A look into the other side of Tanki Online

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

A LOOK INTO THE OTHER SIDE OF TANKI :

HACKERS, SPAMMERS, NOOBS AND THE LOT

 

As the old saying goes, "birds of a feather flock together".

 

It applies to almost everyone who think alike. Yes, to featherless creatures too! Groups of them huddled together, spreading their beliefs, for the good of the world...... wait, what?

 

Well, it so appears (and it should be blatantly obvious by now, what with the flurry of articles about this topic), that these 'birds' are present on this game as well. Mostly, these birds are the ones you greet by saying 'hey, parrot, what's up?' or the type about which you comment 'oh, hogree's written about a chicken again'. There are even the more widely found XP professionals and clan devouts and every single player who possesses the same combo of the next person, people who speak the same language..... the list is endless.

 

Did I forget something? There are also the type of 'birds' who hang around in the more shady confines of the game, looting happiness, feasting on sorrow, and, through deceit, send many tankers crying home.

 

I know I may be sounding like a prime minister speaking out against militant attacks at this point, but I'm really here to speak my heart out on these people. Partly due to personal experience.

 

18 July, 2013

 

A tanker called Pratyush.Padmanabhan lifts his Railgun and sniffs the Moon Silence CTF he's just entered. Sweet. He warms up with a few shots round the corner, and, while waiting for someone to join him, flies through space-time a few times.

 

Meanwhile, a message pops up on his screen - 

 

Random_Player joined

 

Pratyush.Padmanabhan feels the adrenaline pumping through his body. At last, a proper CTF.

 

Before he can move forward, his opponent writes in the chat box - 

 

Random_Player - Hey, do you want unlimited crystals?

 

Pratyush_Padmanabhan brightens up. A quick look at his crystal bar tells him he's running really low - only eighty-six crystals remaining. He starts, in his ignorance, to inwardly thank his opponent to be so generous.

 

Pratyush.Padmanabhan - How many can you give me?

 

Random_Player - As much as you want. You can trust me.

 

Poor brainwashed Pratyush_Padmanabhan, in his delusion to be richer, blindly believes Random_Player's claims of trustability. As he starts dreaming about buying the new hull which he recently saw in his garage, he sees another line of text - 

 

Random_Player - You just need to give me your password

 

By then, he was blind to sense. He typed in a string of letters in the chat. Within a second, he received yet another message.

 

Random_Player left.

 

Happy, Pratyush.Padmanabhan left, dreaming of his fat reward the next day. When he logged in, he found a message saying he had been banned forever. Stunned for a minute, he could only watch. Then, realization broke over. Random_Player, who had seemed so friendly, had wrecked his account.

 

Of course, he was just a corporal, so he could start playing again, but he trusted strange players no more.

 

***

 

That was me.

 

After it got hacked, I created a new account - this one. Except, this time, I stayed wary of fake offers and instantly reported anyone using even the slightest malpractice.

 

Who are these people? Well, Tanki has a common terminology for these people - hackers. These are the people, who, in chat box or any other medium, mislead poor tankers by saying that they can give them unlimited crystals, supplies or any other experience points. A lot of us know to stay well away from such people, but some cannot resist the opportunity of quick money - they cave in to the other person's demands and enter their passwords. The rest, as people rightly say, is history.

 

We often see people in chat typing - "Who all want 100 000 crystals, give me your password". People usually ignore them, but then these people start spamming in the flood constantly, till someone actually believes them and hands over their details with the parting line "give me crystals fast plz".

 

That is despicable. Not content with playing for themselves, they get other people's accounts with the promise of resources and then hack them, and sometimes proceed to wreck your online personality (you'll be surprised as to what one can do when they gain access to their network.

 

The thing I don't understand is, why do they do this? Mostly people think that they want a higher ranked account to play in, but all they do is ban it forever, forcing that poor tanker to start over again.

 

Are they juveniles? Are they autists? If not, then why do they do these things? Is it simply because they are heartless and love to see other people suffer? I have known someone who invested a lot of money in the game, in fact, almost his whole pocket money went into Tanki. Then, one fine day he got hacked by a person claiming to be a 'friend' and who assured that he would get him to Generalissimo in a week. He cried for three hours.

 

Of course, Tanki has implemented policies to counter these people, the most notable being the ability to link your account to your email. That gives you the power to change your password whenever possible.

