@CG_SBCrumb I reported a guy in this last round for GA for having a 7* C3p0 with under G7 Ewoks, no zetas. A chewie with severely under geared BH with no zetas, and Padme at 7* with only G7/G8 Sepratists (no droids) IF I am not reconfigured for my GAC rewards this entire post is utter ****. This was clear cheating and the guy even admitted to sharing his account with a discord player who helped him with some things (a clear violation of the ToS) which I screenshotted and reported as well. Lets just hope i'm compensated for this otherwise i'll have lost all faith in your team for figuring this stuff out. (LD and Levithan have responded and let me know they are looking into it but have not heard back, seems to be cut and dry cheating has occured).
Be careful posting about devs not enforcing punishment against cheaters.
If you made a video about the story above I wonder of your accounts would get nuked like the other who exposed cheating?
Personally I think bulldog would not have been banned for just this if he had not been posting all those haat solo teams and p4 cls sith solo teams and p3 ns sith solo teams.
It's no secret that CG absolutely hates the bulldog for exposing multiple teams that function above expectations but within the parameters of the game.
He personally has made them commit a lot of time into reworks by sharing strategies on this forum. I'm sure CG is very very happy to have found a way to get rid of him once and for all.
Absolutely disgusting CG you have reached a new epic low.
Something that’s a little odd to me, CG/EA, whoever the crap you are and if you can make a responsible decision, just some thoughts from a little mostly F2P SWGOH player.
Known issue: cheating.
Someone says, “This is how people are cheating. Go ahead and report the account, let’s see how long it takes for them to contact/do something about it.”
Issue: Dear CG...you banned an account that wasn’t...correct...wasn’t cheating. The account that was cheating is still roaming free? Boy that’s screwed up.
Issue: Kid next door shines a light on the guy trying to help fix a leaky faucet, and he gets kicked out of the house for a month. That’s pretty screwed up too.
Seems like the known issue should have been addressed correctly and then the other things that have unfolded would have thus been void, as they never would have been needed. Fix. Your. Game.
I like to think about it as one of the only ways anyone was going to actually do anything about the cheating issue. We were told there’s shiny new tools to detect cheating and that they’re devoting resources - this lured us into a sense of trust so that we would continue to use our time and resources on the game. I hope that some good comes from these whistle blowers... they deserve praise, thanks, reinstatement and apologies.
I guess the game server cannot identify cheater systematically, they rely on player report.
If this is the case, the game should add a simple battle history, let us know which squad the opponent were using. Then we can report suspicious player.
@CG_SBCrumb
Our arena shard has been dealing with a likely cheater, we have reported him ans nothing has happened and we haven't heard back, are you guys thinking about adding a replay system? That way we can confirm if he is cheating or possibly were wrong and he somehow beats the best teams with teams that are under geared, modded, and not the current meta
Just to avoid any potential forum violations, I am not going to use specific names. But, can we get confirmation that the person who cheated on an alternative account was banned on his main account (on which he didn't cheat), but not on the alt account on which he cheated? Or were both accounts banned?
Ahnaldt101's video I think perfectly summarizes CG/EA's legal authority to ban the person, regardless on which user account they play the game.
But, if the alternative cheating account was not concurrently banned with the main non-cheating account, that would support the supposition that CG does not have the technology to detect the cheating as they apparently have not found the cheating account.
I guess my one concern is that Bulldog was doing his best to expose infinite loops, cheats, and other broken parts or exploits of this game. He voiced his frustration before about trying to contact the devs only to be blown off. Hence why he went straight to video since they dont ignore the youtubers (Mobile, Ahnald, etc)...
Theyve gone with a public beta testing program since they lack the manpower to find all the flaws in game. If you want to establish some protocol that's fine and dandy, but you ignored this guy before when he did go straight to the devs.
I hope there's a happier end to this situation...
This post is totally useless. I figured people where cheating when fleet battles have become a total cluster kitten. Some people are impossible to beat. But how should I know if they are cheating? They could just bump their def and offense up by just enough to make it look like they are still taking damage.
This really disappoints me because of the countless of hours I put in the game. It’s all for nothing because devs can’t police their own software. We now have to do their job and report people. It’s just going to be a big cluster kitten
I think it is time for CG to suspend the next GAC until they can create a battle log for each battle. I understand that we will never get a video playback of the actual fight. But a simple log or history of which toons were used in each fight should be a relatively simple addition. Heck, right now we don't even know how many banners a player got from an individual fight. Even that would be a good start. I was fortunate? enough to get to see McMole's video before it was taken down and it was disturbing to say the least. Real action MUST be taken by CG or this game (which I absolutely love) will die. A canned statement telling us how much you have done to stop cheaters in light of that video is not even close to real action. I only hope that CG's actual response in terms of action is significantly better than their PR response earlier today. If not, then it will be painfully obvious that they do not take this issue seriously and we will see a mass exodus from the game (myself included).
