Ren'Py Champion of Realms [v0.94.5] [Zimon]

[Djaylol]

There are several suspicious reviews dating back months, where "someone" made an account to post a single 5 star review, left no comments or anything and never logged back into the account afterwards. This doesn't seem like a one time thing.
(Not to mention that you're just taking his word that he was asleep)

maybe cus he liked the game and wanted to support it by leaving a review duh

 

[Sam]

fun fact he was asleep when that happened i suggest joining the discord and getting more information from there

Zimon logged into his main account using the same IP as one of the alts 40 minutes after the fact. His main accounts last activity on that day was 1:36AM UTC, the last of the spam reviews was posted at 12:58AM UTC.

Even if they weren't, its not difficult to change your IP address, or have one shared by multiple people. College campuses don't have an individual ip per computer, they have one per exit point of the campus network. So several hundred people could "share" an IP. IP alone is not enough for anything.

It's a residential IP, and the cross over between accounts is less than an hour.

Especially given he has had other problems with F95 before, I wouldn't be surprised if this is yet another attempt by the mods to cause problems for him.

We can only promote a thread when we are notified about it. If he updates the thread and then doesn't report the OP, we don't know about the update, and so it doesn't get promoted.

What kind of fucked up system is being run here where someone is forced to admit to something, accepts a punishment, informs the other communities about said punishment, then is further punished.

Unfortunately devs using alts to post fake reviews is actually quite a common occurrence. As long as the developer owns up to the "mistake" and promises to not do it again then we're fine with giving them a second chance and not posting a public message. However, it's clear that in this instance, from the messages posted on Discord, that there was zero remorse plus a denial of wrongdoing, so we no longer felt comfortable giving him the benefit of the doubt that this was a one time thing, and enforced our rules more stringently.

but each time it seems like its a targeted attack on Zimon [...] corrupt system with people who have it out for him.

This is the first time I've had any interaction with him, and I haven't even played this game. Do you seriously think I randomly go around targeting innocent developers just for kicks? In the past 5 years we have banned reviews on 3 games including this one. This is an incredibly rare occurrence and an action we do not take lightly.

 

[Djaylol]

Zimon logged into his main account using the same IP as one of the alts 40 minutes after the fact. His main accounts last activity on that day was 1:36AM UTC, the last of the spam reviews was posted at 12:58AM UTC.


It's a residential IP, and the cross over between accounts is less than an hour.


We can only promote a thread when we are notified about it. If he updates the thread and then doesn't report the OP, we don't know about the update, and so it doesn't get promoted.


Unfortunately devs using alts to post fake reviews is actually quite a common occurrence. As long as the developer owns up to the "mistake" and promises to not do it again then we're fine with giving them a second chance and not posting a public message. However, it's clear that in this instance, from the messages posted on Discord, that there was zero remorse plus a denial of wrongdoing, so we no longer felt comfortable giving him the benefit of the doubt, and enforced our rules more stringently.


This is the first time I've had any interaction with him, and I haven't even played this game. Do you seriously think I randomly go around targeting innocent developers just for kicks? In the past 5 years we have banned reviews on 3 games including this one. This is an incredibly rare occurrence and an action we do not take lightly.

how many reviews where posted

 

[Sam]

how many reviews where posted

8 reviews, going back to July. All 8 used the same French VPN node. The 8th and final review was posted at 12:58AM UTC yesterday, whilst the account was registered using the same VPN node as the previous 7 reviews, it also logged in using Zimon's main residential IP - I'm guessing he accidentally disabled his VPN whilst still logged into this alt.

We were obviously monitoring the situation due to the previous 7 reviews, however once we had concrete evidence with the 8th account we took action.

We are also suspicious of another 3 accounts, but haven't taken action as it can't be 100% proven like the 8 mentioned above.

