Account questions

Short answers to what players often ask about their account. For the whole story, see Your account and Premium membership.

No. The user agreement allows one account per person, and several accounts played by one person, or accounts used to help one another, may be closed. You don't need a second one: your account carries on from round to round, and each round you found a new company with it. Someone else in your home can have their own account, but some things, such as rating logos, count the accounts on one computer or network as one. See Playing fair.

Not yourself. For your e-mail address, press Ask the game staff to change it beside it on My profile, which takes you to the game staff on Help me!. Your username is the name other players see, and there is no button to change it, so choose it with care. The game staff can change it, so write to them if you have a good reason; they may also rename a player whose name breaks the rules.

Open Settings, then the Security tab, and fill in Change password: your current password, then the new one twice. A new password needs at least 10 characters, with letters and numbers, and must not be one known from a data leak. If you have forgotten it, press Forgot your password? on the sign-in page and follow the link in the e-mail. Either way, a new password signs you out on every other device.

On the Security tab of Settings, type your Current password at the top, then press Set up two-factor. Scan the code with an authenticator app such as Google Authenticator, 1Password or Authy, type the 6-digit code it shows and press Confirm. From then on, signing in asks for a code from the app as well as your password. Keep your recovery codes somewhere safe: if you lose your phone, Lost your device? Use a recovery code lets you in, and each code works once.

Yes: you can be signed in on your phone and your computer at the same time. Signed-in devices, on the Security tab of Settings, lists each one with its browser and when it was last used. If you signed in somewhere you should not stay, type your Current password and press Sign out others: every device but the one you are using is signed out. On a device of your own, tick Keep me signed in when you sign in.

Your secretary is your adviser in the game. They write to your Mail inbox when something worth knowing happens, show warnings on the Front page (choose which under Secretary warnings in Settings) and guide you through the tutorial. The game names your secretary to suit the round's map. To choose a name yourself, press Edit beside Secretary on My profile: 2 to 24 letters, with no spaces or numbers. A name you choose stays with you from round to round.

On My profile, press Build your avatar, or Edit avatar once you have one. Choose the skin, hair or hat, eyes, clothes and the rest, or press Surprise me, then Save; Start again brings back the avatar you started with. You cannot upload a photo: an avatar is built only from the builder's parts. VIP members also get extras such as frames, gradient backgrounds and bright hair dyes, which anyone can try on but only VIP members can save. If your VIP runs out, your extras are kept, but the free parts show until it is back.

Convenience and information, never production: VIP never makes your factories produce more, and free players have the same buildings, market and prices. Among other things it gives a gold star by your name, a drop-down box with your company's key figures, shortcuts such as moving staff straight from the staff list or paying salaries straight away, a company logo, avatar extras, starting a team, and 21 days away before an inactive company is closed instead of 11. The VIP membership page, under Support Us in the menu, lists everything it gives right now. See Premium membership.

• Free trial: press Try VIP free for 7 days on the VIP membership page. Each account can have it once. New players also get some VIP features for their first 7 days, and the page says which.
• Buying: pick a pack under Buy VIP days and press Buy. You pay on Stripe's secure page, so your card details never reach the game. The days are added as soon as the payment is confirmed, usually within a minute, and you get a receipt by e-mail.

Each purchase is a single payment for its pack of days: nothing renews and nothing is taken again. The days start as soon as you pay, so you lose the 14-day right to cancel.

Only while you have a company in the running round: then one day is used each midnight, whether you signed in that day or not. Between rounds, or while you have no company, your days wait for your next one. The VIP membership page shows the days you have left and their history, and your secretary tells you when the last one is used.

Both are on the Account tab of Settings, and both start with an e-mail: nothing happens until you follow its link.

• Deactivate member profile: your company is closed and your profile is hidden. Signing in again brings your profile back.
• Delete my account: your company is closed and you are signed out at once. After 30 days your e-mail address, names, mail, blog posts, the words of your forum posts and your logo are erased for good; sign in before then to keep the account. Rankings and round results stay, under "Deleted player".

For a short break you need neither: your account waits, though a company whose owner stays away 11 days is closed (21 for VIP members).

As little as it can. Signing up asks only for a username, an e-mail address and a password, never your real name, age, address or phone number, and your password is kept only as a secure hash. Beyond that the game keeps your play (companies, mail, posts and settings) and, to stop cheating and multiple accounts, security data such as IP addresses: sign-in records and IP addresses go after 90 days. Other players never see your e-mail address unless you choose to show it, on the Profile tab of Settings. The Privacy policy page, under Help in the menu, tells the whole story and how to ask for a copy of your data.

You choose under E-mail in Settings: Private messages and Secretary messages (an e-mail whenever a player or your secretary writes to you), Round results and New rounds. Each of those e-mails has an unsubscribe link, which opens a page with Unsubscribe and Stop every game e-mail. Nothing changes until you press one, and Undo there turns it back on. E-mails about your account, such as confirming your address or a password reset you asked for, always come.

Yes. Everything you need to play, and to win, is free, there are no adverts and your data is never sold. VIP membership, under Support Us in the menu, is how players who want to can support the game: it saves clicks and tells you more, but never makes a company produce more.