A light at the end of the tunnel for SINS.

Let's do it to it!  Been here all along, and so have Dirty (WHiP), Fries, and a many other die hards. 

Thing is though, mains or not, I have softened my stance on smurf tolerance as there are still valid reasons that certain players don't want to play with a target on their back which I can empathize with, but only as long as its for that reason, and not to stack a team.  If they are reputable and play balanced team games, disclosing they're a smurf and leaving it at that would be ok with me as long as they play the game honorably and disclose:

1. They are smurfing.
2. When they think teams may be are unfair.
3. Who they are after the game ends.

I've been in game lobbies several times when players were playing under assumed identities and elected to promote evening the teams up in interests of a good match.  Point is that if you pretend to be a Dufus noob and you get in a game and end up rocking through space on a terror that consumes your side of the solar system, right off the bat everyone in the game is going to know your a disingenuous peen-head.  It should be a multiplayer rule that:

1. If you declare you're new (or NOT a smurf) and you obviously play way above your level you should be castrated.
2. If you declare you ARE a smurf but you just don't want to say who, you should self-exclude from being on an imbalanced team (or refer to Rule #1).

I haven't thought this through, but I'm onto something here...

Fair enough.

I still stand by the fact that the greatest witness the "die hards" can give is with an account that has hundreds of games.

People must see that this game is worth sticking around for. And they will see that, as we show  with our stats that we, the "die hards", have been and will be around for hundreds of games.

Long live SINS.

GAME ON.

I actually had 3 GAMES IN A ROW last weekend, some of them as large as 4v4!!! Sins may not be as dead as I and many others thought, it's more of a clinical death. Other games blow, blow hard. Don't play that starcraft dawn of war etc crap made for braindead 10 year olds. BACK TO SINS NOW! RESUSCITATE!! RESUSCITATE!!

A light and a horn at the end of the tunel, what can it be?

A train?:P

Sins is dead, stop kidding yourselves.

Ive seen fair numbers in Diplomacy lobbies lately. More than I can say for Entrenchment. I know alot of long time members and/or 'pros' left awhile back though. I think it be safe to say if they make a return and reduce their smurfing we might see more on ICO.

SMURFING AINT THE PROBLEM,GET THAT INTO YOUR HEADS! SINS IS DYING, AND SMURFING WAS ONLY 2% OF THE PROBLEM!

LOL, no its not. But it does discourage new players from playing on ICO. And maybe the SINS style you played is dying, but we can help if people dont wanna change their playstyle to something more friendly.

Well... you can have fun even with dead.

^

edit: I apologize for this comment.

Have you got any proof of that? does it really discourage new players from joining, make a poll on the forum or something, and once you have proof, please show me it. I dont mean to be rude, but I have had replies like yours from other people, and they dont give proof of it. 

I would be glad to make a poll if the fourms had such and option and if the majority of SINS players were active on this forums.

I can speak for my personal experience. That alone is enough for me to say its a problem. We could argue all day about it but the simple fact smurfing doesnt help.

When noobs get kicked out of games b/c their name isnt 'known' thats a problem. Its happend to me when I use my orginial name I had made before finding the fourms, instead of -Ue_Carbon. When I can spend anywhere from 20 mins to 1 hours in a game lobby while people hash out who is who, then try to 'balance' teams, then kick people b/c of friends hoping on during the hell that is setting up games.

Anyhow, on the same note. Can you provide proof that smurfing isnt not hurting the community and is a positive thing?

He can't. But to keep this on track...

Sunny, (AND EVERYONE ELSE) do you agree or disagree that a new player seeing 10-20 players with 200+ games would be good for this community?

Well, I'm certainly not the only one who's quit because he got annoyed by smurfs, so take that as a proof, Sunny. Sadly, I don't agree with Zoomers either. Sins won't revive (imo). Not because I left it for good, but rather because for every new player you might get the 'usual' decay of communities will outweigh that gain. And very very few new members are (and stay) as active as the ones you've lost/will lose.

I think I played more online games in sins then you have my friend, and I have NEVER heard smurfing to be a problem for beginners joining the game. Yes smurfing does get new people kicked out of games by mistake, I have been mistaken for a smurf many times when I started playing, but that didnt stop me from playing.

Smurfing isnt a positive thing, nor is it a negative thing (depending on the circumstances), but by a minority of people blaming it one one of the major points why ICO failed, is just ridiculous. stop going on about it, every post I look at blames smurfing, and there always the same few people. 

The major failure of sins on-line was because of mini dumps, yes they are fixed now, but the game play imbalances are annoying too. 

Anyhow, on the same note. Can you provide proof that smurfing isnt not hurting the community and is a positive thing?

too be fair to you, you started the whole smurfing business again in this forum, along with Zoomers and Proto. Ill tell you one thing positive about what smurfing has brought me, it allows me to play with my friends, and clan mates on the same team.

you might think that is stacking, well, i dont care, whats the point of me being in a clan, if i cant play in one. and please, dont give me that crap about you should do 'BIA vs games' because the amount of BIA players on at one time rarely is 5 players, so if I smurf, i can be with at least my other clan mates, and enjoy the game.

1 You don't see new people getting kicked as a problem because,

2 You are selfish, and so is smurfing. "me, me, my, i don't care, me, i, if i smurf, i, my"

Selfishness destroyed the community. (We and us and ours, not me and I and mine.)

