Aside from the fact that you addressed your answers to the anonymous poster, and not myself, the one who asked them repeatedly, it is good to finally receive a response, @STT Community . I will address each one separately.
● Who was the cheater? We will not disclosure the Cheaters name but he was seen changing his name on the leaderboards mocking other players
I do not understand protecting a player who not only cheated, but was also permanently banned. It would go a long way towards good faith and transparency to just name the player. Privacy laws or libel concerns would not apply in this case. It would seem to serve no purpose and only make players feel like we are being kept in the dark. It also doesn't address the fact that multiple people were accused, which I will address further below.
@guest_1677442946962966
● Were any other people found to be cheating or just the one? It takes a heavy amount of resources ton investigate this kind of accusations, which means the team stops working on improving other areas of the game. But, we highly encourage you to report us specific players of practicing unfair gameplay
That was a non-answer if I've ever heard one. Why the evasiveness? It was a simple yes or no question. This just reeks of deceptiveness and excuse making.
Your non-answer seems to imply that no one else was even investigated, let alone found to be cheating. Considering there was multiple players accused of cheating in this thread alone, that is extremely underwhelming and unacceptable. How are players supposed to be able to have any faith in your system being fair if no one else was even looked into?
Also, if it requires so many resources to investigate, then something needs to change on your end. There has to be a way to better way to police the game internally. The onus should not be on players to investigate and report cheaters. That is YOUR job. Not ours.
● Was the cheating happening during only one event (unlikely) or multiple? We've found on multiple events, and we mentioned that those being affected can look for compensation with our CS team
This seems to contradict your first response, or at the very least, muddy the waters. You said the cheater was changing their name to mock players during the event. That seems to imply that it was only during the event the player was using their name to troll players. This is another reason why it seems so silly to not just name the cheater.
Furthermore, you do not say WHICH events that were affected by the cheating. Do you have any intention of letting us know how many and which events were affecting by the cheater?
Aside from the fact that it seems insulting that players who were affected should have to chase down compensation, how are we supposed to know when/if/who was affected, if you won't even be clear on which events were in question? How can CS tickets even be created to get what is fair if you won't even tell us which events are affected?
@guest_1677442946962966
● What is being done to ensure that there isn't a lapse in observation/oversight for a long period again? Holidays shouldn't be an excuse. What steps are being taken to prevent a similar situation from escalating like this one did? This one was an exception since the entire Community team was out, we've established rotations inside of the team on holiday season to avoid this happening again
While it doesn't change the fact that there never should have been a time when no one from your team was available, this is appreciated as it seems you are at least taking it seriously enough to make sure it does not happen again.
It does not however excuse how long it took to finally be dealt with, nor for how long it took to finally get answers. Your company has to do better.
Also, I did ask in the past why players had to copy and paste announcements from other sources (such as Discord) instead of you making announcements here on the forum, or in-game, as has been traditionally done. Multiple times during this fiasco, things were posted onto Discord instead of being responded to here. It seems counterproductive to expect players to download an addition app, when you have a built in forum of your own here. Not to mention, the message system in-game.
These should not be ignored, and it is concerning to see, especially when now you are making a push for players to join ANOTHER app, as seen on the welcome message where you are pushing WhatsApp. This will only muddy the communication issues further, and is not helpful when players already feel ignored.
Will you commit to ensuring that these messages/announcements continue to also be posted to the forum and in-game messaging systems?
I am curious though, why that player is still listed as the winner of that event on the leaderboard. Shouldn’t the individual have been removed from the leaderboard, especially since it clearly was not won honestly?
This is another fair question, and I hope a response will be coming soon.
I still don't think that these steps go far enough to compensate players for all the issues, frustration and effort in having to drag out a proper response to all of this. We had to expend a lot of time and energy to get answers that should have been forthcoming and professionally handled MUCH SOONER. This also doesn't address how the delays, evasiveness and to put it bluntly, incompetent way this situation was handled caused even further player mistrust and lost faith. Nor does it address the significant loss that having the Big Book taken down in response causes.
What is being done to compensate us for all of the above, and to give players a real sense that this is being taken seriously, to ensure that real change will happen, and this isn't going to happen again?
Wow @STT Community -
You have banned the known cheater, SSR Callimachus, for cheating in multiple events.
Top work. They have another account doing just fine and playing. Unless someone is just having a go overthere in SSR, it is right obvious to me that it was just a paper ban to shut everyone up, and you let your paying player back on another account.
Clearly the message is there are no consequences for cheating here.
Once again, @STT Community has gone radio silent and not addressed concerns from players, including the fact that seemingly the banned cheater is still active in the game. Outstanding.
Um, changing your playername to troll is not difficult.
"In the short run, the game defines the players. But in the long run, it's us players who define the game." — Nicky Case, The Evolution of Trust
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Um, changing your playername to troll is not difficult.