Rising Star has enjoyed a recent surge of popularity, and with it—new users!
At the time of this post, just over 7,250 weekly active users 😲
The systems Rising Star uses for detecting rule violations has also been quietly improving. Those who frequent the Discord know that there has been quite an uptick in the number of people disputing bans.
Rising Star has a very short Terms & Conditions page (less than 400 words). In an effort to increase visibility of these rules, an 'Agree to the Rules' pop up has been implemented:
📜 The List
- No bots or clickers are allowed
- Only one account per user (no multi accounting)
- Only one account per IP address AND physical location
- VPNs, proxy servers, etc. are not allowed
- NFTs can be traded but not gifted
- STARBITS/STARPRO cannot be gifted (including converting to another crypto and gifted)
- Be kind, and do not try to trick people into making bad trades
Here’s why these rules are in place
Rule 0: Rising Star is a game, not a crypto investment system
⭐ This is important context that frames the main list of rules. ⭐
Rising Star started as a hobby project. The devs made it so they didn’t go crazy during the first COVID lockdowns. It got popular, and attracted users who are used to thinking in terms of ROI, whitepapers, and fiat prices.
But Rising Star has never—and has no intention of—being anything but a fun idle/incremental game. Hence, the rules.
Rule 1: No bots or clickers are allowed
Playing Rising Star is mostly about running missions, then waiting. Pretty simple stuff. It’d be easy to program a bot or clicker to do this for you.
Because it’d be so easy, if this rule wasn’t in place, tons of people would do it and just farm STARBITS all day. This would ruin the economy for honest players.
Rule 2: Only one account per user (no multi accounting)
It’s also pretty easy to create alts on Hive. Many people use alts for various reasons, for good or ill. If Rising Star did not restrict the use of alts, then it’d be easy for anyone to set up 3 or 4 or 5 (or 100) alt accounts and farm STARBITS all day. This would ruin the economy for honest players.
Rule 3: Only one account per IP address AND physical location
An easy way to get around the “no alts” rule is to claim that your brother or sister or parents or whatever are playing. There’s no easy way to verify that this is true, and people will absolutely lie about this (financial incentives make people do ugly things).
The simplest way to protect the STARBITS economy is to limit RSG accounts to one per household. It is unfortunate and not ideal, but this is the way it needs to be until a better system is figured out.
Rule 4: VPNs, proxy servers, etc. are not allowed
Anyone wanting to get around Rules 2 and 3 can do so through the clever use of a VPN or proxy. This is a tricksy one because VPNs are important for privacy... but if you allow a loophole as obvious as VPN, people will exploit it.
Rule 5 & 6: NFTs can be traded but not gifted. STARBITS / STARPRO cannot be gifted (including converting to another crypto and gifted)
Trading NFTs on Hive’s marketplace is fair game.
But RSG restricts the gifting of NFTs, STARBITS or STARPRO. This prevents groups of people from pooling resources in order to gain an unfair advantage over people who are playing individually. For example, if left unrestricted, a gaming guild could pass around powerful cards like XPBoost10 or Legendary Instruments to help lower level players accelerate.
Rising Star cannot stop you from using the Hive Engine blockchain to transfer assets, but the cheating system can easily detect this (and detect sneaky efforts to disguise it). If the system detects this, cheating accounts will be flagged and possibly banned. Your Hive Engine assets cannot be frozen or seized in any way.
⚠️🎁 Giveaways are a big exception to this rule. Rising Star has a thriving and generous community, and encourages themed contests and giveaways. Anyone running a giveaway must apply to be whitelisted (post a link to your giveaway in the #support channel on Discord) and ensure that their giveaway:
- Uses a random selection process
- Is widely accessible (not offered to a closed group)
Rule 7: Be kind, and do not try to trick people into making bad trades
This is kind of a catchall rule. The ‘letter of the law’ is laid out in the written Terms & Conditions, but the ‘spirit of the law’ involves:
- Keeping the game fun
- Keeping the game accessible
- Preventing the economy from being toppled by opportunists
The RSG devs can, will and have banned users that are clearly trying to find ways around the stated rules, are exploiting loopholes, or are generally being disruptive towards the ‘spirit of the law.’ If what you’re doing feels sketchy or exploitative, then chances are you shouldn’t be doing it.
🤔 Unsure if you’ve run afoul of the rules?
If you think you may have accidentally or unknowingly broken the rules, the best thing you can do is be honest and upfront about it. Come to the #support channel on the RSG Discord and explain what you think may have happened. Provide your in game name (ign) too—this is your Hive username.
The devs will manually check things out and decide what to do from there.
Small offenses may be forgiven if you’ve been civil and honest and upfront about it.
🙋♀️ Disputing a ban
Use the same channel to dispute a ban you feel may have been made in error. Be prepared to provide proof. Be polite and civil: it goes a long way. A reversal of your ban is not guaranteed. Your tenure within the game does not affect your chances (high level players are held to the same standard as new players).
😡 Disagree with some or all of this?
Rising Star is a constant work in progress. This system of rules is not perfect, and will likely evolve along with the game itself. The community and devs welcome civil discussion on how things might be improved—come join us on Discord or drop your thoughts on this post!
And please remember that the team is a small group of passionate folks who love indie music and building things much more than creating a massive crypto profit system ~ 💜