do you think that alts should be disabled?

Do you think that alts are messing up the SL economy AND causing lag, and being used to totally game the system?

What do you think would help?

My views are that once they opened the doors to free alts, everything went to hell.

They should limit the number of alts on a specific ip/mac/computer (not email, as ppl can spoof emails too easy with all the free ones out there)

or not accept free emails as an email (ie gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc) it would have to be a domain or isp mail (and everyone can have an isp mail)

make alts cost, like they used to. No more free alts. Not premium, but the 1 time cost like it used to be.

remove the ability to run the sl client multiple times on the same PC


I think if they cut down on the alts in the system, it would help with a lot of the issues with traffic gaming and soon picks gaming.

What do you all think?

(I know, is not gonna happen, but wondering if I am the only one that thinks alts stink (and yes I have alts)

(only 2 choices because it is basically a yes or no question, you can post your comments below)

I'm fine with free alts. I just think they need to limit them, or limit what non-paid alts can do. (Alts found by email and/or RL info).

Alts are useful for various things.. and paying for them is stupid in my honest opinion, unless you plan on paying for them anyway (Premium alt)

Of course I think free alts should be disabled, what kind of silly question is that? There would be less greifers that way.

Alts should not be abolished. They should be linked to at least one premium account, though, which has a limit on how many alts they can have. Not going to happen, but nice idea.

I am torn by this one. I agree limiting the number per computer is smart, but does not stop someone from spamming with 10 alts at one time, which is still abusive, if they have more than one computer on their network. The only way to really stop it is to make people pay for the alt.

good point nightstalker, I forgot about griefers using them to grief


as for paying for an alt, I think it is worth it to pay 10 one time fee for another account, that can be used to hold items, or test things, or keep a group active

not sure what else besides gaming the system, an alt would be useful for

I made 2 alts that were free and 1 that I paid for

the one I paid for of course ended up messed up for awhile and I could not use it and ll could not seem to fix it

the others were 1 to hold items, that involved money transactions in the day gambling was allowed (sploder at my club mainly) hate getting spammed when ppl pay and win from it hehe

the second alt is male so I could use him to test clothing and skins for males (which I have yet to master)

I know I could make myself male, but prefer it this way hehe

yep pretty much what I was getting at on the linked to a specific ip/mac address/computer or whatever

ah yeah I see what you mean, link to a premium account, better idea than mine, that way the free alt HAS to have a premium owner.

so free accounts could not create alts

doesn't stop the griefers though, but does help stop the massive accounts owned my same person

I think the only true way around it (and many ppl will disagree I know) is make it so no account is free, either 1 time cost for basic, or the premium type with the yearly/monthly etc cost

The way I shoot and abuse my alt, I'm surprised she's not permanently crippled.

Seriously though, I would not be opposed to LL charging a one-time fee for the creation of an alt account. US$9.95 or whatever it used to be, is a fair rate considering you pay that once and then you're in forever more.

My alt in fact has a premium membership, but she has two alts of her own that are both NPIOF. I wouldn't bat an eye at having to fork over US$20 as a one-time fee in order to keep those two 'active'.

I think it would be a good thing in that it would cut down on the abuse of folks running 50 or 100 bot accounts, constantly hammering at search or teleporting all over the place 'crawling' the grid or whatever else they're doing.

I don't believe LL would ever go this route though, that's too much like admitting they made a mistake (an act most corporations are loathe to do).

-Atashi

I think that we should keep alts, only in real life we are labeled and marked forever with the same identity with no option to shed a new one.

However being able to create new ones without any cost is a recipe for data clutter

Free alts are ok. Anonymous alts are what makes griefing easy. Require payment info, whether used or not, and misuse of alts will be greatly reduced.

I do think it'd be great for at least LL to know all the alts of a single RL person and start smacking the heads of griefers, and their alts, a little more. Just last night, I saw a person get banned from a place - right before she got booted, she was bragging about how she has tons of alts and how LL can't do anything about it.

