Quest Cheaters

[JeanJoe]

This suggestion actually doesn't work, because you can simply not click "Next task" after completing the 2nd to last task, wait until a prize you want is next, then quickly click "Next task" and do the last step.

(..snip..) which is why timing the last task, at least, is a good suggestion, as someone pointed out.

 

[NJ Mike]

This suggestion actually doesn't work, because you can simply not click "Next task" after completing the 2nd to last task, wait until a prize you want is next, then quickly click "Next task" and do the last step.

which brings us back to square 1. Whatever you do, somebody will find a way around it. No offense Be.

 

[aensming]

Which brings us back to the fact that some people will always try to get something without doing any of the work with it.

I have a maze, aptly named the Difficult Maze. It has 12 rooms and the chance of someone making it through on their first try is 1 in 6,912,000. It takes most of my winners about 1 hour of continuous effort to win the maze.
I switch the doors at the beginning of each maze session so winning yesterday doesn't mean you can win again today.

When running a maze there are always problems with people following others and getting farther that way. I can accept that. What really peeves me is when I have a winner and shortly after, a new person walks in the room and in 1 try makes it all the way through. The chance of doing that is about the chance of winning the lotto. And it happens all the time! But I still have to give a prize for fear of being reported because I have no proof that they didn't do it on their own.

I had one girl come in and announce that she was an expert at mazes and could do it in one try - and of course she did.

 

[MIB Rocks]

by the way, vmk could easily solve that by making the prizes NOT VISIBLE to players at any time. "a quest is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get" lol

Great idea!

 

[Goofy05]

nobody has done this with my quest yet and i would do the same thing if people were cheating on it. I am really disappointed at Staff's Quest because people will do the new quest then get their other character on and get a time like 1 min. which i think is not even fair at all to the people they actually played fair and tried. But What Is Most Sad To Me Is That Community Leaders Are Doing This!!! And They Are Really The Ones That Should Be Spreading The Word Not To Do IT!!!! I Am Going To Talk With Staff About This And If They Ask Who It Was I Will Tell Them Because I Think It Is Horrible For Them To Do That.

Yeah So Anyways... lol i think you made the right decision by closing it
i also wish they had a feature that you could see who is currently doing the quest.

Hi!
I had a nice long chat with Hula about the cheating going on with using mules to get better times. Staff is well aware of this problem, but there is nothing they can do other than stagger the larger prizes. They can't stop people from using mules because there are some families using the same IP address. Which is a mule and which is your sister or brother?
CL's that cheat are not very good CL's. We are there to uphold the VMK values. Unfortunately, as in every situation, there are a few bad apples. Try not to let them bother you. If they are obviously cheating, by all means report them.
Anyway, yes. If anyone can come up with a reasonable alternative to a timed quest to help stop some of the cheating, please send that suggestion to VMK's help tool. They do read them, or so I've been told... LOL

 

[mking624]

I don't know about the idea of hiding the prizes (if that were ever to be available as a feature). While in some ways it's good, I think in other ways it could be frustrating for players. For example, I have seen quests where the first few prizes were NPC pins and anything after that you didn't get anything. Imagine how frustrated some players muight feel if they spent 30-60 minutes on a quest hoping the invisible prize was something good...just to find out they got an NPC pin, or only a few credits, or something we can get for free like the Narnia items? I think it's great in theory, but there are exceptions to it.

I do like the idea of staggering prizes, though. I've seen several quests do this and it seems to work great for them.

 

[macntosh]

Well then you get the person waiting to finish so they can get that "prize". I made a girl wait two hours the other day. I wouldn't finish so she could get "her" wanted sign. I even told her I could finish but wouldn't. I was in a bad mood.

But all you creative quest makers. They have been a blast.

 

[jazstar87]

I was going to play someone's quest and what he was going to give away for prize, he made us say no cheating and play fair (something like that i really don't remember). I couldn't finish it because i didn't have the required magic, but some kid said oh if you need a magic go to the spell rooms. While the owner was in the room. i felt bad...

 

[Nanoer]

personally, the option I like best is "have players earn a certain amount of credits" Most mules, by nature, dont have much to sell, so by requiring players to earn, say, 2000 credits before the next clue, most cheaters would quit the quest right there and not waste the time.

right but it should be like 3500 because if you just do the basic stuff you already have 2500 credits on a first time mule

 

[BriarRosie]

I was going to play someone's quest and what he was going to give away for prize, he made us say no cheating and play fair (something like that i really don't remember). I couldn't finish it because i didn't have the required magic, but some kid said oh if you need a magic go to the spell rooms. While the owner was in the room. i felt bad...

I don't consider that cheating, because if you need magic, most of it is
in either the Spell Room or Discovery Island. It will slow your time down a
bit if you are trying to do a fast quest, but it will help those who don't have
the magic pins.

I think Snowman and Bat Magic are the only two pins you actually can't test
in those rooms.

 

[jazstar87]

i kinda felt bad because he was giving away his green flips! he either sold his life away for them or was lucky. you may be asking why i want another pair of green flips? i was going to give it to some who deserve it( sorry i had a person in mind )

 

[Disney Dreams]

Okay, so am I the only person out there who just loves quests for the fun and thrill of playing them? Sure, I like great prizes, but I have never even tried to strategize (sp?) to get the one I want. All I can say is, "Wow!"

