hiatused and come back to WW...guess what i find?

[rahnnyboy]

yup, a new RIDICULOUSLY OBVIOUS cheat owning every single SC tournament.
immortalwombat.

awesome, I remember why i stopped playing (yet again).

[bmy1]

i already reported multiple times to WW so did arch and others. i even posted a not-so-subtle rant on the forums. SC will always face cheaters it's just a matter of how many and how often

[dpaull414]

So does anybody know what WW does to cheaters? Ban them from the site duh. Confiscate any funds they haven't transfered out I assume. In the terms and conditions I also see:

(3) any prizes, winnings and representative of value already received by you shall be subject to disgorgement and/or recoupment by the Site

Does that actually happen? It seems like if it does, WW should publicize the heck out of it because I assume if people cheat, they do so to make money. If the money the cheater makes is recovered by WW, then the incentive to cheat is pretty much eliminated. So maybe fewer people cheat in the first place?

I'm annoyed right now by a suspicious dynomite player. The only good news for me is that the only tournament he's screwed me in is the 36 player one, and you only lose $2 or $3 for each spot you drop down so I guess I'm only out $12 or so. What are the odds in dynomite of a guy putting up 150k+ in 6 games with 1 play each. Uh, doesn't happen. Ever. Even if your name is hayee or dlandika or piggybank! Hopefully they ban him soon.

i already reported multiple times to WW so did arch and others. i even posted a not-so-subtle rant on the forums. SC will always face cheaters it's just a matter of how many and how often

[bmy1]

WW confiscates the cheater's money (whatever is left in their account before WW freezes the account) and pockets it instead of refunding or paying out the players who got cheated out of rightful winnings. WW claims to use the money for admin purposes (i.e. to pay their fairness staff or whatever) but there is an obvious conflict of interest for WW to ban players just so it can make a little more $$ at everybody else`s expense.

[Joker8334]

WW confiscates the cheater's money (whatever is left in their account before WW freezes the account) and pockets it instead of refunding or paying out the players who got cheated out of rightful winnings. WW claims to use the money for admin purposes (i.e. to pay their fairness staff or whatever) but there is an obvious conflict of interest for WW to ban players just so it can make a little more $$ at everybody else`s expense.

I've seen your rants in the WW forums. I can understand your frustration. Especially when you're stuck in the cheater's division and only choices are to either potentially play against him/her in any given tournament; or to stop playing SC altogether. Both of those choices are unacceptable and WW needs to do something about it. I don't have all the answers, but I have 3 suggestions:

(1) First off, I really think that divisions need to be re-worked somehow. I don't know the best way to do it, but there has to be more divisions or something. The range of scores for D1 players is too broad and if he is consistently scoring that much higher than you, its not only unfair to you and other players similarly situated, it also goes against WW's fair matching policies.

(2) Any money that WW recovers from confirmed cheaters should be given back to the victims either through refunds; removing the cheater's score and paying out the next placed finishers; or putting the money towards a victim's tournament and giving anyone affected a second chance to compete. The cheater's opponents are the real victims, not WW. I'm not going to go into a detailed rationale right now, but paying their staff is ridiculous and a misappropriation. The costs of cheating are a known expense and investigation/enforcement should already be accounted for in their budget.

(3) User agreements, player contracts and corporate policies do not relieve WW of all liability (e.g. if there is a known and obvious cheater, WW has a non delegable duty toward its honest customers to reasonably address the situation.) Without doing some research, I'm not sure what action a court would determine is reasonable and appropriate, but WW could potentially face civil damages (compensatory & punitive) as well as the possibility of criminal penalties if they continue to sit back and profit while a known cheater is stealing money from other players. Any contractual provisions with a contrary effect would be void against public policy.

[bmy1]

good post joker.

1) I agree. This would reduce the profit to the top D1 players but it gives more people a shot. The problem with matching is mostly in D1 not in the lower divisions. Fact is, the most active players for the most part are the more skilled players and as a result most of the more active players play in D1. However, the spread in skill level in D1 is inevitably much wider than in the other divisions. I don't think there is nearly as disparity within lower levels of most games.