How about you use some of that effort to track down cheaters? GIVE US AN ATTACK LOG (Bare minimum!), how are we supposed to help report cheaters if we cant see that someone's ewoks just got 60 banners against my DR/Malak?
This post is totally useless. I figured people where cheating when fleet battles have become a total cluster ****. Some people are impossible to beat. But how should I know if they are cheating? They could just bump their def and offense up by just enough to make it look like they are still taking damage.
This really disappoints me because of the countless of hours I put in the game. It’s all for nothing because devs can’t police their own software. We now have to do their job and report people. It’s just going to be a big cluster ****
It's not possible to cheat in that way. Everything you do in offense happens in your client where the server will send you your opponents data. Anything that happens in their client won't get reflected there, just the things your client needs to present you with the opponent fleet (i.e. units, gear of pilots and mods and whatnut).
In an other hand , if CG/EA was less stingy with in game (particulary for GAC and raid where all player participate for success it with ticket system and where nobody have the same reward), less player reach the step cheating...
I think CG/EA choice in term of reward motivate some people to cheat...
Just look this success : Win 10000 times in squad arena; the rewards is only 50 crystals and 5 shards of vador... really for a mean time of 5 years playing this games this is a riddiculous way to reward your player.
In what world do you think it's ok to ban someone for making a video? I don't care what your tos says, taking action against someone for something outside the game is absurd.
You've built a game catered to whales, and you just took out a harpoon gun and started shooting. You deserve the obvious results that will follow.
@CG_SBCrumb
Thanks for the update. This whole situation is tough. The cheating is quite ridiculous. The inability to stop it thus far is a bit ridiculous. Condoning Bulldog’s actions would be a problem... cheating to prove a cheater is a bad policy. That said; weigh the cost/benefit here. It is extremely evident that Bulldog did not cheat for the sake of winning. If anything, he forwarded your cause to help eliminate cheating. Be reasonable here and support the community. Come up with a reasonable way to move forward.
They can’t ban the cheating account because they have no idea which account it is. They can’t find it, detect it or stop it. One English word for that is Incompetent.
Considering the game has been ramming pvp content down our throats for the past 18 months with no new pve content since the sith raid launched in February of 18 (i know we got a re-skin of tb) you would think they would give us more tools. Cheating has been a huge problem ever since tournaments in pvp. We still have no way to practice and test out squads and virtually no way to know if your opponent is cheating with sitting for hours with a calculator. Help us out @CG_SBCrumb@CG_TopHat we love this game but to ban whistle blowers is ridiculous. I for one am over all this pvp content it has become so monotonous.
In what world do you think it's ok to ban someone for making a video? I don't care what your tos says, taking action against someone for something outside the game is absurd.
You've built a game catered to whales, and you just took out a harpoon gun and started shooting. You deserve the obvious results that will follow.
The video creator himself thinks he should've been banned for what he did (creating a video):
There is a thing called ban dodging which is having multiple accounts while one was deemed bannable which is why his main account got struck. Ahnald and Darth Microtransaction both pointed out that every other game ban alt accounts so this is normal behavior
You can defend bulldog as much as you want but he even he admits he knowingly did a bannable offense, he was just unaware that other accounts you own are also hit as a result
For someone doing research on ban dodging he missed some key details on its punishment and its not something we can just brush off as "honest mistake"
This is a sincere question, not a put down: Do you really not understand what bulldog means when he says he wanted to get banned and thinks the account should have been banned, or are you intentionally presenting a bad read?
He wanted the account banned because he wanted to see the anti-cheat measures working. The most desirable solution wasn't to become a whistleblower, it was to be caught and know the game is secure.
It wasn't. This is a clear cut case of exposing a flaw and whistleblowing. If you think we're all better off not knowing the information that bulldog has provided, please let me know how.
It's easy to understand how two groups of people benefit from keeping everyone in the dark about the total failure of the game's detetion method:
1. CG - it obviously hurts their bottom line if players believe that spending won't give them an advantage because somebody can just cheat against them. It hurts their bottom line if they aren't perceived as in control of their own game. They are less effective at extracting money from honest players.
2. Cheaters - if nobody knows that cheating is taking place, or how easy it is, or how it works - if it remains a matter of mystery and speculation there is less pressure for CG to end cheating. The more cheating is shrouded in mystery, the safer cheaters are.
