SMG Studio

And I've played plenty of masters and up.  They aren't any better than a lot of low ranked players.  They just use multiple accounts.

There are some terrible players but Risk is luck based as much as skill.  If you get a bad initial set up or if you have some "unlucky" rolls early on Master or not (unless you're cheating) you're going to have a hard time winning.

  You also have to have the patience of Job to play online because so many players are so timid.  I've lost many a game in fixed card games just because I didn't have time to sit there for 2 hours and wait for someone to make a move.  If the game turns into a Mexican standoff I'm not going to sit there and collect cards with everyone for 2 hours, I just take out the player who has been doing the least.   

It's just a game.  I don't get why you would cheat and I don't get why players sit off in corners of the board collecting cards instead of trying to win.

Allen, thanks for the response.  I have had times when I can't tell the difference too (between one player with multiple accounts and someone who just might be a bad player).  With the last case I was complaining about it was obvious.

I have generally been playing fixed - just my preference.  But what you're saying makes sense.  I'm going to try the progressive more.

But I really like the game and the multiple maps.  Best of Luck!

I like fixed games better too, it's more skill based whereas progressive is a lot more luck, who happens to get cards at the right time.

But so many fixed games end up with everyone afraid to make a move.  I wish they'd implement some kind of time limit in fixed games or rule to stop people from just sitting on a territory and army building.

I have 6 accounts because years ago when I actually played often, there was no filtering of ranks that can join my game. So it was constant boot people and wait for good ranks to join and sometimes not enough were on so I'd just create a new account so I didn't care that I was playing idiots, and would become a grandmaster rather quickly and end up making another account lol

There is definitely some luck. Sometimes I lose more troops than I gain every turn just trying to kill a 1 army territory for a card and it greatly reduces my chances of winning. But most of the time I'm able to position and destroy everyone in one sweep / make someone cheating have little chance of being able to stop me. 2 other people ganging up on me won't stop me so a guy using 2 accounts can't stop me either. But they'll try.

Yes in fixed games I can see cheating being way worse. Fixed games seem great in the beginning but quickly become a stalemate. There needs to be a rule about max armies per territory or to transform it into semi-progressive. For example, when you trade in 3 infantry cards you get the 4 troops and the next trade of 3 infantry is 6 troops.

Another way to fix fixed games would be to make the end game different. perhaps most territories controlled at the end of 10 rounds or something instead of total domination. 

Now, yes it's just a game. So I wonder why people bother cheating. Way back in the beginning I got the bright idea of using 2 accounts to win. But after 2 or 3 games I realized that I was making the game boring. And who cares if you're actually number 1 anyway? If I really cared to put the time into it, I would be in the number 1 (cheater) slot. I don't even know who's in it right now. That's how much I care haha.

The only other time I cheated was when a known cheater joined my game with his other cheating account. Nobody else was present in the game since I filled it with computers. I had reported the guy months ago and my surprise of seeing him AGAIN just enraged me. So I made a novice account and kicked his butt AND reported him AGAIN. I haven't seen him since actually so I think the cheat complaint finally got to SMG and got his accounts deleted.

Anyway, if most Masters ARE cheaters (I can't always tell) then I must be pretty good because I win more than 50% of these 6 player games and require at least expert on all of my games. I've also played 4000+ games among all of my accounts so I should be winning even though I hardly play these days, right? ;)

Briand, you just admitted you're a cheater.  I just don't get you guys.  What is the point of cheating?  I mean holy lord....6 accounts?  Why do you care what you're ranking is?

As for you winning half the time you just admitted you cheat.  Anything you say is null and void after that dude.

You guys ruin the game, you care more about a stupid ranking than you do in actually playing the game.

I just don't get it.  It's freaking online risk.  If you have to have multiple accounts and cheat to get a high ranking what's the point? 

Cheating is if I use the 5 devices in my home to operate all 5 of my active grandmaster accounts against one guy to steal from his ranking. But you'd still never really be able to prove it because of all of the possibilities that SMG mentions. Obviously, I would be smart and build all of my users like they're playing individually but then be retarded and kill the 6th guy even if he isn't the easiest kill. But not everyone is the best in this game so you can't use that as a basis. I can tell when someone is cheating though. And honestly, I haven't seen it much recently. And surprise, I haven't been losing any of my games lol. In the end, I think the laugh is on the cheaters because they are wasting a lot of their time doing it. I would never do it because it takes the fun out of the game really quickly. I'm addicted because I want to be the best, not because I want to be shown as the best on some leaderboard and nobody knows who I am.

