I suspect I have found a cheater. Should I report them? If so, how?
Playata intends all BBE servers to be clean and free of cheating. But the game is very big, and cheaters are very inventive. It is simply not possible to catch everything. There is not enough computing power in the world to check every player, every day, for every possible form of cheating.
For that reason, we always encourage members of the community to help us catch misbehavior. If you suspect cheating, we strongly urge you to tell us!
Diamond Hacks
One of the more common accusations we get sounds something like: "MaxxDomLisa must be hacking! There is no way they are actually spending that much money on a flash game!" We are happy to check out such players, but we must note: Players bring very different budgets to this game. What seems excessive to you, may not be so excessive to another.
Multi-accounts
We find that the most common form of cheating is actually multi-accounting, also known as multi-play or "running an alt". Players are only allowed to log in to one account per server, and each player must have their own personal account. You may not share login information with another player. You agree to these restrictions when you accept the terms of service for the game.
Many or most players who run alts are not trying to warp the competitive balance of the game... they just enjoy playing, and want to try different strategies, or be part of more than one studio experience, or even just have two different looking paper dolls to dress. For such players, please note that there are multiple servers. You may enjoy multiple game experiences legally, by having one avatar on each of several servers.
Other players are not so benign. They want to spy and know more than they should, or strengthen avatars or studios artificially, or coordinate the actions of multiple studios for the benefit of one of their avatars or studios.
Regardless of intent, all forms of multi-accounts are illegal.
Studio Collusion
Another common complaint is that multiple studios are colluding together to protect trophies. Studio A is constantly under attack by two other studios.The two coordinating studios are not strong enough to take a trophy from Studio A, but despite that, they consistently attack Studio A anyway. Studios which can defeat Studio A are thus denied the opportunity to take a trophy from Studio A.
Free collaboration between studios is allowed, if the players involved agree. There is nothing in the game that prevents cooperative play. However, it is illegal if multi-players are controlling the subordinate studios. The multi-players will be sanctioned appropriately.
Reporting
Use the same procedure for reporting a bug, as detailed here: https://forum.uk.big...do-i-report-it/. Please give us specific allegations, and as much information as you can about the infractions.
- "Please get rid of the cheaters on this server!" does not really help support. If we know someone is cheating, we already take action.
- "I am pretty certain that PlayerXYZ has left the game, but someone is still playing his account. He doesn't respond to my messages anymore." At least support has a starting point.
- "I am quite certain that AvatarA and PlayerB are the same player. He has even admitted it to me." Allegations this specific can be checked out quite quickly.
Privacy
It is necessary that support be very careful when investigating cheating allegations, particularly regarding multi-accounts. For example, it is not unusual for siblings or couples to play together. They will often appear to be a single person to outside observers.
If the allegations are correct, support will generally take visible action as soon as we confirm the transgression. Please be patient while we investigate.
But if the allegations prove unfounded, support cannot give much information about why. We cannot compromise the privacy of the exonerated accounts. We operate under European Union privacy laws, and it is simply not legal for us to explain to the complainer that they have found two brothers playing together.
We understand that this can often be problematic to players submitting tickets. They see action sometimes... but other times, nothing happens and there is no explanation. We are often accused of ignoring cheaters, and sometimes that we are coddling them because they spend lots of money. Please be assured that support welcomes your reports, that we do indeed investigate, that we do not care about how many diamonds an offender buys, and that we take action as appropriate.
We want a clean game.
We welcome your help in keeping it that way.
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