Guild Wars 2

For example, we purchased the game for my son, who no longer plays. Is there anything wrong with me playing “his account” The credit card info and all of that would be related to me. And if the account is on another server, is there a problem with that? (assuming there isn’t cheating or manipulating going on)

I’ve gotten mixed answers from everyone, most people say thakittens perma-ban to get caught.. That it doesn’t matter if you’ve paid for the accounts from teh start, but that if you come out and publicly admit to owning/playing more than one, there are repercussions.

Very few people say, well, why would that be a problem, you paid for it, it’s yours don’t break the rules, you’ll be fine.

So, which is?

So, if I can’t take over son’s account, can I buy a second account for my own personal use. It would still be “one owner but more than one account”.

Ambrienne.8923:

So, if I can’t take over son’s account, can I buy a second account for my own personal use. It would still be “one owner but more than one account”.

My understanding of it is that you are permitted to have multiple accounts, although in this case, since the first account now belongs to your son, you would still have only one account in ANet’s eyes. (Seems rather complicated that the first account has to be in your name for the legal agreement, though…or is ANet saying it should have been in your son’s name? In which case, how does that work with the legal agreements? So confused .)

How exactly all this works I don’t know. The restrictions on the account access when it comes to parents/guardians and minor children seem to limit the access a parent/guardian has to monitor that child’s activity. Given these restrictions and the (I think) lack of any parental controls, I probably would not let a child play the game. I would find myself in a position where I was forced to bend or break the EULA and that is not something I want to do.

Good luck with your account. GW2 will (I hope) be around for quite some time, so maybe your son will come back to the game eventually and take up that account again to play alongside you.

If you already have your own account, you can purchase a second account and play that as well. There is nothing in the rules that prohibit it as long as you are the original owner and sole player. If you choose to do that, it would be best to use a second email address to help keep them separate and avoid confusion. Can I ask why you would want 2 accounts? In GW1, many of us had multiple accounts, I have 3 myself. It made sense at first as there was no way to purchase additional slots, but with GW2 being able to purchase more slots, why would you want a second account? In my opinion, I would rather keep everything in a single account so I could share account bound items and achievements across all my toons.

Thank you guys. That’s just what I’ll go with. 2 accounts for playing with different friends and the extra bank slots, is what I was thinking. I knew it really wasn’t a big deal as I wasn’t going to do anything “illegal” with it, but I didn’t want to get banned just because someone could ban me.

Thank yas again.

Thank you Gaile

Gaile Gray.6028:

It’s “one owner per account, forever.” No sales, trades, pass-alongs, give-aways, use as a prize, recycling… Once the original owner is done, the account will remain accessible to that person but cannot be supported for anyone else.

Sharing or passing-along game accounts is strictly forbidden by the User Agreement.

Excuse for the offtopic but, are you aware that that doesn’t apply for games sold in Europe? As Oracle and Steam already know, reselling used software is allowed

zarzamora.3261:

Gaile Gray.6028:

It’s “one owner per account, forever.” No sales, trades, pass-alongs, give-aways, use as a prize, recycling… Once the original owner is done, the account will remain accessible to that person but cannot be supported for anyone else.

Sharing or passing-along game accounts is strictly forbidden by the User Agreement.

Excuse for the offtopic but, are you aware that that doesn’t apply for games sold in Europe? As Oracle and Steam already know, reselling used software is allowed

I want to add to that -

realistically, how can you actually police and enforce such a policy? To me it seems impossible.

The policy is fine and I completely agree with the reasons for it, just curious.

Swim.6830:

The policy is fine and I completely agree with the reasons for it, just curious.

Well, the policy can be applied to any other company that sells goods: cars, clothes, books… all second-hand market.
But also, you have a good point there: a policy that you cannot assure is not useful for anyone.

Swim.6830:

zarzamora.3261:

Gaile Gray.6028:

It’s “one owner per account, forever.” No sales, trades, pass-alongs, give-aways, use as a prize, recycling… Once the original owner is done, the account will remain accessible to that person but cannot be supported for anyone else.