Play for the fun of it - and if you win a prize, all the better.

 

[hdmonkeybug]

I don't consider that cheating, because if you need magic, most of it is
in either the Spell Room or Discovery Island. It will slow your time down a
bit if you are trying to do a fast quest, but it will help those who don't have
the magic pins.

I think Snowman and Bat Magic are the only two pins you actually can't test
in those rooms.

Does that work? Never thought of that! See I could never cheat! (although I agree that this doesn't seem like cheating) I just don't think that way!

 

[hdmonkeybug]

right but it should be like 3500 because if you just do the basic stuff you already have 2500 credits on a first time mule

It took me three weeks to get past 2500 credits! What are you guys doing?

 

[mking624]

Does that work? Never thought of that! See I could never cheat! (although I agree that this doesn't seem like cheating) I just don't think that way!

I don't think it does work...and if it does work, then it certainly didn't for me. I tried doing that on a quest the other night that gave no indication that you needed any magic. The task took you to the spell room and then it said to become like a ghost and get invisible (making it seem like you just needed to "test" it in the spell room). So I did that with the spell room magic...nothing. Tried a few times, nothing. Tried exiting and re-entering the room...nothing. I went back to the quest room to see some people complaining about it...and quest owner change the description to say you needed the magic pin.

Maybe you can choose if players must have the pin or if they can just go to the spell room or Discovery Island.

 

[cat_herder]

Someone asking for help is not cheating! Neither is your helping someone who has asked.

I have not done any personal quests I started one and the room would not load so finally gave up.

I think that personally calling people cheaters is a very strong term. I think that maybe it is being used a little too loosely.

I do not want to get another debate started on Cheaters vs non Cheaters.
I would rather these discussions lean towards how to make your Quests the best they can be than pointing fingers at fellow board members or other players and calling them cheaters.

Is it cheating.....

to trade with another player and get more that what an item is really worth?
to have someone help you get to the next level of pirates?
to play against you in HM so you can catch more ghosts?
to make other characters because you enjoy playing more than one personality?

When calling someone a cheater, what exactly are you referring too? Does your quests say can not be completed by multiple characters of the same person?? Like I said I am not really up to par on how these quests work since I have not completed one nor have I made one.


Again Instead lets all try and promote each other and help one another make our quests the best they
can be...if there are things that others players do when playing your quests try to figure out a way to stop it.

Can we all have fun and PLAY the game we LOVE and promote the VMK DIS community.

Thanks

Mal

* I have to say I'm with Mal on this.
* I also wonder why people are putting up prizes if they get mad when people win them.
* In my experience by stopping the quest half way through "because of cheating" you are not punishing the cheaters you are punishing the honest people playing the game who might be having to take half an hour or 2 hours to complete the quest. It reminds me of being in the school and the teacher would punish the whole class because 5-6 people were talking then they were not suppose to. God I hated that, I was little miss goody-2-shoes in school, and could never understand why I had to be punished for someone else’s actions.
* I've done about a dozen personal quests so far. I have completed about 3 of them, why because the owners closed down the quest while I was in the middle of it. I'm not talking about the set time of the quest running out, but getting the message half way or 3/4 of the way through a very difficult quest, that the owner had ended it. What a total waste of my time and effort. I didn’t even get the chance at the prize. I will never do another one of that person quest because I know they can't be trusted to let the quest run it's course.
* Unless I know the person pretty well {or it’s a staff game} I won't even try their quest anymore. I've just gotten the feeling that they were running the quest for their friends and once the friend was through, it was screw the rest of the people on the quest.

 

[Nanoer]

It took me three weeks to get past 2500 credits! What are you guys doing?

uh playing vmk and not spending... lol it's easy! just play pirates or haunted mansion or fireworks those score pretty big!

 

[Nanoer]

i think the best idea would be to add a task to get a certain score in a game and to make it sorta high! so then the mule would still have to struggle to get past it unless it was a game the person who really good at

 

[Mad4WDW]

I shall be running my own quest pretty soon, with prizes. Nothing big or major rare, and randomly placed. Hopefully this will discourage any mules and encourage those just wanting to take part in a fun quest.

Personally I hate the use of mules. I have never had one nor will I use one. There may be reasons for people having them, but using them to build up your "stash" is still cheating to me. I realise a LOT of players here use mules, so I am prepared for the flames about to come my way!

I've had one character, and built him up through time. A far bigger sense of accomplishment than if I had just made several mules.

Just my two cents

Paul

 

[jeancbpugh]

You know I really wish that people that do players quests would remember that this is something that we are doing on our own. The time we spend putting a quest together and the prizes come from us not VMK, we get nothing for it except the fun of running a quest.

I would like to see less complaining and less cheating.

To get rid of cheaters: why not skip having a prize at all?

I'm greatly enjoying all the new players' and hosts' quests, but I am slow as molasses. I know I'll never get any prizes. I don't care. The pleasure is in solving the quest!

Sometimes I get stuck. Usually as I am "standing" around thinking about it, I'll see someone else come through the room and say or walk through the answer. Is that cheating? Hard to avoid.