[UPDATE] Microsoft Devastates Autistic Child By Labeling Him a Cheater

[Athinira]

I don't trust for one second when Microsoft says that they've "confirmed" that the achievements were illegally modified.

And i don't trust it for the same reason i don't trust Valve's Anti-Cheat bans and Valve's "our anti-cheat is flawless" attitude either. They are asking players to implicitly trust their anti-cheat software (even Microsoft rely on software readings to "confirm" their stuff), and i honestly don't think they deserve that trust.

Not ruling out that the guy cheated, but i see it as unlikely.

 

[Dastardly]

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It's possible the kid didn't know he was cheating. Possible, not necessarily likely. But if they've got ways of tracking this (and I'm sure they do), and they've shared that information with the mother, and she's not sharing it with the public, it's looking pretty likely he did, in fact, cheat--whether intentionally or not.

If they didn't give her the information? We'd hear about it. If they gave her information that isn't good enough? We'd hear about it. If the information proves there was cheating? We won't hear a damn thing about it. Happens all the time when a parent takes up for a child without having the facts... and then they're presented the facts, and proven wrong. They shut up and go home angry at the world, rather than at the kid.

Autism is real. But it is also the new hot-button, over-diagnosed disorder. It's hard to prove a kid doesn't have it, so we're stuck assuming every claim is real (lest we shun that one kid that actually does). My guess? We're looking at a kid that supposedly has Asperger's Syndrome--by far the most nebulous, and thus "common," form of autism.

And the public's tragic misunderstandings and misinformation about autism (thanks Rain Man) will lead them to think the kid is a magical game wizard, and that's why MS thinks he was cheating.

 

[LightspeedJack]

This happened to my friend the other day. Over 3 years he had built up his Gamerscore to almost 40,000 and modded it to add about 500G to his account. They reduced his account to 0G labeled him a cheater and he can never earn the achievements he already had! I admit I lol'd.

As for the kid, don't cry about it, it's only gamerscore.

 

[Zioalca]

Sounds like he was just trying to use an excuse for his cheating to me. I know some of those achievements can be an absolute pain to get, especially if you have to get them from playing online. That would also be the easiest way to confirm that someone was cheating and is probably what happened.

 

[Dora]

Considering how quickly people are apt to start accusing Microsoft as being OMG EVIL, I would think that to avoid bad press if the kid wasn't legitimately cheating they'd be extremely fast about releasing a mea culpa and complimentary llama to smooth things over. Because they haven't, and because they released info to the kid's mother, I doubt they're "hiding" anything. It's probably more a case of, "Look, lady, we have proof that SOMEone, either you or your kid or someone else, illegally modified that account. We're keeping this out of the media, because we don't want you to start a shitstorm about how it's been faked, or how we SHAMED YOUR CHILD by publishing it. Someone on your end screwed up, so just accept it." But of course she won't because she'll smell money.

I had a kid in my class growing up who was so autistic he could barely function on his own. Went everywhere in a wheelchair, had to have a helper feed (and presumably bathe) him, didn't make eye contact, couldn't communicate, spent a lot of time just hitting himself... my point is that if this kid is in good enough shape to play all these games and issue coherent statements to the press, he's a lot luckier than other people who apparently have his condition. Get a playstation or something and start again.

I never understand achievement appeal.

 

[Nobby]

The video says he got 1500 achievements in a week or less. Now I'm no expert but autistic people have to eat and sleep too right? And presumably he's at school because the mother mentions it in the video.

Well according to my very shaky maths that means he got approx. 214 achievements a day at least.

Now colour me suspicious but that's a bit unlikely to be legit isn't it.

 

[Stabby Joe]

Can someone clarify something for me:

When they say "illegitimately" boosting, is this refereeing to modding and hacking or the party of friends methods... because the latter isn't illegal and common practice from what I gather.

The reason I ask is the reason some people might be questioning it is does this kid even have the know-how to hack online?

 

[NewfieKeir]

His disability is irrelevant. Would there be a big fuss about this if he was a healthy kid who was labeled a cheater? No. Just because he has autism doesn't mean he automatically be unable to cheat, and if he cheated he deserves the punishment.

I'm more worried about why the mother is letting her 10 year old autistic son go on xbox live unsupervised.

