The Economist ~ Admin endorsed cheating
Spite313
Dear friends,
I’ve thought long and hard about this, and I’ve finally decided to write this article. It’s an issue all of you know about, all of you encounter each day. But it’s become so accepted in today’s eRepublik that nobody even blinks an eye anymore, let alone reports it. Admin endorsed cheating has become such a mainstay of our lives that we’ve just got used to it. I am of course talking about the trend of buying accounts from other players using real money.
Buying accounts is expressly forbidden in the eRepublik rules. Actually unlike most games, sitting, gifting or otherwise transferring an account is expressly forbidden. Back when I started playing eRep (when there was no such thing as a “temp ban”) any sort of activity like this resulted in a permanent ban. Yet these days most offences result in a temp ban. It says “investigating” but really regardless of whether the person is found guilty or not they will be unbanned.
For those of us who play the game legitimately, this is very annoying. It is essentially saying that “crime pays”, and that breaking the rules is worth the risk. Once, being caught cheating would result in your friends and fellow players condemning you. But it’s become so commonplace today that everything from multi accounting, to account buying, to scripting has become socially acceptable in our community. I think this is wrong, and point the finger of blame firmly at the admins for this change.
I’m going to illustrate my case with perhaps the most famous case of account buying in the last year or so. Max McFarland II was a very famous player in the USA during V1, and participated in many wars. He was famous as perhaps the first major gold buyer in the world- buying most of the USA’s state companies using his credit card. He was the first player funded tank as well. He is, without a doubt, one of the most famous players ever to have lived. Here is his wiki page and here is his dead account.
Lonestar was a very famous Swedish player who joined the game as part of Flashback in early beta. He spent almost 5 years playing the game at every level, from CP, MoD, alliance HQ and finally rose inside of eRep to become a game moderator. I know from when I was a mod myself that Lonestar was a level 3 game mod, the highest level. He had access to every tool available. He dealt with admins on a daily basis, communicating with them via irc, email, skype etc. Several had him as a friend on facebook. He was a guy they all knew.
Then he sold his account to Max. If you click the link on his wiki page (his name) it links to the ingame profile of Max McFarland 3. This account was born before Max 2 anyway, so it’s immediately obvious it’s a bought account. In addition, it is impossible to claim that it’s still Lonestar, since first of all he never made that claim (unlike other unscrupulous players who try to steal identities along with accounts), and secondly nobody would change their name to Max McFarland 3 unless they were Max. They just wouldn’t.
What makes this especially bad however is that the admins KNOW that Lonestar sold his account illegally, they KNOW that Max is using it now. It’s impossible for them not to know. They can claim ignorance with Scymex (yes the Scymex I fought with in 2009 is not the Scymex of today) or the other top tanks (Battalgazi...why did you sell your acc to such a moron onrche?). However it’s totally impossible for them to claim that they are unaware that their top mod is no longer playing, especially when he had to request they remove his powers before he handed the account over.
But that’s not the worst bit. Ambassador accounts, other mods, senior players who translated the game into their languages. Players holding these accounts have all left and sold their accounts on. And the admins just turn a blind eye. Now personally I don’t actually have a huge problem with passing an account on, though I wouldn’t do it myself. But the point is that once again the rules are applied differently to different people.
In parts of the world corruption is rife, and to get faster appointment at the doctors or jump the queue at a border, you can offer a “gift” or bribe to someone. The sad situation is that eRep has turned into a banana republic where different rules are applied to gold buyers and normal players, and the more you buy the more immune you are. When you buy an account, so long as you wash away the stain of cheating with enough euros you can get away with it.
So there you have it. I love eRepublik, and I’m actually becoming more interested in it now than I was a year ago. But I think we all agree that fair rules applied evenly makes sense, and if they don’t intend to keep them they should bin them. Either ban Lonestar’s account and let him rest in peace, or get rid of the ban altogether.
Iain
If you agree, don't just shout it, republish it in your own paper.
Comments
Comment deleted
😃
what a pointless article! (but of the same quality of the series: 0.0 )
Yes, well you had something of a personality overhaul, yourself, didn't you? ; )
I guess they are happy with 1 account per player as long as the old one dies/is deleted.
Ban all the bought accounts, you know which ones they are.
Yours?
