Official statement of cheating on PBW.

[RabidFan]

Internet cheating is rampant throughout all networked games. One would think a turn-based strategy game would be played for the enjoyment and challenge, but many play for some twisted support of their weak, faulty egos.

I have had a lot of experience with an out-of-print game several of you may have played, called Empire Deluxe. This was a turn-based strategy game that had a core group of around 60-100 people who like to do PBEM play. The community thrived, and world championship play began (a season was a full year, consisting of 4 or so rounds to determine the champ).

The challenge to this game is very much taking advantage of the fog of war, and having luck in the exploration phase (finding the cities on the map).

The first couple of years went well, but as the tourney began to grow, allocations of cheating began to fly. Cheating in PBEM is easy to do, very difficult to prove. A player could retire in his turn and the map and enemy position would be revealed. Combat ws also psuedo-random and if you did not like how it would out the first time, a cheater would replay his turn.

Referee's were installed with the knowledge of players passwords and the ability to check turns if accusations occured. The referee's would then have to examine the movements of the players to determine if cheating was occuring, though one could never be certain.

Flame wars amongst cheaters and cheatees began to tear the tourney and the community as a whole apart. Quite sad, actually. The community has survived somewhat, but is not what it used to be.

Since the game was out of print, it was very difficult to make secure. With Aaron around, it may be possible to secure a game in some way. But rest assured, even if games are secured or encrypted, somebody will hack it out. I do not know why this is.


Bottom line is expect cheating whenever you play someone you don't know, and only play games that take alot of energy and time with people you trust to get the maximum enjoyment out of it.

Never expect that people are like you, enjoying the game due to the challenge a human player provides. You may ask yourself, "Why would someone cheat in a game that takes a year to play?" I have no answer for you, only that it happens. Alot.