ClanBase Hall of Shame 2008

After the monthly statistics I thought there might be some interest for a yearly overview of the work of our Cheat and Abuse department - Enemy Territory. I gathered the statistics for cheat cases stored on ClanBase for 2008.

This data only covers the amount of cases that successfully made it to a suspension on ClanBase.
Ofcourse not every case is a succes, sometimes we need more evidence or it turns out the wrong person is being accused. Sometimes we suspend people wrongfully after which people can appeal. Currently we can't run statistics on these numbers. With the introduction of the ticket system we now have a more structured way of dealing with appeal cases, making it also possible to keep track on the number of cases and the time it takes to process them. Perhaps next year they can be included!

First some totals

In 2008 we suspended 572 accounts with a total suspension period of around 710.5 years (8526 months), which makes the average suspension 15 months. Not every human is unique, some might return with a new account, some get suspended multiple times. A few people have been suspended 4 times, however most players are suspended only once.

Overal numbers

Below you can see the number of suspended players in 2008 per country. The Polish population on ClanBase contributes the most to our suspended player database, followed by the players from The Netherlands which have half the number of suspenses.



The number of suspended players per game might not come as a surprise after last months rampage. Call of Duty 2 leads the ranks with 41%! The entire Call of Duty line of games makes up for 55% of the suspended players. While the free multiplayer game Enemy Territory places 4th place alongside Steam's Counter Strike:Source.



Most people are cheating in a public server. Although we're working hard to make gaming on ClanBase as attractive as possible, playing a match on a public server is still the favorite of a lot of players. Cheating there is also seen as less bad than cheating during an official match. Nevertheless we punish for both. Not everybody is willing to accept his suspension. Instead of creating an appeal case, they create a new account and continue to play. The amount of suspended returning players is second in line.





To show the result of all the people involved in detecting, catching and suspending players you can see a graph of the daily output of suspended players below. Cheating never stops and neither do the people working on these cases!



A total number of 56 accounts were suspended during the months of January to the 17th of June (168 days) these bans were submitted by Bulld0g & Bartichello, the number of suspensions are equivalent to 0.33 bans per day. On the 18th of June, Killerboy was appointed as the new C&A Supervisor for ET and suspended a total of 516 accounts during the span of 197 days which is equivalent to 2.6 bans per day or 9 times more than the prior C&A Supervisors!

The Pie Chart below resembles the amount of suspensions submitted by the different C&A Supervisors during the Year of 2008.
Bulld0g & Bartichello - 9.79%
Killerboy - 90.21%

Conclusion

2008 has been a very succesful year for the ClanBase Cheat and Abuse department. A lot of structural changes have been made for a better communication with all games hosted on ClanBase and partners and anticheat crew they use to prevent cheaters from ruining their fun. It was nice to see crew initiatives in creating their own demo teams.
An important mile stone is the partnership with Game-Violations, which enables us to provide cleaner games and quality evidence in cheat cases.

One of the issues we'll be targetting this year is the appeal case. Suspending players is one thing, making sure their voice is heard when they feel their suspension is unjust is another. As the amount of suspensions keeps growing, so will the amount of appeals. Another issue is the returning cheater. We´re constantly trying to figure out ways to make people wait out their suspension. Since we´re not allowed to physically restrain people from using a computer a lot of our work depends on the players respecting our rules and policies, which is something we care for a lot.
If you want to contribute in C&A on ClanBase you can always send ideas, caught cheaters, questions or other stuff to us or your game's C&A supervisor. They are there to help you find your way through the Cheat and Abuse options for your game!