Is this against the rules?

[peabrain]

Hey guys! I have a question about games. I found out a way to win a certain game by using the tab and enter keys instead of how the game is meant to be played. I managed to get a gold trophy score using this method but I haven't sent my score yet because I'm not sure if what I did is against the rules or not. It sort of feels like cheating seeing as I didn't play the game how it was meant to be played, but then again I used this guide for another game - http://www.jellyneo.net/?go=smugbugsmite - for Better Than You the other week and that seems to recommend using the tab and enter keys to win the game.. so I'm a little confused.

 

I don't want to break the rules :(

 

I wondered if anyone had some wisdom on this topic or even better perhaps an editorial that mentioned it once upon a time.

 

Thanks so much to anyone who can help!

Oh and also.. I'm going to leave the tab with my score open for however long it takes to find out.. is it okay to send a score an hour or two after you've played?

 

 

[Emily]

Using the tab+enter method is fine. You're manually playing the game, just using different buttons. I think this came up last year during GMC, as SBS was one of the games then. As far as sending a score hours after you've earned it, it *should* work, but if you lost connection with the server at any point during that time, or there were any other connection errors, even for a couple seconds, it might not.

[peabrain]

Thank you so much. May I ask if TNT clarified this themselves? Or if there is a statement where I could clearly see this written down?

 

I asked the question to the help boards and basically got told I was a cheater :sad02: so I closed the game and just submitted a question to the editorial instead. I also got redirected to an editorial here: http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&week=466 (ctrl+F "cheat") and it seems like it would count because I would guess using tab and enter is not the way the game was intended to be played.

 

I tied with the top score on that game and there's no way the other players used their mouse, but even so my account is very old and I'm not going to risk it just in case this is against the rules.

[wakka9ca]

I am not sure it depends on how you interpret the editorials. I always find TNT's handling of games rules often quite ambiguous and unsatisfactory. Instead of fixing the bugs and clarifying the rules in their games, they release arbitrary rules through editorials (some of them which honestly don't make much sense). For example, it seems quite widespread to right-click on your browser before aiming for the coconut shy in order to make your mouse appear. Technically, by the strict definition of the editorial, it should be considered cheating because it *might* not be "intended to be played that way". The question would be: did TNT intented the mouse to not display? Another example where it is actually considered cheating would be skipping turns in KeyQuest to avoid power-downs.

 

Sometimes it's ambiguous... since only TNT knows what is the "intended" way to play the game is. (Personally not a big fan of the TNT editorials to be honest).

 

Obvious cheating is completely different: tampering with game, using auto-players/bots, hacking into their servers, etc.

[peabrain]

I agree with that. In order to find out what is against the rules I often have to go to user pages where they list what has been stated in editorials 2 years ago as to why this/that can't be done. There really should be a good official rule page somewhere.. unless there is one and I've just not found it yet? The help page doesn't seem to go into specifics a lot of the time :c

[siniri]

Jellyneo has a searchable database containing the archives of all TNT editorials. When I'm trying to find editorials on a specific topic, I find it works much better than a search engine search. But you do sometimes find conflicting answers in the editorials.

[peabrain]

Thanks! That's really helpful :) I'll probably be using that all the time now

 

I tried to search for stuff like "tab key" and not much is showing so I went with something more general like "cheat"

 

Okay, somebody posted this strategy on the boards for [specific Neopets game], but I think it's cheating: [user describes cheat in detail, which includes doing things outside game mechanics]. I tried their tips to see what would happen, and they work for me, but I didn't send my score because I was afraid of getting frozen. Is this tactic allowed? I don't think it is, but others disagree with me, so please clarify? You ROCK, by the way. ;D Also, I think Yurbles need a default avie. ^__^ ~pwnnage

Anyone who thinks that doing what you described by hitting keys and doing other things that are not part of the standard game mechanics and is not a special "cheat" code we purposely put in the game have no understanding of the site rules or are just deluding themselves. We've reported the exploit to our programmers and will be closely monitoring the high scores of that game until it is fixed. We know it's tempting to abuse exploits, but all it is is a great way to get your account frozen. Also, thank you for reporting the exploit in depth. We, of course, can't post it here in the Editorial, but it was very helpful. :)

What exactly is "doing things outside game mechanics"? O.o

[Duma]

I understand that they don't want the way to exploit a game known to everyone, but this doesn't really clear things up for anyone except the original sender of the question.

They could at least say something like: if the game is supposed to be played with a mouse, and there is no option -in game- to play with keyboard instead, it is considered cheating if you do use ("special" keys on) your keyboard.

 

If that is what they mean...

 

"doing things outside game mechanics" doesn't say a thing.