After all my hard work...

[Jonathan_F]

unfortunately, the same situation that has happened in the JP ladder has happened in the US ladder. A player has hacked or dual GCed their rank. It saddens me that this has happened, and while it may never show in my rank, I just hope the people here will realize that I was the one who put in many hours to recieve my rank, only to have it taken away by cheaters.

[LeRoy_G]

does that mean u have found a person with GOD rank for the US version?

i still have to see a US player that has a rank lower than 500. but maybe i am online at the wrong times...

[Riu_000]

Don't worry about it Jon, it was just Barubary/Myria last night with that GODDESS rank. It's not even a real rank, so it may not even count as God. I have reason it's not actually GOD rank, but just RANK. Infact, I'm certain this isn't a modified GOD rank, if it was there would still be that crazy blue Aura.

Unless you're talking about someone else.

[Jonathan_F]

actually i'm King 18, and someone who i saw only a few days ago has passed me to the point where he's 2 days ahead of me. The fact that i've been playing nonstop is what makes me believe that this player has cheated in this way. He's like King 8 or something now. I don't believe this was barubary.

[Riu_000]

Ack! I'm so dumb.
It's Unravel of course. Yes, he's definetly doing something abnormal to get his rank. I have reason to beleive it's duel GCs. =/

[Jonathan_F]

Yes, that's his name. The question is what can we do about it.

I'll tell you what I did. I went and posted an open letter to Sonic Team on the Sega and Nintendo forums.

A serious offense has come up. A player by the name of Unraveled is abusing the system of the game. This player has been cheating his way up the ladder system of PSO episode III by various means.

Now I'm not saying that this is completely conclusive. I just want answers. Is this player indeed abusing the system so he comes out on top first? Last I checked on this player, he was at least a day behind me in the ranking, but now he's about 2 days ahead of me (and i saw him less than 3 days ago,) and I've been playing this game nonstop on the ladder system (tournaments) ever since I got this game when it was released. I have nearly 190 hours logged. And I'm certain that by checking the number of hours that this player has, or by how many times this player has faced another player, the situation should become clear. However of course, since this player is doing this abuse of the system, there is no way for me to obtain his guild card number, which in itself is a poor way of knocking someone offline because people who abuse the system WONT give out their guild card for anything.

Look I realize that these accusations are serious, but I also know that this has also happened on the JP ladder for this game. A player by the name of Jack Bauer has two gamecubes, so all he has to do is keep playing himself over and over. That's how he got to where he is today. A player ranked as GOD. Worse still is that some players have gone to hacking their ranks. I've seen many players ranked #1 now that are fake. Should we honest players be forced to submit to these kinds of cheaters? I don't think so. However the Sonic Team hasn't been doing their job to control the situation. Show your customers that you care.

From the Dreamcast to Episode 1&2, Sonic Team has continually ignored the concerns of its players, whether it be from players who spam channels with chat symbols that bring the ESRB up to a level of "Adult Only", use cheat devices to gain levels illegally without putting in the work, Sonic Team has done nothing to rectify the situation against these players.

I will say this here and now. I want a response here. I don't want a response by email. I want everyone who plays this game, and those who may intend to buy, to know of this situation so they will know that players are abusing the system and are running rampant. Show your customers that you care and do something about this. Do what's right for a change and don't look the other way becuase you're making money.

I realize that those words are very strong against Sonic Team, but this is exactly how I feel about the issue right now, and that some action needs to be taken. This isn't where the highest level means leetness, this is where you have an actual rank that can count, especially in tournaments. Sonic Team needs to shape up.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Jonathan_F on 2004-03-17 19:56 ]</font>

[punkasssss]

It's sad that there are ways to cheat and abuse the system so early, but it is inevitable. Sonic Team definatly needs to do something to control these issues.

[Para]

Myria has noted to me there is some way to cheat in episode III.

[Jack]

If you think about it, playing with himself (hur, hur) isn't actually cheating. It's just twattery.

[Malkavian]

I have see this stuff in most online games. is inevitable, some people will do whatever to get highest ranks. Even if it consists on buying 10 GCs and 10 EPisode 3, someone will do it.

[Jonathan_F]

And yet both those systems should be traceable back to the same home. After all, you gotta use a credit card to get online. The easy answer would be to simply prevent a person of the same address or the same name from registering twice by having the registration system checking for such a variable.

[Aceizace]

Can't seem to find your post Jonathan. Has anyone replied with anything intresting yet? Or am i too early? (I dunno when you posted that, lol, not too good with the time system on this site). Think you could give us a link to where you posted it? Thanks.

Side note: 100th post! Yay! In time for epi 3 PAL as well, i can report my findings! Too bad it's looking like everything'll be found by the time it comes out... http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif

[Jonathan_F]

oddly enough the sega boards are down, and yet the rest of the site is up. I wonder why.

http://boards.sega.com/sega/ click on episode III and then "An open letter to sonic team. all members read"

If there's one thing that I've learned about corporate censorship, KEEP BACKUPS.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Jonathan_F on 2004-03-18 11:08 ]</font>

[Blatt4Life]

Wow that is too bad, I also put a lot of time and effort into my character. Even though I am currently offline, when someone does that, it really makes me mad.

[EPYNON]

Ok I totally agress with a need to stop it but as of not alowing two gamecubes be set on the same credit card or address this is absurd i say this because me and my half brother plpay the game and being half brothers mean that we live at seperate houses so we both have EP3 with hunters licences on the same CC and Address and when I visit my mom we both play on the same IP Address o and Jonathan just so you know i dont cheat I talked to you last night Fraxinus well thats my view

[Jonathan_F]

Then perhaps just having it so that if the same address comes up twice it would set off an alarm. Since you're at different addresses, there won't be a problem.

[Shimarisu]

On 2004-03-18 12:48, Jonathan_F wrote:
Then perhaps just having it so that if the same address comes up twice it would set off an alarm. Since you're at different addresses, there won't be a problem.



That's just dumb, I'm on 2 cubes on a router=same IP address. Me and my boyfriend just play on teams. I thought you knew this, so you think I should be banned too? There's nothing illegal about it. Also I pay for a few peoples' HLs. Having the same credit card = a ban would blitz 3 other people I pay for/have paid for in the past.

- Shimarisu

[Jonathan_F]

Unfortunately, I didnt. Sorry. I guess there really is no way to stop this then except through some kind of a ID vs ID counter, and if that number reaches too high, something would be set off. The same thing is implemented on Battle.net and that prevents abuse there.
And of course this would only be in effect when in tournaments. Playing in a regular game it wouldn't count.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Jonathan_F on 2004-03-18 14:59 ]</font>

[Jools]

I'm glad I don't get involved in any of this.

Jools