New form of harassment

It seems some smurfs are very annoyed by my anti-smurf campaign. They just band and team-together to bully and steamroll regular players under 15 minutes. Disgusting and pathetic.

Smurfing should be bannable. 1 account per player or ban period.

What campaign is it?

Last time you complained about smurfs, it was actually you just playing at too high and elo, so I’m not convinced by this. I honestly think you just need to drop elo points, because it’ll probably fix a lot of the stuff you complain about.

what does that mean?

i agree with your idea. Sometime you need to drop a bit elo so that you can go back to the elo home

I smurf from time to time. I bought another copy of the game and use that account on occasion for that purpose. Am I a bad person? I paid for it.

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I wouldn’t say you’re an inherently bad person, but that doesn’t mean you’re doing a good thing. Just because you paid for it and enjoy it doesn’t mean you aren’t making the game a misery for whoever’s on the other end. It’s not enjoyable when someone only gets one game every few days or so, due to life commitments, and the one game they get to play is against a smurf, and it’s not at all fair. It’s the kind of things that drives the playerbase apart, and causes people to leave the game.

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I log into my alternate account. Host an unranked game, and people join. In what way am I ruining their experience when I am the host? I did not coerce these players to join.

I do not buy the notion that smurfs cause people to leave the game. There is no evidence for this. Only claims that come from players that are not enjoying the game, and are looking for an excuse to stop playing for good. These people were always going to leave the game, they just needed a reason to justify it. You could say that running into a smurf was the straw that broke the camels back.

Ok, that’s not what smurfing typically means when it is brought up. Your standard AoE2 smurf, at least from what I’ve heard, is someone who deliberately drops at least several hundred elo below their true skill level, in order to absolutely crush the people at that level. What you’re doing isn’t smurfing in my opinion, and I don’t think it’s what anyone really refers to as smurfing, that’s just honest use of a second account. The actual toxic smurfing is just stomping lower level players for the fun of it, and that’s the kind of thing that can ruin the game for people.

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I do use the 2nd account to crush lower level players who are not at all aware that I’m pretty good at the game. To test out strategies, practice, and perfect tactics that I already use, in UNRANKED lobbies.

What you’re talking about, I think is called bug exploitation. Someone has found a way to use the current system(to their advantage) in a way that it wasn’t originally intended. I think this is wrong and the motives behind their activities, I think, are irrelevant. Having said that, I have yet to see someone come up with a feasible solution to this that doesn’t include taking away some of the existing liberties we currently have when we use our accounts for multiplayer.

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Would like to ask is there any reason to use 2nd account? Why don’t use your first account to do this thing

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Smurfing in unranked lobbies is more of an issue than queue based ranked ever will be - I suggest a form of ranking for unranked lobbies to counter this issue and allow for more ability for hosts to attempt to keep balance in their lobbies.

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Do quick play solve the issue?

It is best to keep family share, as well as to allow multiple accounts - the only two changes needed are such -

  1. new accounts made under family share start at the highest elo gained -100 elo.

And

  1. Add a ranked system for unranked lobbies that is visible in-game, Which will ensure that those who make entirely new accounts via repurchasing the game will not remain without a ranking, as well as gives a ranking to those who never enter the ranked queue on purpose.

  2. Bonus change: further improvements and adjustments to the anti purposefully dropping of elo system.

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I think they should not able to play rank unless they purchase a copy

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I don’t. There’s no way I’m buying two more games for my two boys, I have to feed them too.

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They can still play quick game and lobby and single player and tournment

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Because I am well known and easily recognized on my main account. Nobody has a clue who I am when using a 2nd account.

Why don’t you just change your nickname? I see many people do the same thing in every single match

Because I have over 250+ aoe2 DE players on my friends list that would know. And there’s no recorded ranked matches on a 2nd account. I use it for convenience, nothing more, it is easier than constantly changing your identity on your main account where there is a username record of changes.

Your next question is going to be, why don’t I just use family sharing? Well on that one sir, you got me dead to rights. I had no idea that this feature existed until it was pointed out to me well after I already purchased another copy of the game. So that’s my only excuse for that one, it’s too late, and I don’t care to figure out how it works.

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