I had a second account for farming. I work from home and have multiple gaming computers next to my work computer, so I would use the account to gather as I did other things. Never automated, always me, manually moving and pushing the gather keys. That second account just got banned, with no explanation why. I sent an appeal, which was denied (again with no explanation) within 10 minutes. I explained my two accounts in the appeal, that I was actively playing the second account, but still no luck.
Maybe the issue was that I had two accounts; maybe that in itself is something that is not permitted. The problem is the TOS does not make that clear, and I am not even sure why that would be the case. I guess a second account would allow a player to monitor enemy movements remotely – but so does having a guild-mate stand out there and look around. And if that was the issue, I would think that a forced server transfer would make more sense, not a permanent ban.
In Alpha I urged AGS to give more guidance as to what constitutes a violation of the ToS and CoC. Certainly every situation cannot be covered, but non-obvious things like merely owning and playing multiple accounts surely could have been covered, because it is not obvious that this activity in itself would be prohibited (provided both accounts are not cheating, which was the case for me - my company polices its members religiously and prohibits use of any exploit; in fact I am an officer and one of the “police”).
And to add insult to injury, as a player who gave probably over 3500 hours of free testing and feedback over the last year+, this hits me especially hard. I hope it’s a mistake, and I would really like more clarity and a better explanation. Please let me know where I can send additional information or escalate my appeal.
Thanks very much!