 

My message to you people is, stay aware. Crystals will come on their own if you play well in the game - these people are just frauds. If you catch one, take a screenshot and report them straight away.

 

Then, hopefully, the game will be free of malpractices.

 

***

 

On the topic of spammers and noobs, I won't wax eloquent like I did above. Because, I know that many of them reside amongst our numbers even now.

 

Those are people who just write stuff like 'ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt' in the chat, refusing to be discouraged for flooding bans, or constantly write, 'gold box please' or 'no kill' or 'go home noob' in the game, not even knowing what noob means.

 

Well, I'd say they more irritate tankers than send them home crying, but you cannot deny that they are an issue everyone needs to resolve.

 

Some are lost in their own world; they think they know everything. In fact, when I tried to tell someone in the chat that the gold box drops randomly, he just told me 'go home nub'.

 

Well, I've even come across tankers who run vendettas among each other. Those are the ones who actually ruin your game.

 

Got my drift? People who ruin your aim while sniping. People who push you out into the open when you're hiding with the flag from the enemy and are running low on health, in fact, people who jam you across the walls when you have it waiting for you to press 'f'. In fact, these people can drive you up the walls so much that you start to sympathize with the enemy team.

 

These are the people who are addicts of Tanki. They can't bear to even lose a few XP, and they get nasty when denied what they want.

 

Once, in a Rio CTF, I was coming back up the building with the enemy flag when this Mammoth just blocked my way. Blocked it. He wasn't letting me pass, as a result of which the firebird coming up behind me could quite easily torch me. And believe this - he didn't even return the flag - he just sat there and typed 'hahaha' into the chat.

 

And, there are power-levellers : people who just sit there and do nothing while your team has to go handicapped throughout the match.

 

These annoy me more than hackers, because I can ignore the latter. Again, I ask - was this game built so that people can fight each other for petty things like flags and crystals? Was this game built for someone's personal gain? 

 

The answer is, quite plainly - no. This game was built to teach us teamwork. It was built so that everyone can have fun in the game - because, in the game, we are all one.

 

Now, this is not a patriotic song!

 

It's just that when someone does something unfair to you - you have to realize that they are tankers like us - simply taking the easy way out for their personal game. These are players, who, have never known the meaning of true friends.

 

I have many good friends whom I play battles with and enjoy a lot, while there are others who simply sit there and nag me.

 

Again, Tanki is just a game - but a unique one. People complain about all these issues, and this can stop only when the offenders come to realize their mistakes, and the rest of the community tries to explain the right way instead of insulting them.

 

That way, the entire community can benefit, and Tanki will become what it really is - a place where people hang out and have loads of fun.

 

***

 

 

 

[golden5648 1,686]

Wonderful! Awesome! Beautiful article TNT!  ^_^

 

I hope that those who are in there "own world", would read this message, and would understand from there heart... Otherwise, what would they do?

They would just think like this, "Why the hell am I reading this? I need to complete my mission of hacking 10 tankers this week!"

 

Reck those type of people, may your account rest in peace. :) (Old account I mean)

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

Wonderful! Awesome! Beautiful article TNT!  ^_^

 

I hope that those who are in there "own world", would read this message, and would understand from there heart... Otherwise, what would they do?

They would just think like this, "Why the hell am I reading this? I need to complete my mission of hacking 10 tankers this week!"

 

Reck those type of people, may your account rest in peace. :) (Old account I mean)

Well, that was just a corporal :P

Seriously, I was very immature two years ago.

And for those who think similar to your sentence in italics, I'll just ask them this - Does it not affect your conscience, stealing the happiness of someone else? 

[dilsharox 2,395]

nice

[COMMANDER_Venom 9]

this is the first aricle i read and it is sssssoooooooooooo nice  :D  :rolleyes:

and even i hate some idiots how block my way one i needed 1 point to level up i had the flag a mammoth refused to move from the flag in last i was frozen to death by  a freeze he did not even cair to take and capture the flag he distroyed the freeze AND SAT TYPEING THERE HA HA HA and waite there till the flag returnds itself  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :o  :o  :o  :o  :o  :o  :o  :o  :excl:  :excl:  :excl:  :excl:  :excl:  :excl:  :excl:

sorry for spelling errors

[vanshajwore 324]

great work as always! :)

[COMMANDER_Venom 9]

Well, that was just a corporal :P

Seriously, I was very immature two years ago.

