From the Office of Pharaoh Tim Montresor-Stark:
On the Predator Tool and Associated Rules Violations
March 22nd, 2016 It has come to the attention of the Osiris Fraternal Order that, over the course of nearly two years, numerous raiders have made use of a semi-automated raiding tool, known as Predator, created by delete-on-sight player Halcones before he was declared delete-on-sight. This Predator tool has now been ruled to be in violation of NationStates site rules by NationStates administration. According to Eluvatar, a member of the NationStates administration team, "the tool not only breaks site rules, but appears to be explicitly designed to do so." The Osiris Fraternal Order unequivocally condemns the development and use of the Predator tool.
We are relieved to confirm that the Predator tool has never been used in the course of operations lead by the Sekhmet Legion. We must unfortunately acknowledge that some of our citizens, including two executive officials and our forum root administrator, have used the Predator tool in the past to trigger the operations of other military forces. It should be noted that none of these individuals believed the Predator tool violated site rules, that they have been cooperative with NationStates moderation, and that they have expressed remorse for their use of the Predator tool. Regardless, ignorance and negligence are not valid excuses for involvement in what amounts to cheating. Indeed, there can be no valid excuse. Any raider who made use of the Predator tool should have known exactly what their own raiding tool was doing before making use of it, and should have been much more cautious about a raiding tool created by such an untrustworthy individual, particularly after he was declared delete-on-sight for script rules violations.
We encourage each and every citizen of the Osiris Fraternal Order who made use of the Predator tool to fully cooperate with NationStates moderation in their ongoing investigation. To the best of our knowledge, every Osiran citizen who has used the Predator tool is already cooperating with NationStates moderation. Osiran citizens who used the Predator tool on behalf of other regions and in ignorance of its violations of site rules will not be penalized by the Osiris Fraternal Order, as their actions were not undertaken on behalf of our region or our military. We will, however, respect and support whatever penalty NationStates moderation may impose, and we encourage the regions on whose behalf the Predator tool was used by our dual citizens to take appropriate disciplinary action. We believe that any consequences imposed by NationStates moderation and by the regions in question will be sufficient for those who ignorantly and negligently violated site rules through use of the Predator tool, without additional penalties imposed by the Osiris Fraternal Order.
The Osiris Fraternal Order will not, however, tolerate intentional violation of site rules by our citizens or by our military partners. Any citizen who is discovered to have known that the Predator tool violated site rules and used it anyway will be barred from participation in the Sekhmet Legion, and may have additional action taken against them as appropriate and as permitted by Osiran law. We will terminate diplomatic relations and military cooperation with any region that is discovered to have deliberately made use of the Predator tool with knowledge of its site rules violations, and we will only revisit such relations in the future when it is demonstrated to our satisfaction that the region or regions in question are committed to fair and responsible gameplay in compliance with site rules. Our investigation is ongoing and our review of diplomatic and military relations has only just begun, but willful wrongdoing will not be swept under the rug. That is our promise to the NationStates gameplay community.
As the government of the largest raider region in the world, the Osiris Fraternal Order takes very seriously our leadership role in the raider community, particularly the important political and diplomatic role we are privileged to undertake as the only raider game-created region. Although we have not made use of the Predator tool, we have nonetheless failed to lead as we should have. We should have raised questions about the Predator tool when its existence came to our attention and especially after its creator was declared delete-on-sight. We should have insisted that the Predator tool should not be used by our military partners until it was verified by NationStates moderation to be fully rules compliant. There was much that should have been done, and much that was not done. The responsibility for this lies, in varying degrees, with the entire raider community, and Osiris is not exempt. For our failure to lead when we should have, to ask questions, to insist on caution, we sincerely apologize -- to our fellow residents and citizens of Osiris, to our fellow raiders, to our competitors, to natives, and to others adversely affected by use of the Predator tool.
We know that an apology, on its own, cannot rebuild the trust the raider community has lost, or make up for our own lack of leadership. We are committed to rebuilding trust in the raider community through future leadership, and by ensuring that nothing like this ever happens again. It is our commitment that the end of this scandalous chapter in the history of raiding will be the beginning of a new chapter, a concerted effort by the raider community to ensure, in the future, that a rigorous standard of fair and responsible gameplay that is fully compliant with site rules will be upheld. The Osiris Fraternal Order will insist that our citizens and our military partners meet this standard, and we will have zero tolerance for failure to meet this standard. We urge our fellow raiders to join us in this commitment and to taking concrete steps to ensure that fair and responsible gameplay is the unbending standard for the future of raiding.
Signed,
Tim Stark, Pharaoh of the Osiris Fraternal Order
Joshua Bluteisen, Vizier of the Osiris Fraternal Order
Jakker Isaraider, Keeper of the Deshret
