http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/01/31/microsoft-labels-autistic-boy-a-cheater-on-xbox-live.aspx He may have cheated or might not have, but comon, he has autism. I'm sure this will be fixed, but it's maddening none the less.

He has lost ALL of his achievements, his gamer score has been reset, and his account will forever have "Cheater" branded under the name tag.

He was cheating, and when his mother went to the gaming media about it she hid the fact that she new what event led to this.

It certainly is possible that the kid didn't know that the friend offering to get him that special armor would use illegitimate means to do it. However MS seems to understand this and I'd say their offer of a new gamertag and a free month of gold subscription is generous given that the kids mother wasn't being entirely truthful when she made a big deal about this in public.

It's standard procedure for Microsoft to put "Cheater" next to the gamertag of everyone who cheats. If he cheated, that's what is going to happen. The only reason this story is remarkable is because the kid has autism. It's not like they beat him with a baseball bat, just got rid of his achievements. Big deal..

Autism is no excuse for cheating :flamethrower:

He gave his gamer tag info to a friend, and that friend cheated. This is kinda complicated.

He diddnt even cheat... Games are becoming more ridiculous every day. I remember back when you can just enter a code to unlock everything, nowadays you either spend 40 hours and get it or pay through DLC...

I stand beside the mother on this one. Shame on you Microsoft.

If he was glitching online to compete with everyone else.. then yeah, brand him a cheater.. Taking shortcuts to improve his gaming experience, which clearly does not and did not affect anyone in the competitive circuit... you get what I'm sayin.

If I knew about this earlier I wouldnt have opened my points card for the First Strike pack. I'd have just returned it to Walmart.

If the friend said he'd get the kid this special armor, and the kid had no idea his friend would cheat to get it (rather than using the account to get them legitimately) then I think the situation really svcks.

And had the kid's mother started by trying to get the account rolled back I would have been all for that. Instead she lied about the situation, and while I still really feel for the kid I think MS has acted admirably. It's a shame the kid will have to re-gain his achievements but at least he's been given a fresh slate.

Which I'm sure Microsoft hears all the time. Hell when I admined a Counter Strike server I heard that all the time. They weren't cheating, their friend who they gave info to was cheating. I'm sure this is something Microsoft warns against, or explicitly prohibits in their TOS. There is no way to determine accurately who was playing on the account at the time, so if the a person was cheating on the account it makes sense to ban it. I don't blame Microsoft, the friend who did that to the kid is a dike though.

If anything I annoyed at this:



Why do they get a free month of Xbox live for cheating, lying, and making MS out to be the bad guy?

I don't really think him being autistic means much. I have an autistic family member, and he would know that was wrong. What I thought when reading that was that Microsoft seems a little harsh. They could give people a warning when it's a first offense.

He gave it to a 3rd party who unlocked onlne achivements offline, out of order, and he had too many achivements in too little time.
He asked him to do it, he cheated he got punished.


Shame on M$ how dare they enforce the rules. He cheated, his mother admited it.
I love how people say "oh he has autism you cant punish him" you realise if that happned, then the number of people with autism on XBL would shoot up dramatically.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.260268-Autistic-Xbox-Players-Mother-Admits-He-Cheated?page=1
He cheated. Dont see how people can say he didnt.

Aye, the boy and his mother should be happy, MS could have been way harsher and still be completely in the right. Can't say I feel sorry for the kid.

Dude, it's his gamerscore; not his life savings that they're taking away. He shouldn't give out passwords and information to others to begin with; for precisely this very reason.

Also, achievements are serious business to some folk, so if one person just gets them without doing diddly squat, the person who worked his ass off is going to feel kinda pissed. Plus, MS has to nip it in the bud, before someone else comes along and decides to cheat; then says "My friend did it."

Actually in this case they can determine who was playing at what time, the account was usually used in one city and it was passed to someone in a different city who then hacked the achievements in before passing it back. If it's an option it would have been nice if MS simply removed those illegitimate achievements and left the kid with a caution.

However even thought MS didn't go that far I think they responded to the situation reasonably. The kid can also keep gaming, which is what he enjoys doing, and if they take MS up on their offer he won't have the stigma of a cheater tag either.

People would just use proxies then, especially if this case set a precedent for a differently located IP address. "I'll use a proxy and cheat, what's the worst that happens, they take the achievements I cheated to get away?"

Also scratch that about the person who did it to the kid was a dike. The kid wanted to take a shortcut that he knew wasn't "legal", I'm assuming he also understood the consequences. I was under the impression that he gave it to a friend who was taking advantage of him, not that he was trying to get some object for his avatar the easy way.

Question: What does him being autistic have to do with any of this? Unless we're just supposed to go "awww, but he's autistic!" and let him off with it?

"Sorry I punched you in the face, but hey, I'm autistic!"

So he gets a free month of xbox live because he got caught cheating and had his gamer score reset? Really? Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. How does this mean he doesn't know right from wrong?

1, How did/does this affect anyone else?
2. Was it done in a online manner that harmed anyone else?
3, who cares?

Ok, so he got recon armor in halo 3, never mind the fact that its already old (ODST/Reach) and never mind the fact that it DOESN'T AFFECT ANYONE else EVER, lets just jump the gun and go over board.

Instead of just removing the recon armor and achievements we wipe his whole account!

What a joke, this is why I despise GFWL/Xbox live almost as much as DRM and PSN.

Also, lets punish a 8 year old using the EULA (not really something you can enforce on a minor or anyone for that matter) KNOWING his account was in use on a different xbox then it normally was and DO NOTHING to the person who did the cheating? Or the 360 that was used to cheat?

This is pathetic.

At least give his G.T back and his achievements before the profile was moved from the one 360 to the other one.

Yeah the only reason its considered news is because he is autistic, which dosent change a thing.

So? He cheated, he got caught. Why would Microsoft care whether he is autistic or not? :huh:



irrelevant, it doesn't matter who cheated on the account.

Sensationalism. Just an excuse. "Sorry I kicked you" said the legless man.

Thing is though, he didn't cheat. some one else used his account and cheated while using it, and last time I checked it was not illegal to let some one borrow you'r XBL account, more so if the person in question was a family member or close friend.
I have done it before, with my friends who only wanted to play a game or two.

So, he got punished, because some one else used his account and was cheating while doing so.

So, I have this video of 2 people cheating on a Free For All ranked match in Black Ops.
Both people are in a room, there is only 2 entrances to the room, one of them watched one entrance, the other watched the other. They are clearly cheating. How do I get Microsoft to brand them as cheaters?

Pretty much. What I find most depressing is that his mother seems to see Xbox Live to be some sort of substitute for social therapy.

Well, the reason they don't give chances is because hacking an account to get achievements isn't exactly an easy thing to do. A layman can't do it without special instructions. You can't just stumble upon a cheat that gives you achievements, you need to be fully aware of what you're doing. That's why they take such drastic measures.



Why? Just because he's autistic?

It's MS's way of Quality Control. It's no fun being on Live and comparing achievements if there's a bunch of cheaters running around, is there? He's clearly in the wrong. MS has been surprisingly lenient with him. I'd expect them to just brand his tag as cheater and just leave it at that.. The fact that they even listened afterwards is going above and beyond the call of duty.

Edit:



Get everyone else in the lobby to report their Gamertag for cheating. 3 reports is all you need for a temporary suspension and a warning notice. Plus, the reason that case isn't as extreme is because once the match is done; they can no longer cheat. Achievements stay forever.

So? It doesn't matter WHO was playing.

If someone uses my Steam account and hacks, should Valve un-ban the account because it wasn't me? :rolleyes: