[w_alloy]

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1. This is not an isolated incident. There has been cheating in the past, there will be cheating in the future. Whatever the outcome is here, this statement is true. What we can do, and need to do, is take the course of action that minimizes the longterm cost of high stakes cheating. I believe this requires some admition from Absolute of a security breach. Allowing them to deny the cheating won't discourage future cheating, and may actually encourage it.


I mkae a living from the constant flow of money entering the pokonomy, which is generated by generally stupid people. This is also where Absolute makes their money, but some people tried to make extra by cutting into our take as well. This will never stop completely, but more blame and cost for Absolute in this case will lower how much of our edge cheaters attempt to take in the future.

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All these points are true, but I still think people like you and I would be better off if this story doesn't get any bigger than it is.

The reason is that I think the amount of cheating this is likely to stop is far less than the amount of money potential fish that are now scared would have brought in.

How much money has cheating cost per year over the last few years? A few million per? How much money do new fish bring in every year? A few hundred million?

If the affect on cheating is a 50% reduction and the affect on new players signing up is a bit under one percent, we are worse off.

I think this is a case of people over valuing a dramatic newsworthy event with quantifiable affects (cheating) and undervaluing the reduction of an underlying factor which is much hard to quantify, which of course is just human nature.

That's not to say bringing attention to this isn't the moral thing to do, that's a whole different subject though.