Recently the Rising Star team put out their TOS and account/game rules front and center. These have generally always been in place though due to the massive influx of players recently I assume they wanted to make them more apparent. With this new update players have to check off and agree to each rule to continue playing.
Obviously, there isn't much players can do but agree and move on and for the most part these rules are really quite good and don't require much contemplation. That said, there are a few that do and I want to take a moment to talk about them and vent.
So before getting into it here are the rules for you to read through yourself:
The first thing I want to draw attention to is that Jux and the team are adamant at keeping bots and automation of the game out of the environment. Personally, I think this is a bold move and is honestly a very good one. In general bots do not improve overall player experience and in the style of game that RS is, I'd say that bots actively harm the player experience of non-botters as they directly cause starbit inflation.
This is ultimately going to be a cat and mouse game for the team but I agree with them that its worth it despite that botters will ultimately never give up.
The next rule, requiring only 1 account per person is also totally reasonable. There really is no purpose in having multiple accounts in this game unless you plan to more or less use alt accounts to boost a primary which I'm sure some people don't mind but it again is another way that inflation occur.
Having 1 account per IP however is a serious negative and I think that the team understands this but doesn't know how to address bots/multi accounts without also enforcing this. As it stands, if a family has 3 kids that each want to play this game, simply put, they can't. That is a problem and as long as that is the case I just don't see this ever taking off as a game that is widely known like Clash of Clans etc.
image via CyberGhost
To follow up the account to IP rule they initiated a no VPN rule which again is a HUGE issue, even more so than the first. Privacy is of major importance these days and not utilizing a VPN effectively exposes you to all sorts of potential threat actors. Yes, you generally don't 'need' a VPN but for anyone that has a job with access to sensitive information, they 'should' be using a VPN even on their personal devices. This game is built utilizing blockchain tech which generally is supported by privacy focused individuals. By having a blanket no VPN rule you effectively cut out what otherwise would be a large player base from Hive.
The last 2 rules that actually have impact are related to what you are allowed to do with the assets that you 'earn' via the game. Basically any crypto or NFT created by the game that you have is still dictated by the developers. Having a game that has a 'real' market associated with it and then developers that are trying to control that market by banning gifts and exchanges is incredibly alarming. Yes, I know they are trying to again cut down on multi-accounting and botting etc but this is absolutely not the way to do it. Again, Rising Star exists on a platform that is all about decentralization, privacy, personal freedom, etc and these types of restrictions on what someone can do with something they supposedly 'own' is totally against the spirit of the environment. End of the day, to me, it appears that everything that exists related to Rising Stars isn't really yours to do what you will with as although there is nothing that devs can do to actually stop you from sending starbits etc between you and a friend they 'can' and do ban people for it which means that there is always a threat of punishment for utilizing "your" assets as you feel best.
Now that is pretty much the end of my rant here and I do want to reiterate that at the end of the day, I still like the game and think its moving in a good direction. I just hope they can figure out better ways to deal with botters and multi-accounting without punishing families and security minded individuals.
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