I got accused of cheating for the first time in over a year of playing Aces High, a few weeks ago. I was flying a Typhoon near a base where enemy planes were upping on their way to attack one of our bases. I was making diving attacks on them as they climbed out, but after a kill or two, I made the mistake of turning with one to finish him off. Soon about five of them were all over me, and it was a running fight just to get away. For about three minutes, I ran, jinked, rolled, and did everything I could think of just to stay alive. My Tiffie was shot up but still running fine. Finally, almost out of gas, I made the coastline and dropped down to treetop level at full speed as I ran for home. A Mustang finally ran me down and droppped me.
As I crashed, I looked up at the text buffer to see that I was being accused of cheating by two or three of the enemy pilots. They all claimed to have seen me "conveniently warping on demand" as I evaded them in the three minute fight. One said that he had video and intended to send it to HTC. Somebody else that I didnt even know, jumped in and claimed that he had seen me cheating earlier. My first reaction to these accusations was a burst of anger. I do not take kindly to anybody accusing me of cheating, lying, or any other dishonest behavior. I come from a family of real life warriors that values honor above everything else. I would never sacrifice something that is as valuable to me as my integrity in order to gain a silly advantage in a computer game, and I dont appreciate people accusing me of the same.
After a moment of anger, I relaxed and my second reaction was pretty much the old "sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me". Yet I was rather annoyed that people would make these foolish accusations. I didnt worry about the silly threat about sending the film to HTC, I believe HTC has more sense than to listen to that kind of foolishness. I am sure it was possible that my plane was warping, the internet was rather unstable that night, and I had a poor connection (very unusual for me) and was actually disconnected later that night. At least one of these persons was a member of a squad that I respect very highly, although I do not know that person personally. Another person on my team told me I should feel good, that it was an achievement to be proud of when people accuse you of cheating, and while I do find that somewhat amusing I cannot take such an accusation lightly. The whole incident left a bad taste in my mouth, and I quit playing for the night shortly thereafter due to irritation over this as well as the crappy internet connection.
I havent really thought about it much since then, until now, as I read a general discussion board here that is full of talk of cheating. I guess my point is, dont be so quick to pull out the cheating accusations. There may be some people cheating or trying to cheat, but they are very few I believe. I refuse to believe that this game community that I love has very many people that have so little integrity as to cheat at a game. You may say its a small thing, but I can assure you that I wouldnt trust ANYTHING to a person that would cheat at AH or any other game. I have no respect for any sort of low down person that has no more honor than that. And next time you see my airplane warping, instead of questioning my honesty, try politely asking me to relog.
