Forum Discussion

Re: SCBI & Cheating

does ea ban hackers?

i was reporting club before the war even started..they respone before the war start..but they did not ban them..they ask me for screenshots and i send them..then the war start and they ask me for the team leader screen..and i send and they are gone..no respone..

last war my club fight with hackers and i report them then war again and again hackers..war cost to much moeny points for the club..war simol..and boosters.

i spend moeny on this game,but now i just want to quit.

6 Replies

  • They do ban them but it seems that is very rare. Simcity is primarily a city building game and, I believe imho, that war hacking is not a huge concern for EA. It is serious, ongoing problem.

  • BlackjackWidow's avatar
    BlackjackWidow
    Hero (Retired)
    6 years ago

    @gil1999215 wrote:

    does ea ban hackers?

    i was reporting club before the war even started..they respone before the war start..but they did not ban them..they ask me for screenshots and i send them..then the war start and they ask me for the team leader screen..and i send and they are gone..no respone..

    last war my club fight with hackers and i report them then war again and again hackers..war cost to much moeny points for the club..war simol..and boosters.

    i spend moeny on this game,but now i just want to quit.


    Hi @gil1999215 - Thank you so much for reporting suspected cheaters! I think the fact that support asked you for screenshots and then again for the team leader screen is proof that they're investigating. When you do these reports, it definitely helps the SCBI team to follow what they're doing. The team will do their investigation in the background, but they do not respond to your reports or tell you what they found. There are a few reasons for this, and it's not just this game, it's standard policy for all EA games. I understand it's frustrating, but hopefully your reports - in real-time - gave the team an opportunity to do their internal investigation while it was happening.

    I'm moving your posts to the main thread on this issue. There are some great posts that explain a lot about the reporting process in the accepted solution here: https://answers.ea.com/t5/SimCity-BuildIt-General/SCBI-amp-Cheating/m-p/8987932#M14643 Give the links a read-through, I think it explains the system a lot better than I.

    Please also pay attention to the rule: Do NOT Name & Shame! That means don't post pictures or name teams or players that you suspect are cheating. It's against the forum rules, can lead to harassment of players and can get you a timeout on the forum. Please DO KEEP REPORTING! Your help in identifying cheaters is obviously listened to, and the SCBI team is investigating these reports to make the game better for all legitimate players like you. 

  • gil1999215's avatar
    gil1999215
    6 years ago

    i did not read the rules so im srry for that..

    anyway i fight 2 wars with hackers i did report for this 2 before the war is over..

    they did respon but what about everything we lost cus of this?

    we lose a lot in 2 wars..you said there is a reason for not let us know how they investigation..i really dont care about this..but i do care about the time i play on this game..i do care about tthe cash i spending on this game..i play for a long time to know if someone is hacking..

    lvl 30 city and lvl 54 war rank..is this real??how much time they need to stop this war?

  • 1457699360's avatar
    1457699360
    6 years ago

    I’m really tired of cheaters & hackers... I thought that knocking down clubs could be a solution - you wait until they go to sleep, you put them all under the shield & you can win them. However, how is it possible they repair their cities within 3-4 seconds all day and all night?? And how do they manage to score more than 400k points each one?

    Moreover, they are always around... maybe they are using some kind of app or program code to score endlessly with hundreds of magnetisms & shield busters. It’s really annoying and removes all the fun from the game.

    Anyway, for one more time I’m really disappointed from EA. I think I’m done with reporting cheaters (who btw are mainly from Russia & Ukraine...)

  • BlackjackWidow's avatar
    BlackjackWidow
    Hero (Retired)
    6 years ago

    I understand the frustration of cheaters & hackers, and the frustration of not hearing back on reports. I really do - but please don't stop reporting them. The thing is "name & shame" and not hearing back about cheating reports is standard practice at all gaming companies. I guarantee you, every game out there has to deal with the cheaters and every gaming forum has multiple threads about cheaters & hackers and why it's unfair that they can't be named & shamed and the company is doing nothing about them and... well, there are certain themes out there in the gaming world and they are prevalent everywhere. Just do a search on "why can't I name and shame game cheaters" to see it's a rule for every game forum (for a good reason). 

    There are several reasons; some of the most obvious are just that if you allow name & shame, everyone who feels like they shouldn't have lost or who has a beef against another player can start spamming pics & videos on the forums. Doctored up photos / videos, attacking gamers, unfounded claims - it's a slippery slope. I don't know if liability comes into it, but my guess from the gaming company's point of view is it's also a lawsuit waiting to happen. Your video or pictures may be absolute & obvious to you, but that doesn't mean everyone's would be.

    On the other side, there are many gaming companies who have successfully sued the groups or companies that actually program cheating apps. They would have to gather as much info as possible about the hack in-game, then track down the programmers etc. Regardless, they can't be telling the people who reported the cheating anything about their investigation, and they open themselves up to liabilities regardless if there's a case or not. It also goes back to the reporting - sometimes it seems like every other post is "Cheaters aren't being banned" and "I was banned for no reason".  

    Hackers & cheaters are very sophisticated & constantly coming up with new ways to hack & cheat. You wouldn't believe how dedicated some would be. I personally don't understand the psychology of it, but there are different reasons & different "levels" of it, too. You have the game-level person who installs a cheat and uses it because of something I don't understand - they want to be a winner and don't care if they follow the rules? Then you have the cheat or hack developer who is making real money in various ways (they could sell the cheat or make a bunch of high-level accounts and sell them or sell game resources or any number of things). These are the high-level guys that I assume EA and SCBI are ultimately trying to thwart. 

    I don't know anything in detail about how EA or SCBI handles cheaters, cheater reports or hacking in general. I do know that it absolutely is in their best interests to get rid of cheaters and the high-level hackers that develop the cheats and the reports are really the only way for them to know how prevalent it is. I know it seems obvious to players, and I'm not saying it's not obvious to the devs, but I do think your reports are making more of an impact than just the immediate ban that you're looking for.

    Recently I've seen it reported here that a cheater was banned right in the middle of a war, so that was a great sign. Why most are not - I don't know, but I assume there's a reason that we can't tell. And they can't very well announce it to anyone because that just tells the hackers what to change. I feel like a couple of the patches recently seemed to be aimed at reducing the wins by bots and cheaters. So, even if it doesn't fit well with your particular gamestyle, there may be a bigger reason for the changes and hopefully it reduces some of the cheating.

    TLDR; please keep reporting suspected cheaters even if you don't hear details on your reports. They are read, investigated and help to make the game better for all players. Obviously, not as fast as we want, but it's an ongoing battle that you can continue to help fight.

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