Can we get an update on cheating?

So, after a spate of cheating in another game, the dev posted weekly or bi weekly or monthly updates on bans. It was Bungie and their banhammer I believe.

A post from the devs along the lines of: "We permanently banned X accounts and heres a chart showing that we permabanned some accounts with X Y and Z GP and we have X more under investigation. To properly report this do X"

Do that a few weeks in a row and then monthly and it will give the players confidence that something is being done, and cheaters reason to reconsider. The breaks between the GAC rounds would be a good time to do this.

Unlike Halo where you can just create a new account, a lifetime ban of an account with 4M GP is no joke and HURTS.

"7AnimalMother;c-1932927" wrote:

"Fizzykitten1;c-1932714" wrote:

"Ambassador;c-1932712" wrote:

"Mfish;c-1932709" wrote:
@CG_Erik please say something to restore my confidence after the cheating being brought to light. I have spent $9k on swgoh because it is an enjoyable hobby for me. This new information makes me uneasy.

Seconded. Probably slightly less money spent, but same problem here : I’m starting to lose my trust.

Thirded (if that's even a valid word!) I've spent a little more than that and feel the same

Y'all know this has been a thing since the game was released, right?

I actually (naively) didn't realise that at first. I did hear some stories along the way about different cheats coming into the game, but generally not till they were being dealt with (such as the mod thing in GA/TW). I have always played games on either single player or LAN with friends and family so none of us ever wanted to cheat at anything, where's the fun in that!?
This is the first game I've played to include so many different people from all over the world, it is a brilliant game and has a fantastic community!
Why would anyone want to cheat and ruin that? I just don't get it...often the best part of the game or anything in life is the journey, why bother playing if you don't want that feeling of accomplishment you only get with struggling through and coming out the other end?

"VonZant;c-1932952" wrote:
So, after a spate of cheating in another game, the dev posted weekly or bi weekly or monthly updates on bans. It was Bungie and their banhammer I believe.

A post from the devs along the lines of: "We permanently banned X accounts and heres a chart showing that we permabanned some accounts with X Y and Z GP and we have X more under investigation. To properly report this do X"

Do that a few weeks in a row and then monthly and it will give the players confidence that something is being done, and cheaters reason to reconsider. The breaks between the GAC rounds would be a good time to do this.

Unlike Halo where you can just create a new account, a lifetime ban of an account with 4M GP is no joke and HURTS.

That's a good suggestion. Personally, I think all banned account names should just be flat out listed.

Shame! Shame!

I would also like a response

"Daishi;c-1932960" wrote:

"Fizzykitten1;c-1932957" wrote:

"7AnimalMother;c-1932927" wrote:

"Fizzykitten1;c-1932714" wrote:

"Ambassador;c-1932712" wrote:

"Mfish;c-1932709" wrote:
@CG_Erik please say something to restore my confidence after the cheating being brought to light. I have spent $9k on swgoh because it is an enjoyable hobby for me. This new information makes me uneasy.

Seconded. Probably slightly less money spent, but same problem here : I’m starting to lose my trust.

Thirded (if that's even a valid word!) I've spent a little more than that and feel the same

Y'all know this has been a thing since the game was released, right?

I actually (naively) didn't realise that at first. I did hear some stories along the way about different cheats coming into the game, but generally not till they were being dealt with (such as the mod thing in GA/TW). I have always played games on either single player or LAN with friends and family so none of us ever wanted to cheat at anything, where's the fun in that!?
This is the first game I've played to include so many different people from all over the world, it is a brilliant game and has a fantastic community!
Why would anyone want to cheat and ruin that? I just don't get it...often the best part of the game or anything in life is the journey, why bother playing if you don't want that feeling of accomplishment you only get with struggling through and coming out the other end?

Because... participation trophies.

"Daishi;c-1932960" wrote:

"Fizzykitten1;c-1932957" wrote:

"7AnimalMother;c-1932927" wrote:

"Fizzykitten1;c-1932714" wrote:

"Ambassador;c-1932712" wrote:

"Mfish;c-1932709" wrote:
@CG_Erik please say something to restore my confidence after the cheating being brought to light. I have spent $9k on swgoh because it is an enjoyable hobby for me. This new information makes me uneasy.

Seconded. Probably slightly less money spent, but same problem here : I’m starting to lose my trust.

Thirded (if that's even a valid word!) I've spent a little more than that and feel the same

Y'all know this has been a thing since the game was released, right?

I actually (naively) didn't realise that at first. I did hear some stories along the way about different cheats coming into the game, but generally not till they were being dealt with (such as the mod thing in GA/TW). I have always played games on either single player or LAN with friends and family so none of us ever wanted to cheat at anything, where's the fun in that!?
This is the first game I've played to include so many different people from all over the world, it is a brilliant game and has a fantastic community!
Why would anyone want to cheat and ruin that? I just don't get it...often the best part of the game or anything in life is the journey, why bother playing if you don't want that feeling of accomplishment you only get with struggling through and coming out the other end?

Because... participation trophies.

But it's not like the rewards are THAT brilliant, it's just bragging rights....which in the scheme of things doesn't really mean anything. In the meantime, people like me who have fairly well developed rosters, but still have lots of room for improvement, that used to really enjoy the challenges of the PVP events, end up feeling really rather annoyed, and disillusioned about the whole game. These cheats are basically ruining the game for everyone else.

