FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION
EXAMPLES OF COLLUSION
Computer games seldom have written rules because the designers assume that the game will enforce the rules automatically: The players simply can't make illegal moves, in most cases. However, software can't detect certain kinds of collusion between players.
Consider an online multiple-choice trivia game with three possible answers for each question. Each player receives the same question from the server and has a fixed length of time in which to enter an answer. When a player enters his answer, he immediately learns whether he was right or wrong. Correct answers earn points, and the player with the largest number of points at the end of the game wins.
Four players can easily collude at this game to guarantee that one of them will win. They all play on different machines in the same physical location—an Internet cafe, for instance. When a question appears, three of the players each immediately enter a different response—A, B, or C—and the fourth one waits. When the software informs one of three players that she is correct, she immediately calls out her letter, and the fourth player enters it before the time runs out. This way the fourth player always enters the correct answer. Even with fewer than four players colluding this way, they can greatly increase the odds of winning.
You can easily defeat this form of collusion: You simply don't reveal the correct answer until the time for entering answers runs out. Players who enter an answer early simply have to wait to find out whether they answered correctly. But other forms of collusion can be more insidious. Online poker, for example, can involve players sharing information about their cards via instant messaging or some form of physical communication. There is no way for the system to account for external means of communication. If you offer a prize for the player who wins the greatest number of chess games in a certain length of time, for example, two players can collude to play each other, with one always trying to lose to the other as quickly as possible.
