Dear Tom, and to anyone it may concern,
I am camel.
I imagine the vast majority of people who ever read this post will have no idea who camel is, nor care. If this is you, you may stop reading now. If you continue, please excuse my not being a good writer.
Before camel, I have also held the following accounts:
csecu: http://www.wargear.net/players/info/zdisabled25
Trqitra: http://www.wargear.net/players/info/zdisabled_d8614e05
riadbsc: http://www.wargear.net/players/info/zdisabled_aafac067
HangTen: http://www.wargear.net/players/info/zdisabled_fc56b4f4
donthurtme: http://www.wargear.net/players/info/zdisabled_57d85874
.. and maybe a couple more I can't remember.
Most recently since camel, jpmc and rixx.
I have *never* held more than one active account at a time.
In those days, with those accounts, I was sometimes a complete asshole. I stalled. I booted on purpose. I played vindictively, griefing players instead of playing to win. And I was often very profane. I'm an ex-sailor, so I know how to cuss. I accused many people of cheating. I even accused players of having sex with Tom for good dice.
My name is John. I was in the Navy in the 80's but I never saw any action. Today I am a retired taxi driver. I smoke about 2 packs of unfiltered camel cigarettes a day. I am deaf in one ear. I am about 40% blind from internal eye bleeding caused by diabetes, not to mention the cataracts. I have false teeth. I spend all day, every day sitting in a wheelchair, watching tv, reading news articles on my PC, and sometimes playing Risk. I no longer have the hand-eye coordination or dexterity to play anything more physically demanding.
I started playing Risk on Warfish, so long ago I can't even remember. I was also an asshole there, too, and got banned a couple of times. I am not proud of this. What I was proud of was an Antastic tournament, 256 players, 16 per game, 8 advance, double elimination, that took four years to finish, and that I won. But it's also why I have never joined a single tournament since.
For reasons still unknown to me, the admin of Warfish just stopped showing up or fixing anything, and so I became part of the mass migration of players to WarGear. I didn't like WarGear at first. I thought the interface was much too complicated compared to Warfish. But I have since come to love Wargear, and I wouldn't change a thing about the interface now. I think Tom is a genius, and I envy him for his ability to make something like WarGear.
But I digress.
I Do Not Cheat. There is another player on WarGear, jgreenwood, who very likely has the second most total games on WarGear after me, and who I have been chatting with for many years. We have played thousands of multi-player games together. NOT ONCE have we ever collaborated to throw a game. Indeed, we are often each other's worst enemy in games.
For example, in all three 3-player games he and I have played so far with my current account, the third person won:
http://www.wargear.net/games/view/705487
http://www.wargear.net/games/view/705627
http://www.wargear.net/games/view/706352
Once I didn't speak to him for months because I was so angry at his play.
I Do Not Cheat. I have seen a whisper campaign in public game comments by someone (whom I will get to in a minute) alleging that I won a 3 v 9, then it was 3 v 11, then 3 v 12, depending on who he was talking to. I do not recall such an incident, but even if it did occur, I have lost 9 v 3, 11 v 3 and 12 v 3 too many times to count, so a swing of luck the other way is not impossible, and if I even attempted such an attack it was pure hail mary.
But what it wasn't was some hack or "mod" or any other way of artificially affecting dice on WarGear. I couldn't even begin to imagine how to do something like that.
With regard to my conduct, I would like to say that I have reformed. I do not stall or boot any more. I do not play vindictively any more, I only play to win. And I do not cuss anymore. Indeed, since camel I have not said a single word to anyone in any form in any game.
To anyone I have wronged and/or offended in the past, I humbly and sincerely apologize. It will never happen again, if Tom grants me the mercy to retain this account.
I wish I could say I will never call someone a cheat again. I am sure Tom has long since dismissed me as the boy who cried wolf a hundred times over. However, I have seen many, many cheats, some of which Tom has verified, and some that exist right now, and, when that cheating becomes too unbearable and antagonistic, I will still call them out.
This leads me to my final topic.
I am being subjected to stalking and harassment by one player the likes of which I have never seen before. The only reason jpmc and rixx were banned was because this player reported me, not because of any wrongdoing with those accounts.
When camel got banned, this player went on a victory rampage like Trump post-impeachment, telling everyone that camel was banned for cheating, which is not true, and even naming public games as such. When he suspected jpmc was camel, he said so in game names in addition to comments, just to persuade others not to join my games. He did the same to rixx.
This is the pinnacle of irony, because this player has *hundreds* of accounts, many of which he plays simultaneously to cheat, and the volume of his profanity is unmatched, even by me at my worst in the past.
Exhibit A: http://www.wargear.net/games/view/706495
It won't take much of a sharp eye to see the cheating in that game. These two players are not just collaborating, they are in fact the same person. Generally, when getting ganged up on, like by bombsaway and crazyivan, when they start cussing, they don't usually use the *same exact cuss word.*
Both of these accounts use profanity in nearly every single game they play, and many of their game names are not only profane, but even disparaging of Wargear as a house of cheats. Just look at the comments in a few games from their ranking histories!
