Guest Post: How to Effectively Report Cheaters

This is a guest post, compliments of Llewen:

I’ll just preface this with the note that I expect this thread to be trolled mercilessly. There are an awful lot of people who play MMO’s, and UO specifically, who have a vested interest in people remaining ignorant on this subject. I’m also likely, as usual, to say some things which are controversial. We’ll see how that goes. Note also that while I am specifically talking about UO here, the general principles in this post will apply to any moderated online gaming environment.

Having said that, I am going to repeat something I’ve said a number of times before I go on. The devs, and the customer service representatives of EA should absolutely NOT have put their paying clients in the position of having to police their own game. Cheat detection should be automated as much as possible, but it is, unfortunately, not, so we are in the position of having to police the service we all pay a monthly fee, and more for. So for those of us who feel that maintaining as level a playing field as possible, with regard to adherence to the TOS, and who feel that cheating, in general, is bad for the games we play, whatever they are, on many different levels, this post is for you.

• First and foremost, the GM’s in UO care about the game, they care about cheating, it is part of their job description to care about the issues surrounding cheating. They get payed to care, and if they don’t care, they aren’t going to last long in their position. There are two kinds of people that will tell you that the GM’s don’t do anything about cheating, the first are those that don’t know how to submit a useful and effective report on cheating activity, and the second are the cheaters themselves, who have a vested interest in you believing that the GM’s don’t care, so you might as well not even bother. But the truth is, the GM’s care about this issue, Bioware cares about this issue, Mesanna cares about this issue, and EA, as a corporate entity, cares about this issue. Those who say they don’t, are either ignorant, or trying to discourage anyone from taking any action.
• Do your research. Learn how to play the game. Join an active guild, and if your interest is in pvp, which mine primarily is, join an active pvp guild. If you are known for being someone who takes a hard line on cheating, it is important for you to assure your guild mates and allies that you are NOT going to report them for cheating. This may seem hypocritical, but everyone needs at least some friends, and you are going to make enemies of those you report, and even if you do it and remain completely silent on the subject, there is a good chance that, if you are consistent, people will figure out that you are the one doing the reporting. Not only that, but there is no better source of information on what is current in cheating than an active guild, especially a pvp guild. Make sure you log into your guild’s vent server, keep your ears open, and for the most part keep your opinions to yourself, other than to let your guild mates know that you will not report them for cheating.
• Be aware that just because someone is skilled, doesn’t mean they are a cheater. However, you should also be aware that in UO currently, the vast majority of the “high end” pvp’rs are using cheats and exploits of some kind that are a violation of the TOS. Just because someone is good doesn’t mean they are cheating, and just because someone sucks, doesn’t mean they aren’t using cheats.
• Be aware that cheats are just like anything else in game, they are subject to fads, and the “fotm” (“flavour of the month”) syndrome. Cheats and exploits come and go. Exploits get fixed, the GM’s become keenly aware of certain behaviours, as do other players, and they if they are reported enough, and suffer enough disciplinary action, people will stop using those cheats, but unfortunately, there is a really good chance that they will find the next thing that they think they can get away with, and move on to that.
• Cheaters very rarely tell the truth about their activities. Most cheaters will swear up and down, on a stack of Bibles, the Koran, and their Mother’s grave, that they don’t cheat, you just suck. Learn to trust what you see in game, not what other people tell you in General Chat or in local chat in game. Both are cesspools of misinformation, misdirection, and outright lies.
• Now, this is very important, and the reason why you have to do your research. Submitting a report on cheating activity is very much like submitting a bug report. The GM’s and customer service representatives need to be able to spot what is going on in game, and catch the perpetrators in the act, based on your report. This is the reason why so many think that the GM’s never act on their reports. It isn’t because the GM’s don’t care, or are lazy, or even stupid, they just aren’t getting enough information in the report to act on. A report that reads, “dude is cheating”, is completely useless. You need to be as specific as possible and include as much information as possible. “so-and-so is doing such-and-such in such-and-such a way” is what is required. You need to say exactly what they are doing, and how they are doing it, as much as possible. This is the reason why you need to learn how to play the game at as an advanced level as possible, if you are going to take the issue of cheating seriously, and try to make a difference. You need to be able to spot what is normal, or even exceptionally skilled behaviour, and differentiate that from exploitive or scripted behaviour.
• Once you start you need to keep at it. You need to be consistent, and as much as possible, report cheating behaviour every time you spot it. If you see certain cheating behaviours repeated often, it may be useful to ctrl-a and ctrl-c the text of a page, then paste it into a text file so that when you see that behaviour again, all you need to do is copy the appropriate report, paste it in to the report window, and change the names. Don’t get discouraged, don’t give up. If you do this consistently, you will make a difference, and if everyone who cares about this issue does this consistently across every shard, the cheaters will have nowhere to hide and they will be forced to change their behaviour. Remember what I said about cheaters for the most part being liars? Well very few of them will ever admit that their accounts have been suspended, and accounts are rarely permanently banned for anything but the most egregious offences, and no one official will ever be able to tell you what, if any, action has been taken, so there is very little chance that you will ever know for certain whether an individual report of yours has been acted on. But as I already said, the GM’s do care, and if your report is clear, concise, detailed, and accurate, it will be acted on.
• Finally, this is a UO specific piece of advice. To report a cheater you need to open the help menu, and choose the verbal harassment option. When it comes to choosing the target type, the easiest and most effective way is to copy the name from your journal. Do it carefully, and make sure it is exactly right, include the case of letters, and don’t wait to submit your report, submit it as soon as possible after your last contact with the offender. Your reports will go through much more successfully and consistently this way than if you try to use the target method, or try copying the id number from chat (that is generally only useful for offences committed in public chat channels).

