WW's New Stance On Cheaters

[Mahdi]

I was contacted by Robert Brim, the managing editor of MGO.NETwork about a Q & A session with Kim Talbot about Westwood's new stance on cheaters and the banning of them. Anyone who plays any Westwood games should read this, as it sets out new rules and strict punishments if they are violated.

"Q: A C&C fan site recently had a small article stating WW was banning cheaters. Is this true?

A: This is true. There is a staff of people, any of who can ban suspected cheaters.

Q: How do you determine a player is cheating?

A: You are also only allowed to use one nickname when playing a tournament game. A lot of people are being banned for making several nicknames and then playing against themselves for easy points. This is also easy for us to check. There are also 6 other methods and checks we do to determine if you are a cheater, but these are the biggies.

Q: What, if any, safeguards do you have in place to prevent unnecessary bannings like the unpleasantness with EQ?

A: When in doubt, we always assume the player is not a cheater.

Q: If a player is suspected of cheating, do they have any recourse to dispute a ban?

A: You can always write to Contests@Westwood.com. It will do little good though as we have evidence against the banned person that we keep for just such an occasion. We have never un-banned a cheater. There were a few people that accidentally played a person too many times, but they were still banned for the month. The next month they are very welcome to come play again. Even the people who are big time cheaters are welcome to come play again at the beginning of the month.

One of the biggest problems fans of Westwood games have had with them was that they have done very little against cheaters. It looks like, hopefully, that is about to change and will make Emperor and Red Alert 2 even more fun for the players. Check here for the interview.