Why account recovery currently doesn't work and what can be done to improve it

Utmost

Dear community,

This is a suggestion that has been weighing down on me for quite some time now, considering I've seen too many cases of account theft ultimately favoring with the thief instead of the actual owner.

To give context I'll first explain how the recovery system currently works. Account recovery policy was changed in late 2015, allowing users to only change their email through the account administration support every 90 days. Meaning recovery is only possible if the 90 days period has passed, even if the account owner can deliver sufficient proof it's his/her account. This policy was implemented considering players didn't much use it to recover accounts but rather trade it between one another, continuously changing the email registered to the account. Taking this in consideration, the policy seems fair. Account trading/sharing simply isn't allowed and should be punished. But, this policy has made it impossible to recover a account altogether. Why? I'll explain.

As I mentioned earlier, once the 90 day period has passed, the player is allowed to recover the account again, although, if the thief changed the email in said 90 day period, the timer will reset. Per example, if my account gets stolen and the thief changes the email registered to the account one day before the 90 day period ends, I'll have to wait another 90 days to be able to recover. Now I hear you asking: "But Utmost, can't I just ask a GM when the email was last changed on the account?", very smart, but no: you can't. The GM's aren't able or willing to share that information, which leads to players being completely lost as to when they can recover their account again.

I do know that you're not allowed to share any of your account information and that this is strictly against Z8games policy, but as my mother always said: "once bitten, twice shy", first offenders shouldn't be punished this harshly. Hence, why I want to make the following suggestion: allow someone to instantly be able to recover on the first offense, make it 30 days on the second offense and 90 days on the third. The recovery system in it's current state can might as well be removed altogether considering the new policy makes it impossible to recover.

In the end, we all make mistakes, that's how we learn. I don't think the player who genuinely made a mistake should be punished as harshly as the players who abuse the account recovery system to trade a account back and forth one another.


I would love to hear what you guys think and please support this suggestion if you agree.

kaasboer37

Supporting this 100% +1, ITS A YES FROM ME!

[GM]Kanadian

This was not a recent change, and has been a policy as long as I have been here and possibly earlier (late 2015). Additionally, if we believe your account has been stolen sometimes we will work with you to figure that out to work with the 90 days period, not against it. Unfortunately, players do not have any say in security related policies.