** This guide is intended for Counter-Strike games only. **

While most of you should be aware of it by now, we have an Incident Reporting System.

This system is in place so players can take affirmative action on policing the servers themselves when a GameOp isn't present. If someone is breaking the rules as outlined in the GameArena T&C and the GameArena Code of Conduct, try to contact a GameOp in The Arena chat and inform them of the offence, server and the offenders name so that they can take action if necessary. Players may also be requested by a GameOp to submit reports for certain things, even if they are present in a server at the time.

To make an effective report, several key things are required. People will need to know how to use the console in CS. The console can be found by pressing the tilde key (~) usually found just under the escape key and next to the 1. Pressing the tilde key again closes the console.

1. The time of the offence and the server. Take a note of the time of the offence and note which server you are playing on.

2. The STEAMID of the player. This can be found by typing 'status' (without the ''s) into the console. The important parts in this list are the STEAMID and the name also known as an alias.

3. Get a demo and/or screenshots of the offender commiting the offence. Try to get a very clear and precise demo. To demo a player in CS you must be in 'Spectator Mode', to get into this mode press M and then select 'Spectate' or press the number 6. Then you need to scroll through the players until you are viewing the player you want to demo, when you are, open the console (~) and type in 'record playersname 1' (without the ''s), subtitute playersname for anything you like but do not use spaces! You should see a message in console telling you that it is recording, now just sit and watch the player until you have enough evidence. Before you stop the demo, open the console again by pressing (~) and type in the 'status' command as mentioned earlier. This will add a list of every players name and STEAMID into the demo so we can verify who it is in fact you are recording. Also you can choose to get a few screenshots, we do not take screenshots by themselves, there must be a demo with them. If you choose to take a few screenshots then take plenty of them that show as much detail of the offence as possible, since it is far easier to prove someone has commited an offence with more than a single image. Get at least one screenshot of the scoreboard at the time of the offence. This will show the players present, scores and also shows what server you're playing on. The default key for taking screenshots is the Print Screen button, usually found just after your F12 key. Pressing the Print Screen key will take a screenshot of what you see on your screen. Try to get several screenshots in a series that show the offence being commited.

4. Find and compress the evidence. Firstly you will want to navigate to your Steam directory which can usually be found here (C:\Program Files\Steam). From your 'Steam' folder you will need to navigate to your 'cstrike' folder which can also usually be found here (steamapps\**your steam username**\counter-strike\cstrike). In your cstrike folder you will see a .dem file with the name you chose earlier when you recorded the demo (you will also find screenshot files in this folder, usually starting with the map name and they are .bmp files). Use a program like WinZip or WinRar to compress the demo and/or screenshots into one file. You could use the offenders name in the filename so you end up with something like meanbean.zip or term.rar ready to submit with the report.

5. Submit the report. Go to the Incident Report page as mentioned above, and make sure you're logged into the GameArena website. Your own details should already be there as the person submitting the report. Below that you will find several fields that need to be filled out.

5a. Type in the offenders name/alias that he/she was using at the time of the offence, select the approximate time and date the incident occured.
5b. Select which game server the incident occured in from the dropdown menu.
5c. In the Unique ID field you put the offenders STEAMID that you should have recorded earlier as outlined in Step 2. If you didn't record the STEAMID then just put '0000' in this field so the report can still be submitted, but make every possible effort to get that STEAMID initially so your report is more likely to have positive effects.
5d. Then you have the description field where you need to explain what happened with as much relevant information as possible. Once you have filled out everything there, click the submit button.
5e. The next screen will allow you to upload the evidence you have gathered and put in a zip or rar file. Click the browse button and locate the file you compressed earlier to upload on your computer. Once you've found the file click the Send File button. The file may sometimes take a minute or two to be uploaded, so please give the process time to complete, it may look like it is not doing anything but infact it is uploading. Once the file has been uploaded you will be taken to the next screen which will tell you your report has been submitted successfully. You will receive an email within 1-3 days telling you that your report has either been sucessful or you have not provided enough evidence.


So to summarize -

Record the time, date and server.
Record the offenders SteamID.
Take a demo and screenshots for evidence.
Compress the evidence.
Submit the report.

If you are able to successfully contact a GameOp in The Arena (which can be found here) while an incident is occuring they may be able to help you there an then to resolve the incident. If they connect to the server to try resolving the issue, please keep the following things in mind.

1. Keep in-game chat to a bear minimum. It is difficult to warn players off commiting offences with constant chatter going on.

2. Abusing the offending player makes the situation harder. By acting in this way it makes the situation more difficult for the GameOp to resolve, and in doing so you are commiting an offence yourself that may lead to you being punished yourself. Abusing anyone, at any time, regardless of whether they are breaking the rules or not, is totally unacceptable.

3. Give the GameOp time to do their thing. By complaining about how long it may be taking a GameOp to do their job (we often hear 'cmon gameops hurry up and just ban him already' 'its your job kick him now what are you waiting for' often accompanied by a plethora of profanites aswell), it may cause things to take even longer since it can be a bit more difficult to filter out what is relevant to the situation at hand.

4. We know what we're doing. Trying to tell us how to do our 'job' is something some people love to do. The plain truth of it is, most people don't know exactly what is required of us to remove someone from servers. Please don't assume we can just kick people because you told us to. We have to go through several processes to make sure we aren't removing people from the servers without good reason, or witnessing first hand the offence in question, or ample evidence and relevant information has been gathered. We do have situations where there are grey areas and deal with these on a case by case basis. Trying to tell us what to do in these sitautions rarely ends in a satisfactory outcome for the person trying to hand out instructions to the GameOps. You're more likely to have the situation resolved in a more favourable way if you let us do our thing without trying to hand out orders.

By following these steps, you can help to keep the servers fun.


Originally posted by: Freewheelin for BF1942.
Original: http://www.gamearena.com.au/forums/Battlefield-1942/viewtopic.php?t=65610
Updated by iCaL* for CS 1.6, CS: CZ, CS: S and hopefully CS: GO.


Thanks,
iCaL*