/me votes no but also votes for LL to make people like that _totally_ go away.

Misuse for griefing will be reduced, but not for alt farming. The person who owns the Skin Oasis island has payment info on file, but has no qualms about putting 50 alts at the bottom of a lake to drive up traffic numbers.

reminds me of Chaos...

I don't see how you could prevent alt abuse as long as you keep the initial sign-up free (and hence anonymous).

MAC addie is entirely client-side so spoofable and most people have a dynamically assigned IP addie which makes changing it relatively easy (and since the sign-up process is entirely web-based someone could just use existing web proxies to make it even easier).

A more enforcable system would be the one we had where payment information is required to sign-up one free "main account". The account page would have an option to create a limited few alts, linked to your main account, and make it impossible to sign up another "main" account with the same (verified through payment details) real life name.

It still wouldn't be foolproof, but noone would have access to more than a few different payment methods (unless they were going to commit credit card fraud but I'll assume noone wants to go that far to get more alts ).

There was a time (prior to 6-6-06) where Alt Accounts were free, but still required CC info (or other such as PayPal, etc, etc).

There was still alt abuse and griefers using alts, but not as prolific.

I do NOT believe we need to return to a time of paying 9.95 USD per alt account.

I DO believe we need to return to a time of VERIFYING accounts.

Wether that be through payment information, or through the Age Verification (if LL ever gets that working in a mnnor that isn't just plain stupid). But by whatever means, there needs to be a method to tag an account, any account, to a RL identity.

And yes, ALL accounts from a single user should fall under a blanket PARENT account. Basically all issues with all accounts get filed under the Parent Account. Easier for LL to track and deal with, when problems occur.

~Jessy

An "other" choice is always good

I think that *any* non-premium account that has sat dormant - no log ins at all - for more than 90 days should be killed.

90 days gives people plenty of time to give birth, get married, honeymoon or recover from most medical emergencies.

Verification does nothing to stop abuse of resources by enterprising individuals. It will slow down griefers, but it will not stop alt farmers, who will lag us to death just to get traffic and inbound links.

Woah! You should have written this differently.

I voted "no," not realizing you were talking about "do you think people should be able to make as many free alts as they like."

(The hazards of voting before reading the entire post below.)

coco

OK, now that I read the whole thread... lol

Yes, I agree that alts should be a one-time fee thing, or linked to a premium account, or whatever it takes to prevent 70 people standing in a skybox or under the sea, well, unless it's an massive orgy and then that's their business

I’m torn as well, but would support a return of the one time charge and limiting the total number of alts…and make them only available to premium members.
As far as removing the ability to run multiple accounts on one pc…that’s just crazy talk

other is when ppl post their explaination or ideas, when there is no other choice up there

if there was a choice for other (or pie) ppl would choose other (or pie) and then the results would be bland

this way we get a SMALL idea of what ppl want and it seems ppl want alts, even if it means paying for them, which I totally agree with

I would love to see SL put it so all accounts from a single user are linked to a parent account that must have RL info on it

THAT would be the best solution in my opinion
(RL info verified via paypal or credit card info)

I feel quite pensive about this.
And where does it end once it starts?
First alts then what?
/reaches for history book

Oh and think of this conversation between two non premium avatars:
AVATAR 1: No you’re the alt
AVATAR 2: No you’re the alt
AVATAR 1: I’m older
AVATAR2: I have better hair

why is it crazy talk?

Think of those who run 50+ bots on one PC.... would eliminate that quickly

then again I suppose having the alts(bots) limited would help that LOL

ok so I am crazy, sue me

pays to read and in my defense I am still sick and my thought processes are on the blitz

I agree with everything above EXCEPT the premium member thing. Really guys, this elitist "premium" attitude needs to change. Not all of us who enjoy and contribute our talents and , yes, our dollars, can afford to own land...the ONLY benefit to being a premium member..