New Scaratings

A person's (account's) badges are date-and-time-stamped right down to the minute, identifying the exact game and the location. They are even listed in sequence. By poking and grouping the timestamps, one can see how many per game were won and whether that game was perfect. A perfect LT will have 7 badges. An LT with 6 badges or less proves a non-perfect game.

Location pages show every game that was attended by registered players. Or at least it is supposed to. A personal account's general trivia page shows every game attended and its location. Or at least it is supposed to. All of this information from three different pages (account badges, account games, and location games) will correlate. Or at least it is supposed to.

On a recent specific day, someone won 19 badges across 4 lunchtime games at a specific identified location. Specifically, 5 of them in the 12:15, 2 of them in the 1:15, 6 of them in the 1:30, and 6 in the 1:45. So none of those games was perfect.

The games themselves have not appeared in any records, not under the account and not under the location. Perhaps some kind of non-report glitch. But then a countdown game of that same day at that location is reported into the records.

The next day, the same account plays one lunchtime game at that location, gets a perfect 7000 and 7 badges. This game reports for the account and for the location.

If not for the badges, one would never see any sign of the four games the previous day.

It would be a pretty neat trick if someone could selectively prevent non-perfect games from getting reported out and letting the perfect ones go out. Especially if prior to this New Age of Badges, there was no evidence. But I'll just put this event out there as a coincidence and see if anyone would like to match it up with other ones or with things that are not coincidences.

Be kind on me if this is a historically known trick that has been discussed somewhere. It does sound a little familiar from ages past. But I had thought maybe it had gone obsolete. Certainly, the badges put a new twist on detection.

Update 3/31/2012: With many more forensic examples found, it is conclusive. This person manipulates player account records and location game history records with the intent of expunging imperfect games so as to protect a high average (or perfect average), and to protect (or generate) high 180-day rankings. The evidence is clear in badge records as of the beginning of the era of badges on 2/28/2012.

Can you PM me with the account name? I'd like to look into this.

The only thing I was thinking is that the Badges are fairly real-time, whereas the game play data is uploaded once at night. If the location is online during the day but having connection problems at night this may be why this is happening. I'd like to have tech support look into this case.

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Would it also fit this description if they rebooted the server as soon as they missed a question?

So I've been looking into this today, and it's really odd. I've looked at the accounts and can see what you're seeing. We've looked at those locations and determined that they are not having connectivity issues, and the servers are not being rebooted. I put in a ticket to have this looked into more... We've ruled out the two obvious ways this would happen. I'll let you know what I find out!

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Let me guess, is this involving the one and only master hacker "make up man" from AZ? I'm convinced he has access to 1 or more servers in the bars out in AZ. He can reset the clocks on bar computers to suit his quest of messing with BT and who knows what else he's up to with deleting non perfect games.

I'll also guess that locking up or putting on hold one of his accounts a few weeks ago has made him mad and he's now going out of his way to hack the BT system.

Way to stay on him Whales and KK.

If by chance you aren't talking about AZ, Louisville KY is looking suspicious too.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Orioles and the 9 and 5!!

While I'm not certain, I believe ROGUE and FSHMAN cheat the system in different ways.

ROGUE either gets answers from the east coast or finds an AZ location whose CPU doesn't realize it's on DST when the rest of the state is not. He then goes to another site to play a repeat game.

FSHMAN on the other hand is doing something similar to rebooting the server before he's finished with a sub-standard game. That much is obvious with a cursory badge examination.

These two are strange ducks, both have over 30 P+ accounts spread over the same number of locations. ROGUE is an OK player, FSHMAN is a good player, but unfortunately these antics have taken away all their credibility.

BO

Let me take a quick peek; ROGUE and FSHMAN have ruined LT, FSHMAN has made a mockery of CD rankings, and BT has made a joke of premium game rankings, why continue to play? Oh yeah, the stock response, "We don't want to punish our local bars."

BTW, I have been hassling BT about ROGUE for years, and currently on FB. The final time I was banned from the old forums was because one of the above threatened lawsuit, because I called him a cheating douche. BT has also said, "we have disabled his account, we don't know why it still works." I will tell you, "predictably incompetent."

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Buzztime is a company full of dumbshits.

FSHMAN's games played via badge evidence for 4/3, all times listed on badges are local but will adjust for BT's PST showing of games played.

15 and 33: LTT @ 10, 1015am
17 and 19: LTT @ 1030, 1045am
29 and 33: CD @ 630pm
18 and 20: LS @ 7, 715, 730, 745pm

Now, I'm betting none of these scores show up in his profile for two reasons. 1, no perfect or thereabout scores. 2, unless I missed one, he did not get one single badge on the final question of the game. This adds credence to the theory he's manipulating the system before game's end on non-perfect scores.

It's a little tough checking out the time stamps on the badges because it has to be done same day, otherwise it just shows yesterday or gives the date. But I'm thinking any time he gets a badge on the final question of the game it will show in his profile.

Edit - 15 and 33 did ace the 1015am LTT game.

BO

Because if I keep practicing, someday, just maybe, I might get as good as FSHMAN.
Damn it, man! I have a dream!
At least I never threatened you with a lawsuit when you've called me a douche...

