[Wendigo]

To cheat is to influence or lead by deceit, trick, or artifice, or to practice fraud or trickery.

With such a broad definition of cheating any single lie/backstab in diplomacy would qualify as tricking the opposition, and ergo 'cheating'. That would be ridiculous.

Equaling cheating to 'breaking the game rules' makes much more sense in our context as gamers.

A player's identity is not in-game information about the strength of a nation or alliances.

Yet when the game was created it was not requested that every player should reveal his personal information, players joined using their aliases instead. Thus, no rule was broken by hidding this, nor had he any obligation to reveal it just because an opponent asked.

Cheating is part of personal ethics. You cannot separate the two.

Of course you can separate personnal ethics & cheating.

Setting up a big alliance to gang on a neighbour 6 on 1 giving him no chance is something I would not be confortable with ethic-wise, yet it would not be cheating. Conversely, if I am the one in the receiving end of such alliance I will moan & ***** a bit about unfairness, but I will not call my opponents cheaters.