Official statement of cheating on PBW.

[BoomStick]

quote:

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Originally posted by Atrocities:
This is another reason to make a PBW subscription club. People who are serious about playing the game and who hate cheaters would more inclined to pay for a "special" area to play games out side of the public area. Subscription Members or whatever, often don't get nailed by cheaters.

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PBW subscription might not get the number of players you'd like. Games might not fill up, or you'd be playing the same core group of gamers game after game...

Staying free makes sure that you get fodder like me in games you join. (I'm in Ay Chihuahua Numero Dos (Gold))

...though, I'm now a few turns into my first PBW game, and I'm willing to send a few dollars to the admins to keep the service going, since I like the way it plays...

Boomer

[ 08 April 2002: Damn typo! Message edited by: BoomStick ]

[ 08 April 2002: Message edited by: BoomStick ]

[Kling]

Agreed that cheating must be handled swiftly, and with force. But I really do think some people could do with a more relaxed attitude! I feel perfectly confident that the PBW team, and Malfador, can handle this and any future issues. Nice to hear that you put this on priority.

It is also good that you tell people about what happened, it stop all sorts of nasty rumors.

[LazarusLong42]

quote:

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Originally posted by BoomStick:
...though, I'm now a few turns into my first PBW game, and I'm willing to send a few dollars to the admins to keep the service going, since I like the way it plays...

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We accept donations through Paypal; thanks for reminding me that I need to make the donation button more prevalent on the page. (Sorry, Geo, I ended up with no time this weekend to do it). If you scroll down the PBW front page, you'll find the Paypal donation button.

However, we do not intend to make PBW subscription only--I agree with you that you'd end up with too small a player base.

And finally--I love your handle. ("This... is... my... BOOMSTICK!")

LL/ES2

[geoschmo]

I concur, subscriptions are not the way to go. PBW should remain free.

Although, if someone wanted to create a game on PBW and only accept players that had made donations, I don't suppose we could stop it.

Geoschmo
PBW Admin Team

[Growltigga]

quote:

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Originally posted by LazarusLong42:
However, we do not intend to make PBW subscription only--I agree with you that you'd end up with too small a player base.
LL/ES2

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bump... can I just say that having surfed quite a few 'game support' sites, my personal view is that the PBW people do a superb job which is frankly peerless and I believe you americans say 'above and beyond'

Those of us who can should contribute via Paypal. I do and I havn't even played PBW yet, just heard one hell of a lot of good things about it - face it, $1 a month for an SEIV afficionado is NOT going to break the bank BUT may give the chaps and chappesses (Mrs Geo?) at PBW a buffer to keep this excellent service running

Huzzah for PBW

[gravey101]

I was unlucky enough be burned in games reuined by both of the recent cheaters. Probably lost 30-50 hours? I'm not bitter about it cos I know this dort of thing will inevitably happen occasionally, and I guess it's the risk you take. Lately I've been inclined to only join games where I know a majority of the people well from previous games.

In another bizarre twist, another game I was in was just (more or less) cancelled when the admin complained that a number of the players had joined the game with the intent of creating a large, exclusive, alliance that would dominate the Universe. Not sure quite what to think about this one. Opinions ?

[rextorres]

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]

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]

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]

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.