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

PurpleSkull

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Mar 20, 2009
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Oh what the hell...

So what's if he is autistic? He did cheat apparently, so he deserves to have his points and achievements taken away and basta. There is no "grey" zone, you either cheat or you don't. If he was able to cheat, he is able to face the consequences. Which are pretty small and unimportant by the way. But no, once again it appears autistic people are the most important AND OH SO POOREST people in the world.

"What, my kid violated the MS TOS and got appropriately punished? Quick call Fox News!"


And anyway, aren't all online cheaters retards? :p
 

Timmey

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May 29, 2010
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I fail to see the problem here, Microsoft claim to have evidence which proves one of their customers cheated, so they have punished him for it... so ?
 

Bretty

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Jul 15, 2008
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This kid was discovered, investigated and found guilty of cheating.

Tough shit.
 

Cliff_m85

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SketchyFK said:
Cliff_m85 said:
His mother clearly stated he has no friends.

Perhaps because all he ever does is play Xbox? And yes, that's all he ever does. The controller shows that with all the disgusting skin muck on it.
Erm... i know people who also do nothing but play the Xbox yet they still have friends. This is a kid with autusm, if u don't have it then i can tell you right now, making friends is really, REALLY hard for us. Most autistic kids get severly bullied at school and find refuge in computer games. Now that his computer games are also "bullying" him in the way of calling him a cheater, this would be a MAJOR thing to him.
Then perhaps he shouldn't cheat?

Then he wouldn't need a ride on the Waaahhhhmbulance.
 
Oct 14, 2010
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vxicepickxv said:
Tim Latshaw said:
Sometimes you have to take a step back and ask: Why is this a story worthy of coverage from a news station? A game site, sure; but a broadcast affiliate in a major city? Really?
If you have to ask the question, then you don't understand the concept of a slow news day for a 24 hour news cycle. If you want more information, you can find it at Fark.com
Fox News has a 24-hour news cycle. Fox 13 has only morning and nighttime news limited to its coverage area (they don't even have news at noon). Fox News may pick this stuff up sometimes from its affiliates, but a search of the Fox News website yields nothing related to this story.

It must've been an incredibly slow news day.
 

akibawall95

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Mar 30, 2010
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I'm sure that Microsoft did not know that the kid was autistic when they labeled him as a cheater. However, if he really (which they are now saying has) did boost his Gamerscore illegitimately then what they did was fully justified.
 

Jacking

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Dec 24, 2010
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I think his autism is pretty irrelevant to the story here, I mean yeah it sucks that he lost everything - cheater or not.

The fact is, if he was cheating, Microsoft did what it has always done (which I'm sure is written in a ToS or contract somewhere) to punish him - and I'm pretty sure Microsoft would struggle to maintain a profit if they went around doing it without checking and double checking.

On the other hand, if it's all a big misunderstanding then I'm sure he'll get his stuff back and the situation will be resolved. I don't see how him being autistic factors in - after all I doubt he's the first person to be branded a cheater on Live (guilty or otherwise) and if it's a mistake I doubt he'll be the first person to have the decision reversed.

It seems like the autism is only being used by the news source to blow the story out of proportion.
 

Jamash

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Jun 25, 2008
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The mother's Twitter account makes for an interesting read:

https://twitter.com/ColdAssSunshine

She claims that her son's account was accessed from "out of state" by another user, which begs the question: why is she letting her 11 year old autistic son play M rated games over X-Box Live and get his account phished?

Surely she must have been privy to the conversation when this other user asked for the account details... or does she just let her 11 year old autistic son communicate with everyone unsupervised?

It seems every time she tries to pass the blame onto someone else, it actually reflects badly on her.
 

Anton P. Nym

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Owyn_Merrilin said:
Cheating to get achievements hurts noone, and regardless of who did it, Microsoft is the one in the wrong here.
That's not correct. Or, at the very least, it's hypocritical unless you think that falsifying one's standing on a game's global leaderboards also hurts no one.

Whether you do or not, many people do attach value to their Gamerscore... and allowing others to cheat 'em upward does hurt that sense of value by calling into question whether a score was earned by one's efforts or was "earned" with thirty seconds' use of the Internet and a USB flash drive.

(That being said, I never did agree with the "Cheater" branding of one's gamertag... I see why it's there, for deterrant value, but I worry about any tendencies it would have to provoke online vigilantism. That's a debatable issue, though, with a lot of pros and cons. I do certainly agree with the total stripping of all prior GS, though, as a punitive measure.)

-- Steve
 

SelectivelyEvil13

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Arec Balrin said:
His mother would have been the one that had to bare the brunt of the fallout. Sleepless nights, a child unable to eat, stimming excessively and unable to employ any of his basic self-care skills.

Whilst many people here are giving Microsoft and the shoddy LIVE infrastructure the benefit of doubt; they're not being as even-handed towards the mother or the boy. We can not see what Microsoft knows, but we can't see what she and her son went through regardless of the validity of the punishment.

