Quoting Anna here because she put it most succinctly. You acting on ghosted information is you changing the outcome of the round with information you shouldn't have, and know you shouldn't have. It is entirely your fault.
I was going to edit this in but I felt like I took to long so secondary post! Like really, if you are going to ban me for ghosting when some little kid tells me something I dont know in-game, shouldn't you really just ban everyone for ghosting because this has happened to everyone at some point ? I shouldn't have to kill myself in-game, this is the point, where 1 of you says dont kill yourself, just dont use the information, so I am just to keep playing the game worried I might get a ghosting ban when I report the ghoster to the mod. So I cant use a hp station if I am told where it is without getting a ghosting ban? I cant stalk a some kid when told they are a T without getting a ghosting ban? What you are practically doing here by just going with what Anna says is forcing people to hide when someone ghosts to them. Like shit if I kill myself I dont get in trouble when I tell the mod or I could just not tell the mod and keep my round. Its illogical. You need to think about the scenario of the ghosting situation. Come on you're better than this guys.
Ham - I disagree. If it wasn't ghosting, I would say it would at least fall under metagaming. Butters - Ghosting isnt a one-way street. If we take the classic scenario of two people on skype talking, both the person messaging and the person acting on it would be banned for ghosting. I don't see why this is different. In regards to the alive-whispering part, you can see the thread I referenced here - http://www.seriousgmod.com/threads/health-station-rules-question.28806 - and you can see that I disagreed with it. Sinz was a lead at the time that decision was made. Considering that neither of you seem to be open to change your opinions, and I'll freely admit I'm not going to change mine, I'm going to leave this here. No point in posting the same arguments over and over.
Metagaming is defined as: Game throwing, or aiding the enemy team in some way. In no way can I see how this situation would be considered Metagaming. Now, I won't say what I think the punishment is now, but instead, I believe I should put what I hope it becomes. Rule change should be as follows. Ghosting: Giving information and/or using that information to influence the outcome of the game. I don't believe you should have to kill yourself and ruin your game if you are ghosted too either. It just achieves what the ghoster wantes, which is to ruin someone's game. There should be safeguards implemented in order to combat this. Would it be possible to disallow dead people private messaging alive players? I'm not sure if it is possible, but this is the easiest and best solution to the problem. In no way should receiving information from a ghoster result in a ban. If this were so, people would ghost to people they dislike, and then report them for receiving ghosted information.
There's a difference between two players ghosting together and a person ghosting to a random player. If two players are ghosting together then of course they should both be banned. But if a random player is ghosted to it is unreasonable to ban them.
I'd like to clarify - at no point am I saying that if someone is ghosted to, they should be banned. I'm saying that if they act on the information they're given, they're complicit in ghosting.
Is it ghosting if im a Traitor and PM an innocent person something random to do like "drop your weapon" or "look up" and when they do it I kill them? Is it ghosting if I PM a person to do something random to do like "drop your weapon" or "look up" and then I just walk away and nothing happens to the player I PMed? Is it ghosting if I PM a player something that they cannot do 100% but could lead them to do another similar action, for example I tell a T to buy a jackhammer but that reminds them to buy a harpoon? Is it ghosting if I PM a player basic actions like how to switch weapons etc? Is it ghosting if I PM a player during fun round how the fun round works if they didnt read the message on how it works? Is it ghosting if I PM a player to look up, down, right or left but theres nothing special around him? Is it ghosting if I PM a player to look up, down, right or left and there is something they might had missed? Is it ghosting if I look at a stream with less than 15 minute delay and I get information from it and act on it? If yes, will the streamer also get banned? Is it ghosting ban if I tell alive people to look at a stream with less than 15 minute delay and they might get information from it? Is it ghosting if I look at a stream with 15 minute delay on vanilla server when 15 minutes have passed in the round? Is it ghosting ban for the streamer if the streamer plays a 15+ minute game on vanilla and someone gets information from his stream? Is it ghosting if I PM a player to look at an ongoing stream while im dead on a 15+ minute vanilla game that is streaming on that server? Is it ghosting if I tell in alive chat to look at an ongoing stream while on a 15+ minute vanilla game and there is a streamer that is streaming at that moment? Is it ghosting if I crowbar art "KoS Kyogre" while Kyogre is in the game and when I die I PM a player to look at the crowbar art? Assuming that the player follows the crowbar art KoS, are both banned for ghosting? Is it ghosting if someone else crowbar arts "KoS Kyogre" and I PM a player to look at funny crowbar art and they go through with the KoS from crowbar art? Is it ghosting if someone tells a wrong rule and I PM them while dead that they are wrong? For example if a Detective wants to KoS a person for throwing a smoke grenade and I PM them while dead they cant do that. Is it ghosting if an alive person asks a rule and I answer them in PMs while dead? Same scenario if im alive. Is it ghosting if another player ghosts to an alive player "Kyogre is afk T" and then tells about it in dead chat, then I PM the same player that "Kyogre is not afk T"? Is it ghosting if an alive player KoSes a player who has left the server and I PM them that the player they are trying to KoS has left? Is it ghosting if im alive and someone PMs me to buy a radar and then I buy a radar right after? Is it ghosting if im alive and someone PMs me to type "quit smoking" in console and I follow what he says and kill myself? Is it ghosting if im an alive traitor and a traitor buddy PMs me to get credits from his dead body and I use those credits from his dead body to buy things? Is it ghosting if im not a moderator and I report a person who did not kill me while im uniD and they use that information? (Notificating that I have died which they had not known and then they tell that to everyone after they respond) Is it ghosting if a player changes their name to "KoS Kyogre" mid round while Kyogre is alive? Will the person acting on it get a ghosting ban if the answer to 1st question is yes? Though most of these are pretty easy and others will probably never happen but im just asking them for clarification.
What Butters is talking about and the situation you described are entirely different. It's like calling corn on the cob and frozen corn the same thing you monster. If someone intentionally is ghosting to gain and advantage over other plays, then yes they are ghosting and should receive punishment. On the contrary, if a random player who you have no connection to sends you information, you essentially lose a round. I shouldn't be punished for someone else breaking the rules, this is like being slayed because someone RDM'd you IMO. Yes, the punishment is severe and they get banned for 4 weeks for ruining my round. However I really don't like and have never liked the idea of losing a round because of it. As a mod I had an occasion where I had to sit out of a 14 minute round because someone ghosted in admin chat, and I was simply doing what I had been told to do when ghosted to and kill myself. Example Scenario: 6 Alive players, 1 traitor, 1 "proven". DeadDude: Traitor has a knife I proceed to play my round, eventually killing traitor for committing a traitorus act. If I were to tell a staff member about this and provide proof, I risk getting banned for "using" that information and ghosting. If the player acts with malicious intent after receiving the information, then it should be up to an admins discretion to decide how to proceed. Just my
Smash summed up my response pretty nicely. I beg to differ, I believe she is wrong, as my argument and a few others have argued. Why should we have to kill ourselves if some random ghosts to us, if we dont we get banned for ghosting ourselves? its dumb if you fix this rule at least do it correctly.
