm not gonna botehr writttign you a reply. I'll copy paste my self.

Smurf or not teams are stacked. If you dont smurf in some cases everyone wants to be on your team and the game can't start. I wanna be able to play games without people fighting to know if they will be on my team or not. Also smurfs do ahve a possitive note. It gives new people a chanse to start playing. I have experience in otehr games were if you were new you would get booted out fo a room because you weren'T concidered good enought. With smurfs you dunno if it'S a pro or a new guy so the new guys get their chance.

Also true. Just about nothing in life is fair.

Dr.Gonzo

I think most players could live with 2 or 3 names.  1 is kind of harsh.  As people change clans, they don't want to have to delete their name to create a new name with clan tags.  I could still live with 1  -- however dedicated smurfs will just delete and recreate names in their 1 slot.  It would cut down on smurfing though.

Just limit the max. player to 2-3 but what is so hard about showing the account name behind the smurf name? At least that way you could keep track of smurfs. I'm really pissed about smurfing. I'm pissed when I get smurfed (like anyone, I guess), but I'm pissed when my team is smurfing as well and stomping the other one into oblivion. Yes, getting a game going with a tag can be hard at times, tell me about it. But that's no excuse for that bs. And since the community in its whole isn't mature enough to cut it down by itself I'm simply asking for a restriction by a hopefully more wise fraction, i.e. the devs.

If people complain about your uber clan tags just offer to take the worst player into your team or play 3v4 or whatever, it's definitely not impossible to play without smurfs, I've done it since I started playing, so anyone can do it. Just stop acting like 14yr old jerks and you'll be fine (directed to noone specifically in this discussion, rather to the community as a whole).

Btw, Cykur: atm they have to delete/rename as well in order to play with a clan tag, so it wouldn't exactly be worse than it is now. If you want to keep your stats there's no way at the moment to change your name when you join a new clan.

Azrak, it sounds like you should limit yourself to pug-only games that require players to have a minimum of 20 games player or some such.

Well, for one thing there are more than enough smurfs around with enough games for that. Aside of that it wouldn't fix the problem but rather enable those who've already established themselves online (i.e. they got friends there) to circumvent it.

Is it so hard to understand that I want that issue fixed just because it is wrong?

Of course...you know, I wasn't arguing with you.  I was just saying having 1 name might be a bit harsh.  A good way to handle it would be to have your clan designation in a different field.  That way your name wouldn't change, just the clan field.  Then no one would need more than 1 name unless they had other people playing their install.

True, but that's sort of different from the issue of smurfs I was originally talking about

At least it wouldn't fix the problem that most people smurf intentionally and not just to let their siblings/partners play or change their clan.

Nontheless another good suggestion

Smurfing is the whole reason PUGs suck -- if you are a fan of PuGs, you would spend as much energy trying to stomp out  Smurfing as you do promoting PuGS.  The amount of played games is irrelevant because of how easily manipulated the numbers are -- being a well known player is the thing which matters.

Yeah, but if you rely on PUGs filling up with people you really know or someone you know can vouch for, it makes Sins being even harder to play online than it already is (which is close to impossible, then). I've been in maybe..12 pug games that were close to being filled with well-known people, but I'd say that in 99% you're forced to let 1-2 unknown players in for the sake of getting the game going in less than 30minutes.

More than improving the balance of pugs, though, I think it's important to further increase the need of reputation and decent sportsmanship online. Stats might be an indicator of skill (if it weren't for the fact that you can easily fake those), but the only indicator of the personality of your enemy is his name and the reputation it's got. With me being someone playing this game simply for the sake of having fun competing with other people (as is the way it's intended, I think) smurfing makes this close to impossible. And since the solution for that is really simple, I just thought the suggestion might be worthwhile.

yes, this is the primary issue:  sportsmanship and decency.  This is severely lacking since people smurf and act poorly, ruining the environment of the game, with little chance of reprisal/repercussions.  Something needs to be done to address this.