Now, I do have a few things to suggest which may deter cheating:

1. Make detailed profiles. Let us look at the players. Let us see a history of their games? Let us know more about them. Make it more personal. I've been able to look people up on facebook sometimes. The very first person I caught cheating I messaged on facebook. We werent friends so he didnt see the message for a month but his reply was "What? What is this about." followed by "Oh. You're talking about risk aren't you?" I think if we're less anonymous, people will be more afraid to cheat.

2. Reveal a part of the IP address. Or flag people as being on the same network. If I see 2-3 players on the same network and nobody is tied with their facebook or google play account, I'm going to boot them. Or do what I do to known cheaters. Boot their "buddy account" last second and start the game immediately so he can't get out. Then gIve him the beatdown of his life. People usually try to leave the game if you do this

3. Require people use google play or facebook account. It's annoying to make a new facebook account just for this game. Although I might do that for one of my accounts just so I can put funny pictures on my avatar haha.

I do think that allowing us to see the end of the game after we've been eliminated will help a lot of people out. If there is someone cheating, we will see it in the behavior. Obviously they will want one account to be the winner and if it's the spare account that kills you and is on a roll, you may see the player suddenly start doing stupid things to make sure the real account wins. However, I will advise one thing on this. I played a game last night where I could have destroyed a player hoarding AU but I deemed other players more "delicious" as I call them and ended up clearing the entire map before the end of my turn. I had to fortify to direct my armies to kill him so I did so blocking him at Siam. I guess he was so happy that I let him live for 2nd place that he attacked me using only 1 army at a time from his territory until all 40 something of them were dead. it was painful to sit through for 3 minutes because regardless of what he did, he was dead. But he was clearly showing appreciation for what he thought was a kind gesture (I honestly didn't want to get trapped in AU on my run which is the real reason I didn't kill him first) but I can see where this could look like the guy was my 2nd account if someone were to watch it to the end. Most of the beginning of the game wouldn't have appeared that way though since I was originally picking and poking at him with intention of destroying him but by the time cards started trading, I found myself defending him so no one else would steal my kill and then I ended up killing everyone else. So again, may have looked fishy but that's where experienced players really win at this game. Sometimes you do weird things to make sure someone else can't steal cards and beat you. And apparently some people appreciate that too and try to "hand" you the game when you've already won. lol

Jason, you call everyone a cheater! 

You quoted
"You guys ruin the game, you care more about a stupid ranking than you do in actually playing the game."

My favorite thing about Risk back in the day, was playing with my friends. To have 4-6 friends playing a board game (Global Domination) was awesome, sometimes taking hours to finish.

- NEVER did we start calling each other a cheat! Although some games got heated, it's just a game, and friends were more important.

Is this Risk or not, now just the thought of playing with a friend... instant cheater in your book.

If we're REQUIRED to all be strangers, what's left but fighting for rank?

Yeah, I call people who cheat cheaters because they are Matt.

He LITERALLY says he's cheated using multiple accounts before.

You're the that's been defending cheating and using multiple accounts for 2 years.

Explain why you'd defend using multiple accounts for 2 years if you're not doing it?

If you don't want to be called a cheater don't cheat.

You quoted
"Explain why you'd defend using multiple accounts for 2 years if you're not doing it?"

I'd be surprised, if you "Jason Allen", can find a single post, let alone multiple posts where I'm defending one player using two account. Other than possibly as a reference...

I think you'll find many posts where I disagree where knowing someone in the game automatically makes you a cheater. But if your strangers playing the same game with the same intent that's OK, just ally. Even worse, same player always ally's with others in the game, always strangers, same intent. As long as strangers, it's OK

Imagine "No Friends Allowed!" stamped on the Risk game box.

I just finished a game where the cheating was never more obvious..  The ranking player with a rank of Grand Master (completely unmerited in my opinion) used at least 2 if not 3 other players to protect his borders while he accrued much bigger forces from the largest territory.  Extremely frustrating and disappointing.

What is wrong with you?  Are you just a habitual liar?  Or do you just forget what you wrote?

You started a thread about how people using multiple accounts in the same game wasn't cheating.  In the the op in that thread....your very first post in that thread.......you said "one person using 2 accounts is not cheating" lol.

You've done nothing but defend cheating lol.

Holy lord you're ridiculous.

You've defended using multiple accounts for 2 years dude, you've made literally dozens of posts about it in your thread.

You kill me.