So which side are you on? CG's side or cheaters? Because nothing aobut your statements reveals that you care at all about the interests of players as a group, on the contrary, you seem to take positions that privilege keeping players as blissfully ignorant and punishing people who spread knowledge.
CG, I think it's time for you to get your act together. Rather than shoot the whistleblowers, why don't you fix your **** game. A lot of people spend a lot of money on your crap and you can't seem to get it right. You people can't code your way out of a paper bag.
I'm a guild leader that has been playing for 3 and a half years and I'm about to tell my guild to go find a new game to play. There are too many other games out there, and this crap is getting out of hand.
I knew things would be worse with Carrie gone. You went and screwed that up too.
I don't often post here, but I gotta say... "Screw you CG".
I seriously believe that in a game where constant development and constant income from the active player base are probably the most important pillars, the developers need to have somewhat of a working relationship with the community. CG fails at that time and time again. Lashing out at people for uncovering their empty promise of tackling cheating is just really really bad.
Ultra, if you really think this is good conduct, I'm at a loss... If you believe in rules that vigorously, you might well get run over walking across a green trafficlight...
I have no words for this policy! Banning McMole just for reminding you to do your job properly?
Well done! CG, you have officially earned the titles
Banana republic
And
Rogue Nation
I think Carrie is happy that she doesn't have to deal with this horrible PR. She got out before they (CG) decided to shoot themselves in the D***... cause they've already shot themselves in the past in BOTH feet.
Banning players for exposing cheating was a terrible idea. Getting refunds for any money spent in the last couple days is a good idea. Not spending any more money on this game until it is cheat free is a very good idea.
Already seen people posting refund receipts of up to over a thousand dollars. Now I wish I was through apple, seem to be easier to get refunds over there.
I wanna see CG go into the negative for this. May make them actually do something about all the cheating that was going on that many didn't even know was happening.
The fact is, cheaters go unpunished. People who are trying to get it fixed, people who are trying to get information out there, to get it exposed, to push for some fix, are being targeted and punished.
CG just made Mcmole and Bulldog martyrs. What a terrible PR move.
Don't forget that they removed McMole's test account, despite all the labor he was putting in that benefited CG building a community around gameplay, because he expressed a critical opinion of CG publicly once.
It's almost like your describing a company that is under the umbrella of influence called "EA"
If they, CG, put more time and resources into their games spaghetti code and features instead of policing the forums and YouTube... maybe this hacker/cheater/exploiting problem would happen less and less.
Replies
Be careful posting about devs not enforcing punishment against cheaters.
If you made a video about the story above I wonder of your accounts would get nuked like the other who exposed cheating?
Personally I think bulldog would not have been banned for just this if he had not been posting all those haat solo teams and p4 cls sith solo teams and p3 ns sith solo teams.
It's no secret that CG absolutely hates the bulldog for exposing multiple teams that function above expectations but within the parameters of the game.
He personally has made them commit a lot of time into reworks by sharing strategies on this forum. I'm sure CG is very very happy to have found a way to get rid of him once and for all.
Absolutely disgusting CG you have reached a new epic low.
Known issue: cheating.
Someone says, “This is how people are cheating. Go ahead and report the account, let’s see how long it takes for them to contact/do something about it.”
Issue: Dear CG...you banned an account that wasn’t...correct...wasn’t cheating. The account that was cheating is still roaming free? Boy that’s screwed up.
Issue: Kid next door shines a light on the guy trying to help fix a leaky faucet, and he gets kicked out of the house for a month. That’s pretty screwed up too.
Seems like the known issue should have been addressed correctly and then the other things that have unfolded would have thus been void, as they never would have been needed. Fix. Your. Game.
If this is the case, the game should add a simple battle history, let us know which squad the opponent were using. Then we can report suspicious player.
Our arena shard has been dealing with a likely cheater, we have reported him ans nothing has happened and we haven't heard back, are you guys thinking about adding a replay system? That way we can confirm if he is cheating or possibly were wrong and he somehow beats the best teams with teams that are under geared, modded, and not the current meta
Ahnaldt101's video I think perfectly summarizes CG/EA's legal authority to ban the person, regardless on which user account they play the game.
But, if the alternative cheating account was not concurrently banned with the main non-cheating account, that would support the supposition that CG does not have the technology to detect the cheating as they apparently have not found the cheating account.
Theyve gone with a public beta testing program since they lack the manpower to find all the flaws in game. If you want to establish some protocol that's fine and dandy, but you ignored this guy before when he did go straight to the devs.