 

[Djaylol]

8 reviews, going back to July. All 8 used the same French VPN node. The 8th and final review was posted at 12:58AM UTC yesterday, whilst the account was registered using the same VPN node as the previous 7 reviews, it also logged in using Zimon's main residential IP - I'm guessing he accidentally disabled his VPN whilst still logged into this alt.

We were obviously monitoring the situation due to the previous 7 reviews, however once we had concrete evidence with the 8th account we took action.

We are also suspicious of another 3 accounts, but haven't taken action as it can't be 100% proven like the 8 mentioned above.

you mean they come from france

 

[Sam]

you mean they come from france

Re-read my post. All 8 accounts used the same VPN node, the 8th account also used Zimon's residential IP address, thus proving the 8th account was Zimon's alt, and linking the previous 7 accounts to the 8th account.

The VPN node used was French. I'm not going to reveal Zimon's residential ISP or country.

 

[Kitsune241]

Zimon logged into his main account using the same IP as one of the alts 40 minutes after the fact. His main accounts last activity on that day was 1:36AM UTC, the last of the spam reviews was posted at 12:58AM UTC.

That was the part I was curious about, having a bunch of good reviews come from the same IP is suspicious but could just be an over zealous fan, having them come from the same IP the dev used is damning.

you mean they come from france

The VPN was in france that doesn't mean the person is, there is no "Haha but Zimon doesn't live in france" moment here.

 

[DarthFalcon]

Zimon logged into his main account using the same IP as one of the alts 40 minutes after the fact. His main accounts last activity on that day was 1:36AM UTC, the last of the spam reviews was posted at 12:58AM UTC.


It's a residential IP, and the cross over between accounts is less than an hour.


We can only promote a thread when we are notified about it. If he updates the thread and then doesn't report the OP, we don't know about the update, and so it doesn't get promoted.

8 reviews, going back to July. All 8 used the same French VPN node. The 8th and final review was posted at 12:58AM UTC yesterday, whilst the account was registered using the same VPN node as the previous 7 reviews, it also logged in using Zimon's main residential IP - I'm guessing he accidentally disabled his VPN whilst still logged into this alt.

We were obviously monitoring the situation due to the previous 7 reviews, however once we had concrete evidence with the 8th account we took action.

We are also suspicious of another 3 accounts, but haven't taken action as it can't be 100% proven like the 8 mentioned above.

I appreciate you replying with this information. I was not aware of any of that. Certainly food for thought. Hard to deny if the account was made with the VPN and used his IP. Although that would only make it certain 1 of the alt accounts was used for that purpose, not all 8.

All of this has happened to several different games I follow not just CoR, it's the result of a buggy system not a directed attack on one random dev.

There are several suspicious reviews dating back months, where "someone" made an account to post a single 5 star review, left no comments or anything and never logged back into the account afterwards. This doesn't seem like a one time thing.
(Not to mention that you're just taking his word that he was asleep)

I don't frequent F95 much, so I didn't know it was a more widespread issue. I only know about it when it happens to CoR. In fact this is the only thread I've ever really looked at.

Unfortunately devs using alts to post fake reviews is actually quite a common occurrence. As long as the developer owns up to the "mistake" and promises to not do it again then we're fine with giving them a second chance and not posting a public message. However, it's clear that in this instance, from the messages posted on Discord, that there was zero remorse plus a denial of wrongdoing, so we no longer felt comfortable giving him the benefit of the doubt, and enforced our rules more stringently.


This is the first time I've had any interaction with him, and I haven't even played this game. Do you seriously think I randomly go around targeting innocent developers just for kicks? In the past 5 years we have banned reviews on 3 games including this one. This is an incredibly rare occurrence and an action we do not take lightly.

I wasn't sure. I like having all of the information before I make a decision, and I realize I made a decision prematurely. I'm still not 100% convinced, but its certainly something I will have to think about more. I understand wanting to take action if something like this happens.

