Identify unique user with a numeric ID

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Identify unique user with a numeric ID

(7 posts) (4 voices)

Started 2 years ago by peter78
Latest reply from peter78

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peter78
Member

I'm using Cocoslive with one of my games. I noticed that one could post the same high score under a different name when I was testing the service. In order to prevent users from doing this, I recorded whether they already sent in a high score to make sure they only sent it in once. Unfortunately, the limitation with this design is that the users can't change the name of the score they posted.

The general model of the current service seems like it could use improvements. It would be nice if there was some unique ID phones could send it when scores are posted (either provided by the phone or cocoslive in a response). That way, when new scores are posted or current scores are updated, this ID could be provided and the records can be matched. This would also be useful in retrieving updated information on scores already posted to the server (in the case that ranks are adjusted as other scores are posted).

Or are people getting around my issue another way?

Posted 2 years ago #
riq
Key Master

can you further describe the problem? thanks.

Posted 2 years ago #
pabloruiz55
Member

I think what he means is having some kind of login, so a user can't post scores with differerent names.

Something like, the first time a phone posts an score, ask for his name and save a record with phoneid - playername, so the next time that phone posts an score use the previously saved name...

I don't know why you would need to limit the user to use one name only... the only thing i can think of is someone with much time posting a lot of highscores with many names so other people would never be on top?

Posted 2 years ago #
peter78
Member

I'm not asking to limit a user to one playername. Just a way to unique identify a user with a high score record.

Yes, like Pablo said, let's say a user has the high score with the name Foo. If there's no checking, the user could post the same score with the name Bar, Baz and so on (thus taking all the top spots). If you wanted (in the future) to retrieve records specifically for this user, there's no way to match/find their record.

A unique ID would not be dependent on the playername. It would either be based on the users phone number/id or a GUID passed back by the server during some sort of user creation step.

Posted 2 years ago #
riq
Key Master

cocoslive is already using name + device id (profiles)

If you enable the "display device id" you will see it on the web page.

also, I recommend using "updateScores" instead of "sendScores".
"updateScores" udpates the scores based on name + device id. Just 1 score per profile.

Posted 2 years ago #
Clain
Member

Yes, cocoslive is using "player name + device id" to identify a unique player for scores and ranking. I think Peter says cocoslive should be using "some name or id (different from the player name) + device id" to identify a unique player. This way, if a player, on the same device, modifies his player name, he would still keep his current score on the cocoslive server.

That said, I have to say I understand why Peter would want such a thing but I don't agree with changing that in cocoslive. I think it would be too complicated now. And if you want players being able to change their name and still retrieve their scores, you can do one of the following :

1) consider using a much more elaborated web service like Scoreloop or OpenFeint (players must have a login and a password to identify to these services, therefore they can retrieve their score even on a different device). But I don't know if they are allowed to change their names... I guess these services use the login as the player name.

2) use cocoslive BUT do not store the player name in cc_playername, store it in a custom field like usr_displayname. And put your player unique id in the cc_playername (could be an int or a string like "player1"). And of course, when you display the ranking in your app, show only the usr_displayname as the user name. This way, the players can change their names (usr_displayname) without losing their scores (cc_playername + device id)

In my game (Dr Bubbles), I allow 4 different player profiles on the same device. Once a player creates a profile, he can't modify his name later on. I'm working on adding cocoslive scores to the game. I see it this way : whenever a player will submit a score, he won't be asked to type his name, I'll use the name of his profile.

But as far as Peter is concerned, my second point should do the trick.

Posted 2 years ago #
peter78
Member

Point 1: Unique ID. Clain put it best. I'm actually _not_ advocating a unique id by player name + id as a user can just change their player name and thus create a new record. As Clain said, an id based a singular user id and/or a device id and/or a GUID based on any of these provided by Cocoslive is what I am talking about.

Point 2: Using a different service. I've explored this and may take this option in my next app. However, in the interests of promoting and improving Cocoslive I thought I would give some feedback as to what I see as a shortfall in this service. Don't get me wrong: I love the framework provided and appreciate the contributions. But I do see the above as a limitation in comparison to other high score services. Also, since I'm using Cocos2d to do my game dev, it would be great to just use the same piece of framework.

Also, I understand that Cocoslive is in its infancy and is likely to grow from here. This is sort of a basic feature that is likely to be useful sooner rather than later IMHO. I don't think it would take a huge design change (at least from the interface perspective) to accomplish it either. API consumers could have the option of sending a phone id (or phone number.. i'm not sure what the iPhone is capable of) in its request and the response can include a GUID (maybe some sort of hashed string). Then, on any subsequent request, that GUID can be part of the update request. It could be made backward compatible but would need changes on the server side.

Clain, I thought of doing this in the way that you mentioned (using the playername is a unique ID column and then using a user-defined field as the actual username). It's definitely doable and wouldn't be incredibly difficult but it does begin to feel hackish to me. I think there is some happy medium here to accomplish the basics of being able to identify a unique user without having to create a complex registration process like the other high score services.

Anyway, take this all with a grain of salt. I'm just sort of rambling in a programmer kind of way. Cheers!

Posted 2 years ago #

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