I hope there's a happier end to this situation...
This really disappoints me because of the countless of hours I put in the game. It’s all for nothing because devs can’t police their own software. We now have to do their job and report people. It’s just going to be a big cluster kitten
How about you use some of that effort to track down cheaters? GIVE US AN ATTACK LOG (Bare minimum!), how are we supposed to help report cheaters if we cant see that someone's ewoks just got 60 banners against my DR/Malak?
It's not possible to cheat in that way. Everything you do in offense happens in your client where the server will send you your opponents data. Anything that happens in their client won't get reflected there, just the things your client needs to present you with the opponent fleet (i.e. units, gear of pilots and mods and whatnut).
I think CG/EA choice in term of reward motivate some people to cheat...
Just look this success : Win 10000 times in squad arena; the rewards is only 50 crystals and 5 shards of vador... really for a mean time of 5 years playing this games this is a riddiculous way to reward your player.
You've built a game catered to whales, and you just took out a harpoon gun and started shooting. You deserve the obvious results that will follow.
Thanks for the update. This whole situation is tough. The cheating is quite ridiculous. The inability to stop it thus far is a bit ridiculous. Condoning Bulldog’s actions would be a problem... cheating to prove a cheater is a bad policy. That said; weigh the cost/benefit here. It is extremely evident that Bulldog did not cheat for the sake of winning. If anything, he forwarded your cause to help eliminate cheating. Be reasonable here and support the community. Come up with a reasonable way to move forward.
There is a thing called ban dodging which is having multiple accounts while one was deemed bannable which is why his main account got struck. Ahnald and Darth Microtransaction both pointed out that every other game ban alt accounts so this is normal behavior
You can defend bulldog as much as you want but he even he admits he knowingly did a bannable offense, he was just unaware that other accounts you own are also hit as a result
For someone doing research on ban dodging he missed some key details on its punishment and its not something we can just brush off as "honest mistake"
This is a sincere question, not a put down: Do you really not understand what bulldog means when he says he wanted to get banned and thinks the account should have been banned, or are you intentionally presenting a bad read?
He wanted the account banned because he wanted to see the anti-cheat measures working. The most desirable solution wasn't to become a whistleblower, it was to be caught and know the game is secure.
It wasn't. This is a clear cut case of exposing a flaw and whistleblowing. If you think we're all better off not knowing the information that bulldog has provided, please let me know how.
It's easy to understand how two groups of people benefit from keeping everyone in the dark about the total failure of the game's detetion method:
1. CG - it obviously hurts their bottom line if players believe that spending won't give them an advantage because somebody can just cheat against them. It hurts their bottom line if they aren't perceived as in control of their own game. They are less effective at extracting money from honest players.
2. Cheaters - if nobody knows that cheating is taking place, or how easy it is, or how it works - if it remains a matter of mystery and speculation there is less pressure for CG to end cheating. The more cheating is shrouded in mystery, the safer cheaters are.
So which side are you on? CG's side or cheaters? Because nothing aobut your statements reveals that you care at all about the interests of players as a group, on the contrary, you seem to take positions that privilege keeping players as blissfully ignorant and punishing people who spread knowledge.
I'm a guild leader that has been playing for 3 and a half years and I'm about to tell my guild to go find a new game to play. There are too many other games out there, and this crap is getting out of hand.
I knew things would be worse with Carrie gone. You went and screwed that up too.
I seriously believe that in a game where constant development and constant income from the active player base are probably the most important pillars, the developers need to have somewhat of a working relationship with the community. CG fails at that time and time again. Lashing out at people for uncovering their empty promise of tackling cheating is just really really bad.
Ultra, if you really think this is good conduct, I'm at a loss... If you believe in rules that vigorously, you might well get run over walking across a green trafficlight...
Well done! CG, you have officially earned the titles
Banana republic
And
Rogue Nation
Already seen people posting refund receipts of up to over a thousand dollars. Now I wish I was through apple, seem to be easier to get refunds over there.
I wanna see CG go into the negative for this. May make them actually do something about all the cheating that was going on that many didn't even know was happening.
The fact is, cheaters go unpunished. People who are trying to get it fixed, people who are trying to get information out there, to get it exposed, to push for some fix, are being targeted and punished.
CG just made Mcmole and Bulldog martyrs. What a terrible PR move.
It's almost like your describing a company that is under the umbrella of influence called "EA"
If they, CG, put more time and resources into their games spaghetti code and features instead of policing the forums and YouTube... maybe this hacker/cheater/exploiting problem would happen less and less.