Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

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Général David Guegan

3ème Régiment de Grenadiers - Bataillon d'élite du 3ème Légère
2ème Brigade
Grenadiers de la Réserve
Réserve
La Grande Armée
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"From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step."
Napoléon Bonaparte

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.
Groucho Marx

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C.N.Matthews

Salute!

Clint Matthews wrote: If I could not use my email account to correspond with my opponents.........that would not be good.

Hi Clint, one thing that was previously proposed to a formerly constituted cabinet was that new recruits applying for membership in the NWC had to make their application in a specific type of email server that enables a more thorough examination of the IP address (I'm a professed Luddite, so the terminology may be garbled here, but the intent is hopefully clear).

Once the recruit was shown to be an actual existing person, from that point on they would be able to use whatever email service they felt like.

The proposal, while not 100% perfect (mind you, we're not talking about false claims against people - just that some folks with the technical know how, and lot's and lot's of spare time on their hands could still perhaps beat the system - but we are talking about catching many more such posers than currently so) was not adopted by the then cabinet.

Bottom line, this proposal would not require any member to use a specific email service after their approved membership - just during the approval process.

Regards,

I admit to gamesmanship (cheating) ........ in Farmville and Cityville on Facebook, both need friends to help or you can't play. You have to get real friends playing as well but it was a "quick start".

So ... I obtained email addresses for 2 cats & 1 granddaughter, gave them all the date of birth 1st April and made them 21 years of age. They then signed up for Facebook and the games.

The point of this confession is to show that if a sophisticated computer literate organisation can be fooled then (all due respect to our admin, but) we probably don't stand a chance of weeding out multiple identities.

So they make General by winning against their alter ego, so what. It will not affect those of us that are playing against each other. They will not get the thrill of the challenge.

The real problem "cheaters" are those that presumably save game, take a combat action and if it is not a favorable result re load game. Or however else they do it. These would not be caught by insisting on a paid for email?

I must confess I probably would not notice if my opponent was doing this but I am sure those with more experience would notice it.

We don't want either type in the club but the multiple identity cheater is not going to impact on us really. The other type does and those are the ones we need to root out.

I am guessing here that our army commanders would notice someone with a fantastic history of results in their team? They then could speak to someone in the opposing army who would arrange a challenge that could be scrutinized for any foul play. This probably happens already.

Let us not put up barriers to recruitment just to prevent something that does not really affect our games.

LOL - you are welcome to check my results to see if perhaps I am cheating here, of course I could be taking a bribe to lose all my games - LOL

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I think there are isolated cases of dual armies and devious characters that want to disrupt things.

Most of the time, we are able to figure them out and bar them, but they could/might be back.

There seems to be a particular type of individual that does this and they almost always end up sending dubious emails to opponents; sometimes they forget "WHO" they are portraying and where they are.

As mentioned, Whalen is a good example of a BAD idea. Club leadership is well aware that these things happen and they act aggressively and thoroughly to weed them out and get them identified. Actually, all 3 sister clubs, AGWGC, CCC and the NWC, all work together when one of these dual personalities pops up in one club.

But, when you get down to the heart of the matter, WHO CARES!! Seriously. It is not good for the membership to get overly worried about cheaters, whether of the multiple identities or actual cheating. It might happen and we should all be aware that it might happen, but we also should no be paranoid about it. (NOT that anyone seems paranoid )

If you think there is actually a dual personality person around, bring it up to your chain of command and it can be looked into.

So, my best advice is to be aware, but not wary; play your games with confidence. Remember that the SCORE differential is minimal and getting advances in rank are nice, but I do not think any of us take that all to seriously.

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Ernie Sands
1ère Brigade of 2ème Division de Grosse Cavalerie, Réserve de Cavalerie
de la Grande Armée
President, Colonial Campaigns Club

Salute!

Tony, that was a very entertaining post!
I was enjoyed it so much that when I went to log in to make this reply I started typing That was... instead of my user name...

Thank you for the humor!

I would say though (and again, being a Luddite I could well be wrong here) that the Facebook games, etc, that you mention probably don't care if you are cheating by fabricating false accounts.

They are (?) a business model based on numbers - they want volume - period...
To show their advertisers, to get money to keep themselves going, and show a prospective investor or buyer this volume - and then get a handsome payday. No?

But for a club like this volume is not everything.
Indeed, we seek quality over quantity do we not?

This will commonly portray itself in the number of games that we play.

Often it seems when a new member joins the club it is like being a child again at Christmas and we are opening up all the presents we have - we are so excited to be playing against real live opponents compared to the game engine AI that we overload ourselves...

Eventually this comes to affect our ability to play the games both in a timely manner, and can affect the quality of our play.

Eventually we find the average number of games we individually can handle, in the sense of enjoyment and quality of play.

And as we explore the membership available to play we often find ourselves playing those we enjoy the most over and over again.

I certainly do - and so I will also make a point of playing someone new every so often (maneuver games with fellow LGA officers is wonderful for this as well).

The motivating factors for my involvement in the club are two: pleasure of the gaming and meeting the people who enjoy them as well.

Regards,

General Todd <Salute>

"But for a club like this volume is not everything.
Indeed, we seek quality over quantity do we not? "

Indeed we do!

I am still at the stage where I want to play against new people to gain new information. I have a consistent opponent on Blitz who is at the same stage as me and we are learning from each other. I have not found such a person on NWC, yet. I play against anyone who will have me here One day there is going to be a French Lieutenant that will rue the day that I played against some of the Greatest French senior officers on this site.

Did I just use the words "greatest" and "French" in the same sentence? MEDIC ! Tranquilizers please.

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C.N.Matthews

Monsieur Gary's problem was not cheating but confusion, he would play till he knew he could not win and quite. He had a problem with who he wanted to be that's all I liked the guy myself, An as far as I know he never cheated the way that that young garcon was talking about. Any one can use two or more e-mail add but one day they have to play someone. Most times it's the pick this and chose that players, a true gamer plays all rules and all ways win or lose.

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Général David Guegan

3ème Régiment de Grenadiers - Bataillon d'élite du 3ème Légère
2ème Brigade
Grenadiers de la Réserve
Réserve
La Grande Armée
--------------------------
"From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step."
Napoléon Bonaparte

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.
Groucho Marx

Being in some napoleonic comp gaming communities other than NWC (ACWGC and CCC) ip check or email check is not a barrier to cheaters as we all know. If someone play with only specific players thats a question, if someone play with players who never post on forums thats another good question to be asked ... To be honest i was playing in lordz community and people were accepted to my clan with only after TeamSpeak confirmation. Tho i know its a very strict rule for club acceptance ?! but gives perfect results.

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Général David Guegan

3ème Régiment de Grenadiers - Bataillon d'élite du 3ème Légère
2ème Brigade
Grenadiers de la Réserve
Réserve
La Grande Armée
--------------------------
"From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step."
Napoléon Bonaparte

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.
Groucho Marx

Honestly, the text as written seems clear and accurate to me. How do you think it should be reworded?

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Général David Guegan

3ème Régiment de Grenadiers - Bataillon d'élite du 3ème Légère
2ème Brigade
Grenadiers de la Réserve
Réserve
La Grande Armée
--------------------------
"From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step."
Napoléon Bonaparte

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.
Groucho Marx