Ok, so title says it all. Of course, I store all players' ip addresses in mysql and I can check if there is a person with the same ip address before he registers, but then, he can register to my page at school or wherever he wants. So, any suggestions?
views:
112answers:
6
+5
A:
The only way that proves particularly effective is to make people pay for accessing your game.
Jakub Hampl
2010-05-15 19:32:58
I'm sure there are other possibilities that don't require your users to pay.
webdestroya
2010-05-15 19:34:24
@Jakub: I agree with you, but the approach also turns away a lot of potential clients...
OMG Ponies
2010-05-15 19:35:35
@Ponies: True, it's just any other way of blocking is so hopelessly easily evaded.
Jakub Hampl
2010-05-15 19:41:21
+1
A:
I would check the user's IP every time they log onto the game, then log users who come from the same IP and how much they interact. You may find that you get some users from the same IP (ie, roomates, spouses, who play together and are not actually the same person). You may just have to flag these users and monitor their interactions - for example, is there a chat service in the game? If they don't ever talk to each other, they're more than likely the same person, and review on an individual basis.
quoo
2010-05-15 19:36:51
Could run into problems with people sitting right across from each other, when I would play video games with roommates or at a lan party we wouldn't use in-game chat to speak unless we had others who weren't with us on a team.
Noctrine
2010-05-17 19:20:38
As I noted. Thus the human element to reviewing those users who interact when on the same IP. (... and plenty of people still use in game chat rather than actually talking)
quoo
2010-05-17 23:26:51
+4
A:
Looking behind the question:
Why do you want to stop the same person registering and playing twice?
What advantage will they have if they do?
If there's no (or only a minimal) advantage then don't waste your time and effort trying to solve a non-problem. Also putting up barriers to something will make some people more determined to break or circumvent them. This could make your problem worse.
If there is an advantage then you need to think of other, more creative, solutions to that problem.
ChrisF
2010-05-15 19:49:02
+1 This problem seems like a "think out of the box" sort of problem.
Jakub Hampl
2010-05-15 19:51:16
+2
A:
You can't. There is no way to uniquely identify users over the internet. Don't use ip addresses because there could be many people using the same ip, or people using dynamic ip's.
Even if somehow you made them give you a piece of legal identification, you still wouldn't be absolutely sure that they were not registered on the site twice as two different accounts.
Lotus Notes
2010-05-15 19:50:23
A:
If its in a webrowser you could bring the information like OS or browser but this even makes it not save but still safer. It would take the hackers only a little more time and You have to look for the possibility that some people could play on systems with the same OS and browser
The safest thing would be that people on the same IP cannot do things with each other like trading or like in the game PKR (poker game) that you cannot sit on the same table.
An other thing would be wise to do is to use captcha's, its very user unfriendly but it keeps a lot bots out
Spidfire
2010-05-15 20:18:17
A:
If it is a browser-based game, Flash cookies are a relatively resilient way to identify a computer. Or have them pay a minimal amount, and identify them by credit card number - that way, it still won't be hard to make multiple account (friends' & family members' cards), but it will be hard to make a lot of them. Depending on your target demographic, it might prohibit potential players from registering, though.
The best approach is probably not worrying much about it and setting the game balance in such a way that progress is proportional to time spent playing (and use a strong captcha to keep bots away). That way, using multiple accounts will offer no advantage.
Tgr
2010-05-15 20:25:29