Changing Mobile Account issue

Question

question

Talha asked Nov 24, '19

Changing Mobile Account issue

Hi,

If PlayfabAccount A has links "androidID" and "Facebook" then for the time when the owner decides to sell the phone we have given the user the option of UnlinkDevice, which essentially unlinks the android device id.

now here is the issue: the system is prone to abuse. because when we unlink the android device id from playfabAccount A and the app is restarted, a new account is made and Player is given Stats e.g Lives=35 etc each time a new account is made. Now when the players run out of Lives they can simply press UnlinkDevice button and restart the app and voila they are greeted with The Initialized Stats for the new account.

we could Solve it easily if By Calling UnlinkFacebookAccount does not delete the stats associated with that facebook account.

what we want is a system where if the user wants to unlink his account From his Mobile, he could do it without exploiting the system.

what should we do? Kindly help.

Account Management

10 |1200

Attachments: Up to 2 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 512.0 KiB each and 1.0 MiB total.

Answer 1 · 2019-11-25T07:04:53Z

Seth Du answered Nov 25, '19

It is common that players create starter accounts for some purpose. For example, some gacha games (we could say many of them) will provide rich rewards for starter accounts, and many players will be able to “spin” for few times to get the specific initial rewards so that they can continue to play the game.

The thing you have mentioned here is players can get full lives by creating new account almost without any “time cost”. I have seen few games on the market enlarge the time that players re-create a new account. Here are some strategies that you may refer to to reduce the abusive account creation (please note that it cannot be avoided completely):

Hide the unlink, re-create account related buttons in a deep level of UI. It will take some time for players to find it.

Add a force tutorial on the beginning of the game so that players have to finish the tutorial to start the main game. (However, too long tutorial will annoy players, please be cautious about it)

Bind the resource files with account information. It means that every time the player cleans the local data of the game to re-create accounts, they will spend few time on downloading resources files

10 |1200

Attachments: Up to 2 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 512.0 KiB each and 1.0 MiB total.

Answer 2 · 2019-11-25T10:04:58Z

Talha answered Nov 25, '19

@SethDu So using UnlinkFacebook Wont help right?

Now we have only two options. Either to Strip the user's right of unlinking account i.e if he/she wants to unlink account from Mobile Just send us a request and we will unlink the account manually through our customer care.

or

to check if the clients FBloggedIn value, if FBloggedIn==1 (from fb api) then use loginwithfacebook rather than loginwithandroidID.That way for eg.

if the player Unlinks the AndroidID from PlayFabAccountA, they are still loggin in with loginwithfacebook function.

if one player is on two mobiles, using the same PlayFabAccountA. IF he/she unlinks the androidID from one PlayFabAccountA, they are still using loginwithfacebook to login to their PlayFabAccountA, so no new account will be created. since we are now ignoring the loginwithAndroidID function and using loginwithfacebook instead.

I guess only use the loginwithAndroidID function when:

1) First time user, New User. let them play till they decide to add facebook to the Account. and then switch from loginwithAndroidID to loginwithfacebook and continue using loginwithfacebook from there.

2) for returning user on a new device.log them in using loginwithAndroidID then when they tap on "Load Account_button", switch the login mechanism from loginwithAndroidID to loginwithfacebook and continue using loginwithfacebook from there.

do you think this could work?

3

10 |1200

Attachments: Up to 2 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 512.0 KiB each and 1.0 MiB total.

Seth Du ♦ commented · Nov 26, 2019 at 04:43 AM

I believe loginwithAndroidID should be used as an anonymous/silent login for the players and you should treat it as an unrecoverable login, so in the second scenario, for the returning users, after they create an account with new device ID, if they click loginwithfacebook, they should only choose staying on this local account or overwriting the local account with the existing one.

1 ·

Talha Seth Du ♦ commented · Nov 27, 2019 at 05:48 PM

Hi, So we have decided to go with a model where on new login the user doesnt get full lives but half lives, ie 15 ot of 35. so We removed the incentive for abusing the model. plus A dedicated customer service for Cases when user wants to Detach his/her account from the current mobile.i.e user clicks on unlink button, we update his stat value and run segments periodically to check for unlink requests.

but i dont understand his comment

"for the returning users, after they create an account with new device ID, if they click loginwithfacebook, they should only choose staying on this local account or overwriting the local account with the existing one."

0 ·

Seth Du ♦ Talha commented · Nov 28, 2019 at 05:24 AM

I assume a player had an account before, but switched device. When this player starts to play the game on a new device, firstly he is able to choose LoginWithFacebook to access previous account or login with the new device ID to create a new one. This player chooses the latter one (maybe by mistake), after the player makes some progress on the current account, he wants to log in with Facebook. Because his Facebook account is linked with previous PlayFab account, my point is they cannot merge 2 existing accounts, instead, they have to choose only one account on a device to play. Otherwise, they need to log into previous account to unlink Facebook Account. This a scenario I usually meet during playing games but not sure it satisfies your requirement.

0 ·

question