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Originally Posted by Stifler
Although somewhat sneaky and underhand, is relaying the private channel of an opposition alliance unethical and/or cheating. Discuss
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I think the actual question you're asking is flawed - as it leads people to focus on the MEANS by which spying occurs rather than on the spying itself. Relaying is just a more efficient way of having a spy report on what happens in someone else's channel - as such it's moral validity is no different to the morality of having spies in the first place.
Put simply: if having a spy in another alliance report to you is acceptable (morally, ethically or as far as the game rules are concerned) then relaying the channel is also acceptable. The acceptability of a course of action isn't determined by how efficiently you do it. Or is it the case that those arguing that relaying is wrong believe that manually copying/pasting from a channel is acceptable but somehow using a script to do it makes it unacceptable?
Any focus on the ethics of it also needs to distinguish between the ethics of the person doing the relaying - and the ethics of the alliance leadership receiving the relay. It is entirely possible to argue a case that in some instances the relayer is ethically challenged whereas there is no such issue with the alliance receiving the relay.
There are also two types of spies (an issue Mazz referred to earlier). There's the dedicated spies - who enter the target alliance purely to assist the alliance they work for - and then there's the sell-outs (who usually offer to relay in return for a planet nap). Personally I've always tried to minimise any dealings with the second category - as they're unreliable and have already demonstrated their untrustworthiness.
Spies have, in my opinion, been an acceptable part of PA since very early on. Aside from the fact that it would be impossible to prevent or legislate against spying I believe it to be an integral part of the game. Spying definitely isn't against the rules of the game - hence spying can't, itself, be cheating.
Is spying ethical? Well PA is (or is supposed to be) a war game. Is war ethical? The entire game is designed for players to carry out actions which would be considered unethical in the real world - hence the total stupidity of the RL reference by an earlier poster. Is it ethical to attack other players and steal their roids/ships just out of greed? Is it ethical to attack others just because their fleet setup compared to your own makes it profitable to do so? The whole "ethics" issue has been grossly misinterpreted by many of the posters in this thread.
The only place I see any possible "ethical" failing is where someone in an alliance betrays that alliance for THEIR OWN personal benefit - i.e. the turn-coat type of spy. And whether that's unethical or not would depend on whether you viewed PA a primarily a team game or a solo game. Alliances spying on other alliances is an acceptable tactic - and hence real world "ethics" have no relevance in this GAME.
And as relaying is just a more efficient means of manual copy/paste spying all of the same conclusons about its morality apply.
I would note that hacking into an irc network (including stealing someone else's P password) is an entirely seperate issue. Not only is the ethics of that dubious it's also a criminal offence in many countries (including the UK). Similarly, using someone else's P identity (even with their permission) MAY, depending on the circumstances, be a criminal act. And of course any criminal act is certain to be defined as cheating by PA team.
EDIT: For the tl;dr crowd
CN: The ethics of an action in the game can only be judged within the ethical framework of the game itself - not by trying to apply RL ethics to one element of the game taken in isolation. Accordingly, in a game where the entire premise of the game is warfare - and where information is a commodity - spying is an entirely legitmate and acceptable activity. Relaying is just a means of spying and so is also perfectly fine.