If you're still curious, here's my admittedly delayed input as the GM.
geojanes wrote:For the record--and the larger Redscape community to witness--can someone post for all to see and comment what happened with Canada and Israel?
Is it true that the same real life player signed up and played both of them, using two different email addresses? How was it discovered? How did the other players and GM react, and how did it affect gameplay? What should the consequences be to the player?
Morocco/Randy accused Canada/"Dana" of being a pseudonym that was hunting him with an unsportsmanlike grudge. Randy narrowed it down very specifically to David Ling. In a vacuum, I don't really care either way about the use of a pseudonym. In this particular case, it is evidence someone is trying to hide something. After an abundance of observations and evidence was presented to me, I felt it necessary to confront "Dana". One of the simplest but most effective problems was just how talented Dana was as a first time player. By simply asking how she heard about Redscape, how many games she's played, and such basics, she would either say she was a beginner with inexplicable talent, or admit she was a pseudonym.
Dana admitted to being a pseudonym, but she would not reveal her true identity yet offered she'd bow out of the game if it saved everyone the trouble. I asked her to reveal her true identity and appeal the accusation against her. She instead quit the game. I did not kick her out for this pseudonym. I never said this to anyone, but If Ling had actually admitted he was Ling, yet provide contextual in-game reasons for what he did that didn't point towards blindly hunting a player courtesy of a grudge, there's a solid chance I would've let him stay. But he instead chose to back out.
During the investigation and chatter of Canada's true identity, suspicious elements were noticed by myself and other players that suggested that Canada and Israel was played by the same person. However, in the end I felt that there was a sufficient amount of evidence to suggest it was only a coincidence, and
I publicly cleared Israel of being played by the same person. Russia/Zac however, remained suspicious and kept the investigation going on his own.
After Zac stepped up one last time with a public prodding of Israel asking the entire player pool who knew him and where did he come from... Israel admitted that he was David Ling and also played Canada.
For that, I had no choice but to kick out Israel. I had an extra player in my search for Canada's replacement to immediately fill the role.
geojanes wrote:I'm glad the game survived.
What about the player? Would any of you play with him again? Should he be banned?
Thank you. If you observe the vote spread, you'll notice that many nations were selective with their votes. They didn't just vote yes to all blindly hoping the game would end. In the end, despite the controversy, people had fun. They cared. Several players were hoping the game would go on for another year, because that would be another year of fun, as well as a better opportunity for victory.
As for banning, I don't necessarily think so. Citing back to that italicized remark I made, I publicly cleared Israel of being the second nation. I announced it to the player pool. At that point he could've easily blown smoke, said he discovered the game visiting his cousin's house but he lives out in the middle of nowhere and has to play online if he wants to play Diplomacy and he found Redscape googling. There's a thousand reasonable lies he could've come up with, I would've told Zac to back off (or come back with better evidence) and Ling would've been GM protected in his cheat for the rest of the game. But his conscience got the better of him and he decided to come clean. And to this extent, I recommend the consideration of mercy when it comes to his ban.
geojanes wrote:I appreciate the apology, but I wasn't in the game. Thoughts and reactions?
If he were to make use of PRECISELY ONE pseudonym and sneak into one of my games, and not carry out the grudges which got this whole thing rolling, I wouldn't be too mad. However, things aren't really that simple.