Is asking if a specific behavior violates the terms of service allowed?

Question

I've been thinking about creating a second account on a specific MMORPG, but want to make sure that it is allowed before I go ahead. The game's Terms of Service (ToS) are written in such dense legalese that I can't quite tell if I am limited to one account per person or one account per subscription (i.e. I can create as many accounts as I want as long as I purchase separate subscriptions for each account).

Is asking about what is allowed under a specific game's ToS in-scope? The consensus on Meta seems to be that asking how to do things that break the terms of service is "cheating" and therefore not allowed on this site, but that assumes that one already knows what is and what is not allowed under the terms of service. Asking "I know that creating a second account is against the ToS, how do I do it anyway and not get banned?" is off-topic. Is asking "Am I allowed to create a second account?" also off-topic or would it be acceptable?

Our classic thread on questions about cheating in multiplayer also assumes that the question asker already knows that their desired behavior or outcome is against the rules, so that doesn't help. Rather, the whole point of asking would be to ensure that one isn't "cheating".

To be clear, I'm not looking for legal advice such as an opinion on the legal validity of a specific ToS, how a specific court would rule in the case of a lawsuit, or how to litigate a specific case against a software publisher in an applicable court of law, but simple rule information ("Is X allowed in Multiplayer Y?").

Answer 1

Personally, I see no problem with your proposed question. You are simply asking about a fairly benign thing (creating a second account for an MMO, with no ill-intent) and wanting to know if this would go against the game's ToS. I agree also that the legalese for ANY modern ANYTHING is complicated beyond belief, and tends to be unreadable by the common person (you and I!).

I say go ahead and ask your question. The devil is in the details here, and you're not asking as a way to cheat, merely to avoid violating the ToS for your game, which I think is perfectly acceptable. The why is important though, as you could always be hiding your true intentions; making a second account for an MMO, likely one with a paid subscription, seems like a waste of money to me? But, in the end it's not my money.