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Is Niantic going to do anything about multi-account players or is it the generally accepted way to play pokemon go now?

I've observed that at practically all raids that I've been to, almost everyone is a multi-account player, i.e has 2-3 phones on average. These account for around 90% of the people at raids or playing pokemon go outside or in trains etc.

So is Niantic going to do anything to disincentivise using multiple accounts or is this the new generally accepted way to play most efficiently. I was talking to another player about finding gyms to take down and he said I should 'shave' pokemon from gyms with my team with another account. I don't have one (yet) but he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world; equivalent to me asking how did you get a legendary or some such. I mean I've seen accounts with variations of ShaverPolice(insert numbers here), e.g. ShaverPolice153, ShaverPolice246 etc.My pokemon have been removed from gyms and been replaced by these guys countless times without the teams changing.

I know it is much easier to play with multiple accounts as it helps in getting coins from gyms and is useful against tier 4 raids, but is this basically how you're supposed to play in the first place? Have I been foolish in sticking to a single account?

Asked by gapooskie5 years 3 months ago
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I hope not. I have one account and like it that way. But the people who have multiple accounts can help out with a lot. Like Marowak Raid, for example, which needs 4 people (3 people with 6 really strong almost-max Kyogre can fight it down to about 3 seconds left). It's hard to get 4 people interested in Marowak, I mean, it's hard enough to find enough people for 5 stars raid, but at least people want legendary more than non-Machamp non-Tyranitar raid. So if I have 2 other friends, and one of them has two accounts, then I'm set. More raid is always a good thing. I don't see why this is cheating. It's like you play an MMO and you have another computer and you create another character and you use it to play simultaneously (which is impossible, but then again, so is having 2-3 phones). I don't feel like they are ahead of me in anyway. Usually the second account is not as strong as their "main" account anyway, and is usually there to HELP with the raid. If it's help, why is it so bad? The only time it's annoying is in Gym, where one person with various ID take all the space in the Gym. But usually people with second account should make them in different team anyway.

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Couldn't multi-accounters take away from people's damage bonus in raids therefore reducing the amount of rewards they get? I'm not a fan of the practice in general because it feels like a cheap way to get ahead. Raids are meant to be done with other people and multi-accounters putting all their accounts in gyms is just shitty.

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Two weekends ago I duoed an Alolan Marowak in Partly Cloudy with my Daughters account (level 32, not great counters beyond a pair of Shadow Ball Mewtwo, no Kyogre, etc.) with literally 0 Seconds left on the clock.

At first I was astounded that it was so hard to Duo. Then I actually looked online to see how hard it was to Duo, and I saw that it was a "Weather Boosted Counters Only" Duo rating, and was astounded that I HAD Duoed it with my Daughters account.

Anyway, back on topic - I'm a supporter of Multi-accounts as long as they aren't actively harming other players (like shaving Gyms, taking up raid space, taking up unreasonable amounts of space in gyms, etc.).

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I agree that it's hard to criticize the use of extra accounts to help get raids done, despite the fact that it's cheating as per the game's terms of service.
But multiple accounts existing easily makes people use them for other purposes, like gyms, where they hurt other players. Filling more spots from gyms that legit players then can't use, shaving spots from gyms for themselves, messing up opponent's sync attempts, feeding berries from multiple accounts etc.

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Playing multiple accounts is not the most efficient way of playing. In fact, it's exactly the opposite. All the time you are diverting into running a second account are dramatic losses to your main account.

Sure, multiple accounts have some benefits such as massive trading or the possibility to solo T4 raids. But there's a huge caveat: stardust. To make functional a second account you need to spend a lot of time grinding for stardust (if you want to trade or do raids). And all this time grinding stardust for a second account is slowing down your main account progress.
(I don't want to talk about dirty players saving gyms, because they don't deserve a second of my time.)

Despite minor benefits, running two accounts is the most inefficient way of playing.

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I totally agree with you. It's a nightmare when I play with 2 phones, therefore I decided to play together with my son's account only when I really need to beat the raid boss and we're too few trainers for whichever reason. Other than that it is an enormous loss of time, energy and resources.

By the way, 3 of the last T5 bosses can also be easily duoed (Ho-Oh, Heatran and Deoxys), or even soloed (Deoxys), so there's no real frontier anymore for people with access to multiple accounts.

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This is my 2nd, it has 9200 catches +2400 trade ("catches"). Halfway thru 38. It was started September 1, 2016. Almost never put in gyms. Not a penny spent on it. Gym scene is very casual here (lot of gyms), every active player if they had 3 accounts placed could get 150 coins a day.

