Stream-sniping

IMO stream snipers don't have any real advantage and only add to the content quality that streamers provide. The rule needs to be abolished because so far it has only been abused.

I wanted to withhold replying, especially as the conversation deviated to one of whether or not stream-sniping should be banned, or if it considered cheating lol. Regardless of what anyone thinks about the behavior of stream-sniping, I do maintain that Rare, as a private company, should have the right to ban stream-snipers or whoever else.

I was just curious as to what their approach was in determining someone to be a stream-sniper. Because it seems that without some form of linked-account-self-admission, it should really be impossible for them to confirm anyone as being stream-snipers.

Some people have said [1, 2, 3] that an explanation would encourage workarounds. I understand and appreciate your sentiments, but I can already think of a few "workarounds", as there is a limit in the ways they can confirm stream-sniping to begin with.

Stream-sniping, as I understand it (and correct me if I'm wrong), involves a player simultaneously 1) playing the game on a streamer's server, and 2) watching the streamer. This is done for the sake of getting an advantage over the streamer by knowing their whereabouts, condition, etc.

In order to confirm that someone is stream-sniping, you would need to confirm the claim that 1) the player is on the streamer's server, and 2) the player is watching the streamer.

As some people have mentioned [1, 2], it is easy for Rare to be able to track the behaviors of a suspected stream-sniper from their end. If a player is server-hopping, attempting to join players on a streamer's server, or behaving otherwise as a stream-sniper would, it makes sense for Rare to be able to confirm that a player is, or is attempting to get on the streamer's server. It makes perfect sense that anything involving your internet traffic to/from their servers is trackable on their end.

I'm puzzled as to how they would confirm the second half of the claim, however. The rest of your internet traffic. How do they confirm that a player is watching the streamer, or is on twitch, or is doing anything other than playing Sea of Thieves?

Obviously when a linked-twitch account pops up in a twitch chat feed, Rare would have significant (if not sufficient) evidence to support the claim.

That being said, here are some "workarounds":

1. Don't log in to twitch. Watch while not logged in. Genius, I know.
2. Log in, but don't link your twitch account here, just in case they even could look at an individual's twitch login history. Also don't chat in the chat room.

Voila.

Now, if it turned out that the only people who were banned were people who fumbled by making obvious mistakes and gave themselves away, I wouldn't be as doubtful of Rare's ability to confirm stream-sniping.

However, as I discovered after a plunge into the rabbit hole (reddit, mostly), it seems that linked-twitch accounts isn't necessarily taken into consideration in every case.

So, how does Rare confirm that an individual was stream-sniping if it isn't part of the process to confirm that the individual was even on twitch? We have very different interpretations of the word "significant," @TakuBoto. As you're not liable to divulge anything, I doubt I'm going to get a straightforward response from Rare; and as this thread has drifted off topic enough, I'm ready for my anchor drop.