2) This will never happen because it's extra easy money for WW. More cheaters = more "enforcement" = more $$ in WW's pocket. The way they currently handle cheaters at WW means that they have NEGATIVE incentive to improve cheating prevention. On the contrary, their gaming security (or lack thereof) makes it easy to cheat in a game. People are greedy. So a cheater comes in, wins a few thousand bucks, and before the cheater can withdraw all his/her dishonestly won winnings, WW comes in, bans him/her and collects a nice profit in the process.

The real solution is to improve cheating PREVENTION, which obviously hasn't been a WW priority. If I pocketed a cheater's winnings by banning him/her, why would I bother improving prevention?

3) The sad truth is that most players don't make enough $$ from WW or invest enough $$ or can't be bothered with the legal hassle to do this. The only way this would be potentially viable is if somebody had the gumption to start a class action lawsuit. Because the total amount of $$ at stake is not that large (at least compared to the large pharma class actions, etc.) this will likely never happen.

[Grengoddess]

Does that actually happen? It seems like if it does, WW should publicize the heck out of it because I assume if people cheat, they do so to make money. If the money the cheater makes is recovered by WW, then the incentive to cheat is pretty much eliminated. So maybe fewer people cheat in the first place?

.

Nope. this only means that WW has NO INCENTIVE to catch cheaters......becuase they take all the money they make off the legits anyway. It is much easier and faster for them to make money from the cheats than legits playing each other in a tournament. Thats why they PURPOSELY dont catch them, or wait out catching them just so they can steal money off us. Not to mention that they call us "crazy unstable violators" if we happen to defend ourselves in this injustice. and PS cant get a word in edgewise either. they are supposed to LET fairness do this otherwise they lose their job. see what is going on here? They truly are a criminal organization who wave their "our lawyers are better than yours NYA NYA" over everyone's head who has any integrity to put them in their place.

If WW was forced by the government or whatever to return all the money to the legits who SHOULDVE gotten it, i can tell you they would all of a sudden become a MASTER at cheat catching. WW has no concept of long term consequences, and it is obvious.

Well bmy, i will have a talk with bill gates and see what i can do LOL! but seriously i have been "collecting" all this time. if you are one of those people who want to do a class action suit or know of those who do. just have them private message me.

PS - Worldwinner you now owe me at least 832,756 dollars. This is encompasses pain and suffering with abuse and discrimination (this includes both positive and negative discrimination. The constant negative discrimination made by Mike and the fairness department and the constant positive discrimination made by John to compensate) added to money for spokespersoning duties until YOU broke YOUR side of YOUR contract, added to money you owe me from cheats (money i shouldve won in tournaments) , added to money i shouldve won in tournaments for players using the not started trick, and especially added to my time as a player services consultant. Need i remind you that a multiplier is added to the fees you owe me for any submissions, videos, suggestions, write ups (specifically my 20+ page king vs WW write up) when you actually use any of my ideas of suggestions or that they help run your company better. Any of my contributions to your website wouldve remained free if you continued to allow communication between me and John, but since you did not ,breaking another contract, you now owe me monetary compensation for any and all contributions made to your website. Thank you for your time. Have your lawyers call my lawyers and we will see how it goes. Oh since i am actually a very very nice person (too nice for my own good) i am not including any sexual harrassment that was made to me by both Peter and John (yes that is what i meant by the two of you being weird to me at the office). I can STOP being nice you know. Think about it. Thank you for your time.

yes WW, i WILL continuously be that annoying fly buzzing in your ears or that pesky tick sucking out all your blood until you not only compensate me in full, but you actually start treating your legitimate customers with respect and give them THEIR compensations as well.

Samantha
Skillgaming Player Advocate

[msufan]

I have to be honest, GG. I have some complaints about WW too, but you sound certifiably insane lately when you write about them.

[Grengoddess]

I have to be honest, GG. I have some complaints about WW too, but you sound certifiably insane lately when you write about them.

*yawn* take a number *yawn*

HAHA! well anyway, why not go watch the LOST finale instead? LOL!