Main inefficiency is when I traded great stuff from good account to this one---sometimes evolving from good account and then rolling the dice on a trade. But do I need 2500 exeggcute candy?

Obvious other inefficiency is running a mobile hotspot and taking my phone battery quickly.

At the end it is a backup, a free one, too. If something "happens" to mine I can still play on this one. Well, plus 4 extra premier balls to throw (plus increase in team damage bonus balls).

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that's partially true, if you play both accounts at the same time WITHOUT pogo+/gotcha/pokeball+. If you use them is not as bad, obviously your primary account will be almost always more powerfull but not for so much than you think

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by hkn 5 years 3 months ago

The inevitable result of Niantic promoting social play without providing crucial social features (such as a raid map). As long as players spend more money across their multiple accounts, Niantic do not care.

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by Sebhes 5 years 3 months ago

What hkn says.

Unfortanetely, it became the new standard. Just L O L

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I think many ended up with multiple accounts once their kids left the game & found them to be very useful. While I don't agree with gym hogging or shaving, having more than one account has its benefits. You end up with far more Luckies, which saves alot of dust, TM's & RC's from raids you otherwise wouldn't be able to do, completing 3 PvP per day without relying on friends for the stones & trading for extra candies. Rural players I suggest more than one account is a necessity rather than a luxury if they want to progress at a reasonable rate. Is it now the norm? I don't know about that but trainers are no longer frowned upon when pulling out their devices at raids, in many cases welcomed.

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by Dr. T 5 years 3 months ago

Multi-accounting in general has been pretty much accepted. by itself it does no harm to other players. There used to be some discussion about using multiple accounts in raids, as it might steal a performance ball from the other players. Ever since friendship has become the most important source of extra balls, this discussion died.

What is still frowned at is using multiple accounts of the same color for excessive berry-feeding. However, it is hard to spot, as nobody knows who does the feeding.

Shaving, however, is a whole different beast. Depending on how it is done it can be really hurtful for other players. Taking down a stagnant gym - few players will complain. Hogging whole gyms for your own accounts, shaving out other players before their defenders are ripe for coin harvesting - that is just cheap.

In general, multi-accounting is like doping is in sports. You are certainly more efficient, but you are not really competing in any meaningful way any more.

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For me, it's simpler and easier to have just one account, but I can see the draw of having multiples. In the end, having multiple accounts is STILL against the Terms of Service, so if you're only using one you can at least rest easy that you're not breaking any rules.

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They say its against TOS and can get you banned but lets be real, they wont do anything about it, same as they dont really do much about spoofers

I hope not. Our fb group has 100 members but frequently active there like 30 I think. At least half of my community has a second account and im happy with that as we often lack 1 or 2 persons to do a raid so being 2 in 1 helps a lot.

If you can Id say go for it. Just don't be a dick and don't kick out a someones mon just because there's only 1 slot open

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by Dr. T 5 years 3 months ago

In a way multi-accounters are spoiling the game for themselves. Sure, you can play more effective and get more resources. But in the process you are trivializing every challenge the game offers. If you can do everything alone and by yourself, it removes any incentive to really play the game. Taking over gyms is a frequent necessity for me, as I cannot simple use a gym nobody else attends and shave myself in and out to collect coins. Level 5 and 4 raids for me are occasions to meet other players, exchange gossip, conduct some trading, do a battle or two - all things I cannot do on my lonesome with only one account.

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"trivializing every challenge the game offers" Like what? Sitting around and wasting time waiting for people to raid with? Having to join toxic discords and be bullied just to try to find a raid? No thanks i'll do my three accounts and hit every heatran raid I see when I see it.

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Were you the guy hiding behind the bus stop near the library gym who we asked to come join us at the heatran raid yesterday afternoon and who pretended not to see or hear us?

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Not a downvote from me, but I only “see” raids driving to work and driving home from work. I don’t get even 5 minutes to eat lunch (not allowed to leave if I did get 15 minutes). Could be like that.

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I don't see multi accounters spoiling anything for themselves, in many areas where I live in the UK, multi accounting is necessary on the local scene to do anything above tier 3 raids. There just isn't the interest outside of town/city centres. Am I gonna multi account to get the job done or drive miles to waste my time waiting around in the hope there's going to be what I want when I get there? With no raid maps & limited time on my hands, there is only one answer.

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Stuff like this gives multi-accounters a bad name.

