FAQs
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Your PlaySafe ID is an anonymous and unique ID that is generated when you prove you’re a real person. It’s your key to play in PlaySafe protected matchmaking across games and services where you’ll only play with and against other real people who haven’t been caught cheating, hacking, botting, or being inappropriate to children.
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Anyone with a photo ID: Simply create an account, take a picture of a document and take a selfie. We then get notified by OnFido if the verification was successful, then we generate your random and anonymous PlaySafe ID. We don’t see or store any of your data.
Under 18s without a document/ID: Your parent will need to create an account with the steps above, and then they can add you as an under-18 user.
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PlaySafe ID uses a process known as “a zero-knowledge proof”. This means that we get to know that you’re real and genuine, but we don’t have to see or store any of your personal info.
We have partnered with OnFido who are giants in the KYC, identity, and verification industry. They are used by huge names across finance, insurance, and other big industries.
You verify your identity on the PlaySafe ID platform, powered by OnFido. We get told if the verification was successful by OnFido, and if it is, we generate a random and anonymous PlaySafe ID. It is this ID that is used with games and services.
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We have two very simple rules:
Don’t use software or hardware to gain an unfair advantage over other players (cheat, hack, bot, script, etc).
Don’t groom or be sexual towards children.
We don’t blacklist based on toxicity or behaviour; that’s at the discretion of the game to handle as they see fit. We ultimately just care about cheating and child safety.
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Cheating:
It depends based on the strength of the info we receive. Bans range from a few days to years. It is worth mentioning that penalties scale, so someone caught cheating after a 6-month ban would receive a much longer ban on their second offence (probably years, or even perma).
Rest assured, anyone caught clearly cheating (without a shadow of a doubt) will face long penalties on their first offence.
Child abuse:
CSEA (child sexual exploitation abuse), CSAM (child sexual abuse material), and/or grooming all have one penalty. Straight permanent ban.
These people will never be able to access any PlaySafe Protected game or service again.
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When you verify yourself, Onfido check if you’re real and if they’ve seen you before.
They only notify us to create you a PlaySafe ID if you pass the check, and they’ve never seen you before. This process means we don’t have to see your data to know you’re real, and it prevents anyone from creating a second PlaySafe ID.
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False positives most often occur from heuristic detections, and usually in ban waves. That said, they do still happen.
To combat this, we have four safeguards:
In order for a game to submit a violation, they have to note what was detected and provide some form of evidence as to what they observed (a payload containing the stat trace).
Every user has a trust score. How long have you used PlaySafe ID, how many game sessions have you played, how much time have you played, etc.
We look at the context of the game, the evidence provided, and weigh up the trust score.
PlaySafe ID decide if someone should get a penalty, regardless of the Game Dev’s decision to the game account. We might decide that your PlaySafe ID shouldn’t receive a penalty, even if the game dev issues on to your game account.
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Simple; don’t connect it, and don’t interact with people who have.
You can 100% continue as you are today.
If you don’t connect your ID however, you don’t get all the benefits of the trust and safe play that comes with only interacting with other people that are PlaySafe verified. But ultimately, you don’t have to connect your PlaySafe ID to something if you don’t want to.
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Free for players forever. We charge games studios, and they’re willing to pay for a few reasons.
Firstly, we reduce a lot of compliance risk for games studios, particularly on child safety, anti-fraud, and trust & safety. Each of these areas carry multi-million dollar fines, so it’s essential they do whatever they can to safeguard users.
Secondly, PlaySafe ID users are happier, play more, and spend more on average, so studios increase their bottom line.
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TLDR: Our CEO was fed up with cheating in games and wanted to make a real solution. Anti-cheat is an essential tool, but it falls short. It doesn’t matter if you’re caught cheating - you can just create a new account.
PlaySafe ID was born out of frustration with how bad the gaming experience has gotten, and exists to provide meaningful accountability. Players want to have a fair and fun time, and parent’s want to know that pedo’s are kept away from their kids. PlaySafe ID is here to ensure both of those things are true.