CATAN CHEATERS

[tboard]

I just ended a Catan game where two people were cheating/kingmaking. This makes the game a complete waste of time for the other players. I have seen numerous posts from others making the exact same complaint. Until BGA steps in and does something, this game is not even worth anybody's time. There are just way too many cheaters who are playing as a team. As far as I'm concerned, Catan is COMPLETELY UNPLAYBABLE ON BGA.

Please BGA, if you care enough about having Catan on your website, then please make the necessary changes to discourage this type of behavior. I understand all games can have cheaters, but for whatever reason Catan games are FILLED WITH THEM. There needs to be harsher penatlies for those who play as a team. Otherwise, the problem will never be rectified. Simply reporting them after the game is not enough to deter this kind of behavior.

BGA has strict rules to not name the players, so I will not do so. However, if you look at the timestamp of this message, and match it up with my game history, you can easily find the game I am talking about. And if you do a search on the players' profiles, you can see that they have a history of playing together.

I am posting this message to get BGA's attention that something needs to be done about this problem.

[Cos-]

In contrast, I've played hundreds of games of Catan here and hardly ever seen this behavior. From my perspective, it's rare.

If you encounter people who do this, mark them thumbs down so you'll never be at any tables with those individuals again. After you encounter a few of these "cheaters" and give them thumbs down to eliminate them from the pool of possible players you might be matched with, you'll probably find that this becomes very rare for you also.

Thumbs down is one of the ways BGA already "does something". It's not about "deterring" the behavior, it's about giving you a way to avoid the players who play in ways you really don't enjoy. Use this feature. If everyone does, the kingmakers can have their own fun just playing with each other.

[tboard]

I just wanted to be more specific about the type of cheating that is going on with many games of Catan. Kingmaking is probably the wrong term to use here. When I think of kingmaking, that usually involves just one person who may have made a move to benefit another player. That is completely different than playing against opponents who were playing AS A TEAM from the very beginning. That means they never place the robber on each other, and often make ridiculous trades. Even in games with kingmaking, you can still have a decent chance of winning. But with this type of cheating you have almost NO CHANCE of winning. Not to mention how blatantly obvious it is.

I have played this game on several other platforms and have never come across this problem until I played the BGA version. BGA is an amazing place to play board games. I hope these types of posts will encourage BGA staff to put something in place to deter this type of egregious behavior.

[tboard]

In contrast, I've played hundreds of games of Catan here and hardly ever seen this behavior. From my perspective, it's rare.

If you encounter people who do this, mark them thumbs down so you'll never be at any tables with those individuals again. After you encounter a few of these "cheaters" and give them thumbs down to eliminate them from the pool of possible players you might be matched with, you'll probably find that this becomes very rare for you also.

Thumbs down is one of the ways BGA already "does something". It's not about "deterring" the behavior, it's about giving you a way to avoid the players who play in ways you really don't enjoy. Use this feature. If everyone does, the kingmakers can have their own fun just playing with each other.

I believe you are underplaying how rampant this problem is. I have only played the game 22 times on this website, and have encountered cheaters for about a third of those games. And I have personally witnessed even more cheaters as a spectator. So yes, at least from my own point of view, it is most definitely a huge issue on BGA. And this type of burden should not be placed on the players for them to resolve on their own. Would it not be better if BGA decided to create harsher penalties for cheating? And let's be frank here, the type of cheating we are taking about is not subtle. It is so in your face and blatantly obvious, it is like adding salt to the wound.

Considering that we are probably talking about hundreds of cheaters (in games of more than 3000 at a time), blocking them one at a time is not an efficient way to deal with the problem. Adding to that, whenever you red thumb a cheater, they are still open to doing this to other players. There is actually nothing in place currently to penalize them for this type of behavior. Until harsher penalties are introduced to deal with this type of problem, I can only see it getting worse in the future.

[jesshotdog]

In contrast, I've played hundreds of games of Catan here and hardly ever seen this behavior. From my perspective, it's rare.

If you encounter people who do this, mark them thumbs down so you'll never be at any tables with those individuals again. After you encounter a few of these "cheaters" and give them thumbs down to eliminate them from the pool of possible players you might be matched with, you'll probably find that this becomes very rare for you also.

Thumbs down is one of the ways BGA already "does something". It's not about "deterring" the behavior, it's about giving you a way to avoid the players who play in ways you really don't enjoy. Use this feature. If everyone does, the kingmakers can have their own fun just playing with each other.

I agree with this. After hundreds of games, this is something I rarely if ever see.

[vamoscosmos719]

I do see a problem where people are using this method of collusion to get higher in the elo leaderboard.

[RiggerRabbit]

*Moderation Edit: please do not use the Forums to call players out by name, this is what the Moderation Reports are for. The Forums should remain a general discussion.

[Cos-]

And this type of burden should not be placed on the players for them to resolve on their own. Would it not be better if BGA decided to create harsher penalties for cheating?

Okay, leaving aside how common it is (like I said, I have hardly ever seen it happen, in hundreds of games, but you say it happens to you often), how exactly do you suggest BGA should detect this? Do you have a concrete proposal? Not for what the penalty should be, but for how the software can decide whether someone should be penalized, in a way that will catch people who do this but won't hit innocent players.

[Axo15]

I agree that it's hard to punish them but I would like for there to be an opt in option not to be matched with people who are grouped up/on friend list. They may or may not be teamplaying but I would rather not take the risk of ending up stuck in 30-40 minute game with people teamplaying.

[vamoscosmos719]

I agree that it's hard to punish them but I would like for there to be an opt in option not to be matched with people who are grouped up/on friend list. They may or may not be teamplaying but I would rather not take the risk of ending up stuck in 30-40 minute game with people teamplaying.

Just another reason why Arena should be 4 players instead of 3