• rigatti@lemmy.world
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          24 hours ago

          It’s been that way for a long time. The term smurfing, I think, originated with Warcraft II.

          • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
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            19 hours ago

            It was an a****** dude that no one wanted to play against in high-ranking ladders because everyone knew his name because he was a f****** a******.

            So he made two accounts. One called Papa Smurf and the other smurfette. Then proceeded to s*** on low-ranking. Players made fun of them and was he general a****** till everyone learned those names and started avoiding him as well.

            Smurfing since its inception has been fundamentally something only assholes do where this whole purpose of being an a******.

            Ranked systems only work if everybody only has one account. It’s also why most games restrict you to only one account for ranked purposes.

      • imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        19 hours ago

        Smurfing was probably a side-effect. I remember their main reasoning was to ban people who trash talk in voice comms/chat so they cant just create new account using same number.

    • thingsiplay@lemmy.ml
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      16 hours ago

      I hate that shit. But there is actually a reason for. It’s part of their ongoing battle against cheaters or bad actors, as the game is free to play.