quote:Originally posted by CampusParty

I started a game about 2 years ago called the Friday/Saturday night Unlimited. At our height we had 20 or so players actively playing weekly 4-10 hour deathmatch. It was alot of fun.

One night a 'well known' player, less familar with the game, joined up. After 4 hours or so most of the players had lost 4 of 5 lives. It was clear who had won and we, as players, declared it so.

So it was time for practice... an event that frequently occured at the end of a long bloodbath.

Well this 'well known' player misunderstood and started yelling to the world "HEY SVEN'S A CHEATER... WATCH OUT FOR CAMPUSPARTY..."

And I'm like "come on dude, it wasn't like that" and a number of players backed me up. But the 'well-known' player just kept going:
Sven's a cheater yadda yadda yadda

After he slandered me everywhere he could I just gave up. I figurred 'the heck with this, I'm not a cheater... screw you'. I dropped the games altogether and turned off TWGS.

That was about a year ago. It was sad.

Today I turned TWGS back on and I already have 4 players back.

I like to play and I don't cheat DAMNIT!

I really like this proposal:
http://www.eisonline.com/twforum/topic. ... C_ID=11886


Sven


Hey Sven, sorry to hear about your experience with this. I truly think what I'm suggesting would help reduce the number of those types of claims. I just like to play in games where I have fun with some of my friends, gain a few new friends, and face some good competition.

Right now I might need to take a brief hiatus from the game though -- since my wife is starting to abject to the amount of time I've been spending on it lately... Hopefully I can get a fast Internet connection going at my house soon so I won't have to play from work anymore... if I'm sitting at home on the couch with my laptop she probably wouldn't mind so much.

Well I think sysop shouldn't play on there own server. I have played at many places where they do and I don't go back. It just takes on bad apple and seems like there is more than one out there so why play on your own server there are plenty of servers to go play on

River Rat
Alien Base(twgs.alienbase.net)

quote:Originally posted by River Rat

Well I think sysop shouldn't play on there own server. I have played at many places where they do and I don't go back. It just takes on bad apple and seems like there is more than one out there so why play on your own server there are plenty of servers to go play on

River Rat
Alien Base(twgs.alienbase.net)


Well when I was a kid we used to play basketball over at my house since I had a goal and court set up... in fact most kids did (I lived in KY btw.) I could have played at other courts and I'm sure I could have cheated or told people to let me have my way or they couldn't play there -- but it was never a problem. It's just like playing at your own court...

If a sysop cheats everyone will know about it and quit playing there. If there were ways to make it even more obvious when a sysop cheated, then this would seriously be a non-issue altogether.


BTW, when I was at college (1998) and I looked around to see if people still played TW, I think your server was one of the first that popped up. I actually didn't get back into the game at that time (though I did log on and play a few turns) -- I think alcohol and women (and maybe some studying) kept me too busy to completely rekindle my interest. Not that it's important for any reason, but I just wanted to point out your contribution to the game -- even though most probably already know this and I happen to have a different opinion on the current issue.

quote:Originally posted by River Rat

Well I think sysop shouldn't play on there own server. I have played at many places where they do and I don't go back. It just takes on bad apple and seems like there is more than one out there so why play on your own server there are plenty of servers to go play on

River Rat
Alien Base(twgs.alienbase.net)

I agree that sysop's should not play on their own servers.
But I also think that a sysop can if he/she wishes ..

The main reason .. the $$ they dish out to provide a free server for others.

I did at one time have a message on my intro screen saying :
Send $$ if you want me to play on another server ..

enough of this ..

I got a nice edit by Acid & NS called Desert Storm.
I have been spending time making nice in game screens with
info for all ships and planets.

I have played in this game on and off my server.
But while I was on my server I see the alien ships info was not
being displayed completely in the star dock library.

So in short .. a sysop playing in their own games can see what
a game needs to be better and more fun to play .. from a players
view of things.

I hope more players will play this edit , either on my server
or Acid's server when it bangs in Feb.

<I'm open to flames now>
knock your socks off.

Vid's World on Guam
http://geocities.com/videotees/twars.html
telnet://vidsworld.no-ip.org:2002
http://vidkid.coastgames.com/index.php <--- Register & Request Games

quote:Originally posted by Vid Kid

So in short .. a sysop playing in their own games can see what
a game needs to be better and more fun to play .. from a players
view of things.


Vid Kid,

I agree that it can help to get a players prospective to improve the game. Let's face it when in JAFO mode it really is hard to tell anything is wrong. (JAFO defined; Just Another F***ing Observer) [:)] My solution in the past is to create a 'Maintenance' charecter that most everyone leaves alone. Not always, but mostly.[:D] Anyway I create this charecter to test ports and make sure things are running right. As for playing in a game it really is easy to get burned by doing that. I avoid it with the exception of my 'Maintenance' charecter and he isn't playing against other players. Heck I really wouldn't have time, unfortunately, to play full time anyway.

