*Moved my post from the other thread*
I really like the idea of allowing everyone to play 2 characters from their single IP. If anyone is caught playing any more than those 2, harsh consequences could be laid down.
Current Problems - People are already botting. Whether you want to have your head in the clouds like Zozen or not, it happened, is happening, and will continue to happen regardless of the rules. If a given group of players is not botting, they are at a severe disadvantage to the clans that have not only a bot, but a google doc allowing anyone in the clan to login to that proxy to access that tank/healer/etc. Also, as the wipe grows past the 6-8 week mark, you have had basically 3 options the last few wipes. 1. Join Core to have people to group with. 2. Quit because you can't form a group. 3. Bot. There is nothing wrong with joining Core and they have done an impressive job continuing to zone throughout wipes and are generally accepting of players joining their zoning groups or even clan membership.
Benefits of Playing 2 Characters - From about 2007 through 2012, I played 2 characters manually from 2 laptops. Those were the most enjoyable wipes of my way-too-long arctic career. You are able to explore the game, learn new zones, form groups, and have a lot more flexibility (obviously) when playing 2 characters. It will even the playing field for those who have not been playing multiple characters. The clans that have benefitted over the years from bots are most likely not running 15 bots to gain an advantage. Instead, they probably have had a main tank, healer, and a couple other bots on call in case there are not clan members who can log at that second. When there are 3-5 real people around wanting to do something, they probably would log 1-2 bots and bam, you are off to have a good time (especially if the 3-5 players didn't have healing & tanking capabilities). When other clan members logged and wanted to play, the bot or two would rent to allow the real person into the group. As the wipe ages, people are likely to fade off which is to be expected. However, if each person were allowed 2 characters, you could literally have 2-4 people and be able to still play the game at a high level. There is no question you can do a lot of the game content on a legend shaman and paladin which has been over-quoted, but the fact of the matter is you have to do a lot of tedious prepping and have a much higher risk of massripping at endzone fights than if you had 4-6 characters in those same situations. If we were allowed to play 2 characters at once right now, I would currently be playing with 1-2 friends to maybe do some exploring before the wipe starts. Because that is not in the cards right now, i'll sit on the side lines until there is a new wipe announced and try to rally the troops. Mid to late wipe mud activity is a big problem and this proposal would keep people around a lot longer than the current structure.
Lastly - I'd like to point out that clans that have only a couple of humans which control 8-10 man groups will get slaughtered in PK most of the time. There are scripts out there that can make it possible to control 7-10 characters at once, but if those characters were ambushed or went up against 10 real players in a PK, the 10 humans will win the vast majority of the time. I know from experience.
A couple other alternative ideas i'll throw out that I don't know if are possible, decent ideas, or enforceable - Put a max amount of bots per clan. Each clan can have 2-3 bots. (What about non-clanned people? - If you want to have bot accessibility, save up 25k and make a clan tag). Or - Allow the multi character at a certain point (after 1 month of the wipe, or make it available once legend is reached, etc.)
The aging playerbase has less and less time to dedicate to arctic. Having to search and beg to have people to group with isn't what many of us have the energy or time for anymore. That is one reason wipes die so fast.