Helps if people didn't cite Encyclopedia Dramatica as an authority on Autism.
I can imagine the circumstances on both sides of the argument, with Microsoft obviously touting that they have evidence that finds the child in question guilty but cannot be disclosed for privacy reasons. However, right out of the gate I was considering the mother and child's side and the personal situation that none of us know about either, as Arec Balrin has pointed out. I cannot say that I can trust Microsoft without question for countless reasons which are beyond the point, but unless the mother decides to release the claims by Microsoft, I feel that it would be inane to try and hand out subjective judgments on either party. Autism does not change whether or not the child cheated, but if there was some fluke of an error and the Gamertag/Score actually meant something to him, then obviously holding a false accusation would be dubious on Microsoft's part. Taking the claims by Microsoft alone that they are sure could just as easily be concieved as giving them the benefit of the doubt as well. The key factor is that Microsoft is not releasing any clear-cut evidence either, so a reasonable outside viewer should take into account that this falls upon the mother to reveal much more that could either aid or outright kill her plea.

Microsoft's general stance regarding Gamerscore seems a tad melodramatic considering the points in question have no sway, influence, or monetary value and are meritorious only to those who honestly think the number besides another player's name actually means Jack-Spit. Throwing the tar and feathers with the "Cheater" label seems equally childish as cheating in the first place for the aforementioned "useless" points. I also consider that since Microsoft has the cherries to charge ten dollars just to change one's drunken misspelling, the act seems even sillier[footnote]In order to match the silliness of charging so much for a stupid screen name without at least one "freebie," even if it was just for Gold Members...[/footnote].



CAPTCHA: Government Sucide
I think you're missing another "i" there, and two words (one a typo of course) does NOT COUNT AS READING BOOKS.
...
Blue Flamingo. There, you just read a segment from Chaucer[footnote]Segment not really from Chaucer.[/footnote]. Now aren't you proud?
 

Jamash

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Jun 25, 2008
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Fronzel said:
Jamash said:
The mother's Twitter account makes for an interesting read
Did you see the part where she's going all drama queen on the attention the story has gotten and says "now I hide my son"?

I thought he was already hidden in his Xbox cave.
I think it would have been better for her son if she hadn't called in the media circus and made his autism the focus of an international story.
 

BlueGlowstick

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Everyone picks on me because I have an opinion. If you don't respect my opinion, then why bother quoting my posts?
 

Flare Phoenix

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Not to sound insensitive, but I really don't see what the child been austistic has to do with anything. It just sounds like one of those "I'm worse off so I deserve special treatment" kind of arguments to me.

I think any gamer would be devastated to lose their hard-earned achievements if they feel they were wrongly taken away, and this just reeks of trying to get preferential treatment - like women who think they should come first because they're pregnant or have kids. Cause let's face it: if this were a normal kid, it wouldn't have had any sort of news coverage...
 

BlueGlowstick

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qeinar said:
BlueGlowstick said:
I think that's wrong to stick cheater by their name. I don't think he cheated. Autistic children/adults are unbelievably smart & talented. Sure they have difficulty talking & making eye contact with others, but that's why his one release was his Xbox Live. He didn't have to converse with people directly. His mom wouldn't have anything to do with it, and neither would him. Just because Microsoft says he cheated doesn't mean he did. They just want to complain about how someone who can beat their games without cheat codes is bad for business.

I am sticking up for the little guy because SOMEONE has to!! I know what it's like to have a medical disability & be treated like dirt.
which means your opinion is biased. : p also how is people beating games without cheats bad for their company? also just banning random people would not serve the company anything.. xD autism does not hinder your ability to cheat and lie in any way. would you stick up for a 11 year old without an disability that got banned after moding his achievements? kinda doubt that..
nowadays almost every kid is hiding a disability. I've hid mine since I was 9.
 

debramster123

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Sep 12, 2010
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well if he really did cheat he should not be hold seperate
if he didnt give him his achivements back

problem? none
 

Random Fella

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Nov 17, 2010
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Oh no! Now what's he going to do? Go outside?

OT: This is why you buy a playstation, because microsoft are run by a$$holes.
 

ladysephiroth

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Jan 26, 2011
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Jamash said:
The mother's Twitter account makes for an interesting read:

https://twitter.com/ColdAssSunshine

She claims that her son's account was accessed from "out of state" by another user, which begs the question: why is she letting her 11 year old autistic son play M rated games over X-Box Live and get his account phished?

Surely she must have been privy to the conversation when this other user asked for the account details... or does she just let her 11 year old autistic son communicate with everyone unsupervised?

It seems every time she tries to pass the blame onto someone else, it actually reflects badly on her.
I'm actually a little more disturbed that a "mother" trying to show her son in the right has a twitter name of "Cold A** Sunshine." It makes it harder to take her seriously. I'm not sure why, but I look at that and I'm like, "really?"

I wish someone'd make the reasons public. I deal with ASD on a daily basis as a teacher, and there's still jost not enough here to make me take one side or the other.