If you want to report cheating - report it via email to imms@carrionfields.com and/or imps@carrionfields.com.

It is better to report cheating when you see it than way afterwards when it isn't likely to be verifiable.

You also may mistake what cheating is, so let's clarify.

Talking to someone OOC isn't cheating. People have friends. CF is a community, so people WILL talk. That's okay.

Knowing who someone's char is isn't cheating. We discourage it since it can easily lead to cheating - but it itself ISN'T cheating. We don't want chars outed in general, particularly in public, since that opens that door to many to treat the character differently in-game based on that OOC knowledge. But knowing another person is playing X, or telling another person you are playing X, is not itself cheating.

Helping with mechanical questions is not cheating. You can chat all day long about how to play X class, Y race, how you'd gear Z build, etc. That isn't cheating. There is nothing wrong with OOC advising someone. It can be a great help to noobs.

Asking about IC things OOC is, itself, not cheating. If you have a friend who isn't playing, and you are playing, there is nothing cheaty about asking how he'd handle XYZ situations. That isn't cheating. Why did I mention "not playing"? Because it becomes more risky if they are, as it COULD lead them to treat you differently IC.

So if knowing who someone plays, advising them, helping teach them mechanics, etc. isn't cheating - what is?

Translating the above from OOC to IC benefits.

Example 1:
You know your friend is playing X character, so you gear them in-game though normally you wouldn't, only doing so because it was your friend.
Example 2:
Coordinating benefits OOC to your in-game character. "Hey later get on and run me through a dragon lair." "Vote for me for emperor."
Example 3:
Using characters you know they play to benefit yourself or that character. "I'll tell you when X enemy is online later." "Hey tell me when X enemy is offline later."

Notice the trend. Simple OOC knowledge isn't enough. We know people have friends. I don't want people NOT to have friends. All I want is for people to NOT use that OOC friendship to benefit their IC characters through fake-IC means: getting a mage kill on your friend, geared from your friend, votes from your friend, ranking your friends safely, etc.

That doesn't mean you and your friend can't have similar characters. It means it is YOUR job to avoid letting that interfere with playing your character independently. And if you cross that line, you can lose your character or be banned for violating our rules.

I hope this post informs people as to what we're actually concerned about. We aren't interested in big forum accusation drama. We don't get super public about disciplinary issues for that reason. So please keep your claims to emailing us rather than public posts. As that allows us to dig into and determine if we can verify rule-breaking to match the claim.

If anyone has any questions as to if a given thing qualifies as cheating, you're welcome to reach out to an immortal to ask. Keeping CF a "fair" game involves mutual efforts from player and immortal alike.

Thanks for reading.
Thread locked.