When it comes to multi-accounting, my family could be accused of it. We've got an account for our daughter (technically two; one that has the PTC which we've abandoned, one that has a Gmail account so she can battle and trade and basically play the game like the rest of the players which we use), but as she rarely actually wants to play beyond PvP battling of Daddy or Mommy, most of the time it's my wife or I keeping her account on par with ours by putting her on gyms, spinning stops, doing research, catching Pokémon, doing raids, etc.

Our rules for playing her account are pretty simple:
1) Never use her account to "shave" a gym for ourselves.
-She decided she wanted to be a different team from my wife and I, so we're Instinct, she's Valor. Her first account was also Instinct, but she wasn't happy with that after a while.
1a) Never use OUR accounts to shave a gym to put HER on it.

2) Never use her account in a Raid if it means that another Trainer won't be able to take part.
-This has literally never been an issue, but we talked about it and decided on it.

3) Never use her account to get good Pokémon for ourselves. When we trade with her account, we trade in good faith - no "Larvitar" for "Pidgey" trades, or "Exclusive Move" for "Ratatta" trades, for example. The goal is that she will be able to use this account when she decides to play again - it's NOT our account.
-if anything, we're transferring OUR good Pokémon to her account to make up for the lost 18months of playing that she had on her original account, but is now pretty much useless due to the PTC restrictions. (or at least, the last time we looked into it there were those Restrictions still. Haven't bothered to use that account since August, I think) I know I've traded more than a few of her Level 3 Eevee's for my extra level 25 Tyranitars, for instance, in order to get her account up to a useful degree as quickly as possible.

Most of the people I raid with have second accounts, and most of them have similar values to my wife and I when it comes to using the second account. So multi-accounting in my area is essentially a non-issue. (We have had some people who shaved gyms, but after they figured out that the rest of us didn't bother to raid with them, they either stopped shaving or started raiding in another area. Same with spoofers, who we left on gyms for 5+ days rather than kick them off of gyms.)

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I've been single accounting it since day 1 and don't plan to start multi-accounting anytime soon. I don't know how people manage to keep track of more than two accounts, it seems like a hassle.

As far as people who do multi-account are concerned; Having an extra hand for raids can be appreciated, though the recent effectiveness changes and current raid boss lineup have made this less of an issue. Even A-Marowak isn't such a nail-biter to duo anymore, with best friends bonus many Pokemon fall below the 2.0 estimator on Pokebattler that previously didn't. People who use multi accounts to shave gyms are assholes who ruin the game for others.

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by mahzza 5 years 3 months ago

The most annoying part of multi-accounting is the gym scene. When I take down a gym, I get one defender. When a multi-accounter takes down a gym, they get two, three, or four.

A couple in my town each have two accounts, plus they play their "daughter-in-law's" account for her, so every time they take a gym, there's five defenders right off the bat. Take out one, they get a notice, and start using GR. I don't get a notice until AFTER mine is gone.

Advantage multi-accounters.

People with multiple accounts are definitely helpful for short-handed raids, and I've benefited from that aspect a lot. It's just the rest that leads to an unfair advantage if played that way.

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I don't think Niantic can or will do anything about this.

A good percentage of the people I know who play the game use multiple accounts at raids. Often the second account was one legitimately created for a young niece or nephew who plays the game intermittently. These players don't use the accounts for shaving pokemon out of gyms, though do put these accounts into gyms with open spaces. I think that they trade things to these accounts occasionally in attempts to get luckies, but these players are more likely to trade with others.

If not used for shaving of gyms, I really have no problem with multiple accounts used for raiding. In that context, it only helps me and casual players in my ares. That being said, I have no desire to create an alternate account.

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it is niantic's own fault. I started to use a second account when trading came out. Now, I am getting a lot more hundo pokemons or even luncky hundos. If trading is removed, I will just go back to a single account.

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It kind of is. They have failed to enforce the rules they set and they created a massive incentive for a second account with trading. Real world observation: people respond to incentives and rarely follow rules without a threat of enforcement of those rules.

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So no resposibility at all on the people willingly breaking the rules to advance their account just because it's hard for Niantic to tell who multi-accounters are?

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Not that many active players in my city, but active spoofers are pretty common—not too many of those above level 35. If I’m at a spoofing park and I double place a 40 and 38 they at least get the idea I’m not a pushover/chump—I play every day and I’ll knock them out when I go there. The more times they have to fly there more chances they’ll screw up

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Majority of players in our area have multiple accounts, but I rarely see anyone shave (too time consuming) - some might double-flip a gym but suburban gyms not too competitive and usually spots available (or a highly demotivated gym) within a short drive. I'd say the bigger issue is "hogging" several gym spots, but even that is not too much of an issue.
TL;DR - it's the new normal, like it or not...

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