 

[Djaylol]

The VPN was in france that doesn't mean the person is, there is no "Haha but Zimon doesn't live in france" moment here.

haha but zim doesnt live in france

 

[Joey's Conscience]

I appreciate you replying with this information. I was not aware of any of that. Certainly food for thought. Hard to deny if the account was made with the VPN and used his IP. Although that would only make it certain 1 of the alt accounts was used for that purpose, not all 8.

Sam can you share who were the 7 accounts, or at least their activity on the forum? Did all 7 just post a 5 star review and nothing else?

 

[redknight00]

Sam can you share who were the 7 accounts, or at least their activity on the forum? Did all 7 just post a 5 star review and nothing else?

There is no point in sharing since each was used only to boost this game, they joined, liked the op posted 5 star review and were discarded.

 

[Djaylol]

There is no point in sharing since each was used only to boost this game, they joined, liked the op posted 5 star review and were discarded.

so they created an acount to support a game they liked isnt that normal to do when you like a game creating an account to support it on different platforms

 

[Forgotted]

There is no point in sharing since each was used only to boost this game, they joined, liked the op posted 5 star review and were discarded.

Out of curiosity, in a case like this are there any other actions taken against the game developer? I mean, one could suppose that since this dev is bringing in over $3000 per month that some (most?) of that support is coming from users on this site and therefore might be partially based on the 'bad' reviews?

Just curious, and not trying to stir the pot. I haven't seen this happen on here before.

Cheers

 

[Kitsune241]

so they created an acount to support a game they liked isnt that normal to do when you like a game creating an account to support it on different platforms

If they were actual people, sure.
But there's definitive proof it was all Zimon, which is (obviously) against the site rules.
He tried to scam the system and got caught, you can't defend him.

 

[Djaylol]

If they were actual people, sure.
But there's definitive proof it was all Zimon, which is (obviously) against the site rules.
He tried to scam the system and got caught, you can't defend him.

guess what im doing right now

 

[Djaylol]

If they were actual people, sure.
But there's definitive proof it was all Zimon, which is (obviously) against the site rules.
He tried to scam the system and got caught, you can't defend him.

and do you have any proof he did the only people that have that are the mods so you cant attack him

 

[Kitsune241]

and do you have any proof he did the only people that have that are the mods so you cant attack him

You're totally right, the mods have the proof, you literally had the SysAdmin explain to you earlier how they know it could only be Zimon.

8 reviews, going back to July. All 8 used the same French VPN node. The 8th and final review was posted at 12:58AM UTC yesterday, whilst the account was registered using the same VPN node as the previous 7 reviews, it also logged in using Zimon's main residential IP - I'm guessing he accidentally disabled his VPN whilst still logged into this alt.

Fact: 8 reviews came from 8 accounts all made by the same person.
Fact: The same person logged into the 8th account as well as Zimon's account.
Conclusion: Zimon made all 8 accounts and posted all 8 reviews.

No one is attacking Zimon, he got fairly banned for breaking the rules. THE END

 

[Badjourasmix]

Oh wow I wasn't expecting zimon to do something like that especially since most of the reviews seem to be positive anyway.

 

[redknight00]

so they created an acount to support a game they liked isnt that normal to do when you like a game creating an account to support it on different platforms

It's is not at all, you need to be logged in an account to download games. The other possibility is that they made an account, downloaded the game, reviewed, then decided nothing else in the site was worth downloading and stopped logging in that account. All in the spam of a couple minutes.

That or they are alts made to boost the game.

 

[Badjourasmix]

I get that people are surprised with what happened, but I don't see why the staff/mods would target zimon and ban him for no reason. The idea of creating accounts to give your game good reviews sounds kind of dumb especially since the game already had really good ratings anyway, but I don't see why the staff would randomly choose this dev and make up a story like this. We all know that zimon in the past has shown concerns about the reviews and the fact that the thread is not as active as he would like it to be. This situation sucks but in this case I don't think we can really blame the staff/mods.