I very much dont like that. It's just advertising that these people can hack and are still allowed on the server. In a way it's condoning hacking more than any other thing we can do
Valid point.
Also worth considering is: looking at what we (the community) want to get out of it. Do we really want to ban everybody who has ever used a hack?.... I'm just guessing, but I think that might make getting a game of 1s tricky and 2s near impossible.
I can remember the first time I logged on to USEAST and there was 100k people online playing wc2. It was before stupidface or instatwit or any of that crap. It was awesome and unprecedented in the history of the human race - no exaggeration necessary.
How many players now?... exact figures aside I think it's safe to say the community has downsized a wee bit. Personally I think we need everyone. Despite what I might have said when I'm annoyed because some idiot has been wasting my time with that crap, I don't really want the hackers to never come back,
I just want them to stop bloody hacking. Same with the haters - which I personally find just as bad - I just want them to
stop hating. Man I hate haters soo much ...... lol nvm
Anyway, I think most of us would agree with most of that; but what I'm getting at is this: one of the most effective modifiers of human behavior is
peer group pressure (I'd rate it a close third behind
the baseball bat and
naked breasts, but as far more versatile than either of them
) I think that perhaps we, as a community, need to modify the way we respond to inappropriate behavior. Maybe just a slightly different angle.
I don't claim to know exactly what that angle is, ofc the turd icon thing was just something that popped into my head while I was reading this topic and made me laugh. But it did make me think about people responding differently to the stinkers in question....
I think the current system usually goes something vaguely like this:
( no slight intended towards anyone here - just bunch of made up stuff to illustrate the point at the end)
1) [hX]AssWipe goes around using lameass trojan-ridden hacks.
2) People start to notice suspicious things about his gameplay.
3) JohnPlayer asks for a ss [hX]AssWipe dodges.
4) JohnPlayer starts crying and name calling and demanding blood.
5) Admins think
OMFG John is sooking on about another bloody ss, will he ever STFU? 6) By now the turd has logged in as h4x1n4t0r and he's all "hi im new, i used to play yrs ago"
7) Soon others who are less prone to sooking start to notice there's a stinky waft in the air.
8 )People start to get banned from games on suspicion of being cah-cah.
9) Forum posts, general conversation and personal accounts start to gain momentum.
10) Amins realise there's a real problem and start to keep an eye on the turd and his akas.
11) Endless hours of bitching and accusing in games and channel.
12) Eventually someone gets a smoking-gun ss with /p and something has to be done.
13) Right when the thing reaches a head, the turd gets one of his favorite names banned...
Then what happens? He goes away? Fat chance... No. He loses the argument, and has to log on as x-DW-x)LittleBoPeep( for a while and keep his mouth shut. He gets some time to listen to JohnPlayer carry on about how he knew the turd was stinky and reflect on how he got caught, and how to avoid it. While he's skulking,
he gets sneakier. Eventually people may occasionally catch a wiff of poo, but mostly can't tell exactly where it's coming from. Resentment and suspicion start to nag at people... and on it goes.
I think by now that generally, the type of people who were maybe tempted to do the wrong thing, but were embarrassed enough by their punishment to decide it wasn't worth it, have all given up - they don't do it anymore. The people who still do do it, have have probably been banned before under a few different names and keep doing it... more of the same won't stop them.
And yes tk, good point - there's aways one or two of these sad individuals in any crowd:
just a guy who didn't get enough attention as a kid so he looks for it other places... just in the form of negative attention. The more attention he gets, the more he wants..
I've heard talk about it but I've never had much to do with the martin name, but this negative attention seeking does remind me someone else who gets a fair bit of coverage on this forum... these are difficult cases.
Anyway, I think what really tickled me when I pictured some hacker strutting around wearing a big steaming turd badge and not realising while everyone else had a laugh and made in jokes at their expense...
man there's something off around here - can u smell that? ...was that it's a different response, it breaks the endless hack-sneak-deny-accuse-ban-blah-blah-omg cycle and puts the whole thing in an entirely new context...and for map-hacking it does have a touch of poetic justice about it.
But like I said, that was just a whimsical notion. Not something I put any serious thought into ( although I have to admit, I'm still not hating it lol). I really don't know what the answer is, but I do think we need a slightly different angle that allows the community as a whole to
demonstrate how they feel about stinky people, instead of just hurling judgment and abuse.....
....... because we all know by now that doesn't fix the problem.