And WE want it back!!!

wow calling me selfish zoomers, who else are you gonna piss off while you go on you crusade to stop smurfing?

you accuse us smurfs of being selfish and whom destroyed this community, but your the one spreading, and telling people smurfing was the reason which destroyed this community, zoomers your poison.

Zoomers blame me for the failure of ICO online, Please do. I used to help new players, train them to become better players, but I am to blame for the failure of ICO. I helped to arrange tournaments between clans for example, DT, DU, SOS, and other clan matchs to help make sins grow, but yet again, my selfishness ruined the community.

When the rule was implemented into stop kicking players out of games unless it said skilled, I was one of the first to implement that rule and stick to it, and still did to the end of my playing career. but once again zoomers, I ruined the sins community online. 

Zoomers, If I ruined the community, what did you do to help stimulate its growth? all I ever see you do is blame smurfing for the problems of ICO, post forum posts about 'the light at the end of the tunnel', but you have done nothing zoomers, except moan.

I tired to help ICO grow, but like you said, my selfishness ruined the community, it is now a crime to smurf and play with my own clan mates.

I just want to re point this out in my post that spawn this Blackhawk141,

I want to re-stress that I simply said reduce. Personaly smurfing is a major problem. But I know its not the only thing. But as you said in your post you and your friends create smurf accounts to play together to stack teams etc etc. That is my gripe with the smurfing. If you wanna play with friends why cant you use your main account or your secondary account. I dont see anything wrong with have 2 names you play under.

Simple reducing the potential for smurfing can only help everyone have better games. Noobs dont get stacked against pros. Etc. For while I looked for well know names to play against/with to learn but I never knew who was who to ask for help or a friendly game.

You need to smurf to play with your own clan? ROFLMAO

You need to smurf because most people don't want to play a clan. Pitting a clan against people that have not played together before is just an easy win. If you really like the challenge that you expect the other team to have, try it. If your so good try playing on a team with people you have not played with against a clan.

Yesterday (Sunday), about 60 ppl were playing Diplomacy all afternoon & evening, and I played my first 5v5 in Diplomacy.   I'd say it was going strong, and improving. 

Personally, I could care less about smurfs, and I think you guys seriously underestimate the amount of people playing SoaSE online.  Everytime you loose, you think its because of a 'pro' smurfing.  There's no way that you could know everyone playing. 

This game has a very fine line between a winning or loosing advantage, and often it is because of random factors such map balance that make a big difference.  So get over yourself, and quit blaming smurfs.

I smurf because I want to play with my own clan mates, believe me, I don't mean to stack teams, I gain no fun by stacking teams, but me smurfing to play with my own clan mates is rare, very rarem maybe once every 15 games.

If we use our main accounts, we cant play together, thats my point, having two BIA players on one team causes so much hassle in a 5v5 its unreal. all many people want to do is to play with there clan mates/ friends online, and sometimes, we cant do that.

People smurf for many reasons, I smurf to play with my clan mates, and to experiment with new tactics without using my main account, there is nothing wrong with it, this does not stop new people from playing.

I just purchased the game a few days ago, havent played online yet, I have played Rise of Nations(same basic principles as this game) online for years and always wanted to play better players. You dont learn anything from winning games, only from losing do we have the opportunity to learn from our mistakes. I welcome all smurfs, no better teachers.

Ok, so what if I got stuck playing with you on one of those rare chances? See...thats my point. Even if you do it rarely its still enough for someone to get the bad vibe.  Again Im not blaming all of ICO problems on smurfing. Again have a extra name to to whatever you want with is ok. I could keep track of 2 names more than 10+ for an example.

And I dont get the logic behind having to smurf to play with clan mates? Is it b/c no one will wanna play with yall when you use your main accounts?

Im not trying to get everyone to stop smurfing 100%, I can understand it form certain perspectives. But I also alot of ICO players dont active participate here on the forums. So, when they see others doing it, they copy it. Monkey see, Monkey do.There is smurf abuse, no one can deny it. Im not saying its anyone here or is...b/c I dont know honestly. LOL.

There are other issues with ICO but smurfing is something as individuals we can remedy. If we collectivly frown apon the creation on more than 2 account names then you can only strengthen the group of people we currently have on ICO.

Then again maybe I have it wrong...but I have the mentality knowing people by their nicknames and having small talk only increases the fun on can have while playing. After all I play to have fun.

Smurfing isn't the problem. Thats only the excuse that the "Pro" people make when they lose just to keep up their reputation.

"I lost because i was feeding this guy and he wasted it all"

"I'm winning but we lost this game cause of that guy"

"I'm losing because I didn't try hard enough because i didn't know he was a smurf" - what

"I had a bad start so I lost"

"You only won because that unit is bugged. It's not gonna work after next patch when it gets nerfed. So im still better than you"

"Hahahaha You can't even finish me off, what a noob"

 "Wow, I didn't get enough feed."

"omg this game was finished before it even started"

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!

It really got boring. it's this every single game

Sunny I said selfishness destroyed the community, not Sunny's selfishness. There is a difference.

All this post is about is an invite for people to bring their main accounts.  Show by your stats not your smurfs that this game is worth playing hundreds of times.

If you don't agree that can help, fine, move on.

I think it will help, who else does?

Hahaha, wow, i'm so shocked, zoomers making a crusade against smurfs, you're persistent and resilient, because obviously your 400 other forum posts haven't fixed a damn thing.