Sharing or passing-along game accounts is strictly forbidden by the User Agreement.

Excuse for the offtopic but, are you aware that that doesn’t apply for games sold in Europe? As Oracle and Steam already know, reselling used software is allowed

I want to add to that -

realistically, how can you actually police and enforce such a policy? To me it seems impossible.

The policy is fine and I completely agree with the reasons for it, just curious.

MMO’s aren’t new to piracy, phishing, hacking, and trading. They have tools to see and detect certain things like IP changes, location changes, and much much more to deal with security breeches. Many are setup to remove RMT and exploiters etc, many many internal programs that allow them to monitor and pursue issues with their program. Once found, they will lock the account and notify the original owner. They will then have to dispute the charge in order to retain their copy unless they broke the TOS or UA to the point where a ban was necessary. No system is perfect, and even mistakes can happen. But in 2013 cybersecurity is probably the most advancing type of security on the planet. With corporate security breeches, government breeches on the rise it is imperative that every company maintain a certain standard which keeps raising every year. For every hacker there is a person writing a code to stop them and vice versa. It is a never winning battle which is costly to both parties. So rest assured they have the means to identify such breeches, to deny access to those accounts, and through the legal agreement prosecute if the severity seems fit.

Geotherma.2395:

Swim.6830:

zarzamora.3261:

Gaile Gray.6028:

It’s “one owner per account, forever.” No sales, trades, pass-alongs, give-aways, use as a prize, recycling… Once the original owner is done, the account will remain accessible to that person but cannot be supported for anyone else.

Sharing or passing-along game accounts is strictly forbidden by the User Agreement.

Excuse for the offtopic but, are you aware that that doesn’t apply for games sold in Europe? As Oracle and Steam already know, reselling used software is allowed

I want to add to that -

realistically, how can you actually police and enforce such a policy? To me it seems impossible.

The policy is fine and I completely agree with the reasons for it, just curious.

MMO’s aren’t new to piracy, phishing, hacking, and trading. They have tools to see and detect certain things like IP changes, location changes, and much much more to deal with security breeches. Many are setup to remove RMT and exploiters etc, many many internal programs that allow them to monitor and pursue issues with their program. Once found, they will lock the account and notify the original owner. They will then have to dispute the charge in order to retain their copy unless they broke the TOS or UA to the point where a ban was necessary. No system is perfect, and even mistakes can happen. But in 2013 cybersecurity is probably the most advancing type of security on the planet. With corporate security breeches, government breeches on the rise it is imperative that every company maintain a certain standard which keeps raising every year. For every hacker there is a person writing a code to stop them and vice versa. It is a never winning battle which is costly to both parties. So rest assured they have the means to identify such breeches, to deny access to those accounts, and through the legal agreement prosecute if the severity seems fit.

I am actually not sure IPs are used for this specific purpose. I HAVE to use a VPN when logging in on forums through work (we have to use a remote system, so it’s the only way), so on ANET side it looks like at 4 pm my time, I log in on a UK IP, and then 5 pm when I get home, I log in on a Bulgarian IP.

This is why it kinda seems impossible for me for ANET to know whether I gave my account to a friend or not. Not that I even HAVE any friends to give it to

Well, security is one thing, and selling the account something completely different: IP’s cannot be used to identify the owner of a software, just the access point.

The only data the company has is the mail account, which we can change, they don’t have any personal data. Sell your game, send the box and serial code and the new owner can change the email and password. Even if it was illegal to do so, which it isn’t (only in Europe, unless something changes in the future) , they cannot know for sure that the sale was made.

zarzamora.3261:

Gaile Gray.6028:

It’s “one owner per account, forever.” No sales, trades, pass-alongs, give-aways, use as a prize, recycling… Once the original owner is done, the account will remain accessible to that person but cannot be supported for anyone else.

Sharing or passing-along game accounts is strictly forbidden by the User Agreement.