This player has so many accounts that I cannot keep up with them all. Just yesterday I saw one of his accounts that had not logged on in 5 years, and has never played a single public game. I truly believe this person spends much of their free time just creating new accounts, and has been for years.
Most but not all of these accounts are recognizeable by the distinguishing feature of being German militarily themed.
This is the earliest account I can point to of this brigade of profane cheats:
Der Panzer: http://www.wargear.net/players/info/zdisabled_fd5ef62f
I can't even begin to list all of his accounts, but here's a few of his most active:
http://www.wargear.net/players/info/Die%20Wehrmach
thttp://www.wargear.net/players/info/13a9394f8b06db695b8900c4f4b8a6db
http://www.wargear.net/players/info/45ab11d5fb25107fef7f5292be2a4f9b
http://www.wargear.net/players/info/The%20Fourth%20Reich
http://www.wargear.net/players/info/General%20Von%20Arsslichen
http://www.wargear.net/players/info/Aussie%20Digger
http://www.wargear.net/players/info/GeneralMonash (He got sneaky with this one. Initially appearing to be an Australian WW II war hero, he's actually of German origin.)
http://www.wargear.net/players/info/warqueer (Nobody cusses as consistently and similarly as Der Panzer as this account.)
In closing, I wish to beg your forgiveness, Tom, and to anyone else I have offended or fostered ill will. I will never do so again. I just want to play.
And if you could do something about this guy harassing me, that would be great.
link fixes:
http://www.wargear.net/players/info/Die%20Wehrmacht
http://www.wargear.net/players/info/13a9394f8b06db695b8900c4f4b8a6db
I don't think I've ever actually been in a game with you, but I know I saw you being a real jerk in the past (as you admit). You seem sincere. It's in Tom's hands I guess, but I personally would be ok with playing a game with you, assuming you don't revert to your old behavior.
One thing - you talk about cheating. As you allude it's unlikely that anyone has figured out how to cheat on dice rolls. Cheating is all about pre-determined collaborations. Tom has much more information that we could ever have to help him identify the cheaters, and he seems to take an active interest in removing them. If you think someone is cheating, just report them, mark them as an enemy, try to avoid them the best you can, and then ignore them.
I am not religious, but I believe in redemption, and camel seems sincere.
In the end this is Tom's call anyhow
Camel, I experienced much of your behavior, as you know. But, if you are true to your word and don't have that in you going forward, well, I hope Tom welcomes you back. Everyone deserves a second chance, and hell, this is just a game site. By accident I got on this thread tonight, but I will follow it to see if you are welcomed back. Good luck.
Dud
Hey Zyx,
You accused me and another random of collaborating in a 3 ffa yesterday. We were pretty surprised, if you check the log I think you'll see we were not.
I respect very much that you are retired, disabled, and a vet. I hope to play more games with you in the future. Please unblock, unmute me when you can. Stay safe during this pandemic time.
Blister King wrote:Hey Zyx,
You accused me and another random of collaborating in a 3 ffa yesterday. We were pretty surprised, if you check the log I think you'll see we were not.
I respect very much that you are retired, disabled, and a vet. I hope to play more games with you in the future. Please unblock, unmute me when you can. Stay safe during this pandemic time.
No, he's just a jerk, repeatedly.
zyx wrote:To anyone I have wronged and/or offended in the past, I humbly and sincerely apologize. It will never happen again, if Tom grants me the mercy to retain this account.
I wish I could say I will never call someone a cheat again. I am sure Tom has long since dismissed me as the boy who cried wolf a hundred times over. However, I have seen many, many cheats, some of which Tom has verified, and some that exist right now, and, when that cheating becomes too unbearable and antagonistic, I will still call them out.
Oh look, you are being a jerk again already! Well done tosser!
Camel, I'm sorry for your condition. But you're Delusional Brother. The only other account that you got right that I had was Die Wehrmacht and it was Tom that gave me my old name back. By the way, how is Lx doing?
Camel after my last Post I've been thinking about it and what you've stated in your "Open Letter." You stating that I am all of these other players is only in your mind. I'm certain that Tom knows all the IP addresses of all the players here and would know if what you claim about me were true and take action. That being said, I truly do feel badly about your current condition. Not that it matters but I would endorse Tom's reinstatement of your Namesake. I've tried in the past games of ours to reason with you but you're like a Belligerent Child with absolutely No Sense of Humor. I only handed you shit because you gave it to me first. I should have just ignored you. I hope things improve for you and you are able continue to enjoy this game. God Bless and Get Better Brother.
I know I'm waking up a long dead thread, and I'm not trying to take sides, but it seems odd the way that DP is responding. Generally, players who are aboveboard don't shoot back like that. Just check out this thread about Dud:
https://www.wargear.net/forum/showthread/5160p3/CHEAT
And, anyhow, what's the conclusion here? Just wondering.
Conlcusion is that zyx (aka camel) is no longer active. He was on his deathbed when he wrote his message above, and has not visited the site since October 2000. Camel was an asshole, but he also realized he had been one and tried to come clean in the end. I think we can lay this thread to rest now
Chele Nica wrote: ... visited the site since October 2000. ...
Of course you mean October 2020.
Right!
Thanks