On multis and mules...

Day 1,681, 13:15 • Published in Ireland Ireland • by Death and Taxes


Urban dictionary defines

multi 'Online Gaming - A multiple account, player, or character.
Coolkid5, you are such a multi of coolkid1, 2, 3, and 4!'

mule 'A carrier of things for someone else; often used to refer to a carrier of illegal drugs, or a video game character who functions as a holding space for items for another character. Mulebob is a 1st level character who's a mule for all our gear that we haven't sold yet.'

eRepublik law 3. Creating or administrating multiple citizen accounts is prohibited.

Penalties that apply are:
Gold fine (Gold may subtracted from your account);
skill penalty (your citizen account attributes may be lowered);
temporary or even permanent suspensions (your access to your citizen or organization account may be blocked for period of time).

One of things I noticed in Boot Camp was the sheer amount of accounts that got banned because of multiple account infringements. You can always see what an individual is banned for by hovering over the 'permanently banned' logo on the citizen account. What we don't see however, is the collateral damage that occurs, because one can assume that not only is the mule account banned, but the originating account goes with it. Losing a low level account is of little consequence, but the high level one that originated it, is a far more serious affair.



So why do people do it? Well, the main reason is for gold generation (there are others) All multis are nearly always generated by 'friends' links through their originating account. So a handy tip on looking at brand new citizens is who is on their friends list. Their first friend always comes from the originating account, if the link doesn't make sense, or indeed, if you've seen the same 'friend' on a regular basis, then you can be pretty suspicious.

An account like this will generate 1.9 gold after 20 levels for the originating account. Hardly worthwhile. But what tends to happen is that the multi sends back the 19 gold generated in level advancement to the parent account as well. It's at this point that I reckon Plato puts the foot down and closes all accounts.

Of the 25 recruits who left Boot Camp, 2 have been banned for multiple accounts. Of the ones that didn't even get to that point, I would say we've seen about 75 banned accounts in 5 months. The 2 that did get banned comprised of one individual who wasn't patient enough to get her companies up and running, and another individual who thought they could beat the house.



In the long run in eRepublik just like in casinos the house always win. For new or newish players, do not fall for the easy lure that is generating multiple accounts. You will be spotted and you will be burned. I'm sure there are many cases of experienced player flipping the house and running the risk, but the danger of losing an account that you have spent months on, it's just not worth it...