Source
r/TownofSalemgame•
Hypermeme

Blank Media needs to do something about multiple account players.

I have seen this way too many times in the last week alone, not to mention ever since I started playing.

Countless players that load multiple tabs of ToS in their browser, party up their alternate accounts, and walk into a game as like 3 or 4 people.

You can tell when those 3 or 4 people never talk at the same time, even when asked to. Whenever jailor kills three mafia in a row, when mafia never gets lynched because the mayor isn't doing anything. There are a TON of telltale signs that someone is multi-tabbing. The biggest sign is when you see the post-game list and notice the same accounts partying up, but never speaking, hardly keeping more than one will, and always winning.

Sometimes it is just paranoia, sometimes it's a legitimate party of friends working together (though even this is almost crossing the line).

But people get paranoid about multi-tabbers because it is so common.

This game is becoming unplayable in anything but ranked. Ranked is fun but the casual modes are supposed to be too.

Blank Media needs to implement some form of protection or anti-cheat. Even if it's as simple as a chat check to make sure there are two players behind two accounts.

I'm not an expert in networking or compsec but there must be some way to at least prevent assholes from playing on multiple tabs, in the same game.

Posted Apr 9, 2017, 5:49 PM UTC

210
CheezrageHonorary Mafioso•

It's ridiculous that people are able to sign in again as a different account by simply opening another tab. They should just make it so when you open another tab and go to the game site, that it would just bring you to your account page instead of the sign in page. The sign in is so broken.

I disagree with any attempt to do IP-based logins and bans though. A lot of us play on public wifi connections or live in households with shared wifi where we might have a relative play at the same time (my brother plays too and we occasionally join games as a party).

What they could do is restrict players by device mac addresses - as in not allowing people to log into multiple accounts within a single device/computer. Maybe the real solution is getting rid of the browser-based game and making it a standalone program/app.

2
HypermemeOP•

Yea I only mention IP tracking as an example. People are more likely to respond when they feel they need to correct or criticize.

I think tracking MAC addresses is better but also introduces security problems that would bother privacy minded people.

But I think you are right that a standalone program is better.

1
KatagmaIt's not my fault you're dead!•

Let's say you wanna create a new account. Would you be allowed to do that?

1
CheezrageHonorary Mafioso•

Yes, you would be able to do that. Create as many accounts as you please. You just can't be logged into more than 1 account at a time.

1
KatagmaIt's not my fault you're dead!•

Let's say you wanna create a new account. Would you be allowed to do that?

1
Naru2008Game Global Moderator•

I agree we need to do something, however at the current time, I permanently ban anyone caught cheating on multiple accounts, which I check by IPs (or if I get a response from the server that no IP is found on the account, and the names are similar, I perma-ban based on that). I can tell when I've hit a college IP or anything similar, because then I crash hard because it can't load every single account that is under the IP at once like it's supposed to.

If necessary, I temporarily block the IP from the forums, which is required to create your game account, and it usually deters those who aren't aware of what's happening, or continue, even after I tell them not to let me catch them doing it after denying their appeal(s). I try to limit this however, as not only is it not as effective as people think, but also for fear of punishing other users who might try to access the forums, or register.

2
HypermemeOP•

Thank you for your diligence. I am really glad that this game community has active admins and moderators.

On a side note: Do you think there will ever be a way to exclude browser players from matchmaking, as a user preference/option? I only play ToS on Steam and I wonder if limiting the players I play with to Steam players only might help me avoid multi-account players?

Also sorry you have to put up with salty players like me. Knowing that our mods and admins are actively banning cheaters is reassuring to me, and has largely cooled down my rant.

1
Naru2008Game Global Moderator•

I believe we had intentions for Steam-only lobbies, but I'm not entirely sure where we stand on that.

I appreciate your thanks, but it's just me doing what I am asked to do. :) Of course I don't have all the free time in the world, but I do my best when I do have free time to try and help clean up our community.

2
iggyvolz•

Blank Media needs to implement some form of protection or anti-cheat. Even if it's as simple as a chat check to make sure there are two players behind two accounts.

Anti-cheat is always a game of whack-a-mole. No matter what you do there's always a way around it, it just becomes more and more difficult to do. You may be able to put in something in the official client to crash if there's multiple tabs open, but if someone's cracked the API for playing games (which I can't imagine hasn't happened by now), then they can bypass any changes done in the client. You can always IP check, but that's extremely unreliable (for example, at my college of about 10,000, only a couple dozen people on campus could play a game at a time since public IP addresses are per-router, not per device).

1
HypermemeOP•

Anti-cheat doesn't need to be foolproof. It just needs to be enough of a hassle to deter the majority of cheaters. Anyone willing to put weeks of work to get around an anti-cheat system probably deserves to be left alone.

Or at least do what Blizzard and Valve do and have ban-waves where they mark accounts for perma-bans, then ban them all at the same time, when it's least expected.

I would be happy with the latter, just because it would show Blank Media takes cheating seriously and that there are consequences. It's cheaper and more effective than trying to stop cheating all the time.

But as of now, it really seems like they don't care about cheaters. Even their tribunal system is basically a kangaroo court, reliant on volunteers.

1