Hey guys,
I'd like to have your opinions on the matter here.
I'm a super mod on a game I've submitted a few weeks ago, and I'm also a runner of this game. One of the tops.
Now, another runner submitted a run in which he claims to have beaten my record, but has no actual timing on screen of it. It's an arcade game, and it's being played on the player's MAMEcade cab. We're at a point where the times are so low that millisecond timing is required.
At first sight, he seemed to have beaten my WR, so I allowed it. However, I thought about it and implemented a rule in which times below a certain threshold would be subject to time verifications, starting from the first frame the game starts until the first visible frame of the end-game victory. As the rules originally stated in terms of timing. So no goalposts moving here: simply a frame-perfect enforcement of this rule. That made sense as we're at a level where optimal runs have time differences in milliseconds.
Throughout this exercise, I found out that my previous run was still faster than his submitted run (said run was actually almost a half-second slower than claimed).
Given that I'm a supermod AND a top runner of this game, do you guys see any conflict of interest or ethics issue in the fact that I edited the runs to reflect the time verifications, as this would grant me the WR on the game? I also provided video evidence of those time verifications, to be on the safe side. Do you see any foul play in this at all? I believe there's none, but I wouldn't wanna be an asshole about it either.
I don't see anything wrong with it, if your new time verification was correct. Having a impartial third party verify your work will remove all doubt of foul play though.
I can easily see this being a problem if, for instance, you start a leaderboard only using seconds and not milliseconds, but then needing to add them in later. It would cause all runs to be retimed in a much more precise manner.
So the scenario is valid. But if the other runner or future runners dispute your runs, have a third party retime them.
The matter is resolved regardless as I've just beaten both runs. Thanks again for your input.
This seems legit. If you're at that point where it comes down to frame perfect stuff, you have to add a rule like that one. If you're ahead by even a frame, then you are still the world record holder. (That is if you're not lying about that. lol) If you['ve been honest about everything you've said in this thread, then there is nothing at all wrong with it. As JayJane said, however, you should have another mod look over your work just in case someone calls you out on it.
EDIT: XD You resolved it while I was typing this!