Escaltion in Cheating

The rockett
The rockett Posts: 2,016 Chairperson of the Boards
in MPQ General Discussion

Over the past few months, there has been a major escalation in cheating that a lot of people have noticed and it seems that Customer Service/Demi/D3 has been very very low/non caring/stop complaining and just give us your money responses to this.  So thinking over the past few months of things that have happened, I have a few questions. 


  • It was reported a few months back how much money D3/Demi made with Marvel Puzzle Quest.  While I do understand the over heads costs and the license fees they have to pay to Marvel, I wonder how much of this money the have allocated towards security in the game to make it harder to hack the game.
  • Why is it when a cheater is reported that it take so long for any action to be taken?  The only time I ever saw a quick response was on a Friday afternoon around 4pm EST when there was a 550 cheater show up from nowhere.  As we know, the typical CS response is that they care about cheating and take is seriously, blah blah blah.  Some people went directly to Discord, which seems we get better and quicker answers than we do here, and they were removed within 30 minutes.  Now that is a response.
  • Does this game not have any fall back systems that would raise a red flag when something odd happens, like I don't know, adding 20 covers to your Dino/Howard the Duck when they are not even available expect Shield Supply Drops?
  • Why does Demi/D3 rely on the player base to report cheaters?  Is there anything that is done to be proactive with this?  It sure doesn't seem that way.
  • Does this system track the amount of 5* covers somebody would get in a 24 hr period and put a red flag on the account to be reviewed?
  • With the hacking that we see in the news everyday, one of the biggest credit reporting companies just got hit, we know this game is very easy for some to hack into.  What personal information does D3/Demi have of ours?  What can be hacked into?
  • IP addresses, are they tracked?  You are not allowed to play other peoples accounts, but we know this is allowed no matter how much information is given.  Will this ever be addressed?
  • When will D3/Demi take cheating seriously?  Yes I know I have been pounding the Bonus Hero Exploit drum for a long time with some others, but until D3/Demi sandboxes these accounts, anything else they say about cheating is not true.  A lot of us, and people that spend a lot more money on this game than I do, have the exact same frustration.  If you care about your player base more than the back lash from some of these people that did this but have been left alone due to the amount of money that was spent, oh wait I got my answer on this.  This subject will not go away for me since this was a major hack and NOTHING WAS DONE.  At least with the other major hack when LTs first came out, people at least were punished.  These people need to be removed. 

In closing, when will we get some actually resolution on this?  It is a sad that D3 knows some of the people that have did these hacks and in fact Demi does as well and made it very clear that D3 is responsible for handling these situations.  With the other issues in the game right now, this is the single most important issue in the game for me and others.


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Comments

  • fmftint
    fmftint Posts: 3,653 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited September 2017
    Until people STOP buying they aren't going to do a damn thing. We all know who the buy addicts are and see them bounce from one buy alliance to the next
  • alaeth
    alaeth Posts: 446 Mover and Shaker
    The biggest problem I have with cheating is there seems to be a clear message from the developers and CS team - if you pay, you get a free pass.

    And that doesn't sit well with me.  Already we have a divide between the free players, the "buy occasionally" players (such as myself), and the super-whales that are in "buy alliances" almost daily.

    These "super whales" get a free pass to do whatever they want, including blatant violations of TOS.

  • SangFroid
    SangFroid Posts: 177 Tile Toppler
    This affects every player in the game as well as people's decisions to spend in the game I have no idea why this seems to be something that continually gets swept under the rug!  I expect there will be lively discussion by the player base and no response from D3/Demi. Over time a bunch of useless threads will be created that eventually push this important one off people's immediate radar and this thread will eventually die. This is the response/strategy that appears to have been in place for the last year or so. Head in the sand hope it goes away don't make any meaningful comments or take any action for fear of offending a few cheaters who also spend. Honestly it is shameful that D3/Demi is not on the front lines of this telling us how hard they are fighting to resolve cheating instead leaving it up to us to complain about it and see no results at all. 

    If cheating is not punished is it cheating? D3/Demi have a "policy" where cheaters are dealt with and either rolled back or sandboxed. They are NOT punishing theses cheaters that is clear so the only message to take from that is exploiting the game and various hacks are not cheating. D3/Demi feel free to chime in at anytime to corrcect the logic here by disproving any of the above (hint:saying you deal with cheaters without any proof or comprehensive plan or to send you info is not going to cut it as a response since that has been proven to be demonstrably false)

    SangFroid
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,825 Chairperson of the Boards
    OP: One of your questions is regarding personal info.  Basically the game has your email (maybe) and perhaps Facebook login?  All purchases are run through your store (Apple, Amazon, etc).  So worst case scenario is someone can log in to Facebook.  And get an email address for you.
  • like1tiger
    like1tiger Posts: 76 Match Maker
    edited September 2017
    I have often thought cheating was rare in this game but recently I joined a season and noticed a familiar name who was leading my season. I was shocked to click on their rooster and see the had multiple 5 stars at outrageous levels and many maxed 4 stars at 370, when before bonus heroes were introduced they had a very similar 4 star begining rooster like myself.

