Question for GoodGame Studios

taters farm (US1)

I have a friend who I was talking to today.  Does GoodGame allow 1.  a person to have more than one farm ? and 2. a coop to have a 2nd coop where they trade players around the 2 coops?

I was told this was allowed and being done by one of the higher coops.   It just does not seem like that would be fair competition to the lower coops like what I am in.  So why would a lower coop even play the game if it's fixed like this.

RosyStarling

It is most definitely NOT allowed

You can have one farm per server

You can have another farm on a different server. There is no connection between servers so no way to behave as you describe

BugsBunny

taters farm (US1) said:

I have a friend who I was talking to today.  Does GoodGame allow 1.  a person to have more than one farm ? and 2. a coop to have a 2nd coop where they trade players around the 2 coops?

I was told this was allowed and being done by one of the higher coops.   It just does not seem like that would be fair competition to the lower coops like what I am in.  So why would a lower coop even play the game if it's fixed like this.

A coop can start another coop by splitting some members and sending them over there to answer your second question, but however the members should not have multiple accounts.

taters farm (US1)

BugsBunny said:

taters farm (US1) said:

I have a friend who I was talking to today.  Does GoodGame allow 1.  a person to have more than one farm ? and 2. a coop to have a 2nd coop where they trade players around the 2 coops?

I was told this was allowed and being done by one of the higher coops.   It just does not seem like that would be fair competition to the lower coops like what I am in.  So why would a lower coop even play the game if it's fixed like this.

A coop can start another coop by splitting some members and sending them over there to answer your second question, but however the members should not have multiple accounts.

Thank You.  Does GoodGame monitor the happenings or do you just trust? 

So you can start another coop and split members.   But, you cannot have multiple farms on the same servers or in the same coop. 

Can you switch members back and forth between the 2 teams all the time in order to try and dominate the top spots?  I am wondering because this would seem like an unfair advantage to other teams. 

RosyStarling

I doubt you can get 2 co-ops  fully  Researched high enough in the ratings to make this feasible, but yes you can leave and join co-ops at will

The time and real money expenditure would be horrendous!

ChickadeeQuilter

We are able to tell if players have more than one account and on which server they are.  Some accounts from same servers are legit (under special circumstances that need to be specified with GGS).  If abuse is suspected, they will be reported.  

As far as coops go, some have friends in other coops and call them "sister coops".  One member of "coop-1" can leave and go to "coop-2" and visa versa.  Nothing illegal in that.  It is just that member of coop-1 can not be simultaneously member of coop-2 (under a different name).  Switching back and forth from one coop to another is a part of strategy game play.

Uncle John (AU1)

@taters farm (US1)
The mods are giving you the correct company policy but the reality is somewhat different.. Many of the top players in the top co-ops have multiple accounts on the same server. I expect that. if asked, they would claim that the various accounts were played by various members of their family (which may even have been true once upon a time).  It is often quite blatant, I'm aware of one co-op with members called   ----1, ----2 and ----3 !!!!
I am inclined to believe that as long as all these players spend money on the game GGS are unlikely to notice them.

farmerjohn 22 (US1)

Just wanted to add that if you have more than one person in your household playing the game from the same ISP address, it's a good idea to notify Support of that. In the past I've seen players blocked from their account because to the company they would appear as multiple accounts by a single player.

ChickadeeQuilter

If you know and have proof (using screenshots). Even screenshots of pm's referencing conversations where they openly acknowledge the fact they are using multiple accounts, then you can report them through support. (i.e. turn in a ticket)
Mind you, we are not going on "witch hunts"...but if they get caught, then they risk permanent ban from the game.

taters farm (US1)

ChickadeeQuilter said:

If you know and have proof (using screenshots). Even screenshots of pm's referencing conversations where they openly acknowledge the fact they are using multiple accounts, then you can report them through support. (i.e. turn in a ticket)
Mind you, we are not going on "witch hunts"...but if they get caught, then they risk permanent ban from the game.

Thank you.  I have one final question.  Is it against GoodGame's rules and/or policies to send spies into another coop for the sole purpose of winning against that team in events?

Exxy (INT1)

Yeah, Some players, do use a lot of spying

Sadly, its very important for some people to win, and they are willing to do everything to ensure that

Its a quite common behavior overall

I suspect at least 4-6 accounts in our coop, that are actually spies for another team

ChickadeeQuilter

taters farm (US1) said:

ChickadeeQuilter said:

If you know and have proof (using screenshots). Even screenshots of pm's referencing conversations where they openly acknowledge the fact they are using multiple accounts, then you can report them through support. (i.e. turn in a ticket)
Mind you, we are not going on "witch hunts"...but if they get caught, then they risk permanent ban from the game.

