Msn zone backgammon Cheat

I must say I am a little perturbed by the amount of people who believe anyone with a rating higher than 2100 is a cheat, since I am always around or over this level and definitely don't cheat - however when I get much higher I simply meet these cheaters stalling the game over and over - on one memorable occasion out of 8 games played, 6 were against people who used this technique to win

I always report these people including a screenshot of exactly what has occurred, but as others have said it seems that no action is taken - strangely even though I choose do not match with this player each time, they seem to reappear as matches again after some time

It is highly frustrating that a known cheating method like this is not being tackled and that any effort to achieve a higher rating is impossible since I refuse to cheat even though I know how and for this reason my rating has never got any higher than around 2200

Perhaps people could just not leave the game immediately and instead take screenshots which they can send in with a report, since MSN are unable to even see the size of the issue if you fail to do this - I guess I am hoping that once they can see how large the problem is they might actually take some action :-/

In relation to people being abusive, I now have my chat permanently turned off for this reason which is a huge shame as I used to enjoy talking to people whilst playing - but I play the game to relax and relaxation does not consist of a stream of foul mouthed illiterate abuse followed by them cheating

support options are here: http://zone.msn.com/en/support/article/support3500.htm

I have done this several times. Followed the steps as described. Funny, never received

anything back from  Zmaster. No questions, no we have resolved, nothing.  I have however

run into the same abusive people over and over again.

I would like to have the job of one of the guys who are supposed to be resolving the issues.

Seems they have a light load.

I have documented the "move/undo stall/time out exploit" and submitted to zmaster@... (see above link ) hundreds of times for many years.  I provide multiple screen captures, game logs, and a detailed letter stating that it is important to moderate cheaters by banning their handle.  Although this does not in any way stop the cheater from playing under infinite handles, it does ruin the handle rating and game tally.  Therefore, the 15,000 games played and 2349 player rating totally disappear.  If we nuke every one of those long standing cheater tallies, then it takes away their narcissistic sociopath legacy and reduces their incentive to keep pumping up the tally.  It takes a long long time to cheat above 2200 because anyone at that level or above is 75% a cheat, therefore they must play folks below 2000, which means only a point is gained in the defeat, and 200 matches will be required to cheat from 2100 to 2300 if they avoid other cheaters.  This makes them easy to spot, compared to authentically highly rated players, if you consider their game count versus rating ratio.  

The real problem lies in the fact that Zmaster is in fact any one of hundreds of various support personnel and there is complete inconsistency in their training, experience, and response to my reporting of these facts.  For over a year I would receive no acknowledgement or response whatsoever.  so then I began accumulating other msn and microsoft abuse email addresses, including the occasional auto reply that was generated by a zmaster moderator who was on vacation or sick.  I had gathered about 6 individual microsoft employee addresses from vacation auto responders and out of frustration i cc'ed each and every one of these folks, including hotmail and microsoft forum abuse notification addresses each and every time I reported a disruptive player.  

FINALLY, after many months of this shenanigans I received a terse, but very much appreciated reply which was a FAIR WARNING from the zmaster that if I did not immediately stop SPAMMING corporate that I would be banned.

AHA!  A human does exist!  Thank God there is someone breathing and alive that has acknowledged my efforts!  I explained that I just wanted to be sure that my submissions were received.  I was assured that they are received and processed eventually, but that it was against policy for moderators to respond to complainant so not to become a device of petty feuds between members.  By not informing me of their response, they don't encourage my continued complaints as a means of enacting administrative wrath on other members.  And there is the rub:  on the one hand MSN Zmaster may in fact ban cheaters that are reported, but at the same time, they are not allowed to single out individual members due to privacy concerns.  I am an individual member who no longer has privacy if I interact regularly with certain zmasters.  When a new zmaster receives a disruptive player report from me they are not aware of the history of communication that has been established.  Its not that they can't access it its just that it carries no weight whatsoever since all of us are anonymous private individuals on MSN. 

Ironically, as we now see in the new emphasis on reputation on the Community Participation Center, on Microsoft Support and Knowledge Boards in General, that value is lost in complete anonymity, if not complete privacy.  So if our privacy can be assured while our reputation as participants carries some weight, perhaps there may be some pay off to these seemingly futile efforts.  They have bigger fish to fry, but I just approach this like Tim Robbin's character in the Shawshank Redemption who writes hundreds of unanswered letters to the department of corrections requesting a change to the monolithic institutional refusal of financial support for library material.  Its a hopeless endeavor, but that does not mean he won't keep asking.  And after a while, they will do anything to make the letters just stop.  SO WE MUST ALL REPORT DISRUPTIVE PLAYERS TO THE MSN "ZMASTER" IN ORDER TO EFFECT CHANGE.  I can do this all day but it will take a great deal of us to get MEANINGFUL RESULTS.  Like for instance, FIX THE SOFTWARE.

