Perhaps having a master account that all subsequently created accounts are children of-- could be accessed by checking player information maybe? Is this really that big of a problem?

DrGonzo

That would have been my suggestion. Or as said above, worst case your name and your clan prefix and a choice of if you are playing as a clanner or a normal. But the multiple user thing would be an issue for ppl who share...

Yep, that's a terrific idea. 

In AoE3 you got one account, if you wanted another, you had to buy another copy....

Also true. Just about nothing in life is fair.

Dr.Gonzo

Just limit the max. player to 2-3 but what is so hard about showing the account name behind the smurf name? At least that way you could keep track of smurfs. I'm really pissed about smurfing. I'm pissed when I get smurfed (like anyone, I guess), but I'm pissed when my team is smurfing as well and stomping the other one into oblivion. Yes, getting a game going with a tag can be hard at times, tell me about it. But that's no excuse for that bs. And since the community in its whole isn't mature enough to cut it down by itself I'm simply asking for a restriction by a hopefully more wise fraction, i.e. the devs.

If people complain about your uber clan tags just offer to take the worst player into your team or play 3v4 or whatever, it's definitely not impossible to play without smurfs, I've done it since I started playing, so anyone can do it. Just stop acting like 14yr old jerks and you'll be fine (directed to noone specifically in this discussion, rather to the community as a whole).

Btw, Cykur: atm they have to delete/rename as well in order to play with a clan tag, so it wouldn't exactly be worse than it is now. If you want to keep your stats there's no way at the moment to change your name when you join a new clan.

Well, for one thing there are more than enough smurfs around with enough games for that. Aside of that it wouldn't fix the problem but rather enable those who've already established themselves online (i.e. they got friends there) to circumvent it.

Is it so hard to understand that I want that issue fixed just because it is wrong?

True, but that's sort of different from the issue of smurfs I was originally talking about

At least it wouldn't fix the problem that most people smurf intentionally and not just to let their siblings/partners play or change their clan.

Nontheless another good suggestion

Yeah, but if you rely on PUGs filling up with people you really know or someone you know can vouch for, it makes Sins being even harder to play online than it already is (which is close to impossible, then). I've been in maybe..12 pug games that were close to being filled with well-known people, but I'd say that in 99% you're forced to let 1-2 unknown players in for the sake of getting the game going in less than 30minutes.

More than improving the balance of pugs, though, I think it's important to further increase the need of reputation and decent sportsmanship online. Stats might be an indicator of skill (if it weren't for the fact that you can easily fake those), but the only indicator of the personality of your enemy is his name and the reputation it's got. With me being someone playing this game simply for the sake of having fun competing with other people (as is the way it's intended, I think) smurfing makes this close to impossible. And since the solution for that is really simple, I just thought the suggestion might be worthwhile.

I agree in a way to this option, but maybe to make everyone happy allow there to be 2 accounts.  I played an online game called Tanarus for almost 10 years and it had a couple good things about it.

1.) You only were allowed 2 accounts.

2.) Once a name was created, there were certain features allowed.

3.) You could zero (clear all stats from the name, only allowed 3 times for good) or rename (this could only be done once a week)

4.) They had a team feature, where there were team leaders who could invite people.  Also a team roster, with all the players and all of there combined stats would be the team stats.

5.) Daily, weekly, and monthly scores.  Based on points in that game, but could be done by wins in this game, like a leaderboard.  This feature is for individuals and team stats.

Basically I think all these should be incorporated in some way.  But as for login names, I think 2 should be the maximum, to allow people at least one to goof around on in a non-smurfing way, to test out new strategies.

Like...Siddy

I stil say, if when you clicked on Player Info, it would show you the main account name. So you could have as many Nickname as you want but would you allow to see smurfs and/or troublemakers cuz you could just remember one account name.

For Example, I play under -Ue_Carbon 99% of the time on ICO. But my master account name is Children_Of_Dust. So if I joined a game under any name and you clicked on my Player Info you would see my master account name 'Children_Of_Dust' in my player info along side my stats and ping.

Hope that makes sense.

No, 0 nicknames are not enough, but I guess despite your sophisticated argumentation you already knew that. Smurfing might be fun (in the same way that ganging up on a fat kid in school is fun) but it is unmannered and immature at best and plainly pitiful at worst. The only "valid" arguments for smurfing are:

1) The need for multiple nicknames due to different persons playing from that account (as stated by Darvin3).

2) Unable to get a game going because you are such a 1337 clan-/professional-gamer that noone wants to be in the enemy team

3) Noone wants to play with your main nick because you acted like a jerk.

As for 1) As already suggested displaying the account name as well as the player nick would solve that problem for both sides. Having as many nicks as you want on the one side and still be able to identify smurfs -> everyone's happy

Regarding 2) That's plain wrong. Take JJ for example. He'd one of the best player without a doubt and stopped smurfing quite a while ago. He's still playing a lot of games. Besides, if you want to play with friends/clanmates who are obviously better than the rest of the pool, just offer to take the worst player in your team or play 3v4 or something like that to even the odds. Show some sportsmanship instead of smurfing due to cowardice.

3) Most likey you are a jerk then. Sorry to be so blunt, but a new nick won't help there. At least act like a man and let people make their own choice if they want to play with you or not.