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

[yaik7a]

Play PC then. Also I could have made a mindcraft joke but did not.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Cheaters gonna cheat?

I'm pretty sure Microsoft knows how to find cheaters. If they say something happened, then I'm going to assume something happened. Just because he has autism doesn't mean he gets a free pass in the cheating game.

 

[Oirish_Martin]

What are the criteria Microsoft use to decide if someone's been cheating?

 

[Tim Latshaw]

Also, is there much point in throwing in the fact that he's autistic? I'm autistic, but I wouldn't want to throw that around or something. Is it meant to make me sympathise with him?

Unfortunately, I think the fact he is autistic is the only thing giving this story any worthiness of attention in the media world. People get their gamerscores wiped for cheating all the time and I'm sure more than one claims they weren't doing anything wrong. His autism is being used as a sympathy chip--"Why is the big bad corporation picking on this one poor child?"

 

[Player 2]

They put "Cheater" beside peoples names? Why? Thats just idiotic and childish.

 

[Senaro]

Microsoft. Now attacking Handicapped people for profit.

I highly doubt he was cheating. It seems unlikely that he would cheat to get a high achievement score then when he gets banned he gets upset. It's not a logical move even for an autistic.

Sure it is. People complain all the time about them being wronged when they mess up. Things like "My brother was playing when I wasn't home" or "Someone stole my account and cheated for me, which is why I have such a ridiculous amount of credits now."

Just because the kid is autistic doesn't mean he can't lie or cheat. I deal with kids like this all the time volunteering in the special-ed classes. It's only natural for people to whine when they get caught doing something wrong and try to pass the blame onto something else.

Of course, it is always possible the kid is telling the truth, but Microsoft would be able to tell if someone else had downloaded his profile to a different xbox and hacked his account.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

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.

 

[Joepow]

Seems a little cruel to me that they stuck the word "cheater" by his name. Understandably, if someone had been caught cheating, then hell yeah they probably deserve it, but in this case it seems a bit overzealous

What makes this case different than any other?
What difference does it make if the kid is autistic?

 

[inFAMOUSCowZ]

Did the news really need to say he was Autistic, I mean lets say my neighbor who is 10. Is accused of cheating on xbox live, and he went to the news. The news wouldnt do anything with the story because so what you were cheating, or accused of it. BUT becuase the kid is autistic, he gets special rights, and some gulit thrown his way. I just never saw things like that.

 

[JediMB]

"lol, gamerscore"

While it's a bit sad that an autistic child is made to feel so devastated, I have to say that it's ridiculous how much people care about achievements and a glorified score counter.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

See, that he's autistic makes me more likely to believe he wasn't cheating. Getting obsessed over things is something autistic people do, and videogames, with their clearly defined rules and ways in which to get achievements, are a pretty good outlet for autistic children in particular.

So I believe that it's entirely possible it looked like he was cheating, with a high score over a short amount of time or something, but in reality it was only possible because as an autistic he was so obsessed with getting achievements he played it too much.

 

[Legion]

Bear in mind people that you can file complaints against other users profiles, and one of these complaints can be because of cheating.

You don't need proof, you don't have a limit on how many complaints you can file against a single person and you don't have to give any reason for doing so.

So basically if you don't like someone and have 50 friends, you could ask them all to file a complaint against someone. While Microsoft will probably ignore a single complaint, 50 or so will get their attention.

What I am getting at is that if someone didn't like this kid then it's easily possible for him to get banned because of them filing complaints against him multiple times.

I had a friend get his account banned for his bio despite the fact that there wasn't anything offensive on it at all, it was a satirical bio about people who make up excuses for losing "Noobs, lag, host" etc. etc.

 

[draythefingerless]

"Microsoft devastates child by labeling him a cheater"

See how boring that title just became by removing a certain word?

 

[Joepow]

Microsoft says it's confident that someone (probably named Jackson) 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.

When they say someone they don't mean someone other than him.

 

[Marmooset]

There's two courses of action viable in this situation, and which one should be taken depends on an answer nobody seems willing to give.


If he was cheating, then the punishment should stand.

If he was not cheating, then it should be reversed.

And in either case, autism does not enter the equation.

 

[MC K-Mac]

What I would really like to know is how exactly Microsoft determines someone has cheated. What criteria does Microsoft use to determine someone has cheated? How foolproof is it? Like most news stories, this one leaves the really useful information out.

I'm all for having some sort of punishment for raising your gamerscore by sneaky or underhanded means - otherwise it completely devalues the score for those who achieve it legitimately - but hopefully Microsoft acknowledges that the system they use, like any other, is fallible. Their actions seem a little drastic for a first-time offence (if this was a first-time offence - again, the useful information is left out). How about a warning or two before taking away a person's hard-won achievements and publicly insulting them?

 

[Mrsoupcup]

He probably used Modio, still feel bad for him though my brother got reset for the same thing. He had no clue what he was getting into when he cheated, I wish Xbox had like a three strike system or something. Plenty of kids get reset for moding, all it takes is a usb and a computer. (And some naive people)

 

[Joepow]

Double post due to rebellious connection

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I think a flag got raised with how quickly he was getting achievements.

I mean, look at your standard game, usually has between 30-50 achievements totaling 1000 gamer score, about half of them are usually for hard as hell achievements like "beat the game only using your knife, without saving, on insanity difficulty, with your TV turned off".


the kid said he got them in 200 days.

I dont know what his score was before they reset his score, but given that most games have over 20+ hours worth of game play [adding in the more difficult achievements, possibly one or two more hours per one] he would have to be playing several games concurrently.


this of course depends on how high his score was to begin with.

Yeah I pondered that thought too.

However I am a huge achievement whore.

I wasn't using my current tracking sites (Trueachievements/360voice) but there were times when I'd polish off 20 achievements a day and 100G a game in less than a week.

I never got banned... and I'd think for cheating Microsoft would probably do a little more digging into it (check achievements for date stamps, check online usage, check average time between achievements compared to other averages).

But either way I still hope they give them him back...

 

[CaptainKoala]

With a case like this, you bet your ass that Microsoft would make damn sure it was tampered with before they decided to not give him his achievements back. I'll have to side with MS on this one.