I agree in a way to this option, but maybe to make everyone happy allow there to be 2 accounts.  I played an online game called Tanarus for almost 10 years and it had a couple good things about it.

1.) You only were allowed 2 accounts.

2.) Once a name was created, there were certain features allowed.

3.) You could zero (clear all stats from the name, only allowed 3 times for good) or rename (this could only be done once a week)

4.) They had a team feature, where there were team leaders who could invite people.  Also a team roster, with all the players and all of there combined stats would be the team stats.

5.) Daily, weekly, and monthly scores.  Based on points in that game, but could be done by wins in this game, like a leaderboard.  This feature is for individuals and team stats.

Basically I think all these should be incorporated in some way.  But as for login names, I think 2 should be the maximum, to allow people at least one to goof around on in a non-smurfing way, to test out new strategies.

Before you do ANYTHING like a hard core ranking system to ICO, you  need to fix the basic flaws that plague ICO whole time.

Like...Siddy

1 nickname per account should be more than enough????? is no nickname enough ?

let the smurfs be smurfs dont make them a dying breed you gargamel

smurfs are a big fun coefficient if they are in a  team that seems to be bad and the other is stucked

I stil say, if when you clicked on Player Info, it would show you the main account name. So you could have as many Nickname as you want but would you allow to see smurfs and/or troublemakers cuz you could just remember one account name.

For Example, I play under -Ue_Carbon 99% of the time on ICO. But my master account name is Children_Of_Dust. So if I joined a game under any name and you clicked on my Player Info you would see my master account name 'Children_Of_Dust' in my player info along side my stats and ping.

Hope that makes sense.

Maybe you could change your name but not your stats like in single player. So even if you change your name the stats stay the same. Does that make sense? It would not allow smurfing but give players the freedom to change their name or add a clan tag. Perhaps if you had multiple people playing your game you could pay an extra $2 or something for a second account.

No, 0 nicknames are not enough, but I guess despite your sophisticated argumentation you already knew that. Smurfing might be fun (in the same way that ganging up on a fat kid in school is fun) but it is unmannered and immature at best and plainly pitiful at worst. The only "valid" arguments for smurfing are:

1) The need for multiple nicknames due to different persons playing from that account (as stated by Darvin3).

2) Unable to get a game going because you are such a 1337 clan-/professional-gamer that noone wants to be in the enemy team

3) Noone wants to play with your main nick because you acted like a jerk.

As for 1) As already suggested displaying the account name as well as the player nick would solve that problem for both sides. Having as many nicks as you want on the one side and still be able to identify smurfs -> everyone's happy

Regarding 2) That's plain wrong. Take JJ for example. He'd one of the best player without a doubt and stopped smurfing quite a while ago. He's still playing a lot of games. Besides, if you want to play with friends/clanmates who are obviously better than the rest of the pool, just offer to take the worst player in your team or play 3v4 or something like that to even the odds. Show some sportsmanship instead of smurfing due to cowardice.

3) Most likey you are a jerk then. Sorry to be so blunt, but a new nick won't help there. At least act like a man and let people make their own choice if they want to play with you or not.

PLZ dont become personal let this discussion on the factual level

i will ignore comments like this

" Smurfing might be fun (in the same way that ganging up on a fat kid in school is fun)"  by Azrak

from you becuase that implement i shoud have such experiences but i havent

however peopel will decide on there own how they will deal with smurfs its a free choice from everyone

you arent abel to order it  the game regulated themself by public opinion. let ICO out

· smurfe can be a strategic intention for acquisition informations about enemys this gives the game a higher reach.

· smurfes gives you the facility to prove new innovative strategies below cover your identity if you need time to develop them till they get working in a real surrounding^^

there are many more reasons why iam smurfing,

at least i respect the decision of hosts that dont want have smurfs ingame

i also understand your objection but below the line the smurf thing isnt such a big problem for the community in my opinion and it  looks like this topic makes to big waves its out of relation.

i realy have not loose many games becuase somone was smurfing on the other team and if i have i life with that.

i have a ♥ for smurfs becuase i understand their right to exist