to play fair, or not to play fair

[HuangShang]

how did i miss that

guess i shouldnt rush so much

[One_Dead_Villy]

ok, thats better

[Rohag]

Today's New York Times ("free registration required") carries an article by technology reporter Peter Wayner in which he quotes both Brian Reynolds and Tim Train on cheating in online games.

The biggest worry of its [Rise of Nations'] designer, Tim Train, is not so much tricks that let players triple their bankroll with a single click, as ones that reveal hidden information or parts of a map.

"We use a simultaneous simulation on each player's machine," he explained. "If your wealth is suddenly increased by 100 times, the other computers notice it and quit."

Thanks to Rise of Morning Calm who posted the link to the article at RoN Center.

[HuangShang]

huh? i dont understand what he's talking about

[One_Dead_Villy]

i think it means that the state of the world so to speak is calculated by player moves by all computers. so each one knows what the other player has in resources, so if someone cheats and has an extraordinary resource increase, cause of a trainer. The other computers will basically vote him out. Ie) I everyone's got a watch showing the same time, if one suddenly shows a few hours ahead we know that the watch ahead is wrong and is cheating.

[HuangShang]

oh, so its just an anit-cheating?
the problem w/ cheating is to try to make people to never do it in the first place so they dont waste everyone's time though

[tniem]

Originally posted by HuangShang
oh, so its just an anit-cheating?
the problem w/ cheating is to try to make people to never do it in the first place so they dont waste everyone's time though

But isnt the way to keep people from cheating to make it so that it doesn't help you, in fact, your punished for it? That is what they are trying to do. They came up with different ways to defeat current cheaters and to knock them out of the game.

[HuangShang]

yeah, that's one of one way to do it in an imperfect socialty, too bad though