I don't really care whether there are cheaters or not. By the time I found VV1, the leaderboards were already waaaaay ahead of me, so I learned to just play for the fun of it. Oh, I still hit the statistics button just to see if any numbers change, but it has never mattered much, basically just curiousity. With this game, even though I too bought it on the 17th, I have just been playing for fun and I know I'll never make it on the boards, who cares?

My own feeling is that while the leaderboard isn't the most important aspect of the game to me, I do think that if there is to be one, it should be accurate, otherwise, what's the point??

I do think that the board should be split up into areas of interest i.e. stews, babies, elders, etc. and maybe that would be a more accurate picture of what really happens when you "refresh" your details.

And I decided to "refresh" my own details and was quite surprised to find my villages are on the board. In all the months I played VV1 I never made it, so I'll enjoy my little moment of achievement, haha!!

Best of Irish,
Maura

If you want to order the leaderboard on something that is really difficult to cheat on, order it by # of Mushrooms found.

HG

I agree with the mushroom count idea. Works exactly like the plan for searching by collectibles.....only those who actually play (or hack somehow) will make the list.

My thought for sorting priority:

1 Mushrooms
2 Elders
3 Stews made

Oh...and drop anyone whose total hours played ever goes above the maximum time possible......counting from when it was released to the public!

yeah, but if you pause the game when you see a mushroom and drop a bunch of kids on it they will all but 2 pick up mushrooms... so that wouldn't work,,,

I didn't realise the fun in the game was being better than everyone else.
I thought the fun in the game was the playing.

I play because it's fun, I fast forward because I get totally bored waiting for tech points. Fast forwarding means I can get to the fun parts again.

I'm sorry that this upsets you all so much but my advice is too play the game for the game itself and not worry so much what everyone else does or doesn't do.

Live and let live.

And Maura, I really like your idea of it being divided into areas of interest. And I do understand about there being no point in having one if it's not accurate. But even if you fast forward the boring parts you do still have work on making people elders, making stews ect.

And if there ever was a way to stop people who fast forward not being on the boards, I couldn't care less.

I was also wondering, how hard would it be to design leadership boards for different numbers of hours played? Is that possible at all?

For example, have a 24* hours boards (that way people just starting have a chance to be on the boards) a 48 hours boards, then maybe a 5 day, a week, 2 week boards as well as having the overall board board that we do have now.

I don't know if that can be done or will even solve these people's problems, but it might help a little.

* Anyone that is has played for lwaa than 24 hours is eligible for the board, when they have reached 24 hours + of play, they are then eligible for the 48 hours of play board.

Totally besides the fact that 'time warping' messes up other programs on your computer (it doesn't matter to me if you want to pay early for your anti-virus programs, etc that you've messed up by playing with your system clock), the game was designed to be played in real time, not 'sped' up by warping.

Part of real life is waiting for things to happen as they are timed to happen. Would you want to warp through a your child's childhood to jump ahead to when they leave the house? So many parents would, but then later on they'd wish they'd had more time with their children when they were little.

Patience is part of what this game teaches and warping to 'get to the fun parts' is not what real life is about.

You may say that 'it's just a game' and you're right, it is just a game, but, what's the value of a game you have to cheat playing to 'enjoy' it?

My anti virus is free, it's quite good too, if anyone wants to check it out: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

This is just a game. So I don't actually mind warping through these kid's lives at all

And part of a game is the fact that is ISN'T real life and it's supposed to FUN, while games may teach us important things about life and while at 26 I certainly don't know it all, there isn't much VV2 is going to teach me. I play it for fun and to get away from real life for a little awhile :).

And as for patience? I hear it's a virture, certainly not one I am familar with. But as my Mother (bless) spent 17 years trying to teach me that, I really don't think you or this game can help there

And I don't think fast forwarding is cheating at all. I still have to play the game, still have to hunt for collectables, mushrooms and still have to figure out the puzzles. As for the puzzles, I did figure them all out on my own too, I'd say asking for hints or asking for the solutions is cheating more than fast forwarding those boring parts when I actually want to play the game.

And even if it is cheating, I enjoy the game more than 100% better my way so I haven't lost out at all, only gained and the value of the game was still $19.95 plus tax... I don't think that has changed...