EVENTUALLY there will be a cost analysis of how many customer support man hours are wasted on fielding all of our reports and complaints of the "Move/Undo/Stall/Time Out Exploit" until FINALLY a person of authority will realize that it would be simpler TO JUST DEBUG THE DANG SOFTWARE (even though they bought it "as is" from a third party vendor and would really prefer not to mess with it or pay to have it revised, perhaps). 

Even a monolithic corporate institution with other important priorities will eventually respond IF ENOUGH PEOPLE REPORT CODE OF CONDUCT VIOLATIONS ACCORDING TO THE RULES OUTLINED AT http://zone.msn.com/en/support/article/support3500.htm This is where contact information for the Zone Master can be obtained, with other details about Code of Conduct.

Remember, do not violate member privacy, or spam other Microsoft employees in your frustration.  Just think of it like a life sentence in a prison run by a corrupt warden and sadistic prison guards.  All we can do is persist and report CHEATERS until we escape the oppression of sociopath trolls, the tyranny of buggy software exploited Ad nauseam, and the mediocrity of management who simply ignore a nagging problem that undermines the security and reliability of Microsoft and MSN software and service. 

There may be bigger priorities, but after a while it becomes clear that if the little problems can't be fixed after YEARS AND YEARS then there are systemic failures.  They become BIG vulnerabilities that are an Achilles heel of any organization.  So, as Sisyphus spends eternity rolling the boulder up the  hill, only to watch it fall again, MSN must acknowledge the futility of ignoring this blemish on the MSN user experience, and the reputation of Microsoft Solutions in general.

That's my two cents.

Very good summery of what has been posted.

1. When the multi player sites were down MSN switched all traffic to zonemaster, so FB didn't get cluttered. Really no resason why MSN should care. The bugs will stay. One bug I will adress later.
2. Couldn't agree more.
3. I have rarely seen a"Guest" ,who after asking actually wanted to know how to create a nic. But not every "Guest" is a cheater. Second 3. I don't understand.
4. True. But the underlying question is always: "Are we playing on a level field".
5. The dice are fine, but many players complain. "live" dice can be just as crazy and cruel.

About cheaters. They are not only annoying, but they prevent me from playing. If I sign in with e.g. 20 matches/1900 rating I will automatically be regarded as a cheater and nobody want's to play.

Roll out. All pips have to be used. The exeption is: Having a checker outside my home board I can choose to play either the highest die or the lowest die. MSN BG will force me to play the highest die first, possibly creating unnecessary problems. It doesn't happen very often, but it does show how much effort went into the programming.

Nothing new here, but just some random thoughts after reading the posts and agreeing with most:

1. Posts by Microsoft are conspicuous by their absence. These games aren't money-makers for them. They don't care, because they don't have to. By now it's time for me to accept that the bugs will never get fixed.
2. Backgammon has its "trolls" just like every other site, that's just the way it is on the web. I click "do not match" too when I meet one. It might save a few repeated headaches, but trolls and cheaters simply start a new nic, and using the bug, they are back up to 2000 in no time. Trying to keep track of cheaters nics doesn't work either - for the same reason.
3. I think the posts are correct about guests being cheaters most of the time, but I've taken the risk on occasion and met a few nice folks who just didn't know about creating a nic.
4. It's helpful to remember that at the end of the match only the MSN server is fooled. We and the cheaters all know who the REAL loser is. We learn a little something every time we play, and our ranking doesn't avail us much except to stroke our egos. I can get as much satisfaction from beating a cheater as anyone. The win just doesn't show up on the server.
5. Regrettably, the warning about playing anyone with a rating over some given number might help, but I have 5 nics, all over 2100 and appreciate meeting someone with a similar rating who doesn't cheat. True, many are trolls, but some of us above 2000 are honest players.
6. The posts about rigging the dice are from folks who haven't played "live" backgammon. There was a book published back in the 70s titled "BG The Cruelest Game". So true. I've played for years in tournaments and some dice sequences seem outrageous, but they happen. If you watch or read annotated world-class matches they happen there too. It's just a fact of the game. We just notice them more when the other guy gets them. DawbinActual was right about that.