There's a nice trail of payments on my account back to 2009 with the same bank account. 🙂
There was a smiley at the end
Well written
v
v
I messaged an old player the other day, but from his repsonse I fear
that he's suffered a seroius brain injury and become an illiterate 🙁
Horice 😛
TRANSPARENCY AND ARE THE TO ACHIEVE THE BEST IN WORLD. ADMIN GOOD, AS YOU HIT BUTTON FOR GOLD YES, JUGGERNAUT IS GO OKAY SAID MOTHER, COPERNICUS WAS AND HE KNOWS HOW TO THE WAY.
Either that of he's inexplicably turned into some type of foreign johnny?
Horice 😒
Happened to me similar treatment in different strategy game.
Players who quit the game sent their account to other players in their alliance. Obvious they were playing 2 accounts, meanwhile in my alliance the quiters just deleted their account or dissolved cities, sent their goods etc.. before they left.
By this method when there are 2 big clans clashing on battlefield it is impossible to win over alliance who is passing accounts.. even if your clan is better.
I sent ticket to admins, claiming the game rules in the table so they do some action against this. But only thing they did is to RE-WRITE new rule and modify existed one.
O_o
It's not hard to guess that i left that game afterwards even if we were No1. and I have no regrets..
What's the point writing the rules when nobody apply it.. ???
THE RULE THEY ADDED IS:
Accounts can be passed to other players...
BEFORE WAS:
Accounts of players can't be passed or sold....
And they modified many other rules for benefit of THEM.
Forgot to mention.. -> In their alliance played 2 MODERATORS..
o7
Voted
eBananaRepublik
Punishing Gold Beasts for buying accounts with skyhigh strength so they can Gold Beast some more and do some serious tanking/spending, doesn't seem likely to happen. In the Max-Lonestar case they no doubt knew it was happening, so expecting them to do something this long after the account switched hands, is grasping at straws.
I didn't know it was against the rules myself. But yeah it is a flagrant cheat, but as long as its not cheating them out of Gold, I doubt they'll act.
I don't expect them to act. I already tried other methods (ie ticketing) so they are definitely aware of the situation. I just think people need reminding every now and again that the admins support cheating.
I think max called the erep labs and told them: guys i need a top account ! What do u have ? I am buying asap $5000,00 worth of gold.
Game is already ruined and admins are responsible for that..
Finally... I was afraid I would have to say it...
Comment deleted
huea
balkanic game balkanic rules
western world enjoy : )
Why do you even care? This game sucks, your writing style suggest you are made for better things than this.
Lonestar, Scymex and Kibla are three accounts I can name right off the top of my head that I knew personally as Swedes in v1. Good of you to bring it up Iain, account trading is truly unfair to those that play fairly.
Yea, but the funny thing is, that the Lonestar who was a lvl3 Mod wasn't actually the founder of the account.. = D
So Admins allowed an account-buyer to become the highest lvl Moderator in the game.
Now that says something about their morale, or lack of, I believe = )
Yeah so the Lonestar account has actually been shifting owner twice. Still pig dusgusting and "Lonestar" is a horrible player that i sure can play without.
Voted o7
Admin is awful and account buyers should be banned along with their original accounts also I love how Admin bans multis but never bans the multis owner's account.
This game is a facade and the admin's have brought us down this dark bullshit road.
"I love eRepublik, and I’m actually becoming more interested in it now than I was a year ago."
Cannot comply.
anything that can happen will happen, no matter how unlikely it may seem
you are right man!
this game is mirror image of the real world around us... someone just using it to see, what will happen if... just like ant farm :😁
=V=
voted
V
Iain keers, I can add that that is not the first time the Lonestar account has been sold.
I know so many accounts who has been transferred, I reported everyone. Many of the with strong proofs. No ban never.
When the admins added the name change option they practically told that account swapping is now okey, so any one keen on buying mine?
10 000 $ muhahah 🙂
how bout an even trade? ;😉)
Gives us gold to change an account name was what they said "do what you want as long as we get money" was the message.Wonder how much i would have to pay to get a country renamed hmmm
Greek players have over 10 bought accounts, with solid proof of the account being bought.
They don't care. You can pay the admins to keep their hands at their pockets but you cant pay players to keep their mouths shut
Voted.
The problem is that the admins is players, and that many of the highest ranking admins is bought accounts. Are they supposed to ban themselves, the system is flawed :/
Comment deleted
eCanada elected a multi a couple months ago. The owner of the account published a confession. Our multi CP was pernma-banned, along with the account of the original player. A week or two later the perma-ban was lifted and he was back playing as usual.
Not as great a story as the Scymex, Battalgazi, or MM3, but a good enough one to be counted as another drop in the bucket of a sinking ship.
must have been while I was absent from game... who was/were the account(s)?
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/an-explanation1-2206766/1/20