Cheating at Letter Tycoon and other word games

[Marianne1]

Greetings. I generally really enjoy this site and I am happy to be a paying Premium Member. Thank you to the developers, volunteers and administrators of this site. However, I have become frustrated that all my fun/work/games at Letter Tycoon in the Arena this season have all been for nothing. Currently there are some players who are evidently using some sort of word-scrambling program to make obscure words. One can simply look at the summary of games and learn of this unusual pattern, the use of non-colloquial words, and the incredible recent surges to the top of the ranks. I notice some of the same culprits at the word game Hardback (which I don't play.)

I will be professional here and not name these players, but it doesn't take a detective to check the statistics to see that something is quite wrong and unfair to players who don't use such cheating tools. I do admit that I classify myself as a strong player at word games having won several Scrabble championships in my city and others, and I also own the Scrabble dictionary which this site uses to verify words. But honestly, the obscure words that are being played should be raising red flags to administrators - this is taking the fun out of the games for the rest of us. Yes, I have given red thumbs to the players who I suspect are ruining our fun. Yes, I have written reports as well. What more can be done to bring back the fun in these games? Thank you.

[ufm]

I analyze a lot of games and ask other fellow players and admins/mods before calling someone names, so I'll be blunt and call some names.

I take a cautious approach for assuming someone cheating (actually I had misjudged one or two in the past and later retracted red thumb).
But there are indeed obvious and blatant solver users who cannot go unnoticed.
Most of them got caught soon and lost interest thereafter ***admin edit : no name dropping or defamation****
However currently one rotten apple is spoiling the whole barrel: ***admin edit : no name dropping or defamation****
His word game record is full of obscure words, he consistently submits those perfect combinations without any hesitation, and pulls off this feat in English AND Francais consistently.
Unless his real name is***admin edit : no name dropping or defamation**** I call this total bs.
He even tried to beseech the developer after getting so many red thumbs. Thickest skin ever: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=45979

Also, current #1 holder of Letter Tycoon ***admin edit : no name dropping or defamation**** apparently used a proxy account to boost own ranking.
But he somehow escaped rating reset or went unpunished. Do admins care at all?
They said 'we cannot detect/moderate solver uses and our probable response when it gets too hot is disabling Arena and ELO award'.
Maybe it is time to put an end to this and stick to tournament groups...

[Salvidrim]

One thing that devs could do to strangle the scramble-solver users would be to add an option to play with 12dict word list, which doesn't include obscure words. Hardback has 12dict as an option and it works very well to counteract solvers, as all online solver tools do not have a "limit to 12dict" option

OTOH one thing players could do to try and limit it is to play with real-time, fast time control. It's still an inconvenient thing and shouldn't have to be a thing, of course, but it's better than nothing I guess

[Marianne1]

Hi ufm, thank you for adding to the post and for naming the person who is the rotten apple spoiling everything. In fact, I discovered the same apple in three of my Letter Tycoon games making uncommon words and soaring to the top of ratings when the rest of us have worked so hard to be near the top.

When I discovered the issue, I even politely asked the player to concede the three games we were in and "walk away" before I filed a report to the administrators. The rotten apple did not concede the games and instead he was extremely rude to me and filed a report to the administrators. Guess who got punished? I did. I was "moderated" even though I said "Please concede the games otherwise I will be required to report to the administrators. Here is your chance to walk away from these games. Thank you." The player reported me and I was punished.

It's really too bad. I am a paying member here and feel that by speaking out against an abuser of the system, (even politely asking him to stop), the outcome was terrible.

[ufm]

One thing that devs could do to strangle the scramble-solver users would be to add an option to play with 12dict word list, which doesn't include obscure words. Hardback has 12dict as an option and it works very well to counteract solvers, as all online solver tools do not have a "limit to 12dict" option

OTOH one thing players could do to try and limit it is to play with real-time, fast time control. It's still an inconvenient thing and shouldn't have to be a thing, of course, but it's better than nothing I guess

Actually that is my (and probably many other players') unconventional battle plan against solvers: playing only real-time with 12dicts.
ElerCant was bogged down by all those 'false positives'. Maybe we can upvote 12dicts suggestion from Guru page if cheating is too rampant?

When I discovered the issue, I even politely asked the player to concede the three games we were in and "walk away" before I filed a report to the administrators. The rotten apple did not concede the games and instead he was extremely rude to me and filed a report to the administrators. Guess who got punished? I did. I was "moderated" even though I said "Please concede the games otherwise I will be required to report to the administrators. Here is your chance to walk away from these games. Thank you." The player reported me and I was punished.

