Back in 2017, Steven had this to say about
espionage being a legitimate aspect of the game:
- A character may only be a member of a single guild.
- Alts on the same account can join different guilds
- Intrigue, espionage and intelligence gathering is a legitimate aspect of the game.
However, all the characters on the account share housing (and storage in housing) and citizenship. Unlike guilds, those aren't per character. Because of that, any wannabe spy worth their salt will be using a second account to spy with anyway. Is it possible to spy with the same account? Yes, but you are much more limited in what you can get away with, especially if you are spying on a guild where the members are citizens of a different node. And there is the whole Superman/Clark Kent dichotomy.
I am not a fan of the whole espionage thing negatively affecting quality of life aspects of the game, like guild-membership not being account-based, so that's my bias in this. If people don't want a specific alt be a part of their guild, I think it's fine to have an opt-out option though, but not so they can join another guild.
However, if Intrepid is serious about espionage from only one account, and they want it to be a legitimate part of the game, I think they should make some changes to reflect that and perhaps not have accounts share citizenship and housing. And/or some other ways to help spies obfuscate who they really are.
To be clear, my preference is to make spying hard or impossible from the same account and instead force spies to fork out the $15 a month for a second account. I don't give a damn if those people find it unfair
I would fire up a second account myself if I were to spy, without complaint.
Thoughts?