I've actually spent ages going through opponents rosters after losing GA rounds trying to work out what on earth was used to get through my teams given what was in defence for me to get through. I guess, at least now i know there aren't loads of brilliant counters out there that i hadn't even thought of or heard about!! :(

"VonZant;c-1932952" wrote:
So, after a spate of cheating in another game, the dev posted weekly or bi weekly or monthly updates on bans. It was Bungie and their banhammer I believe.

A post from the devs along the lines of: "We permanently banned X accounts and heres a chart showing that we permabanned some accounts with X Y and Z GP and we have X more under investigation. To properly report this do X"

Do that a few weeks in a row and then monthly and it will give the players confidence that something is being done, and cheaters reason to reconsider. The breaks between the GAC rounds would be a good time to do this.

Unlike Halo where you can just create a new account, a lifetime ban of an account with 4M GP is no joke and HURTS.

I agree with this completely. One huge issue is transparency with CG. IF they integrated a fix I'd want to see a demonstration it was no longer possible. I cant trust them to fix it, because that is what I thought they fixed last time.

"Kyno;c-1932973" wrote:

"StarSon;c-1932918" wrote:

"Kyno;c-1932909" wrote:

"StarSon;c-1932894" wrote:

"Kyno;c-1932886" wrote:

"tj5270;c-1932882" wrote:

"Bulldog1205;c-1932877" wrote:

"Ultra;c-1932874" wrote:

"Bulldog1205;c-1932834" wrote:

"Monel;c-1932822" wrote:
The problem with a program like that is there is no stopping it unless you find a way to block the program all together. All a cheater needs to do is create a new account after being banned and they can cheat their way right back to the top.

Adding defensive replays would stop the biggest part of it. While there could be subtle cheating line improving damage by 10% of something that people might not notice, it still means everything is right out in the open. Blatant cheating in PvP would disappear instantly.

I don't think defensive replays are a reasonable ask. You've got millions of players in Grand Arena, each doing multiple battles, from as low as 0 battles to 8+, some sending junk teams doing 0 damage so that one team can have a defensive score of 80 or something for reddit karma

Each video needs to be compressed and stored on the server and its very costly on space

I’d settle for a text recap. Team used, damage done by characters on both sides, time elapsed, maybe total number of attacks/turns for each toon.

Thanks for exposing this and bringing up solutions to the problem. Anything is better then nothing, and Cg has provided nothing to really put a halt to what is happening. I think it may be more costly, but the other side is to take down ANYTHING pvp related, as it has the potential to just be exploited and cheated on.

That is absolutely not true. Let's leave the baseless accusations out of this.

It may not be true, but it is not a baseless accusation. Bulldog spent two months proving their automated tools don't work at all. That's basis for claiming that "they are doing nothing."

and also didnt try to implement the new tools, both of which happened, which means saying "they have done nothing" is not based on any facts.

We actually have no idea if they did this or not. They said they did, and players have been given the standard week bans during the Exhibition, so sure, they aren't doing "nothing." What we do know, is that if they implemented an auto tool it doesn't work.

Honestly, based on their history of caring about cheating, I'm inclined to believe they never added anything to the game and still rely on player reports.

My only remark was to leave the baseless claim that they did nothing out of this.

If you dont believe what they are saying then there is no reason to be here asking for an update that you wont believe.

No we dont know that the automated tools they added dont work. We dont know that these accounts were not flagged for investigation. We also dont know how many players did get banned or have some actions taken against them. But that doesnt matter, since you wouldnt believe any if that anyway.

I have far greater trust in judges than in a private company. Yet, even the most honorable ones go by the aphorism "Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done." Justice behind closed curtains is no justice.

My biggest problem is with CG/EA using their power to silence whistleblowers/you tubers by complaining and Getting YouTube to issue strikes, pull videos, and basically deplatform the content creators for nonsensical copyright issues that would not hold up in court.

Shame. I’m requesting all my money back this week. Not because of the cheating per se... (of course that will be my reason)... but because of them silencing content creators. We need more speech on cheating not less of it.

CG silencing speech on cheating only makes the problem worse and hurts the game. The solution is more speech on it... not less.

"nabokovfan;c-1932989" wrote:

"VonZant;c-1932952" wrote:
So, after a spate of cheating in another game, the dev posted weekly or bi weekly or monthly updates on bans. It was Bungie and their banhammer I believe.

A post from the devs along the lines of: "We permanently banned X accounts and heres a chart showing that we permabanned some accounts with X Y and Z GP and we have X more under investigation. To properly report this do X"

Do that a few weeks in a row and then monthly and it will give the players confidence that something is being done, and cheaters reason to reconsider. The breaks between the GAC rounds would be a good time to do this.

Unlike Halo where you can just create a new account, a lifetime ban of an account with 4M GP is no joke and HURTS.

Brilliant idea. definitely recommend this approach @CG_SBCrumb

It must be an in-game news letter to be effective

"Spidee;c-1932983" wrote:
There is a sure fire way to stop apk hacking. All battles need to be hosted server side. As long as battles are done client side apk hack will always be there.

There is even better way...
Double client/server check. Player plays as is, on device, but afterwards server quickly replays battle and compare. All discrepancies in, let’s say CD not increased, etc. are flagged...