I posted the original details of what happened to me in this thread and some people asked me to post letting everyone know how it turned out.
To bring you up to date - I did let Frontier know in a previous email that I had purchased a new account (I borrowed £20 from a friend to get it) so that I could continue to play Elite Dangerous but I would still appreciate having my original account unlocked again as I had lost all the work I had put in over the past 6-7 years as well as the LEP and all the items I had purchased from the online store (somewhere around £600 to £800 worth).
Well, I have finally heard back from Frontier this morning. After two weeks they have decided that my account will remain locked, they also warned me that if I share my new account with anyone that it too will be locked.
I have to say I'm disappointed. Whilst I appreciate that I broke Frontiers terms I was hoping they would have a little compassion and appreciate the fact that it was a mistake, I owned up to it and apologised. I understand it was my fault for sharing the account but I did not know it was a problem and from my experience over the past 6-7 years I have never seen it as being a problem.
For example, account sharing has been a common place thing throughout my time playing Elite Dangerous, for both myself, my previous faction (of around 50 active players) and also other large player factions that I have had close relationships with. I was heavily involved with the BGS and worked with other large factions in figuring it out and helping each other to run it. One of the things that we did (both my faction and many others) was to have a shared account that all faction members had access to. It would just be a basic account and the only thing we did with it was scan star systems so that we could built up cartographic data in that account. Everyone had access to the account so that if anyone was bored they could jump into that account and just scan some systems for us. Then if we ever came up against another faction in the BGS in game and needed to add a lot of influence we could use the collected cartographic data from that account to input a lot of influence for our faction.
This was common practice prior to Frontier changing the BGS. I actually found out about this method when I first started working the BGS from the leader of a very large faction, who is also a Community Moderator here and they were already doing this. So Frontier has many CMDRs sharing accounts, yet in 6-7 years this is the first I have heard about it not being allowed, like I said even their own Community Moderator introduced me to sharing an account to help your factions BGS so it seems fairly hypocritical of them to then take my account away from me for account sharing.
Another reason that it is really disappointing is because I was honest with them. Had I known that account sharing was a problem I could have easily lied to them and just said that I was using a VPN which is why the account showed as being used in the USA or that I was staying in the USA for a while. There are a few reasons I could have told them why and would probably have got my account unlocked. Other CMDRs that I know are telling me that they personally know of CMDRs that have used hacks to cheat in the game who have had their accounts locked for hacking and then Frontier has ended up giving them their accounts back. So cheats and hackers can get their accounts back but I make an honest mistake in breaking their terms, own up to it completely, apologise profusely and they decide that my account needs to remain locked.
As I said before I do appreciate that I was in the wrong, I shouldn't have shared the account, but having to pay such a heavy price (around £1000 put into the game and losing 6-7 years worth of work) seems an excessive punishment when many other CMDRs, including a Community Moderator here, have being doing the same thing for years and CMDRs that are hacking the game are being given their accounts back. It all seems a bit unfair to me.
Anyway, I'm now playing on my new account which is going to take me years to get back to where I was - having all engineers unlocked, all the ships I like, all the weapons and modules fully engineered as well as hundreds of stored weapons/modules in 13 module storage ships, all fully engineered as well. I no longer have the income to afford to spend much on the game but I guess I'll have to be buying Odyssey now next year and any future updates, which would have been covered by my LEP. I certainly can't afford to replace all the cosmetic items that I had bought from the Frontier store. I can't imagine how many years it will take me to earn enough Arx in game to replace £600 to £800 worth but I would guess way too many, I'm 51 years old so I'll probably be dead by then!
I guess the moral of the story is don't share your account with anyone for any reason.
To bring you up to date - I did let Frontier know in a previous email that I had purchased a new account (I borrowed £20 from a friend to get it) so that I could continue to play Elite Dangerous but I would still appreciate having my original account unlocked again as I had lost all the work I had put in over the past 6-7 years as well as the LEP and all the items I had purchased from the online store (somewhere around £600 to £800 worth).
Well, I have finally heard back from Frontier this morning. After two weeks they have decided that my account will remain locked, they also warned me that if I share my new account with anyone that it too will be locked.
I have to say I'm disappointed. Whilst I appreciate that I broke Frontiers terms I was hoping they would have a little compassion and appreciate the fact that it was a mistake, I owned up to it and apologised. I understand it was my fault for sharing the account but I did not know it was a problem and from my experience over the past 6-7 years I have never seen it as being a problem.
For example, account sharing has been a common place thing throughout my time playing Elite Dangerous, for both myself, my previous faction (of around 50 active players) and also other large player factions that I have had close relationships with. I was heavily involved with the BGS and worked with other large factions in figuring it out and helping each other to run it. One of the things that we did (both my faction and many others) was to have a shared account that all faction members had access to. It would just be a basic account and the only thing we did with it was scan star systems so that we could built up cartographic data in that account. Everyone had access to the account so that if anyone was bored they could jump into that account and just scan some systems for us. Then if we ever came up against another faction in the BGS in game and needed to add a lot of influence we could use the collected cartographic data from that account to input a lot of influence for our faction.
This was common practice prior to Frontier changing the BGS. I actually found out about this method when I first started working the BGS from the leader of a very large faction, who is also a Community Moderator here and they were already doing this. So Frontier has many CMDRs sharing accounts, yet in 6-7 years this is the first I have heard about it not being allowed, like I said even their own Community Moderator introduced me to sharing an account to help your factions BGS so it seems fairly hypocritical of them to then take my account away from me for account sharing.
Another reason that it is really disappointing is because I was honest with them. Had I known that account sharing was a problem I could have easily lied to them and just said that I was using a VPN which is why the account showed as being used in the USA or that I was staying in the USA for a while. There are a few reasons I could have told them why and would probably have got my account unlocked. Other CMDRs that I know are telling me that they personally know of CMDRs that have used hacks to cheat in the game who have had their accounts locked for hacking and then Frontier has ended up giving them their accounts back. So cheats and hackers can get their accounts back but I make an honest mistake in breaking their terms, own up to it completely, apologise profusely and they decide that my account needs to remain locked.
As I said before I do appreciate that I was in the wrong, I shouldn't have shared the account, but having to pay such a heavy price (around £1000 put into the game and losing 6-7 years worth of work) seems an excessive punishment when many other CMDRs, including a Community Moderator here, have being doing the same thing for years and CMDRs that are hacking the game are being given their accounts back. It all seems a bit unfair to me.
Anyway, I'm now playing on my new account which is going to take me years to get back to where I was - having all engineers unlocked, all the ships I like, all the weapons and modules fully engineered as well as hundreds of stored weapons/modules in 13 module storage ships, all fully engineered as well. I no longer have the income to afford to spend much on the game but I guess I'll have to be buying Odyssey now next year and any future updates, which would have been covered by my LEP. I certainly can't afford to replace all the cosmetic items that I had bought from the Frontier store. I can't imagine how many years it will take me to earn enough Arx in game to replace £600 to £800 worth but I would guess way too many, I'm 51 years old so I'll probably be dead by then!
I guess the moral of the story is don't share your account with anyone for any reason.
