[Brian McIlmoyle]

Dealing with Disputes:

when you get a bunch of 18-35 year old males together to play a game there are going to be disputes.

All disputes center around a very few basic themes

1. "cheating" .. people "not calling hits" is number 1 and it is also the one you are not likely to be able to eliminate. It is actually a very rare player indeed that will outright cheat and willfully ignore hits, but for certain they are out there, and need to be dealt with.

alleging cheating is much harder than proving it.

Loosing players or teams will look for excuses as to why they suck so much, number 1 is "the other guys were cheating"

Someone claiming someone was cheating is not evidence of Cheating. Only multiple eye witness accounts can be trusted. If all the witnesses are from one group or team .. you must have corroboration from another source before moving forward with sanctions.

In almost every case in which someone claims someone else was "cheating" they are not able to identify the person and in fact probably could not pick them out of a line up. This is not an example of "cheating" but it certainly is an example of poor sportsmanship and whining. Whiners must be publicly shamed and called out as whiners or they will spread their poison which will blossom in the AAR as accusations of wholesale cheating by "everyone" who was not them.

There is an interesting correlation between whiners and quitters. Quitters often whine and whiners often quit. They don't want to seem weak so they will Whine about the other players and then quit the game. Every game is better off without whiners and quitters, if they can be identified early in the game they can often be induced to quit even earlier than they would and leave, improving the game for everyone.

There is another interesting Correlation, Whiners and quitters often hang out in the spawn. As a game host I will very often visit the spawns of each faction to see who is hanging out there. a simple question such as " hows it going?" will often illicit the "they are cheating" response from the whiners and quitters hiding out in the spawn.

Follow this up with , If they are cheating why was I not informed? Who is cheating? I take this very seriously please take me and show me who was cheating, I will thrown them out of the game right now!"

This is often followed up with statements like, "oh I don't know, some guy, one of my guys told me he was cheating like crazy, shrugging hits"

I follow this up with , "really? which one of your guys, let go talk to him so I can get to the bottom of this right now!" I won't tolerate cheaters.

Which often followed on with "oh I'm not sure what guy.. but you know .. they are cheating"

Which is followed on with me saying, You know what, making unsubstantiated allegations of cheating with no evidence sounds a lot like you are nothing but a lazy whiner who would rather sit around in the spawn all day and complain about why you suck at this game by blaming others, who you can't even name. maybe you should assess whether you have anything constructive to add to this game, and if you don't, you are free to leave any time."

This always works best if done in front of a few other guys who up to that point may have been listening to this guy, but in that moment realize that they have been in the presence of a whiner. The spawn normally clears out and people get back into the game. often so does the whiner, sometimes they do leave. Which is a good outcome either way.

In evidence of actual cheating the ONLY response is immediate ejection from the game, no warnings, no refund.

Do not tolerate players calling other's hits, i know a number of players that get more kills shouting at people to take non existent hits than they do actually hitting people. This is in a word shameful. Calling another man's hit is tantamount to calling him a cheater and a liar. In another time this could get you killed, today, it just marks you as a ass.

The number 2 dispute has to do with Rules interpretation.

If you as game host have put in place rules that can be interpreted differently, this is your fault. Simple clear rules make for few disputes. If there is a unclear rule, clear it up and then make sure the clarification gets out to everyone even if this means you personally walking from player to player all over the field and clarifying the rule.

Medic rules cause far more trouble than they are worth, avoid "medic" rules that involve counting, or touching. The only medic rule that should be used is the medic must Physically tie on a bandage to the wounded player. This uses real object and real acts, it's not open to interpretation.

The 3rd most common dispute is people complaining about being "shot too much" or "Shot in the face" These are not legitimate complaints Complaining about getting shot at an airsoft game is like complaining about getting wet at a swim meet. Often the issue is the complainant choose to wear minimal protective equipment, no one gets to complain about the outcome of their own choices. Shut it down.