And for those who think similar to your sentence in italics, I'll just ask them this - Does it not affect your conscience, stealing the happiness of someone else? 

even i was foolish dude i had all m3 exept for rail gun m3 i had m2 i nned 300 or somthing crystals nned 500 pts to level up to genralissmo level 

i joind a 1 vs  1 cft a palyed below my rank joiend he he had a fully microde m3 rail i asked him how he said i hacked the crystals i blindly asked him to nad gave by password to him he told ok go ofline nad wait for an hour i cmae back online to find my account hacked and wreacked with one message your account has been baned reason foul play i lost my commander account named Venom so in honer of my ond account i cerated this named COMMANDER_Venom 

may u rest in peace my dear account Venom :(  :(  :(  :(  :(

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

Thanks @vanshajwore! :)

PS Venom I sympathise with you a lot. It really does get on your nerves when all this happens.

PS Sorry for your other account

[drazeruzumaki 5,021]

nice topic as always and the better part is that a fellow indian wrote such a good article :P

[sonofchrysalis3 3,719]

Your warning to beware of those super-friendly smiling faces with knives in their pockets cannot be emphasized enough, on this or any other site.  They have no shame.  I was just on server EN9 a minute ago, chatting with buddies, and some stranger asked me out of the blue if I wanted to swap accounts.

 

The craziest thing was that he did it with a moderator right there in the chat box, complete with the little symbol next to the name.

 

Needless to say, that stranger is looking for a new line of work.

[golden5648 1,686]

this is the first aricle i read and it is sssssoooooooooooo nice  :D  :rolleyes:

and even i hate some idiots how block my way one i needed 1 point to level up i had the flag a mammoth refused to move from the flag in last i was frozen to death by  a freeze he did not even cair to take and capture the flag he distroyed the freeze AND SAT TYPEING THERE HA HA HA and waite there till the flag returnds itself  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :o  :o  :o  :o  :o  :o  :o  :o  :excl:  :excl:  :excl:  :excl:  :excl:  :excl:  :excl:

sorry for spelling errors

No problem :) No one is perfect  ;)

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

Your warning to beware of those super-friendly smiling faces with knives in their pockets cannot be emphasized enough, on this or any other site.  They have no shame.  I was just on server EN9 a minute ago, chatting with buddies, and some stranger asked me out of the blue if I wanted to swap accounts.

 

The craziest thing was that he did it with a moderator right there in the chat box, complete with the little symbol next to the name.

 

Needless to say, that stranger is looking for a new line of work.

True, but I did do my best... :rolleyes:

[falcosenna1 8,320]

Nicely written article! Original way to make players aware of the fact that you should never trust anyone who's asking for your password, who's giving you the impossible offer of unlimited crystals. Well done!

[sonofchrysalis3 3,719]

@ TNT -->

 

And your best is phenomenal.  I'm saying that everyone should read this and live by its lesson.

[Ambitious 2,084]

DUDE are you pratyush?!?!?!!?? :OOOOOOOOO

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

Nicely written article! Original way to make players aware of the fact that you should never trust anyone who's asking for your password, who's giving you the impossible offer of unlimited crystals. Well done!

Thanks, falco! You should encounter frequent cases such as this one, so you'll know best! :)

@ TNT -->

 

And your best is phenomenal.  I'm saying that everyone should read this and live by its lesson.

Oh. I thought you were saying something in poetic language :P

 

DUDE are you pratyush?!?!?!!?? :OOOOOOOOO

Duuuuude, I told you this, like, twice before!

[sonofchrysalis3 3,719]

@TNT -->

 

I am poetic language.

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

@TNT -->

 

I am poetic language.

So that means we can now greet you as "hello, alliteration" or "whats up, hyperbole" or "hey there, personification" :P

[sonofchrysalis3 3,719]

@TNT -->

 

Goodbye, iambic pentameter.

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

@TNT -->

 

Goodbye, iambic pentameter.

See you, ictus.

[alpha_destroyr 158]

Amazing as usual Pratyush :P

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

Amazing as usual Pratyush :P

Thanks :P

[Ambitious 2,084]

Duuuuude, I told you this, like, twice before!

HOLY DONUTS AND SMOKES! Guess I am just too dumb.

Amazing article btw!

[momy950666 960]

GOOD WORK BRO!

[COMMANDER_Venom 9]

Thanks @vanshajwore! :)

PS Venom I sympathise with you a lot. It really does get on your nerves when all this happens.

PS Sorry for your other account

thanks man and yes it dose get on my nerve