Excuse for the offtopic but, are you aware that that doesn’t apply for games sold in Europe? As Oracle and Steam already know, reselling used software is allowed

Does it?

License to use the software, and the account to access the servers, are different things.

I understand the ‘L’ in EULA means License… but I am no expert in law.

I wouldn’t assure so openly that reselling is forbidden, because if someone ever gets banned/suspended for playing with a legal second-hand copy, here or on in any other online game, we will see it on the news for sure (just try a search on “Valve sued” + “resell games”). Steam is also based on “accounts” and that doesn’t mean that this accounts system can stop the buyer of the license to resell it when they want.

I was just curious if in Arenanet were aware of this, because it’s not so known.
Also, I cannot check it right now, but I remember that the EULA for Europe is slightly different, may be because of this.

zarzamora.3261:

I understand the ‘L’ in EULA means License… but I am no expert in law.

I wouldn’t assure so openly that reselling is forbidden, because if someone ever gets banned/suspended for playing with a legal second-hand copy, here or on in any other online game, we will see it on the news for sure (just try a search on “Valve sued” + “resell games”). Steam is also based on “accounts” and that doesn’t mean that this accounts system can stop the buyer of the license to resell it when they want.

I was just curious if in Arenanet were aware of this, because it’s not so known.
Also, I cannot check it right now, but I remember that the EULA for Europe is slightly different, may be because of this.

Your trying to compare 2 very different things, and to be honest, the Germen lawsuit supports Anet’s position. In Gernamy, they want to break the games out from the steam account, making them separate. That would mean you could sell the game, but NOT your steam account. It is the same here. You can sell your copy of the game, but you need an account on the servers in order to play the game, and you cannot sell your account.

People will go on thinking Anet can’t find sold/transferred accounts. And people will keep posting in account forums complaining about their bans :P It is against the rules to do so, feel free to test it at your own risk. I wouldn’t recommend it though, companies have far more tools than people realize. But if being ignorant is peoples “thing” than so be it I guess :P

Was going to take a quick look at the EU Eula to see if/what differences there were, but yay for smart webpages that know where you are! Apparently it’s a no-no for a NA user to see what terms Europeans play with. Gah. I’ll mess with google later.

It’s not really an important problem. Just curiosity. I am not going to resell my account, even if I stop playing. because I like to keep all my old games. But I know that selling used games is a common practise, even with shops dedicated to that business, and with online games, that can’t be avoided, unless we were asked to identify ourselves personally when registering the account. And that’s something that will not happen.
No game company has the way to know if I have sold my account or just changed my ISP or moved from home.
And for those that think that the account, the license, and the software are different things, may want to take a look at the conclusions of the court in the Oracle case, I think it’s very interesting for every software customer:
http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=124564&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=923975

Thanks for replying, but the offtopic went I little bit too far, sorry for that.

Edit: trying to fix the link, if it doesn’t find it, please try to search for case C-128/11. Sorry.

The thing is, there’s a difference for a license for software, and having an account under terms.

Looking at the legal section, it mentions “Service” and “Software” as separate things. Also, you didn’t buy the software, you bought the account key. For proof, notice you don’t even have to log in to download it or patch it.

Also – an account key can only be used once. I can use a software/CD key as many times as I want, basically. If I re-install windows on my computer, it doesn’t yell at me for another computer having my CD key.

This is turning into one big “You can sell your account and they can never know, so go ahead!” thread. Good job.

I wonder how it works with different countries law,for example in Poland its legal to sell those things not as product but by “time you spend on archiving it/getting it”. You also have to pay taxes for it.

Geotherma.2395:

This is turning into one big “You can sell your account and they can never know, so go ahead!” thread. Good job.

Anyone that buys a used account is taking a huge chance. The account they bought could’ve been permanently terminated, never existed at all, origional owner chargebacks the account closing it after the sale, or have such a bad reputation that it is on every blocklist.

Plus it is a hassle to change the email addresses, which you’ll want to do since you won’t have access to the original email in case there is ever a need for a password change.