We were cleaning our inbox when we noticed a pattern. This pattern has been happening now for almost a YEAR! You get to enjoy it all at once.
We found out we have THREE accounts with a certain critically acclaimed MMORPG. (Yes, that one. The one with the expanded free trial. You know the copypasta) -
- The Ancient One - Created years ago and forgotten so completely that when the PlayStation login failed with "this PSN is already linked to another account," our first reaction was who?? (spoiler: it was us. The account blocking us from our account was our account #CertifiedCowboMoment)
- The Main - Our active account, the one with the most progress, registered with details that don't match for streamer privacy
- The Replacement - Created after we got locked out of our main randomly one day (another spoiler: it was the VPN) and support turned down our first recovery attempt. Faced with losing a character that was so close to level 50, we did the only rational thing: made a new account and started grinding so we could catch up to our friend's levels
So here we are with three accounts, where two were not even used. We thought "let's just delete or unlink the two extras, and use the main everywhere (as in: all platforms)". We thought the plan was simple. Maybe even reasonable. Good job, braincell!
Well...jk nevermind. The answer, given very politely by like nine different agents of the Critically Acclaimed Support Team: no.
Platform links are permanent once a full game is registered. Licenses don't transfer between accounts. Characters don't transfer between accounts. AND deleting an account frees up nothing. The PSN link stays connected. Somehow, deleting the account is worse than doing nothing.
Oh, and the verification thing? I learned that support matches your ID against the name they have on file, and ours will never match (see: streamer privacy, long story). We learned this lesson multiple times. Each time felt very fresh. Hmmm, I wonder why?
Oh, right! We're a system, and over the past year different parts each kept discovering "the account problem," going "I can fix this," and opening a new support ticket. Same questions. Same polite no. Multiple times. Nobody noticed this earlier because nobody "remembered" sending them. At this point I'm sure that their support team probably has a canned response saved for us. A copypasta for cowbo.
Now, you would think that we found out the pattern and were like "oh, we should stop reaching out to support since we already know the answer". YOU WOULD THINK, RIGHT!? Well, at the time we didnt think, and after a few months of grinding on the replacement account, a part (who probably and reasonably assumed the new account was just a temporary thing for playing with friends) looked at the locked main and went "I can fix this" and opened yet another ticket. And somehow that one worked. Email updated, security questions re-sent, main account recovered, authenticator slapped on it right away so this never happens again. So the duplicate-ticket habit didn't work nine times out of ten, and the tenth time is the whole reason we have our main back. We are not recommending this as a strategy. But we're also not not taking credit for it.
So this week we finally 'thunk' and did a responsible thing. We wrote it up as an official wiki to put in our at home documentation. The page pretty much says, DO NOT EMAIL THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED SUPPORT TEAM. THE ANSWER IS STILL NO. They are free now. Go in peace, Mimi, Carlos, Joe, and friends. You did your best.
The one thing we have yet to address: we're trying to recover The Ancient One. Not to merge it cuz that's not possible, (see above) but because founding a Free Company needs three members, and we'd rather staff it entirely with our own accounts than invite a rando just to kick them afterward. If that works out, the FC's lore will be "founded by one person and their two ghost accounts," which tbh, sounds on brand.
Anyway. make sure your account details are somewhere safe, put an authenticator on everything, and to whichever of our parts made The Ancient One back in the day: if you're reading this, please share the details with the rest of the class. We have a Free Company to found (be found? you know what I mean).