Microsoft Hands Out Stiff Punishment for Gears of War Hackers

Earnest Cavalli

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Microsoft Hands Out Stiff Punishment for Gears of War Hackers



Hackers beware: Microsoft has begun deleting the Gamerscores of those found to be hacking Gears of War 2.

"As part of our regular safety monitoring we have pinpointed a group of players who have unlocked specific Gears of War 2 Achievements through an unauthorized hack," writes Xbox spokesman Major Nelson in a recent blog post [http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/04/28/gears-of-war-2-achievement-hacking-banning-has-begun.aspx].

"Deliberate cheats like these are in direct violation of the Xbox Live Terms of Use and will not be tolerated. As I post this, we've begun taking steps to reset the Gamerscores of the offending players."

The community - or at least those blog commenters appearing on Major Nelson's blog - seemingly supports the move, though I can only imagine the anger of the group of hackers.

I envision a group of teens stomping angrily around their friends' basement, stoned out of their minds on Mountain Dew and Cadbury Creme Eggs, shouting the three or four obscenities they heard on Xbox Live the night before.

Then one of their mothers comes down, asks if the boys would like some Rice Krispie Treats and, as they solemnly wipe away their tears, one of the nefarious hackers mumbles, "thanks mom. Could we have some Sunny D, too?"

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Cousin_IT

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Feb 6, 2008
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Please dont tie Cadburys Creme eggs to basement dwelling XBL teen hacker trolls please. I like creme eggs :D
 

Frizzle

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I'm not exactly familiar with the XBL community, but what is resetting a Gamerscore going to do? And also, why the hell do people feel the need to cheat on these games? It is beyond me...
 

Kogarian

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Frizzle said:
I'm not exactly familiar with the XBL community, but what is resetting a Gamerscore going to do? And also, why the hell do people feel the need to cheat on these games? It is beyond me...
Some people are extremely proud of their score. I myself, a few Australians, and one man in Canada don't care, but everyone else does. Have no idea why.

And I don't understand why they hack either. To cheat and brag about how good they are? Maybe get better at hacking?
 

MBurner 93

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NOOOOOO!!! N0T MAI GAM3R SC0R3!!!1111 IT WAS SOOOO 1337!!!111 is what I'd imageine they'd be saying. Personally, I wouldn't give a shit.
 

scotth266

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Jan 10, 2009
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Cousin_IT said:
Please dont tie Cadburys Creme eggs to basement dwelling XBL teen hacker trolls please. I like creme eggs :D
They don't sell these so much in the States. Yet another culinary suprise I look forward to experiencing.

Frizzle said:
I'm not exactly familiar with the XBL community, but what is resetting a Gamerscore going to do? And also, why the hell do people feel the need to cheat on these games? It is beyond me...
It has a lot to do with how achievements are looked upon by some as a form of digital, er, manhood size. It's rather silly, but some people just think that way.

To the hackers: watch more Wargames. There are far better uses of hacking out there, and far more legal ones too, come to think of it.
 

Frizzle

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Kogarian said:
Frizzle said:
I'm not exactly familiar with the XBL community, but what is resetting a Gamerscore going to do? And also, why the hell do people feel the need to cheat on these games? It is beyond me...
Some people are extremely proud of their score. I myself, a few Australians, and one man in Canada don't care, but everyone else does. Have no idea why.

And I don't understand why they hack either. To cheat and brag about how good they are? Maybe get better at hacking?
To get better at hacking, would be the only thing I would remotely accept as an excuse. It doesn't really say in the article, or the blog but, do you get different weapons with these achievements? I could see people doing it for that reason I suppose.
Again, forgive my naivety when it comes to XBL.
 

ElephantGuts

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That's awesome. Good for Microsoft. Death to the disobedient. Or, death to their gamerscores anyway. Good thing mine is still alive and well.
 

Avatar Roku

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Frizzle said:
Kogarian said:
Frizzle said:
I'm not exactly familiar with the XBL community, but what is resetting a Gamerscore going to do? And also, why the hell do people feel the need to cheat on these games? It is beyond me...
Some people are extremely proud of their score. I myself, a few Australians, and one man in Canada don't care, but everyone else does. Have no idea why.

And I don't understand why they hack either. To cheat and brag about how good they are? Maybe get better at hacking?
To get better at hacking, would be the only thing I would remotely accept as an excuse. It doesn't really say in the article, or the blog but, do you get different weapons with these achievements? I could see people doing it for that reason I suppose.
Again, forgive my naivety when it comes to XBL.
Nope. With the exception of some games like Mass Effect, most achievements are complete e-peen extensions.
 

Kogarian

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Frizzle said:
To get better at hacking, would be the only thing I would remotely accept as an excuse. It doesn't really say in the article, or the blog but, do you get different weapons with these achievements? I could see people doing it for that reason I suppose.
Again, forgive my naivety when it comes to XBL.
Oh, no problems. If I wouldn't have already had XBL, I'd been questioning their sanitry too.

But to answer your question, no, you actually don't unlock weapons or anything. You just get more points. In Gears of War, people get competitive, so they cheat to brag. I could see them unlocking weapons in CoD4 or BF:BC, but those games don't seem to have as much of a problem.

Orannis and Scotth made pretty good points on this issue.
 

Frizzle

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Nov 11, 2008
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I stand learned, and even more glad that I have a PS3. Thanks for clearing that stuff up guys.
 

kawligia

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Please don't mention Cadbury Creme Eggs. I forgot to go to the store the day after Easter and buy up all the half priced Cadbury Creme Eggs. I waited all through Lent season to enjoy them. But when I got the the store a day late, the fucking vultures bought them all up already.

Now I have to wait for next year.

/cry

But anyway, yeah that's good for them. They should do more than reset their scores, they should ban the account completely.
 

Earnest Cavalli

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Lord_Panzer said:
That entire article was just an excuse to be sarcastic, wasn't it?
Everything I do is an excuse to be sarcastic. I'm just impressed you weren't miffed about the flippant tone I took with everyone's favorite chocolate egg.

Who knew that would be such a sensitive topic?
 

Flunk

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Feb 17, 2008
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That's funny, I don't care about the "gamer score" at all. It's not like it does anything for you. I could see if you could trade in for Microsoft points or something. It's mostly just a score of how many games you've played. "Hacking" to up it just boggles my mind the effort far outweighs the benefit. Any effort > no benefit. People are stupid.
 

Lord_Panzer

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Feb 6, 2009
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Earnest Cavalli said:
Lord_Panzer said:
That entire article was just an excuse to be sarcastic, wasn't it?
Everything I do is an excuse to be sarcastic. I'm just impressed you weren't miffed about the flippant tone I took with everyone's favorite chocolate egg.

Who knew that would be such a sensitive topic?
I much prefer the Caramel egg, actually, so there was no offense to be taken.