    I compare myself who finishes t10 every PvP and PvE and buys occasionally to them and something does not add up... having 150+ more 5 star covers in 4 month's then me juat makes me shake my head and want to walk away... its unfair and everyone told me the exploit they used after I asked questions so it's not like it's a rare occurrence... everyone knows who the cheaters are and nothing us ever done to stop it...
  • catcusvader
    catcusvader Posts: 93 Match Maker
    It's pretty funny to see somebody with a champ 5 star with 7 levels two days after it was released. Made the effort to bring to the attention to the support staff and they literally did nothing. If somebody is stupid enough to cheat...errr be lucky enough to pull so many covers for one hero they should play the lottery instead of this junk.
  • The rockett
    The rockett Posts: 2,016 Chairperson of the Boards
    bluewolf said:
    OP: One of your questions is regarding personal info.  Basically the game has your email (maybe) and perhaps Facebook login?  All purchases are run through your store (Apple, Amazon, etc).  So worst case scenario is someone can log in to Facebook.  And get an email address for you.

    Yes that could be it, but that is still personal information.  What I think is funny is that they want to shut down somebody talking about rumors or things that might be coming on the forums, but they will not act on the cheaters that a lot of us have been talking about for months with some of these hacks.  What is wrong with this picture? 
  • fmftint
    fmftint Posts: 3,653 Chairperson of the Boards
    catcusvader said:
    It's pretty funny to see somebody with a champ 5 star with 7 levels two days after it was released. Made the effort to bring to the attention to the support staff and they literally did nothing. If somebody is stupid enough to cheat...errr be lucky enough to pull so many covers for one hero they should play the lottery instead of this junk.
    That's not cheating,  that's opening a command point hoard
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,825 Chairperson of the Boards
    fmftint said:
    catcusvader said:
    It's pretty funny to see somebody with a champ 5 star with 7 levels two days after it was released. Made the effort to bring to the attention to the support staff and they literally did nothing. If somebody is stupid enough to cheat...errr be lucky enough to pull so many covers for one hero they should play the lottery instead of this junk.
    That's not cheating,  that's opening a command point hoard
    Right, assuming you are talking about 5DD.  Lots of people have been waiting out 5SL and 5DO.  DD is good enough to crack a horde if you are inclined.
  • AXP_isme
    AXP_isme Posts: 809 Critical Contributor
    bluewolf said:
    fmftint said:
    catcusvader said:
    It's pretty funny to see somebody with a champ 5 star with 7 levels two days after it was released. Made the effort to bring to the attention to the support staff and they literally did nothing. If somebody is stupid enough to cheat...errr be lucky enough to pull so many covers for one hero they should play the lottery instead of this junk.
    That's not cheating,  that's opening a command point hoard
    Right, assuming you are talking about 5DD.  Lots of people have been waiting out 5SL and 5DO.  DD is good enough to crack a hoard if you are inclined.
    FTFY
  • danielrandkai
    danielrandkai Posts: 90 Match Maker
    well, sorry everyone, I spend monthly on this game, not enough to be considered a whale, but enough that most people here would likely be appalled. i don't cheat, and the cheating frustrates me, for sure, but is not enough to keep me from buying. gotta keep those servers running. and also, having a child makes it so that I don't get enough time to play console/pc games, so MPQ is my go to for that reason.
  • Milk Jugz
    Milk Jugz Posts: 1,122 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited September 2017
    As hashed out as all this has been, here is my take.

    D3 is completely to blame for the perpetuation of cheating. We are banned here on the forums from calling people out for cheating (don't want to hurt the cheaters poor little feelings.... Ok, I do get it, if they aren't really cheating it isn't fair to them to be called out for it, especially if they aren't on the forums to defend themselves) But, that doesn't mean when D3 DOES determine someone IS cheating they shouldn't splash their in game name on every outlet tied to this game. Known cheaters should be publicly announced when found out by D3 and what they are doing about it. There are certainly situations where people have been suspected of cheating by other players and it appears NOTHING has been done. But, also, no announcement by D3 on whether they determined if said player was actually cheating or not leaves us wondering if they care. Keeping everything in the shadows and us seeing the suspected cheaters still in game leaves us believing nothing is done. And when there are avenues to really cheat and people think nothing gets done to reprimand cheating, people who haven't or normally wouldn't cheat will start cheating. The biggest thing D3 can do to alleviate our concerns is do what should be common sense and publicly announce A) who has cheated, B ) what they did and how D3 knows about it, C) what they are doing about it to stop it, and D) what is happening to the person that cheated.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,825 Chairperson of the Boards
    Milk Jugz said:
    The biggest thing D3 can do to alleviate our concerns is do what should be common sense and publicly announce A) who has cheated, B ) what they did and how D3 knows about it, C) what they are doing about it to stop it, and D) what is happening to the person that cheated.
    This is a good idea, but I would say there is no need to list names. They could just say "Last month 30 accounts were sandboxed for cheating."  

