Official statement of cheating on PBW.

rextorres · #1 April 8th, 2002, 11:26 PM

That's happened to me a couple of times in PBW - but it's part of the game. Alliances are one of the fun things about playing humans - if the admin doesn't like it and doesn't think of it as a challenge he should play the computer.

geoschmo · #2 April 8th, 2002, 11:43 PM

That's one of those things a lot of people forget with PBW. The server hosts the games and does the processing, and we will step in in situations where it is obvious that someone is cheating as far as breaking the base rules of SEIV or manipulating data files.

However there are a lot of "game setting" and "gentleman's agreement" areas in SEIV games. Some people call them "house rules". Those are things that are the purogative of the game owner. They can affect game play enormously and can really destroy games if not handled well, but they are judgment calls and basically there is no right answer to most of them. They aren't really PBW or SEIV issues, they are personality isues. Because of that, we will always defer to the game owner, since they are the one who's game it is to begin with you are playing.

Some game owners are better than others at setting clear ground rules and arbitrating disagreements. We try not to get involved in those types of issues, unless it's a case where the game owner has simply abandoned the game and left the players on their own.

If you don't like the way a game owner handles something, you can always vote with your feet, and find another game, or start your own.

Geoschmo

[ 08 April 2002: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Atrocities · #3 April 10th, 2002, 12:25 AM

What I was saying about subscriptions was that you have both a free site, and one that people can join for a small membership fee. That way, the members of the pay site won't have to be overetly concerned about possible cheaters, and if someone does cheat, their account it frozen, and they booted out.

Public areas remain free, and anyone who wishes to play can play.

It was just a suggestion to help promote fair play at PBW.

DavidG · #4 April 10th, 2002, 12:49 AM

As one of the players (I gather there were a few) who I think first suspected the player of cheating I thought it might be worth noting that whatever cheat he/she was using seemed to set certain techs to their maximum level. Perhaps they guys at PBW could confirm this so they don't get a rash of complaints just because someone get ahead in tech faster.

TerranC · #5 April 10th, 2002, 01:26 AM

A request to the people who read this:

I know that this forum is very liberal, but please for the sake of the Salem witch trials, No more talk of Cheating.

DavidG · #6 April 10th, 2002, 03:54 AM

quote:
Originally posted by TerranC:
A request to the people who read this:

I know that this forum is very liberal, but please for the sake of the Salem witch trials, No more talk of Cheating.

Good idea. Because if no one talks about a problem it dissapears right?

capnq · #7 April 10th, 2002, 11:48 PM

quote:
if no one talks about a problem it dissapears right?

Talking a problem to death makes it seem more common than it really is, and does little to actually solve the problem.

I don't know how many times someone has been accused of cheating on PBW, but this was only the second time that the accusation proved to be correct.