<< If you can obtain the original "lost password" message which was
sent to GeoCities, perhaps it may contain some useful information
(ip address, etc.) which might help to identify the would-be cheater.
>>
One moment, please. Why should the moderator take the words of "Arthur" and
his allies at face value? He is the public leader of a group of admitted
spies/moles and therefore liars and hypocrites. "Arthur" could use this as an
opportunity to falsely accuse any faction in the game. Yes, I am quite
prepared to consider that a group of players, whose main strategy in the game
appears to consist of becoming spies and moles, will bear false witness as
"players" as easily as they do "in character."
(The moderator has probably thought all this through, but not necessarily
everyone on the discussion list).
Further, there is a significant ethical difference between hacking another
player's turn, and hacking an alliance's web site. Privacy of turn reports is
a rule of the game; it is the choice of each player with whom to share his
turn report. As as a game rule, it is expected and appropriate for the
moderator to enforce the rule.
On the other hand, an Olympia oriented web page is an extension of game
information. No agreed game rule defines it as private. Accessing it can be
regarded as a form of spying within the game. For example, if I were to
obtain the password to the Shadow Alliance website from an estranged member, I
would quite happily access their website, acquire every possible datum from
it, and recheck as long as the password worked. That would be spying on the
enemy, and appropriate within the game context. It would also be clean, an
acknowledged enemy sneaking into the citadel and stealing secrets. In
contrast, riddling other alliances with judas players who betray their fellows
every week is far more reprehensible.
Someone might argue that accessing an enemy website is action taken at the
player level, "out of character." That is a false distinction. For example,
the Shadow Alliance can only exist and function because its members, as
players, act as spies and moles against other players. They could not
coordinate such a spider web "in character"; they join alliances of other
players under false pretenses and betray them to other players, not other
characters.
In conclusion, the player's attempt to access the shadow alliance site was a
valid game manuever. His method was illegitimate because it violates the
ethical expectations of a third party: Geocities has a right and
responsibility to enforce the security of its websites. Lying to Geocities is
a non game activity, and wrong.
I see my soap box is beginning to sag....
Erik Gunderson