What do you think the rate of GotM cheating is at? Does it matter?

[Krexent]

Simply put, you cannot stop all cheating, and what little can be reasonably done has been done. In addition, without evidence no one can be accused of cheating. Therefore there will be cheaters and their identies will likely remain unknown. In my experience with most games, however, the best players frequently can outplay the best cheaters, and even if the cheaters come out on top it simply serves to add to the fun and challenge of those not cheating. What greater satisfaction could you have in getting the top score knowing you had beaten all of the cheaters, with pure skill (and some good luck!)

I would even argue that the cheater is themself often robbed of the same feeling of accomplishment, particularly in a game in which cheating is so easy. Extensive anti-cheat mechanisms can actually encourage cheating in a way, and I have seen that in certain games as well. Ironic, but the cheaters sometimes feel that bypassing the attempts at catching them is a feat among itself. In Civ 4 this is clearly not the case and cheating would simply signify a lack of ability or skill, and an inability to admit to loss.

 

[A+ombomb]

There is actually a new problem in the MP community that may extend into this as well, that is hacks that definitely don't seem to be detectable by the ingame prevention. Check out this player on the civ4players ladder page in my info: "yumpak". 98 game win streak. I was in a game with this fellow and not only did he win 100% of battles he fought with me, but he actually said "gg please report" to another player who was about to die, without any prior information that that player was about to be defeated (the player was defeated at the beginning of the game without any defense in his initial city). Hopefully that hack doesn't find its way into this community - it could be a big problem. Blatent use of it would be easily detectable by the losses screen, but judicious use of it could be a major issue, as no reloads are required if you already know you are going to win. Hopefully the civ4 team releases a patch soon to alleviate this menace .

 

[RoddyVR]

by the fourth or so LONG post, i got tired of reading and skipped ahead to the end. lol.

i didnt submit a game for 4otm 2 (one that just finished) cause i never finished it, cause i couldnt resist cheating and then felt like a piece of.... well, you know.
attacked a city (that had 2 wonders and a religeon founded) with like 10 swordsmen and axemen, and probably a dozen catapults. barely took it (lots of bad luck there), the only unit that hadnt attacked was a warrior with the medic promotion. so i left the one swordsman that took the city inside and the warrior outside to help heal the heavily damaged stack.
then lost the city a horse unit that came out of nowhere. none of my units were even close to being able to take the horsy out the next turn (they were all in the low 1.2 type HP range after 3 turns of attacking).

couldnt help myself, and reloaded an autosave to take the city again. second time around took it much easier. still had a viable attack stack left afterwards.
but then, saved the game and never felt the pull to go finish it cause i knew i'd cheated. i've played 2 other whole civ4 games since then (one being a marathon speed), so its not like i didnt have the time, but whenever i started up Civ4, i just didnt feel like loading the GOTM.
ruined the game for myself.

in civ3 on the other hand, i cheated ALL the time, i dont think i played a single game of civ3 without reloading for the goodyhuts to give me techs or settlers every time. never submited a civ3 gotm thought (i did play a couple of em). what's the point of seeing how well you did against others if you know you cheated to get your score?