Thank you.  I have one final question.  Is it against GoodGame's rules and/or policies to send spies into another coop for the sole purpose of winning against that team in events?

It depends.  If you are making a new farm (spy) within your same server, then it is still multi-farming and against the GGS policy.  Now if you make a new (spy) farm in another server to discover who or what players are doing, etc. then it is okay.  For instance you have a main farm in the INT1 server but are wanting to find out what players are in top 50 of CC in the French server, you can make a new farm in the French server then join or make a coop so you can look into who is doing what and how many points are accumulated...etc. This is okay.  but to make another farm in your INT1 server just so you can try to join a "suspect" coop to spy it out...that is a real "no-no".  GGS will investigate when players make report about multi-farming.

taters farm (US1)

Thank you for all this information.  It has been very helpful. 

"The jealous are troublesome to others, but torment to themselves."  William Penn

Farmer Joe77 (US1)

Forgive me if I am wrong, but I believe originally, at the beginning of this game, you could have more than 1 farm on the same server. That policy was changed way before I was introduced to this game but I have to believe there are still players with more than 1 farm that are grandfathered from this rule. Personally, I cannot imagine having enough time to play more than 1 farm lol!

To be honest, I started more than 1 farm when I first began this game because I couldn't remember the exact log in info when I went to play again. It was innocent and later I found I had my spacing wrong when a different farm popped up. Plus, I didn't realize there were 2 options, log in or play for the first time. It was an accident and I have only played 1 Farm ever since now that I know what is going on.

I know another player that logged in one day and couldn't find her farm. Eventually she ended up accidentally starting another farm and soon realized that her log in screen had been switched to the INT server so now she has a farm on US and INT servers. Funny things can happen when you are not familiar with logging in to a new game.

Spies are a different story. I am sure they exist. I have had players join my coop then go back to being deputies in another coop within a couple of hours. It is hard to understand what the point was other than just to see what our village was like. The huge coops already have things figured out so there would be no real reason to visit a coop like mine, other than being friendly with players and trying to get them to join another coop. However, I have learned that this game is so serious with so many players that nothing ever surprises me anymore.

RosyStarling

"Forgive me if I am wrong, but I believe originally, at the beginning of this game, you could have more than 1 farm on the same server. That policy was changed way before I was introduced to this game but I have to believe there are still players with more than 1 farm that are grandfathered from this rule. "

You are wrong in this, it has NEVER been allowed to have more than 1 farm per server
It does happen and if discovered you will lose all but one farm

Spies happen, sadly, not against the rules

To me its a game for fun and leisure. 
I prefer to do well through effort rather than nefarious means
I don't see the sense of achievement in that

ninjahuman (AU1)

It is against the rules but you can do it anyway and have an extremely high probability of getting away with it. There are heaps of players that do this on the AU server and I think it is like this in most servers. Most have one or two extra accounts but I can think of some that have had over a dozen extra accounts.

The system for enforcing these rules is very bad but I doubt GGS would sort it out when many players have made in-game purchases on their extra account(s).

BugsBunny

ninjahuman (AU1) said:

It is against the rules but you can do it anyway and have an extremely high probability of getting away with it. There are heaps of players that do this on the AU server and I think it is like this in most servers. Most have one or two extra accounts but I can think of some that have had over a dozen extra accounts.

The system for enforcing these rules is very bad but I doubt GGS would sort it out when many players have made in-game purchases on their extra account(s).

The support team would be happy to investigate and take action if such accounts are reported, please consider reporting multiple accounts incase if they are used for purposes like spying as that affects the gameplay and it is not really a nice thing to do.

ninjahuman (AU1)

BugsBunny said:

The support team would be happy to investigate and take action if such accounts are reported, please consider reporting multiple accounts incase if they are used for purposes like spying as that affects the gameplay and it is not really a nice thing to do.

I don't know about other servers, but there is almost no use of multiple accounts for spying purposes that I am aware of in the AU server. Usually they are either another account to play on for fun or to a way to gain an advantage in cooperative events. And they are in most cooperatives as well, so if I start reporting them I will lose all my friendships and not be welcome to stay in most cooperatives. And there are even players that told me about their multiple accounts because they trust me. So I know it's not right, but it is a difficult situation to start reporting them when they are not being used in an abusive or destructive manner.