Beginning in August 2016, Game Craftsmen ("GC") began deleting these alts, without making any announcements in advance. The purge is still incomplete -- as evidenced by the number of identically-named alts in daily PVP events -- but at its current pace, it cannot possibly be completed before this month's biggest PVP event, the Clan War. In addition, the methods of prioritizing alts for deletion, and the reasons why GC waited four years to address the problem, have never been openly discussed.
So much for the facts. Now, inevitably, for the rumors and opinions. Some of the affected players claim that during the purge, GC personnel told them their alts were unacceptably powerful for their level, and risked "breaking the game". This is a plausible claim, given the close player-developer relationship that GC strives for. However, it raises the question of how GC determines "unacceptable power", and whether GC -- even subconsciously -- favors some players over others. There are also claims that in the game's first year, GC actively encouraged the creation of alts in order to test various aspects of the game, and then targeted those very same alts during the purge. It seems unlikely that GC would risk losing access to both its host sites by violating their TOS, but GC's silence means it cannot yet be ruled out. Finally, a large fraction of the affected players have publicly "flounced" out of MG and its associated social media groups. As of this writing, it remains to be seen how sincere these players were, and whether GC can attract new players to replace them. However, there is considerable anger being expressed on both Facebook and Kongregate, and this is likely to dissuade new players from investing heavily in MG for the next several months.
Submitted by Damien Valentine (ID# 885659)