Is the page exposing solution to the game?

[rf_rf]

I'm a game dev for a long while, and have a strong argument that I've just encountered a cheater (also, no way to report cheating currently, which is violation of rules).
Game replay: https://boardgamearena.com/tableview?table=935404828
And final situation (answer given at 1/6th chance)


Should this be reportable? Or investigated? Or am I just chasing demons online?

[crachelmazing]

Why do you think someone was cheating?

[rf_rf]

Why do you think someone was cheating?

I think my post was pretty straightforward, however I'll try AI-explaining it to you:

Statistical improbability: The opponent solved a critical, high-risk situation that came down to a 1-in-6 random chance (16.7% odds) and got it right.
Lack of reporting features: There is currently no way to report suspected cheating in the game, which the developer points out violates standard platform rules.
Essentially, the suspected player likely used an external tool, page, or solver to bypass the randomness rather than making a legitimate guess (hence the title post - is the page exposing solution?)

[nuffbought]

I didn't explore your example, but I can tell you that I once took a guess because I didn't think I would have another turn and there were three numbers I didn't know for sure. To my surprise I got them all correct.

I asked AI what was the chance that would happen based on the circumstances (I don't remember exactly, but possibly 2 of them were 25% chance and one was 50% or vice versa) and AI said it was 12.x% chance of my having gotten them all correct.

[Jellby]

So someone rolled a die and got a 6?

Cheater!

[rf_rf]

I'm sorry you both feel that way.

However your opinions do not address what I'm asking about here. Perhaps you only played a few games online and never faced a bot? Lucky you!
The observation involves game replay, moves timing (like sending answer less than second after making a guess) from a 4games account that seems to have been made specifically for testing bot / site data reading.

Hence the post title and included questions. If cheating is violation of the rules, why can't it be reported? And, whether the game exposes the solution.
Happy to hear your thoughts regarding actual arguments

[Jellby]

Because "just" cheating is generally not possible. It's either taking advantage of a bug (-> report the bug) or breaking some other rule (e.g. using multiple accounts -> report that). If it's something like using helping software... I'm not sure you can report that, but it's virtually impossible to prove.

[rf_rf]

Because "just" cheating is generally not possible. It's either taking advantage of a bug (-> report the bug) or breaking some other rule (e.g. using multiple accounts -> report that). If it's something like using helping software... I'm not sure you can report that, but it's virtually impossible to prove.

Thank you for this! Like my original post says, perhaps I just shouldn't bother
But to give you a bit more detail, specifically on 'just cheating' - I'm not going to white hat try and read the site/app code to try and see if the solution is being exposed somewhere. Without this I can't 'report a bug' as I didn't actually find it (but it might be there). What I observed is suspicious behavior that implies cheating. As site owner/admin I would have tools that can easily help me identify what happened with that user in that time. And with AI looking at logs for me, based on this case I can probably find a bigger loophole on the site that potentially allows cheating in all games. Like recent PHP vulnerability.
That's why I flagged this.

[Jellby]

Some years ago there was a cheater who found and exploited a bug in Can't Stop. If I remember correctly, one of the telltales was that they didn't stop after completing a column and continued rolling (if you know the game, you know that almost never makes sense). This was discussed in the forum and eventually enough evidence was collected to make someone look at the code, find the loophole, and ban/punish the cheater.

Something similar might happen here, but it needs much stronger evidence than a 1/6 guess...

[crachelmazing]

I asked why you thought someone was cheating because I don't think taking a 1 out of 6 guess and winning is unlikely. If there are fewer than twelve options left I will start guessing.