Cheaters / Kingmakers infestation

[aloof-rabbit]

I have two recent examples.
Example from today: Player 1 raises a trade deal and offers for all 6 cards in their hand in return for a single brick card. That kind of trade is not even trying to hide the fact that you are kingmaking.

Example from about 2 weeks ago - came across two players where they only seemed to trade with each other. When you looked at the player profile of one player the last 380 games that player had always played in a game with the other player. What a coincidence.

reporting does nothing even when it is so obvious they are either player together, or is the same person. The fact that you can't even submit a report for kingmaking is ridiculous.

[euklid314]

I have two recent examples.
Example from today: Player 1 raises a trade deal and offers for all 6 cards in their hand in return for a single brick card. That kind of trade is not even trying to hide the fact that you are kingmaking.

Example from about 2 weeks ago - came across two players where they only seemed to trade with each other. When you looked at the player profile of one player the last 380 games that player had always played in a game with the other player. What a coincidence.

reporting does nothing even when it is so obvious they are either player together, or is the same person. The fact that you can't even submit a report for kingmaking is ridiculous.

What you describe is not kingmaking but it is team play/collusion. Since this is cheating the ELO system it is reportable. Yes, it is tedious. And it could be better documented and made easier to report. But if you do so with sufficient documentation the player(s) will be punished.

[aloof-rabbit]

I have two recent examples.
Example from today: Player 1 raises a trade deal and offers for all 6 cards in their hand in return for a single brick card. That kind of trade is not even trying to hide the fact that you are kingmaking.

Example from about 2 weeks ago - came across two players where they only seemed to trade with each other. When you looked at the player profile of one player the last 380 games that player had always played in a game with the other player. What a coincidence.

reporting does nothing even when it is so obvious they are either player together, or is the same person. The fact that you can't even submit a report for kingmaking is ridiculous.

What you describe is not kingmaking but it is team play/collusion. Since this is cheating the ELO system it is reportable. Yes, it is tedious. And it could be better documented and made easier to report. But if you do so with sufficient documentation the player(s) will be punished.

potato potato.

Team play, collusion or kingmakig it's the same result for the odd player out.
And I reported both those instances and there was nothing done. The players are all still happily playing with active profiles. It's a joke.

[Stonecoldore]

What you describe is not kingmaking but it is team play/collusion. Since this is cheating the ELO system it is reportable. Yes, it is tedious. And it could be better documented and made easier to report. But if you do so with sufficient documentation the player(s) will be punished.

potato potato.

Team play, collusion or kingmakig it's the same result for the odd player out.
And I reported both those instances and there was nothing done. The players are all still happily playing with active profiles. It's a joke.

100% agreed. The result is the same and the experience is ruined for genuine players. Also it does look like the reason BGA isn’t gonna do jack about this is the memberships? If you see the all time leaderboard table these days almost all of the players are kingmakers - a lot of them have played only <20 games
Now is it kingmaking giving them 100% win percentage or are they the devs cheating with the game? Who would know!


And few folks here suggesting trying the 4 player instead of 3 player - Tada! Been there done that, it’s not like the 4 player format is immune to kingmakers or something! Give us a real solution ( downvoting isn’t)

[kindlygrandma]

’m getting really frustrated with colluding behavior — specifically when players repeatedly target the same opponent with the robber, regardless of board position or who’s actually in the lead. Is there a thread where situations like this can be discussed or reported in absence of BGA moderation? If not, I’ll raise it here for now so other players can choose to blacklist them. At this table: ***, it appeared that Valeriiani and korydy were coordinating their actions in a way that felt like team play. They consistently targeted the third player despite both being in strong positions themselves, and they also appear to be each other's only friend on the platform. I understand that alliances and grudges can be part of gameplay, but this crossed into something that didn’t feel fair or in the spirit of the game. It made the experience hard to enjoy and made them hard to respect as opponents. It's happened before and I think drawing attention and naming them is the best way we have at the moment to avoid such players.

Edited: please, do not name others (or use links displaying names).

[Candlelit]

CATAN is just a terrible game. It encourages revenge, stealing, anger, and depression. I really hate it.

Only when you play 'friendly' and the name is ironically laughable

[Nur die Wurst]

I have a question. Someone (player 1) just reported me for "team play" because I pointed out (in the chat) to the third player (player 3) in a game that if they didn't trade with me to help me build longest road, then player 1 would win in the next turn. They said you are not allowed to point things like that out. Every player has to think for themselves. They said to read the rules, but I couldn't find any rules about this. In the end player 3 won, and they said it was my fault since I couldn't keep my mouth shut. Opinions?

[Jontia]

It's not team play to point out someone is about to win. It's table talk, and yes it can feel awkward to be involved in it as either the source or target, but it is part of the game.

[euklid314]

I have a question. Someone (player 1) just reported me for "team play" because I pointed out (in the chat) to the third player (player 3) in a game that if they didn't trade with me to help me build longest road, then player 1 would win in the next turn. They said you are not allowed to point things like that out. Every player has to think for themselves. They said to read the rules, but I couldn't find any rules about this. In the end player 3 won, and they said it was my fault since I couldn't keep my mouth shut. Opinions?

This sort of table talk is normal and is part of the game. The other player is allowed to report you but if the moderators are reasonably judging the situation you will not be punished.

Threatening somebody in chat to report them is borderline offensive and may even be punished by moderators if you would report it (I recommend not to do it, though - but that is my private opinion).

[Der Grüffelo]

Try playing four player games. It's way harder to cheat via 2 account kingmaking in four player games.

actually, most cheating is done in 4p-games. Here it is discussed how the cheaters work together:

"Do all the top all time ELO Catan-players play together...?"
https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48343

Try Arena instead. No real fun with the friendly robber, but harder to cheat, because players are more randomly put together.