I can relate to the Sven's pain too. I have recently been accused by an 'well known' player of cheating, or allowing others to cheat, or even helping other players to get ahead. It is facinating to me that others would feel the need to go down that road. This could almost be seen as the equivalent of the 'race card' in the TWGS world.

Hmmm, where was I. Oh yeah. The long and the short of it is, while it may be nice to have a software update that brodcasts in thelog when T-edit is used it hasn't happened yet. Until it does, or if it does, you should just stay out of your own games. I did notice a interesting suggestion in http://www.eisonline.com/twforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11886 from jschrey about enabling 'tournament' feature to prevent T-editing during game play. If that works it would be a great way to prevent that. I'm not sure what the restrictions are, but if it works, it would be interesting.

I'll stop now...[:)]
Brian

quote: My solution in the past is to create a 'Maintenance' charecter that most everyone leaves alone. Not always, but mostly.[:D] Anyway I create this charecter to test ports and make sure things are running right. As for playing in a game it really is easy to get burned by doing that. I avoid it with the exception of my 'Maintenance' charecter and he isn't playing against other players. Heck I really wouldn't have time, unfortunately, to play full time anyway.




Brian, that's the best way to handle things if you wanted to have an observer character in the game that could actually check on things. It still leaves a sysop open to possible accusations. But if it is posted in the welcome screen that he is doing this, and that this is the only thing the maintainance character does, that should cut down a lot on the accusations against a sysop. Probably only have to worry about accusations from an inexperienced player then.

I agree Steve. It can leave you open to accusations. But so can being a regular JAFO in the game as evident by the entry made by one of my registered players in the smack section here. http://www.eisonline.com/twforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12124

He basically said I cheated with no proof. He even admited he had no proof, but left the claim in place. Poeple say stuff with no evidence of wrong doing, and accuse Sysops of cheating. Frankly as I stated in my response to him it is getting to be so over used that it is rapidly becoming the race card of Tradewars. I just have to laugh at the shear stupidty of it all.

By the way, despite his accusation he is still registered in my games. I didn't boot him. I could and several of my other registered players who read the article said I should. I've come to realize over the years that we all make mistakes. It's part of life. Am I ticked he left the claim up? Not really. His problem not mine. [:D]

Anyway, I'll get off my soap box and let this topic move on.
Brian

As a sysop who plays in a game on his own server, i feel it is ok. It IS your server after all. I have a message in the game announcement giving a warning that i play in the game. I also created an identical game specificly for people who want the game type but don't want me. I eventually removed that game because no one played in it.

I've also been accused of cheating and tediting, and it's really a loosing fight for the sysop. The player won't believe you, and will run off and flame you. And my thought has been "fine, don't play here. This server is because i want to have it, not because i want you to play on it" I know i don't cheat. The players whom i've played with in my games for years know i don't cheat. I'm not required to prove anything to anyone.

Someone brought up a good point about sysops having to go into tedit. I avoid this at all costs in the game i play in. there are very few reasons to have to do that. If it is necessary the key is to not look at sectors. and if you see a sector number, forget it. This again rests on the conscious of the sysop to play fair, but it's worked for me so far. Another option would be to send an email to the corp whom you saw and say "while i had to tedit something i happened to see the location of XXX planet in XXX sector. Please move this to a new location so as to not be in danger of me finding it." it may be a hassle for the player to have to move everything, but it's better than someone coming in and taking it...

Basically it comes down to the player base. If your players know you and know you don't cheat, then play. If you want to build a big massive TW server with lots of players and you are concerned about what one person could do if they started flaming about you, then don't play. Some players like the idea of blasting their sysop to bits, or at least trying to The sysop is looked at as kinda the god, and to kill him is like doing something near impossible. While we know that isn't exactly true it is nice to play on Just don't summon the powers of god to maintain the illusion

quote:Originally posted by Boss

You know with all the whining about sysops playing their own games it just makes me want to bang one and have all the elites come smoke my butt on my own server just to disprove the temptation of t-edit. Contrary to some beleifs there is still some integrity in this game between players and sysops both.


Well said Boss. I've been beaten every single time I played on my server. Not because I'm a bad player but because my style is the laid back builder. I don't compete on the edge like most and am not willing to put the same amount of effort into a win. I just play for fun and I lose gracefully.

I've played on my server (very recently in fact) and my username is SysOp, I announce my presence and announce that I will not engage in combat operations. I pay tolls and don't kill figs (unless I'm trapped by a defensive fig or something)... and TEDIT is way off-limits. When I get my fill or am done testing I park somewhere near StarDock and once I'm podded or #SD# I'll delete the account. [:D]

Oh, and if any of my users were to complain, I'd just leave the game.