It's really too bad. I am a paying member here and feel that by speaking out against an abuser of the system, (even politely asking him to stop), the outcome was terrible.

Wow, that sucks. Clearly mods have no idea what's going on (or don't give a damn).

[JackHH]

One thing that devs could do to strangle the scramble-solver users would be to add an option to play with 12dict word list, which doesn't include obscure words. Hardback has 12dict as an option and it works very well to counteract solvers, as all online solver tools do not have a "limit to 12dict" option

OTOH one thing players could do to try and limit it is to play with real-time, fast time control. It's still an inconvenient thing and shouldn't have to be a thing, of course, but it's better than nothing I guess

I would rather play against cheats than be forced to play with 12Dicts. It's absolutely awful. As somebody who has spent over 10 years mastering the vocabulary needed for word games, I'd find it incredibly frustrating to be penalised on that. This is like saying in the 100m any runner that reaches speeds of over 40kmh gets disqualified.

Fast time controls. Yes please! I'm pretty confident against the most obvious cheats, I'd win easily with a very fast time control. If any change is to happen this must be the way forward. I believe this is the recognised way in chess too.

[ufm]

I would rather play against cheats than be forced to play with 12Dicts. It's absolutely awful. As somebody who has spent over 10 years mastering the vocabulary needed for word games, I'd find it incredibly frustrating to be penalised on that. This is like saying in the 100m any runner that reaches speeds of over 40kmh gets disqualified.

Yes, using narrow dictionary may cause other problems, especially when the game has an in-built challenge rule, like Scrabble or Letter Tycoon.

Fast time controls. Yes please! I'm pretty confident against the most obvious cheats, I'd win easily with a very fast time control. If any change is to happen this must be the way forward. I believe this is the recognised way in chess too.

Unfortunately cheaters can avoid fast time control settings by playing turn-based games extensively, and Arena is not a tournament.
Beating a bunch of unsuspecting strangers is just enough.

[Marianne1]

OTOH one thing players could do to try and limit it is to play with real-time, fast time control. It's still an inconvenient thing and shouldn't have to be a thing, of course, but it's better than nothing I guess

Something else to add: I don't know about real-time vs turn-based being a huge advantage for the cheaters. Although I'm not familiar with whatever mechanic they are using, wouldn't time NOT be a factor since the obscure word is generated quickly by the robot? Just wondering... Also, there are a variety of reasons why I mainly play turn-based: during the pandemic much of my work is online and in the background I can play these games and still be beckoned by work if needed (please note that I play Crib, Patchwork, Alhambra, Carcassonne, Coloretto, etc. all in turn-based mode); we are currently on forest fire evacuation alert here, so if I have to quickly leave the premises, I can, rather than being in the middle of a real-time game. We can check thinking time for the cheaters, I suppose.

Meanwhile, look at the current rankings in Letter Tycoon and check out the words in replayed games that these top players are using - it's not rocket science and you will see that the rotten apple, along with the others, have cheated their way to the top. What is being done about this except that we have given red thumbs to them?

[ufm]

OTOH one thing players could do to try and limit it is to play with real-time, fast time control. It's still an inconvenient thing and shouldn't have to be a thing, of course, but it's better than nothing I guess

Something else to add: I don't know about real-time vs turn-based being a huge advantage for the cheaters. Although I'm not familiar with whatever mechanic they are using, wouldn't time NOT be a factor since the obscure word is generated quickly by the robot?

At least you can identify who's cheater or not easier in real-time mode.

Meanwhile, look at the current rankings in Letter Tycoon and check out the words in replayed games that these top players are using - it's not rocket science and you will see that the rotten apple, along with the others, have cheated their way to the top. What is being done about this except that we have given red thumbs to them?

Nothing yet, and nothing will be done, I suppose? Hence I proposed scrapping the entire Arena and trophies.

[Romain672]

It's pretty obvious, but on an old word game online, nothing was done against it.
You just find at the end high player classed who 'cheat'.
And others ones which just play under.

Problem is, where do you put the limit? What's your solution against it?
I know it's obvious for some players. But for others, how you differenciate people who cheat from people who got just way more vovabulary from most people?

The same problem is in chess. You got website specialised in chest, which have developped some AI to see cases where people cheat, but that's complex and expensive to do. Especially on a website not centralised on those games.


edit: yeah '12dicts' dictionnarry look really good.