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

[robinkom]

Can't believe this went on for 14 pages worth of comments... frankly, I don't care if he's autistic or not, that's beside the point. Gamerscores and Achievements don't mean anything. If such arbitrary made-up, bullshit "rewards" hadn't been created in the first place, they wouldn't have had to disappoint the boy as such. Even the spell checker underlines "Gamerscore" in red, it's pure bullshit.

They're only a little more meaningless than the High Score lists of any Arcade Game from the 70s, 80s or 90s. Those are at least individual scores per game and were part of a social and competitive environment in those days: "How good can I do in the least amount of quarters and knock this dweeb's name off of 1st place?" In the end though, the arcade and distributors still got your money anyway so it was all frivolous.

 

[Judgement101]

He cheated, that's that. Just because he has autism doesn't mean he can cheat and get away with it. (I know I sound heartless but it just annoys me that everyone got up in arms saying "Fuck you Microsoft! Give him his cheevos back)

 

[Korak the Mad]

Being someone who is on the Autistic Spectrum, let me say this. Anyone who is on the spectrum will become interested and focus on one thing (almost obsessively), for this kid it was getting achievements.

He probably played quite a bit to get them, and since not many people play games just to get achievements, not just to play. Since he became intent on getting these achievements and got them so quickly, Microsoft must have thought he hacked his account and took away his achievements because it "looked like he hacked his account".

Microsoft. GIVE THE KID BACK HIS ACHIEVEMENTS!!!

 

[akibawall95]

I do not know how an autistic kid figured out how to boost his Gamerscore I don?t even know how to do that (I am not trying to be insensitive about the child's autism). I'm sure that Microsoft did not know that the kid was autistic when they labeled him as a cheater but if he really (which they are now saying has) did boost his Gamerscore illegitimately then what they did was fully justified.

Some autistic kids are are absolute geniusses in some areas especially when it comes to math. Figuring out how to hack your gamerscore especially with the internet is probably extremely easy as well. My cousin is autistic and you tell him and date, day, month and year and he will yell you which day of the week it is. So just because the kid is autistic doesnt mean hes stupid.

I completely agree I was about to edit it saying that. I apologize and I in no way meant to say he or any autistic person was stupid. It is amazing what they can do; I apologize once again if that is how I sounded or if I offended anyone.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

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

But it's not a highscore system, it's a percent completion system multiplied by ten. Let's put it in these terms; say I play games for the challenge, but you play them for the story. I put a single player game on the hardest difficulty, and struggle through it all the way to the end. You, on the other hand, cheat to make it easier to get through the story. Does it really hurt me in any way that, at the end of the day, your completion bar reads the same as mine? So why should it matter that some kid may or may not have cheated on his gamer score?

I'd really like my gameshark back, Microsoft. Fit it with some sort of lockout chip that recognizes multiplayer modes if you have to, but bring back singleplayer cheats. They were so much fun to screw around with back in the day.

 

[JPArbiter]

am I the only one who thinks that A) the journalists who wrote the story use the Autisim angle to shift reader sympathy towards the kid and

B) If this child does suffer from an autisim spectrum disorder, he is in the higher functioning group like Aspergher's and thus has the capability to cheat.

 

[squid5580]

ok i dont suport cheating but this is kinda just BS if you dont want people exploting your achivments then make them cheat proof to begen with. Oh and i do beleave this lableing as a cheater basicly is slander but i may be wrong on that.

It isn't slander if it is true.

 

[Shannon Matchett]

It's been proven that the child was the cheater and, basically, the only real flow of debate is slowly reverting into a "microsoft is asshole" debate. In fact, it's teetering on that precipice now.

OT: 9/10 mental illnesses claimed on the internet are self-diagnosed. The statements on this post serve to support this statistic.

 

[Reaper69lol]

I dont see why he cares about achievements in the first place, but oh well. Sucks for him.

 

[Burningsok]

87,000. That sure is huge, but I've seen higher. A person I know of has at least 110,000 gamerscore. Apparently he told me that his mother buys games for him constantly, like every week. This kid is in college now.

 

[Pyode]

But it's not a highscore system, it's a percent completion system multiplied by ten. Let's put it in these terms; say I play games for the challenge, but you play them for the story. I put a single player game on the hardest difficulty, and struggle through it all the way to the end. You, on the other hand, cheat to make it easier to get through the story. Does it really hurt me in any way that, at the end of the day, your completion bar reads the same as mine? So why should it matter that some kid may or may not have cheated on his gamer score?

I'd really like my gameshark back, Microsoft. Fit it with some sort of lockout chip that recognizes multiplayer modes if you have to, but bring back singleplayer cheats. They were so much fun to screw around with back in the day.

I see where you are coming from, but you kind of shot yourself in the foot with your point about the GameShark where you acknowledge that cheating should be restricted to single player experiences.

