By going to the media and using this boy's autisim to garner sympathy, the mother is basically telling the son that it is acceptable for him to use his autism to manipulate people. Microsoft did the right thing by not backing off and labeling him a cheater because he is a cheater regardless of any disability he might have.
Autistic Xbox Player's Mother Admits He Cheated
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
- Start date
My entire point was about agency. Ignorance of the law, and the incapability to understand the law are two different things. Do we punish a train for crashing and killing people? No, because it's a frigging train. If the autistic kid is capable of understanding the situation and just hasn't learned to, then yes, punishing him actually accomplishes something. But if he just isn't going to understand anyway, then there's no real point other than upholding some grand abstracted idea of 'Justice' or personal vengeance.Flare Phoenix said:
Why? Why do people cling to these ideas of objective morality? It's all just a construct. There's just no need to have stringent un-bendable codes. Each situation is different, the more adaptable the system the better off it is. Now I don't know if you have this in Australia, but in America we have a thing called 'jury nullification'. This happens when the entire jury finds the law to be lacking in the particular situation, they vote the defendant innocent, even though he or she is guilty under the law. To clarify, this isn't a term that just describes what sometimes happens in spite of the law, IT IS PART OF THE LAW. The law is bendable because it does not arise out of some sort of eternal metaphysical code of right and wrong, but out of the needs of society.
But you don't seem to understand that I'm making a more general point. In this situation, the mother did cheat, and the kid may very well know what he did was wrong, in which case he should have been punished because it means that he won't do it next time. But that being said, I feel more sympathy for the kid because of his situation. Really the mother is the one who is really morally culpable, and she's the one who will know better for next time.
One final thing. People with disabilities should get special treatment. The special treatment should just be proportional to the disability. You wouldn't say a paraplegic is a bad person for not pulling someone out of a burning car would you? They can't. A person with Tourette's should be excused for shouting obscenities. Etc. Etc. If the autistic person doesn't understand what they're doing, they should be excused as well. Notice I am saying "doesn't understand what they're doing" which is different from simply being ignorant of the law.
I have an Autistic Spectrum Disorder and the mother now fills me with disgust. It is true that Autistic people often require assistance with some things, but she was using her son's Disability to gain undue sympathy for both him and herself.
What's worse, she was aware of what happened from the very start and now that the cat is out of the bag, she is still trying to paint them positively.
Parasite.
Also, the kid shouldn't get the one-month free membership and a new gamertag.
What's worse, she was aware of what happened from the very start and now that the cat is out of the bag, she is still trying to paint them positively.
Parasite.
Also, the kid shouldn't get the one-month free membership and a new gamertag.
That isn't a reward. Anyone who signs up a new gamertag gets a free month of XBL Gold access.Kortney said:
Anyone who gets their gamerscore reset can sign up for a new account and start over with a free month. Their old account will still carry the Cheater tag.
When you make a new account you get a free month of live and a new gamertag. Take note if you don't care about achievements and your specific online handle. Anyone can do it. All you need is an email address. He has already been set to 0 so if he didn't have the year subscription or anything like that (avatar gear doesn't transfer and game saves either) he would lose nothing by doing this. He hasn't gotten anything anyone else who has been reset can get.Kortney said:
First and foremost how is MS supposed to keep track of millions of people with all their disabilities? Or let everyone else know that we are supposed to treat them proportionally because of it? Would it be better if on his gamertag "excuse my achievements being out of order because I have autism." This is of course after we all are subjected to a battery of psychological exams before we are allowed to sign up to Live in the first place. Since you can't have people claiming they have a disability to get this special treatment in the first place. Or maybe MS could add a new type of gamer. Right now there is stuff like underground and family and such. Why not make a new server and call it something like Special? Then we can keep them away from the "normal" players and they can do whatever they want. Lets just take away one of the last places where people with mental disabilities are treated equally and fairly. Where they aren't subjected to being put in the special class and being told how different they are. I mean that is the only fair way to make sure they are protected from the "normals". And the "normals" are protected from them. Afterall that is why we have Special Olympics and Special classes. They can't keep up with the "normals" and the "normals" shouldn't have to slow down for them. So lets just keep them seperated all together.ReiverCorrupter said:
I don't know about you but to me that sounds quite offensive. And by far worse than having you achievements taken away and getting smacked with a label of exactly what you are. A cheater regardless if you know better or not.
its a game man if he wants to get something cool looking and he cant but his friend can more power to him i dont apove of cheating but in truth WTF does it matter achivments mean absolutly nothing so why is this even slightly a big deal? ill never understand why they even put them in there if you cant use them why bother getting them?mrdude2010 said:
As someone with Asperger's... amen to this. The behavior of this woman was absolutely asinine.MGlBlaze said:
That woman has taught her son no virtue in her actions. Not only will this affect him adversely in life- it could even affect the wider community of people with similar learning disabilities - from example to simply a bad reputation. Sympathy card or not - cheating is cheating, a stealing is stealing, killing is killing, and so on - it does not matter what afflicts you, wrongdoing is called that because it is WRONG.
I am glad that at least a civil and positive resolution was offered on Microsofts part - unfortunately this does make the parent and child look worse. But of course, thankfully the child gets a new gamertag and hopefully the family will walk away having learned a valuable lesson on virtue.
I am glad that at least a civil and positive resolution was offered on Microsofts part - unfortunately this does make the parent and child look worse. But of course, thankfully the child gets a new gamertag and hopefully the family will walk away having learned a valuable lesson on virtue.
It was just a very decent and civil PR move on MS's behalf. Also decent in the fact that MS has no need for the family to be reeling from this chain of events - it's just a gaming community, the child hasn't committed anything viciously heinous - just something stupid and dishonest - they paid the price and got a bad reputation already, there is no doubt the kid and the mother will suffer publicly depending on how well-known this case has become; if not, they should count themselves lucky, lick their wounds and do well to never repeat it.MGlBlaze said:
Last thing MS needs is people raising pitchforks and torches on a witchhunt on their behalf over something that can be so easily rectified with a gesture of kindness and reconciliation. More power to MS either way and capitalising on stupid peoples mistakes - bravo MS really.
dammit she should have adamantly stuck with the lie! i mean Denial isn't just a river in Egypt! hehehe