[dentin]

One of the first rules of computer security is that if the hardware is under physical control by the attacker, all data on it has been compromised. If it came from a player, it's suspect. The best you can do is assign probabilities to the evidence you receive from players, and try to piece together as best you can what happened. Some players will be less suspect than others. See lesswrong.com for the math on calculating bayesian probabilities if you care that much.

All this said, I have never received a fake log, or a log that grossly conflicts with other logs, or even a log where someone claims strongly that "that didn't happen". This is in a 15+ year time period I've been running Alter Aeon.

Usually, lack of logs is a bigger problem. There's a lot of replay and history sorts of information on players, and some problem players are fully logged just in case, but occasionally you just have to ask people what happened and sort out the details as best you can. Fortunately, problem players are quite often their own worst enemy - I've had players lie right to my face about something, then brag to their friends minutes later not knowing they're logged. Most jerk players do it for the ego, and if they can't tell anyone there's no point.

-dentin

Alter Aeon MUD