Is Tanking Cheating?, by Strayed

I'm a little confused here. You are not really asking whether we feel tanking is cheating. Rather, you are asking if we should set a forum policy without telling us the impact our decision will have.

If we as a forum declare tanking to be cheating, what is the outcome? Does this mean all discussion of tanking is banned? Topics like the how to guide would be locked or removed? People complaining of tanking would be moved to the rant section always? We all jump on and shame any tankers we see? What exactly does it mean to have official forum view that tanking is cheating?

I ask because this strikes me as one of those grey areas where wether we feel or even know something is wrong, being able to discuss it has value. Look at Hacking. Yes, hacking to steal data is wrong. Yet people will do it. Some will do it for unethical purposes. Others will do it to find the flaws in a programs and report those flaws in the hopes of creating a better system. Look at the MIT students who figured out how to hack the Massachusetts Transit Authority Charlie cards. The students did it to point out a flaw not to get free rides. Though there were problems with that case, the end result was a better system that had one less expliot.

Here, many of us like the intellectual excercise of suggesting new match making methods. In order to do that, knowing how people tank, why they tank, and what the outcome is, can be beneficial. Would such discussions be squashed if the official policy is that tanking is cheating? Would this lead to supression of information that would lead to a better MM?

So really, what exactly does it mean if the official forum policy is that tanking is cheating?

Pix considers it cheating. They made the game and did not intend this, therefore it is cheating:

From dev news 2/8/17:

"4. Tanking/leaving

Pixonic is aware of the issue and community concern regarding people leaving matches to tank their rating. You may recall their recent social media poll about whether or not people leaving matches should be penalized. Although no details were disclosed, Pix confirmed that they will be implementing some form of protection for players against those abusing the system. "

Tanking is exploiting. Exploiting is cheating. Tanking is cheating.

Obviously some people here think exploiting loopholes is not cheating. You will always find a range of standards in any group... some people just have lower standards than others for what they consider to be acceptable behavior.

If not precisely in the letter, then certainly in the spirit. Cheating.

Yes, and agreed. I made that point because certain forum warriors are making myopic blanket statements from the ethical side of the eternal debate.

Pixonic defines the ethical code. We define the moral code.

The majority of scientists do not believe in a soul. Many of them consider human experimentation to be ethically acceptible because what harm is being done is only happening to a bag of specialized flesh with pre-programmed instincts. They see no difference between harming a worm versus harming a human, as long as it's in the name of Science.

To be clear, I am not one of those types. However, peeps around here don't know how to debate, so I'm attempting to help define the scope of the opposing arguments.

"I am Hanjo" was not a cheater.

Deleted cuz i am a bloke

FWIW, in other games like Clash of Clans, Samurai Siege, Rival Kingdoms, etc., many times people have put their castle, stronghold, or whatever outside their walls so it could be taken down and lose some kind of honor points. Some game manufacturers like SuperCell changed their rules to make the strategy not work for most players which mitigated the behavior. Other games have not. I put it to the game manufacturers to address rules in-game to prevent what the community thinks is cheating.
Also, consider if you have ever exceeded the speed limit when driving, even when "going with the flow of traffic". Is that not exploiting the rules when there is not a police officer there to enforce?
I bring this up for the debate of whether exploiting should only be stopped when others are harmed directly by the behavior or if exploiting should be stopped regardless.

I should have elaborated.

Tanking, while not breaking any directly expressed, explicit rules as stated by Pixonic, is clearly unfair to teammates.

The directives to win stated at the beginning of each match are:

1. Take beacon
2. Hold beacon

Tanking is in direct opposition to the conditions required to win. It causes the tanking player to gain, and the leftover players harm. They lose time and opportunity, while the offending player gains the same.

Tanking advocates have justified their stance ad nauseum, saying beacon cap/exit helps win, it's not against the rules, etc.. but anything short of making efforts to meet the two conditions of winning is unfair to others, causes harm, and therefore cheating by definition.

Short, I think it's cheating and secondly I'm tired of seeing it pop up on the forums. Teaching players how to do it encourages it in my opinion.
Manipulation of the system to me is cheating. The argument that just because it's possible is not equal to it being right. Tanking is detrimental to your own team in a way that's just as bad as all the Noricum/Zenit campers and leavers.

I am seeing a letter of the law vs spirit of the law arguement

Not that you can't complain, but that you can't tell people to do it as advice. Since Strayed spelled out the specific tactics being discussed, I fully agree it should be considered cheating by the Forum rules.

Not hold beacons?

Personally, and I am not trying to speak for Lillith, I got the feeling that there was a bit of "let me pick an example for illustration purposes," aspect to the use of scientists and ethics. 

While I have no real experience with any labcoat wearing lab technicians trying to prove or formulate a theory about something, nor theorists doing their R and D and attempting to understand the unknown, and therefore cannot say one way or another how much truth is in either viewpoint, I understood what the point was that was he was trying to make. 

Don't take offense, Klatsch, as we are limited to the very impersonal medium of text on a screen for these debates and opinions... but instead, take a second to correct if you feel it was offensive.  Much like I could be offended my your statement about White men sleeping at night.  I love the clan, and think that there are enough similarities with each other that will outweigh the differences, as long as we choose to give each other the benefit of the doubt, and try to clarify what one may have been saying, and maybe correct one another, first, before taking offense from something that may have been taken out of context. 

JMO...

If the objective of the game was to capture and hold beacons, why the hell are there light bots. 
Why should the stalker and the cossack exist?