I wanted to post my tournament rules this weekend, but instead I spent the whole weekend debating these issues in my mind. I would like to post rules against all of these disonarable tactics, but how would I even know when someone is using them, and how would the team be punished. I can't really even inforce a no dupes rules, because I would only be able to detect someone stupid enough to dupe from the same IP address.

So, do I even try to have rules and make it an honerable game, or do I just say anything and everything goes?

Do I bother with registration and validation, which is only going to work for the honerable players anyway?

Yeah, that's tough. That's why wherever possible I need to add in-game options to enforce rules, or ways to detect when rules are broken. But I do think that by making your rules clear, players know what's allowed and what's not allowed, and if a player is found to be breaking the rules, the player can gain a reputation for being a cheater. Community enforcement of rules, with the expectation that players abide by the ops rules, is probably the best way to keep the games clean.

All competitive online games have this issue. Even chess. It's pretty easy to win at online chess by running a chess program to help you with your moves. How do you keep someone from doing that? If people want to cheat, they can cheat.

Well, I don't suppose it is cheating if both players are running Chessmaster 8000
Flash/java games don't have watchdog applications to make sure you aren't running helpers like most client/server applications do.

Yup, and you never will be able too. The one thing about the internet is it's ability to keep you anonymous.

Are you sure you are anonymous?

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

I'm sure your not, unless your sitting in a Starbucks that doesn't have any cameras.