I’ll just close with this. Reporting cheaters will not kill UO, no matter what those who have a vested interest in seeing cheating continue will tell you. For the most part, cheaters do actually love the game as much as you do, and not being able to cheat won’t make them close their accounts, they will change their behaviours before they quit, I can just about guarantee that. But if you take up this challenge, you need to know that you will be in for a long, tough fight. Cheaters tend to be resourceful, intelligent, and determined people. If they see that one behaviour is getting them in trouble, they will switch to something else they think they can get away with, and they will always be testing the limits of acceptable behaviour.

Most cheaters simply have a broken moral compass when it comes to cheating in games, and it is up to you to forcibly remind them which direction is north. Eventually, if you are consistent, and the thousands of others who think like you are also consistent, and determined, the cheaters will come to the realization that cheating and exploitive behaviours simply aren’t acceptable and won’t be tolerated, and there won’t be much that they can get away with. If we get to that place in the multiverse that is Ultima Online, the game, and the community, will become a much healthier, more fair, and even a more economically successful one. You can take that to the bank.
——————-
My (Deckard) Comments: I don’t PvP as much as I used to, but I see a lot of cheating elsewhere, whether it’s people scripting mining or lumberjacking, and I’m aware of the things people are doing that are definitely against the TOS – some of you have seen me complain about. It’s very frustrating, but a lot of what Llewen had to say applies to all cheating, not just that in PvP or PvM.

I’ve also seen people defend their cheating by claiming that the Enhanced Client (EC) allows people to do this or that, or that it’s not an issue because a good PvPer or PvMer or crafter is better than any script. It is an issue if people are scripting, and the UO team at times has discussed the issue many times over the years. Search the dev tracker for “exploit” and you’ll find examples from 2009 until now such as:

2009 – August – MMORPG.com Ultima Online Interview, UO Producer: “… we’d like to investigate and fix on some of the long-standing issues like movement (i.e. speedhacking)….”

2010 – April – UO Producer’s Update: “Third party program detection and speedhacking: we’re still coding and testing. By the time we get to Test Center for Pub 66 we hope to have a solution that we can iterate on moving forward.

Yes, we understand there are 3rd party programs that are a part of the UO experience. We are targeting those programs that negatively impact the play experience for others. This will be a non-intrusive update to the client that will interact with scripters using their programs to gain advantage over those players who prefer to play by the rules and inside the guidelines.”

2010 – May – Producer’s Letter: “We are hoping that as we identify and action particular players, that the news will spread and other players will join the cadre’ of those who choose to play the game as it is intended.

Again, this is stage one. This effort will take some time … and we know it’s taken a lot of patience on the community’s part to get here, but we’ll continue to improve, and we hope that this will generate renewed interest in the community in a progressively “clean” and enjoyable gaming environment.

2010 – September – UO Producer’s Update (Sep. 10): “This week the first series of actions took place on 3rd party program use offenders. I will not share numbers or specifics on account names, locations of offenders, or how often we will take action.

Criteria for taking action are based on frequency of the offense. For example, account X was found using program Y, Z number of times. This implies that the account/player willfully violated the terms of the game. High frequency violators will be removed from the game. Low frequency violators will be warned and in time suspended if the offense continues.”

In October of 2010, the UO Producer stated: Some players are asking: “Why when we are losing players are you terminating accounts?”

The players of the Ultima Online community have every right to play and create in an environment free of those abusing the system or gaining advantage. There’s never a bad time to do the right thing.”

In January of 2012, the Ultima Franchise Producer stated: This is something Messana and I discussed since I joined the team and as we come up with improved solutions to address this issue you hear more from us.

In February of 2012, the Ultima Franchise Producer stated: We are taking a more active approach to the hacking stuff that’s going on. Some of our players may have noticed GMs pulling them aside. I don’t want to get too much into the details of it. We don’t condone hackers. We feel that they devalue the game experience. And those players who are not, are on unfair grounds because they’re not hacking the system like the [hackers] are. So it unbalances things greatly. The bottom line is, we know when people are hacking, and we’re going to be taking a more aggressive approach against [them]: warning them and then, if need be, getting them out of the game and off those shards.

Now, speaking of hackers, though, there’s definitely…there’s some stuff that the team and I are in discussion about. We understand that some players just want to play that way, and [we’re] trying to figure out a way where we can give them a place to play like that. So, we’ll see. Maybe we’ll talk more about that towards the summer.”

So yes, it’s still a problem. It has been a problem from the beginning, and 15 years later, it is still a problem. Thanks to Llewen for letting us post this.