Stopping cheating and Increasing the Quality of the User Populous

On every website there are always going to be a few jerks who make the game tiresome for everyone else. I know i have experienced my fair share of cheaters in my times playing Afterwind. Clearly it is impossible to eliminate all forms of cheating and snobbery amongst the user populous, but I feel Afterwind has the potential to make some major progress. First, I would like to make note of the current major, in my humble opinion, problems. What I have seen the most of throughout my games is:

1.People joining games with a group of their friends just to team up and take out other people
2.One person joining from multiple accounts in order to have double the troop power
3.People losing and consistently rejoining
4.People being unkind and rude while playing(usually in reference to the three above)

Moving on, I would like to propose some general solutions to these problems. One major way to solve these problems is to have a player blacklist on the forum. Users can report other users on accounts of cheating so all players can be aware of which users don't have a clean record. A more strict but probably more efficient option would be to create a ban system. This would ban the accounts of and maybe even the IP addresses of players that have been empirically proven as cheaters. Users can report other users but would have to provide sufficient proof(screenshots, etc.) to prove a certain player was cheating.

I believe it would be proper to end my post with a list of users that I have found to be cheaters.
1.-
-Guilty of 1,3,4, and probably 2 Proof: 1. He admitted to teaming up with two other people and going into small games and crushing everyone with a secret alliance. I experienced playing against him and his two "friends" multiple times. Him and - played on the same IP when i played them. I know Specter can back me up on this as I spoke to him while he was playing a game against - and his friends 2. No empirical proof here but when i was playing against him, in the chat i asked him a question and one of his "friends" responded with information that only would have been known through the private message i sent - making it pretty clear that he was - and intended to respond on the - account but made a mistake. I cannot recall the name of this suspected second account. 3.Played against him and his 2 friends with a few friends of mine and he and his friends consistently would rejoin the game as soon as they lost.

2.-. Guilty of 1,3,4. - partner in crime. Everything that needed to be said is said above.

3.-. Guilty of 1,3,4 Proof 1. Played a game with him just a few hours ago. He secretly teamed up with - and one other who's name is on the tip of my tongue and made it seem like they weren't teamed up to trick other players into losing to them. 3. He lost in Austria, rejoined in Ukraine. Complained that it was part of the game and that you are "supposed" to rejoin when you lose.

It is hard to prove exactly who needs to be black listed or not. Personally, i don't think one should go into a game with a group of pre-allied players unless they plan on putting it out there publicly first round and then at least make it look fair. I had a situation like what you are describing in Europe where the only 3 people in the game were unofficially allied and they ganged up on me when I joined. I just find it sad. I just hope people like this will get bored because no one wants to play against them. It's not worth it. I personally don't remember which game you are referring to with MarcJr, i have had a rough week so everything is still fuzzy maybe a time frame and game details would spark my memory some.

The 411 with rejoining is it isn't illegal; if the game is set up that way then that is how it was meant to be played. The admin just has to remember that he can't turn rejoining on and off at his will, especially to help his team; if it is on leave it on, and vice versa. The only exceptions would be if the group is tired of a respawner or in some private game. But this can be easily countered by a world vs. player scenario. With games that you aren't the admin the only solution is to destroy each player so that the admin mantle passes on.

We now have personal 'blacklists' as you can add users to your enemies (and avoid them afterwards). Making a public blacklist doesn't seem like a very good idea...

Also, once we make the changing of options a democratic process (which pretty much eliminates game admins), things should improve a bit.

Cool, thanks for the responses. Changing it to a democratic process seems like a great idea.

I'd like to point out that you can't really stop 1 and 4. There are always going to be people who are sore losers/winners, etc. and who will always whine and complain and blame everyone else for everything. Thats just life and weather its a video game or not you're going to have to deal with it. As for 1, theres not really much anyone can do about that, if friends want to play together, they'll play together, if they want to be asses and gang up on everyone else they will, my advice, is if you see that happen find a different game or know that you can beat them.

Calling people out on all of this is kind of trash.
1 is unavoidable. I can't stand to play this game unless allied with personal friends. I'm sure there are others (like most of those coming in from kc /int/) that are also playing with friends that they wish to ally with. If you're getting teamed up on, ask for peace, chances are one of them might go along with it.
2 is also highly contestable. I play on the same IP as 3 or 4 other users simply because my college's internet works as such. And saying MarcJr was on two accounts because of RochelleCrook responding doesn't mean anything. Of the other players that I go to school with, there have been times where they have answered questions for me as well.
3 is part of the game. If you don't want rejoining, either don't join games that have it on, or ask the game owner to change that setting.
4 is also unlikely to happen... it's the internet and it's a video game. Those two things don't go along with being polite very easily.

Inb4 democratic process is used by smaller nations to weaken larger nations by giving them less time to micromanage.

Oh well, it goes in reverse too. There should be an option to keep it at one time only, the whole game.

I'm really not very comfortable with the name and shame in OP's post so I edited the names out.

