Ethics
From HiveWiki
Unlike many other games operating on Facebook, Knighthood is competitive, and to some extent zero-sum game; in other words there can be losers as well as winners. Be aware that other players will attack you, steal your vassals, and do things to you which you'd rather they didn't.
There are three degrees of ethically questionable conduct - cheating, exploits, and things that may suck, but aren't cheating.
Contents |
[edit] Cheating
Only violations of the Hive7 Terms of Use or | Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities are considered cheating.
For convenience, the most commonly addressed forms of cheating in Knighthood have been briefly summarized and commented on by the Developers. Links to information sources are given.
[edit] What is considered cheating?
- Running an auto-script of any kind. 1
- Using outside apps or scripts to exceed recruiting limitations. 1
- Using clone accounts in Knighthood. 1
- Selling KH items (gold, vassals) or services ("mercing") for real $$ 2
- Extreme verbal abuse/harassment 2 3
- Vassal market abandon scams that include clones.
[edit] Present evidence
First, include a link to the accused's knighthood lordpage. If you're reporting clones / multiple accounts, include as many links as you can.. save a little time for the devs, they're pretty busy.
Second, wherever possible, take screen shots. Logs get buried and disappear in time, wall posts can be deleted, and investigating is time consuming.. so take a few minutes to do this before accusing anyone of violating the Terms of Use.
Here's instructions on how to take screen shots in MS Windows, and here's how to take screen shots on a Mac
Next, you have to upload the screenshot to an online host, such as photobucket.com, save it, and copy the address given (on photobucket, choose Direct Link)
Then paste the accused's link and the image's web address in correspondence with the Developers.
[edit] Where to report cheating?
Write to support@hive7.com
The "Get Support" tab in the top left corner of most Knighthood pages is a convenient, direct link to support@hive7.com
Clone accounts list - report suspected clone accounts here
The Report Abuse forum - report other abuses here
[edit] What punishments may be expected if caught?
Releasing of all vassals
Title demotion
Resource depletion
Surprise war mode
Account suspension
Permanent account banning
[edit] Exploits
This game is in Beta, the code is constantly being changed, and some players will always try to test the limits. This can be a good thing, when loopholes and unintended consequences of changes to the code are discovered by players and brought to the developer's attention, but quite often, there is a gap of time between discovery of such a loophole and the Developers finding a solution and closing the loophole - if it is closed at all. Often, during this time, there is a lot of drama and accusations of cheating.. but so long as the game allows an action, and it does not breach the terms of use, it is not cheating. Whether or not an exploit is ethical is another question.
[edit] Things that may suck, but are not cheating
- Bracket Surfing / swooping / vulturing
- Power Seizing
- Power rescues
- Gang attacks
- Alarm boosting
- Trojans
- Lying and breaking promises
- Dungeoning
- Poaching vassals
- Attacking players when they are online
- Attacking players while they are offline
- Spam attacking
- Seizing multiple vassals from one person
- Raiding all your gold
- this list of things that some people feel ought to be considered cheating, but in fact merely suck, is by no means complete, but hopefully you get the idea. If you don't know what some of these things are, it's just as well.
There is no general consensus on what is and is not ethical play, but there are strong opinions, and tempers often flare. Just remember - it's only a game! Everyone has a different moral standard of play.
If you’re pissed because someone was rude to you, let it fuel you to kick a$$ in the game.
[edit] Links to statements by Developers
Statement by DEV, Lisah Barry, regarding verbal abuse
Deploy: Inquisition and The Grand Inquisition pt. II
Clone accounts list - report suspected clone accounts here
The Report Abuse forum - report other abuses here
[edit] abridged statement by DEV regarding verbal abuse
The following statement in its complete form may be found here.
devs will ban people for egregious harassment and verbal abuse. That being said, we also have hundreds of reports of cloning/cheating/harassment to investigate. Just the other day, over 35 high-powered clone accounts were killed after a very complex investigation. Even if we had endless resources of time and money, it would still take us weeks to investigate all of the clones, cheats, and abusers.
And yes, we *could* strictly police the game. We also know that the majority of forum users would hate this. They would scream about the censorship. And, if these harassment punishments for rude forum posts and offensive wall messages were retroactively issued, who would be left in the game? [insert sarcasm here]
Bottom line: we do NOT want to police our players. We want to build a great game!! We certainly wish outrageous abuse wasn’t an issue so we could focus our efforts elsewhere.
PROTOCOL FOR HANDLING MINOR AND SEVERE CASES OF HARASSMENT/ABUSE
Obviously, abuse/harassment charges will vary in degree of seriousness. For minor cases (i.e. you’ve just seized someone’s best vassal and they lash out at you), please block the player from your wall. This solves the problem over 95% of the time.
Now, here’s the best way to handle *very serious cases* of abuse/harassment:
(1) copy the offensive message(s) (2) block the player from your wall (3) Send the details to support@hive7.com
It is highly unlikely that we will ban a player after one report. We need you to follow the protocol above so that we have a detailed record of the continued harassment. When we have many reports (with substantial proof of abuse), we will then issue a warning, and make the decision as to whether or not a player should be punished.
Does this give players free reign to be abusive? NO.
Should an extremely abusive player be shocked if they are banned? NO.
IMPORTANT:
Ultimately, this is a WAR game. Competition is encouraged--- extreme profanity, blackmail, and real-life threats are completely unacceptable. But please, do *not* spit venom in retaliation, and still expect us to ban the person accused! At the end of the day, you are still responsible for *your* reactive behavior. Before you harass someone or inappropriately fight back, ask yourself if you’d really like dev time to spent dealing with this or with ACTUAL issues in the game.
In the wise words of my mother:
“Nothing gives an a$$hole more satisfaction than to see that their efforts have paid off. If they've really gotten to you, they've won.”
If you’re pissed because someone was rude to you, let it fuel you to kick a$$ in the game. Even if it makes you flippin' furious, take the high road. Only weak and insecure players need to resort to verbal abuse.