 

[viciouspen]

Okay at this point, who cares if someone tampered with his account? Let the austic kid have his freaking account back the way it was.

Seriously that is some cold heartless microsoftery, almost made me think it was Apple ;P lol

 

[The Red Spy]

Okay at this point, who cares if someone tampered with his account? Let the austic kid have his freaking account back the way it was.

Seriously that is some cold heartless microsoftery, almost made me think it was Apple ;P lol

As has already been said, his autism is irrelevant. His account has been tampered with, so he faces the consequences like everyone else. It's a fair enough system and the update confirms the initial ruling.

 

[D_987]

Okay at this point, who cares if someone tampered with his account? Let the austic kid have his freaking account back the way it was.

Yeah let cheats get away with their crimes unpunished!

Ugh, you do realize that if they give this kid his account back every cheat who posts on the Xbox.com forums [there's a section for account suspensions] that claims they're innocent [they always do] will cry they have some form of mental disability - you can't let a few slip by without opening up the floodgates.

 

[RuralGamer]

Sounds like a similar incident to what my friend had, although with him it wasn't gamerscore. His Xbox broke whilst still in Microsoft's warranty and they refused to fix it.

Their reason; he'd illegally modified his Xbox.

And this was without it even leaving his bedroom. They told him (in an email I think) that they knew he'd illegally modified his Xbox and so had voided the warranty. BS. I'd used his Xbox dozens of times and there was no sign of tampering, he didn't have the know-how to do it and he didn't have anything to gain from doing so anyway. He was pissed off.

 

[CatmanStu]

This article brought two things to light for me.
1 - Would this be news worthy if they weren't called achievements? You have a mother crying that all her child's 'achievements' have been taken away and it sounds a lot more unjust than saying, say, all her child's 'gamerstats' or 'bulletpoints'.
2 - Microsoft must have a pretty infallible system for detecting cheats and hacks if they are willing to add the word cheater to someone's profile. If they were ever wrong wouldn't that leave them open to accusations of libel?

 

[Eponet]

We really don't know enough to judge whether he really cheated or not.

In this case, isn't the standard procedure to assume innocence until guilt is proven?

 

[SinisterGehe]

SO it is wrong because he autistic? How was microsoft supposed to know this? Did they call microsoft and say "You banned my autistic sons account!!!", I think they are trying to get sympathy points here.

And if he was cheating, oh boy this could get interesting, specially if we do not hear any updates about this it might lead to some conclusions.

I got nerve damaged right hand, still no one gave me sympathy when I had to complete P.E evaluations, tho I did better than average did on endurance, but I failed streght since I can't lift shit with my right hand...

And isn't Xbox live k13? It is here at least...

 

[Something Amyss]

The update has me saying "fair enough," though we still don't know specifics.

 

[uppitycracker]

We really don't know enough to judge whether he really cheated or not.

In this case, isn't the standard procedure to assume innocence until guilt is proven?

not when it's something we don't and can have no knowledge about. in fact, it's best to trust the judgement of those who do this for a living. if the update states that they investigated this and can verify beyond a doubt that he did, in fact, cheat to get some of those achievements, i'm inclined to believe them. they can't just post this kinda proof all over the internet, it does not bode well for the individuals privacy (regardless as to whether or not they forfeited that privacy to begin with, it's general policy in the game administration business). having worked in similar work environments in other companies, i can say it's most likely a safe bet that the kid is in the wrong. honestly, it's not like he's losing access to his account, achievements or games tho...

 

[Jake the Snake]

You must treat all of your customers fairly. I don't care if this kid is autistic. He cheated. Life does not reward cheaters.

 

[Sparrow]

I get that it's human nature to feel sorry for the poor little autistic kid, but I'd be suprised if Microsoft just decided to do this him with little to no proof.

Microsoft says it's confident that someone tampered with Jackson's account to boost his score in an illegitimate manner, and doesn't currently plan to give him his achievements back.

"Fuck you, kid. We know you didn't do wrong, but we're not gonna do anything about it."

Many years ago, this would have shocked and angered me. These days, par for the Microshaft course.

Sheesh, Root. Way to totally jump the gun. How did you know the kid wasn't lying?