Oh, something else. Check out the P+ points on this FSHMAN account. http://www.buzztime.com/players/bt_prof ... d=13012714

Badge time stamps to the day and minute can still be retrieved after the day of, it just takes one more step. Click on an individual badge picture itself to get a list of all prior awards of that badge, to the day and minute.

On an account's "recent" badges page, every badge won is listed in reverse chronological order, although yes this is not obvious when only the date remains. But the order is protected and the times to the minute are one click beneath.

Ah, thanks for the tip. I owe you a badge, a common one though.

Now I can go back and check for the last question time stamp.

BO

I do, appropriately, still need "Guilty as Charged"!

I was coming to a conclusion that the 7th question of an LT is always stamped :08 (or :23 or :38 or :53). Do you concur?

On FSHMAN 15 and 33 the 115e/1015p LTT game shows 16,18,19,20,22,23,24.

I don't think the minutes are perfect throughout the network even with legit players, simply because a delay of even a second or two could make a difference. But it's close.

For example, TOM in FL who plays all the time has minute stamps of 16,17,18,19 while FSHMAN has 16,18,19,20 in the above game.

BO

Here's a telling page. http://www.buzztime.com/players/bt_prof ... tp=av&d=88

Notice the number of questions answered in the single non-perfect game?

BO

At a location much less frequently visited, at that!

Screen-capture that, in case it goes away later!

Pretty easy folks - no reboot needed. Just manager functions --> end Countdown is all he's doing when going to end sub-par.

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Please forgive any strange typos or grammar errors. I am typically using voice recognition software to enter text, and sometimes editing works differently from how I expect.

KK said the they've checked the two obvious ways and those weren't it. Was assuming those two were rebooting the CPU and terminating the game. Perhaps I should try these just to see what happens.

But I tend to doubt it's as simple as terminating the game, otherwise average players like CLEVR would be doing this all the time instead of quitting halfway through most games. Or perhaps I'm wrongly assuming that they would have access to the password or even have a clue what to do with it.

BO

I am pretty sure terminating game doesn't work, but I could be wrong. I have remotely terminated assholes (LT douche at 4 questions and the score still counted-I saw on the screen where he was playing and called in a problem to BT and had them re-boot (I should do this more often))before and the scores still showed, but maybe something has changed.

Is it safe for you to go out anyway, isn't there tractor trailers still flying through the air and such?

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Buzztime is a company full of dumbshits.

Trust me it works exactly like that - try it if you are doubtful. Here are the two things KK referred to:



She's right - it's none of those. It's game killing. Why do some cheaters rely on other means?

1) It kills P+ too and some people care
2) Other players will obviously notice and few probably have the chutzpah to kill when not alone
3) Unlike system reboots which can be physically controlled, it requires access to manager functions

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Please forgive any strange typos or grammar errors. I am typically using voice recognition software to enter text, and sometimes editing works differently from how I expect.

(self-edit)

Then again, I'm biased, as I've talked to him for hours on end and had him over to my house, so I know, as I've said, that he's pretty close to a walking encyclopedia. He answers the same level at Live Trivia events that "none repeats." I'm unaware of any team he's been on ever losing one, even the hard ones.

Perhaps he does something at lunch since he thinks some of you who obsess over your rankings are pretty "silly," but I've played with the guy a lot, and never seen him do anything of the sort -- and I've been playing with him for over a decade.

BO, you're just wrong on the FSH bit, at least regarding some clever "hack," or what have you. He doesn't have access to the servers. I'm not spreading his private life details in open forum, but you're incredibly off-base in what you're envisioning. I don't know if you've met him, but it wouldn't be a bad idea. Would become clear pretty quickly why what you're saying doesn't make a lot of sense.

I don't know exactly what is happening, but you have to admit he's gaming the system in some way. It's obvious he's playing games at certain times since he's accumulating badges in that window, but when those games appear nowhere in his profile you can't deny he's doing something improper.

Case in point, here is 18's badge profile http://www.buzztime.com/players/bt_prof ... &tn=badges
He earned many badges on 4/3. But pulling up his recent play http://www.buzztime.com/players/bt_prof ... d=13014224
No CD,LS, or LTT games show up. Nor do they show up under the game play history. So where did they go?

I know he's your friend and I completely understand standing up for him, but he's ruining his reputation with his actions.

BO

I'll ask him next time I see him. I'm willing to wager I know what is happening, and that it's a Buzztime bug. I'll ask him about the logon thing I mentioned to you, and if I'm correct on how Buzztime is communicating their badge information, it would cause your scores to report one place and your badges to report to another. If it does work that way, I could think of another possible side effect, too, which would be kind of interesting.

Hey all,

sorry - I don't have time to read through the full thread right now, but I said I would keep you posted... so here I am!

We did quite a lot of digging over the last couple days and determined that he was in fact terminating the games using the manager functions. Manager passwords at those locations have been changed, the managers at the locations have been notified, and we've deleted all of his accounts so that he no longer dominates leaderboards.

http://www.buzztime.com/players/bt_averages.php

We've talked with him and are allowing one new account with P+ points (since he has spent a ton of time at locations playing) but will be starting over with gameplay and stats, and will be monitored heavily from this point forward to make sure he's not terminating games.

We're still looking into Rogue... he cheats in a different way and we need to figure it out completely before we start deleting accounts there.

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