I'll tell you a short story.
Yo know the code of Hammurabi? It's considered one of the firsts full legal text found in history (in tablets). It introduced (amongst many other things) one simple concept, it is the "Eye for an eye".
By today standards, "eye for an eye" is a barbaric idea. In fact it could be. It stated, for example, that someone who robbed something (p.e. grain and food to eat) must have his hands cut. But the thing is that the code of Hammurabi is revolutionary itself and indeed a really good legal test if we take circumstances ant timebeing into account. Why? Before it existed, the legimate owner of the grain could punish the robber in the way he wanted , which often ended in public judgement and public death. The code just established what they considered -at that time- fair punishement for concrete faults.
So the question is: are we punishing cheaters hard enough??? I mean, they're banned for life with their account (we cut their hands). Do we want them to have the "cheater flag" forever because they made an error (some of them probably just "tested" the cheat")? Do we want to KILL them, like it was done before the Code oF Hammurabi existed (and that was around 1700 a.C)
I don't support cheaters, in fact i haven´t tried a single one in my life (gaming since the beggining of the 90's), but I'd say cheaters have had their punishement. Some of them will buy another key and will continue playing. In my opinion, most of them won't cheat anymore (at least in this game), some of them are just assholes and will go on (and they will eventually get caught again). But to the first group, those who made an error and just want to go on playing without cheating and have taken responsibility on their actions (they paid with the ban), if would be really unfair to have that "Cheater Flag" forever in our little community.
This said, please dev's retain their ip's. If they ban for a second time, I would agree to make them public and thus receive hard mob punishement.
But please, do we want to be harder than "pre 1700 a.C" citizens?
1. Actually it's cutting their finger nails. They can grow a new tool for their crime any time by purchasing another really cheap copy.
2. They're banned anyway. So they won't suffer from the cheater flag. And the community has a right to know that this guy who owned them so many times did this by hacking.
3.If they buy a new copy they will probably use a new nickname. If they don't, it's a sign they try to improve, and that they learn out of their mistakes.
And I am pretty sure the anti hack program can see whether somebody uses a hack once on a duel server or over several days on a battle server. So a ban announcement could give the hint that it was a one time usage of a hack, and thus the ban shouldn't be permanent. I don't think the community will be too rude to him afterwards, especially as it's obvious he will be under surveillance.
Btw. "eye for an eye" isn't THAT barbaric. To me it sounds RELATIVELY fair. You know, if you do good things, you get rewarded accordingly. You go for work - you get your wage. You present a nice hand bag to your girl friend, and you get a blowjob.
Now what would be the adequate punishment for breaking someone's leg? The easiest and probably most obvious way to "reward" such a deed in exactly the same extent would be, to do the same to him. As you sow, so you shall reap. This counts for both good and bad things.
Of course there are a lot of other things to be taken into concern, so I don't really support the "eye for an eye" idea. Btw. "eye for an eye" in itself is no system for punishment/judgement, it's rather a simple rule ony for estimating the extent of the punishment.
Btw. I find you argumentation is simply wide-eyed.
By banning them you take away any further playing from them. But they already HAD a lot of fun they didn't deserve, by killing other players, owning them and feeling like being something "better" than they are. As they have acquired this illegaly, it needs to be taken away from them, again. And the only way to do this is to inform the other players, that the hacker actually was NOT better than them, and thus all the "glory" was false.
A good part of your - and especially of the hackers' - motivation of playing a multiplayer game is the good feeling of defeating someone and being better. This only works if the chances were equal or oven against you. (Except of hackers, who are willing to be happy about every win to compensate for their tiny little penises). This way players, who even managed once to kill the hacker can feel more proud of it, as soon as they get to know about the cheating. And the other way round, players who got killed by the hacker don't feel that bad any more, as they knew the fight wasn't even.
This way it's not only punishment for the hacker, but also care for the victims, which you appearantly totally forget. And in my eyes, this is far more than just "eye for an eye".
