Cheating and any breaking of the rules should never been acceptable.
It should never be encouraged. It should never be used to prove a point.
If I have learnt anything from these past few months it's that one persons actions effect the reputation of everyone around them. If someone chooses to cheat or break rules it is their choice to do so and whether they are supported by those around them of not they should still be brought to justice, as should all parties involved.
This has always been the case when an instance of cheating that can be proven. Where it cannot there is little that can be done other than having that persons reputation lowered, which usually results in others praising them for their actions.
If there was a fail-proof way of saying if someone had or had not shared/sold an account then I would be of the opinion to say that ALL those should be punished equally and fairly in-line with previous levels of moderation and depending of their scale of rule breaking.
There is no righteous cheater. There is no holy player. On some form or level everyone has probably broken a rule here and there. Anything that damages the game is not good. But it seems that right now players will look for any excuse not to play Perpetuum.
Account sharing is a way to escape the EP barrier as well as account specialising vs non-specialising issues. As such this should be considered an exploit. To the same extend owning multiple character even if you're paying for them would also fall into this category but then you have the issue of where to draw the line.
Not only that but with the increase of super cloud processing and services like On-Live becoming more popular we will soon see that multi-boxing and account sharing becomes easier to do and harder to detect while players benefit from this system far more than those not using this system.
To that extend it is likely that games that have a progressive skill increase rather than abilities being based on player performance will struggle to remain fair and honest. To this extend life is unfair and that doesn't stop at the walls to the internet.
There are many grey areas and choosing which side of a line players fall on is a very poor system. It cannot be stopped and it cannot be correctly punished. To that extent people need to consider that sometimes giving power of choice to the larger group of the community doesn't always work and sometimes we so have to accept that these things happen no matter how much we wish they didn't. If you choose to break a rule, no matter how small, it doesn't mean you will be caught but it does mean that further down the line you may be punished for something a long time ago. If you're happy to live those these consequences there is nothing that can be done.
Life will never be fair and nor will the internet. There is little reason to debate this issue further. Everyone that is morally challenged will do whatever they can for any amount of reward. It is usually something that is hard to monitor and regulate. Any cheat or exploit will be always be a risk and not just to you but those that you include in your circles. Keep that in mind next time you do something you know you shouldn't do. But that in no way will stop someone from doing it until it's done.
