Slashdot Mirror

I run several massively multiplayer, free, web based online games (WWII - War of Supremacy - war.coldfirestudios.com and Space - Glory Through Conquest - space.coldfirestudios.com to name a couple) ... and of course, with any online game, I have people cheating.


Now I know that everyone that administers an online game handles cheaters differently, but here is what we like to do ... (depending on how "bad" they have been)

• First, deactivate their account(s)
• Allow the other players to pick appart their characters, so that the people that "lost" something from these cheaters can enjoy a little revenge ...
• Rename their characters in a very colorful, but interesting way ... example: General Pink Fuzzy Bunny of Candyland
• Post in the forums who was caught cheating, what they did, any appropriate amount of proof, and what penalties they suffered from for cheating
• Then, finally, sit back and allow the player community to embarass the person that cheated

Now, don't get me wrong ... we're not terrible people. When a player in our game finds a bug, we reward them for reporting it to the proper moderator and for not exploiting it (other than to verify that they did, in fact, find a bug).


We only do the above nasty things to people when they ruin the experience for the other players ... and if they do it intentionally. We do our best to squash any time of bug or imperfection in game balance as soon as it is located, but no game is perfect ... and there will always be people out there that are going to ruin games for an entire gaming community just for a laugh, so we allow the community to retain some sort of dignity by allowing them to have the last laugh ....


It may not be the perfect answer, but most of the people playing my games seem to enjoy it ...


Begin Ranting and Raving


My thought on cheating, especially with games, is simple: Why would you spend hours and hours playing a game that doesn't provide a challenge? If you cheat, it takes away the feeling of accomplishment that you have when you're done playing ... whether you win or lose ... since all you have done is proven that you don't have the skill to win; that you have to cheat in order to feel the "thrill of victory" ... and that you are so selfish and self-centered that you don't take into account that there are other people playing against you, people that have invested their time and effort, that have just wasted their time so that you can prove that you suck so bad at a game that you have to cheat ...


So again, what is the point of cheating? ... to prove that you an untalented, selfish ass???

/Ranting and Raving

I run several massively multiplayer, free, web based online games (WWII - War of Supremacy - war.coldfirestudios.com and Space - Glory Through Conquest - space.coldfirestudios.com to name a couple) ... and of course, with any online game, I have people cheating.


Now I know that everyone that administers an online game handles cheaters differently, but here is what we like to do ... (depending on how "bad" they have been)

• First, deactivate their account(s)
• Allow the other players to pick appart their characters, so that the people that "lost" something from these cheaters can enjoy a little revenge ...
• Rename their characters in a very colorful, but interesting way ... example: General Pink Fuzzy Bunny of Candyland
• Post in the forums who was caught cheating, what they did, any appropriate amount of proof, and what penalties they suffered from for cheating
• Then, finally, sit back and allow the player community to embarass the person that cheated

Now, don't get me wrong ... we're not terrible people. When a player in our game finds a bug, we reward them for reporting it to the proper moderator and for not exploiting it (other than to verify that they did, in fact, find a bug).


We only do the above nasty things to people when they ruin the experience for the other players ... and if they do it intentionally. We do our best to squash any time of bug or imperfection in game balance as soon as it is located, but no game is perfect ... and there will always be people out there that are going to ruin games for an entire gaming community just for a laugh, so we allow the community to retain some sort of dignity by allowing them to have the last laugh ....


It may not be the perfect answer, but most of the people playing my games seem to enjoy it ...


Begin Ranting and Raving


My thought on cheating, especially with games, is simple: Why would you spend hours and hours playing a game that doesn't provide a challenge? If you cheat, it takes away the feeling of accomplishment that you have when you're done playing ... whether you win or lose ... since all you have done is proven that you don't have the skill to win; that you have to cheat in order to feel the "thrill of victory" ... and that you are so selfish and self-centered that you don't take into account that there are other people playing against you, people that have invested their time and effort, that have just wasted their time so that you can prove that you suck so bad at a game that you have to cheat ...


So again, what is the point of cheating? ... to prove that you an untalented, selfish ass???

/Ranting and Raving

They'll latch onto and chase down ideas you've never found important or even knew existed.

This is an understatement!! I have been running an online gaming community (http://www.coldfirestudios.com) for the past 3 years, and I can honestly say that the games my friends and I create would not be nearly as good as they are today without the ideas and input we got from our users. Moral of the story: LISTEN TO YOUR USERS!! Sometimes, they know your product better than you do!

They'll also tend to develop some strange characteristics.

Tell me about it! I have one guy that called himself Pizza da Hutt ... he made a web site about his battles and used Star Wars analogizes in EVERYTHING he posted. Everyone he fought was Jedi (* fill in the blank *). We even had people looking up our company's phone number, just so they could say "Hi" to us by viewing our domain name registration information. We have a couple of users that call us, long distance, on a daily basis, just to report people breaking the rules or to see if some of us are going to be playing War Craft. But I can't complain too much. They keep us on our toes ... and they are not even half as bad as some of the everquest people I've seen :)