I understand the comments posted above and appreciate the name deletion. I am not posting the following to "keep the fire burning" so to speak, but to simply clarify or at least do justice to the events that actually happened

--> First of All. I didn't secretly team up with anyone. Unless I am misunderstood Ivan, telling my friends and playing in games with them isnt "cheating" and forum bashing worthy? is it?
--> Second. Part of war is diplomacy. Unless I am wrong, history proves that talking your way in and out of alliances and using communication is key.
--> Third. Your statement accusing me of cheating is just about completely false. Yes i did lose and rejoin. And Yes that is not the most honorable thing to do.
I was quickly eliminated and wanted to continue playing with my friends orange and red. I understand the frustration with rejoining. However I think it is one thing to rejoin and play the game like any other game, but a whole completely different thing to rejoin and then essentially "revenge kill" the person who eliminated you. When i rejoined. I did not directly go for yellow (the one who killed me), and actually ended up in alliance with him by the time the game was over.
--> Once i rejoined. He instantly accused me of cheating. I replied telling him that: I dont think it is cheating, it is a game setting, I dont think they would put cheating in as a game setting to toggle on or off. So in no way was i saying that we (as the players in game) were "supposed" to cheat. Also. I would like to clarify what happened after I joined. I told the room that they could be at peace, and I could settle the score with Cyan(Oto) myself. He continued to tell himself/try and convince the room that he is not going to play with a cheater and even boasted about being friends with the authorities."Im number 26 in the rankings and even in the coalition with the 2 founders Ivan and Amok. So yes i admit to arguing. But in now means was it just me. It was just a typical argument/tiff. Part of the game.

I can't believe you made an entire thread all because of your little "hissy fit" with EON. Stop the nonsense. Regardless, I agree that there are some problems in terms of the game being a bit unfair at times.

Anyway my thoughts on your points.

1. If I want to play a game with a group of friends (for example you oto), then I should be able to. Honestly I don't think this will be a large problem much longer, as I expect friends to all join the same coalitions. That is once Amok/Ivan incorporate official coalition games. With these, friends playing together can fight against other groups of friends and the games should stay fair.

2. This I admit is a big problem. And although I cannot prove that it has happened to me, I have my suspicions.

3. First of all I have never seen anyone lose and then rejoin more than one time in a game. So I don't know how you come off with "consistently". I understand that it can be annoying if someone does rejoin more than once, and I certainly don't think its a good idea. But like Grizzly says, if you don't want this to happen go the the game options. I support the democratic system idea.

4. People being unkind and rude is something that a ignore button or report user button might help with. Though when it all comes down to it, this is the internet, and people are gonna be jerks.

P.S- What EON did was hardly bad as you are making it sound. Like he says he only wanted to play with his friends and its not like he tried to revenge kill me after I beat him. I think we all need to get over that game. Why don't you two make up or something....

I also don't support the naming and shaming / "exposing the cheaters" thing. Different sides have different stories and in many cases none of them is really objectively right. This is a competitive game, so this is natural. However, let's not get carried away and turn this into something personal. As it is now, there are hardly any ways to really cheat in the game. Yes, there are unfair alliances. Yes, players are rejoining. This is all part of the game and not something we're going to punish. To me, cheating constitutes exploits, entirely unintended ways to gain advantage - and those we try to eliminate as soon as we hear about them.

Written by Ivan, 07.02.2011 at 15:29

I also don't support the naming and shaming / "exposing the cheaters" thing. Different sides have different stories and in many cases none of them is really objectively right. This is a competitive game, so this is natural. However, let's not get carried away and turn this into something personal. As it is now, there are hardly any ways to really cheat in the game. Yes, there are unfair alliances. Yes, players are rejoining. This is all part of the game and not something we're going to punish. To me, cheating constitutes exploits, entirely unintended ways to gain advantage - and those we try to eliminate as soon as we hear about them.

I completely agree. This is a game on the internet. We need to face the facts that there are going to be arguments and disagreements. Just keep playin and don't make it ruin the game for you.

Written by Guest, 07.02.2011 at 15:12

I understand the comments posted above and appreciate the name deletion. I am not posting the following to "keep the fire burning" so to speak, but to simply clarify or at least do justice to the events that actually happened

--> First of All. I didn't secretly team up with anyone. Unless I am misunderstood Ivan, telling my friends and playing in games with them isnt "cheating" and forum bashing worthy? is it?
--> Second. Part of war is diplomacy. Unless I am wrong, history proves that talking your way in and out of alliances and using communication is key.
--> Third. Your statement accusing me of cheating is just about completely false. Yes i did lose and rejoin. And Yes that is not the most honorable thing to do.
I was quickly eliminated and wanted to continue playing with my friends orange and red. I understand the frustration with rejoining. However I think it is one thing to rejoin and play the game like any other game, but a whole completely different thing to rejoin and then essentially "revenge kill" the person who eliminated you. When i rejoined. I did not directly go for yellow (the one who killed me), and actually ended up in alliance with him by the time the game was over.
--> Once i rejoined. He instantly accused me of cheating. I replied telling him that: I dont think it is cheating, it is a game setting, I dont think they would put cheating in as a game setting to toggle on or off. So in no way was i saying that we (as the players in game) were "supposed" to cheat. Also. I would like to clarify what happened after I joined. I told the room that they could be at peace, and I could settle the score with Cyan(Oto) myself. He continued to tell himself/try and convince the room that he is not going to play with a cheater and even boasted about being friends with the authorities."Im number 26 in the rankings and even in the coalition with the 2 founders Ivan and Amok. So yes i admit to arguing. But in now means was it just me. It was just a typical argument/tiff. Part of the game.

Why do I not remember saying this? Why do I feel like most of what you said never happened?

But really guys, I probably shouldn't have made this thread. Let's end it here.

I'm going to close the thread as the OP has admitted it is not producing anything. You guys have heard the admin's view on the issue and it doesn't seem like much more productive conversation is going to take place.