    Naming names is fraught.  Ex:  the account uses a name similar to someone else's twitter handle.  Now someone suspects it is the same person.  The rest could go badly.
  • Milk Jugz
    Milk Jugz Posts: 1,122 Chairperson of the Boards
    bluewolf said:
    Milk Jugz said:
    The biggest thing D3 can do to alleviate our concerns is do what should be common sense and publicly announce A) who has cheated, B ) what they did and how D3 knows about it, C) what they are doing about it to stop it, and D) what is happening to the person that cheated.
    This is a good idea, but I would say there is no need to list names. They could just say "Last month 30 accounts were sandboxed for cheating."  

    Naming names is fraught.  Ex:  the account uses a name similar to someone else's twitter handle.  Now someone suspects it is the same person.  The rest could go badly.
    I understand your point and agree with you. Some people are mental midgets and would not be able to help themselves. But I still say name names, call these people out!! Cheaters need to be exposed and dealt with. It hurts everything every non-cheater has worked for.
  • killerkoala
    killerkoala Posts: 1,185 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited September 2017
    i was sand boxed for a month a few years back cause i had a lot of iso hoarded nothing more. It was an automatic response for just having iso; so i would be against automated triggers.  people also hoard legendaries/cp, so i can imagine someone in one day getting a lot of 5* that could trigger something if it were automated.

  • The rockett
    The rockett Posts: 2,016 Chairperson of the Boards
    killerkoala said:
    i was sand boxed for a month a few years back cause i had a lot of iso hoarded nothing more. It was an automatic response for just having iso; so i would be against automated triggers.  people also hoard legendaries/cp, so i can imagine someone in one day getting a lot of 5* that could trigger something if it were automated.

    Yes.  I remember those days of why people got sandboxed. To be clear I am not talking about an automatic trigger.  I am talking about a flag be raised on the back end for the account to be looked at more closely. No game play changes until the account is looked over.  
  • tiomono
    tiomono Posts: 1,654 Chairperson of the Boards
    Yes it is massively frustrating. The terms of service also gives the company a "Get out of jail free card". It basically states it is the sole discretion of the company to determine if someone is cheating and wether or not they will take any action on it.

    We have 3 options that I can see,

    1) Deal with it because the tos gives them the right to do what they want with their game.

    2) Continue to come to public spaces and complain so people can be made aware and make decisions based on that info.

    3) Quit supporting and playing the game.

    Personally if I suspect a cheat, i will make the devs aware so they can investigate and take action on legetimate cheaters. But I also realize at the end of the day it is their choice how to deal with it.

    I enjoy the game and will continue to play until I do not enjoy it. There will always be cheaters looking for an edge, and typically they will find ways around any checks put in place. It's a game not your life.

    I feel if people put just a fraction of the zeal they put into pursuing and defending their entertainment into real world issues, we could all live happier lives.
  • Stax the Foyer
    Stax the Foyer Posts: 941 Critical Contributor
    Perhaps season end shouldn't be on a weekend.  It's only one small piece of the cheating pie, but when you're doing a last-minute Simulator climb, it's not fun to have to spend ISO skipping a known cheater.  Especially because you don't get points even if you punch way up and beat them.

    Because everything in this game is competitive, it's very easy for someone to disrupt gameplay with a cheating account.  It seems like it's as bad now as it's been in a while.  Responses that don't seem to square with reality don't build trust in the game, they hurt it.  It seems like there's trust-building actions that could be taken.

    That said, the #1 priority should be making sure that double ISO actually works from the get-go in Anniversary, if we get it this year.  But after that, cheating.  Well, making sure Nova gets a guardians tag is #2.  So Double ISO, Nova Guardian, then cheating.  Oh, addressing 5* classic dilution.  And 6th covers for unchampioned characters.  And Lightning Round variety.  And 4* PvP.  So, the official to-do list is Anniversary Double ISO, making Nova a Guardian, 5* Classic availability, 6th cover fix, new Lightning Rounds, and 4* PvP.  And then cheaters. 

    So, good luck.

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