What you fail to realize is that Achievements are not a single player experience. Achievements are essentially a world wide metagame. Now, you can chose not to play or only care about the gamerscore of your personal friends but not everyone plays like that and it's not fair to them when a bunch of cheaters throw off the curve.

-snip-

Just because you don't value something doesn't mean it doesn't have value.

I personally couldn't give a fuck about the Oscars, but who the fuck am I to say some up-and coming-actor shouldn't care about it?

Anyway, as for the story.

If he cheated, he should be punished just like everyone else regardless of his autism.

 

[Judokast]

What i'd like to know is how exactly does one get labeled a cheat? What do you have to do? I'm one that gives no rat's ass about my score or achievements but it made me wonder how do you cheat on x-box? I just, play the game and get the scores and achievements, are there codes and such floating around? The only "cheating" i do is look up stuff on www.gamefaqs.com when i need help for a game. Weird though, on the computer i'd understand but the X-box leaves me a bit baffled.

 

[Dusk17]

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.

He is a child and mentally handicapped, you cannot expect logical behavior from someone like that.

 

[masticina]

My feelings about this case
Boy or not
Autistic or not

If Microsoft did their research well then he his mother has nothing to stand upon. I mean it! It should by know be known that Microsoft logs EVERYTHING! Even if he did get an achievement through a hacked MW2 game.. that is enough to label him a cheater.

Microsoft has to see him as a customer, but also has to deal with fairness on their network for other customers. It might sound trivial but everybody has to be treated equally!

He is in the end just a number in a database just like anybody else. No Place for special pleading like "But he got autism". So what? The rules and methods remain the same...

 

[Desworks]

If you speak in a public forum, sometimes people respond to you. They have no obligation to agree with you (which is what I assume you meant by "respect") or be gentle to you if they disagree.

The internet would be a much more intelligent place if everyone simply accepted this. Forums are places for discussion and debate after all, and if everyone simply accepts everyone else's viewpoint then they aren't very interesting at all.

As for this topic, Microsoft have simply treated this person exactly as they would any other person, they found evidence of cheating and applied the XBL punishment that all people found cheating get. Any disabilities that the kid has don't factor into this at all, the punishment is applied to the crime, not the criminal. That's pretty much it, and I'm behind Microsoft on this decision.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Well there ya go. Microsoft did its job and has evidence to prove its point, crisis averted. (aside from people who will explode at the idea of autistic kids having anything done to them).

 

[ladysephiroth]

What i'd like to know is how exactly does one get labeled a cheat? What do you have to do? I'm one that gives no rat's ass about my score or achievements but it made me wonder how do you cheat on x-box? I just, play the game and get the scores and achievements, are there codes and such floating around? The only "cheating" i do is look up stuff on www.gamefaqs.com when i need help for a game. Weird though, on the computer i'd understand but the X-box leaves me a bit baffled.

Never thought about that. If using GameFAQ's or a strat guide is cheating, then wow, am I an awful person. *Looks at shelf full of strat guides..*

 

[Anton P. Nym]

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.

But it's not a highscore system, it's a percent completion system multiplied by ten.

That's false. Most games* can be completed in entirety and not receive a 1000/1000 or 200/200 score from them. Many Achievements are built to reward replay; others for map exploration; my favourites tend to be the ones that support "tricking", as so well done in Crackdown... Base Jumping is my all-time favourite Achievement ever, and is entirely unnecessary to completing the game. Many of the best Achievements measure intelligent or creative play... getting the "Pacifist" Achievement in Geometry Wars is extremely hard to do, for example.

Your example of two players completing the game on different difficulties and receieving the same Gamerscore is also incorrect, at least in the games I've played, as there are often Achievements for playing through at the highest difficulty level. (I still don't have the one for playing Mass Effect 2 on "Insanity" difficulty, though I have all the rest.)

If you value High Score systems, and would resent someone going into the back of an arcade cabinet and setting the DIPs to put their own initials at the top or digitally falsifying a winning lap time of "0:01" in Mario Kart's global leaderboard, then you cannot dismiss cheating on Gamerscore as irrelevant.

-- Steve

edited to add:

What you fail to realize is that Achievements are not a single player experience. Achievements are essentially a world wide metagame. Now, you can chose not to play or only care about the gamerscore of your personal friends but not everyone plays like that and it's not fair to them when a bunch of cheaters throw off the curve.

Another good point. If Gamerscore was just a local phenomenon, and not a global one, then indeed cheating on it would have no effect just like cheating in Solitare. It's because it's a publicly-displayed feature, one that can be compared with the scores of others, that Gamerscore cheating should be considered the same as cheating in multiplayer matches.

I'll also add that having the ability to manipulate Gamerscore may indicate having the ability to manipulate other multiplayer functions, a practice Xbox Live certainly has an interest in discouraging.