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

gm3dgames

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Jan 28, 2011
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I registered here for 1 simple reply. All of you people who have posted here should go and read the damn Terms of Service. Yes, that thing that most of you went, "Meh, i will just click i agree." IT IS against the Terms of Service for someone to cheat on Microsoft's servers and systems. If we let 1 autistic kid get off free, then you will see an influx of bullshit little whiners. Microsoft in my view did the right thing, They labeled a suspected cheater of being a cheater. I dont give a fuck if someone is autistic, psycho, or has ADD. If i was one of them, i think i would want to be treated the same as everyone else, i wouldn't want sympathy, that would make me feel even worse. This is simply the boys mother trying to gain attention and say, "oh look what they did to my boy, give me and my boy some sympathy would you all.". All of that hate or dislike Microsoft are fools, most of you are using a Microsoft product to write "fuck you microsoft for giving me this operating system that i am currently using". Don't like? go mac or linux. its more like Fuck you people for being ungrateful little pricks. If you dont like it, Switch or make it yourself. We do not want you whiners AT ALL.
 

Lance Arrow

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Apr 7, 2010
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Ladies and gentlemen, the above poster has a brain.

I have ADD and autism, and I approve this freakin' message.
 

SovietSecrets

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Nov 16, 2008
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This is important why? Don't fuck with the terms that Microsoft gives you. Didn't read? Too bad. Just another cheater for all I care if thats what MS found.
 

Olrod

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Feb 11, 2010
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So this kid actually cheated and didn't just use any kind of autistic savant super powers that made him a game-playing genius?

Well then, I guess he brought his "cheater" reputation upon himself.
 

Lance Arrow

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Apr 7, 2010
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Olrod said:
So this kid actually cheated and didn't just use any kind of autistic savant super powers that made him a game-playing genius?
I know you're joking but

chill.
 

chinangel

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Sep 25, 2009
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I still don't think slapping the 'cheater' name on someone's gamertag is nice at all. Cheater or not, just take away the gamer score, don't add insult to injury.
 

Silva

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Apr 13, 2009
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I'm personally more concerned that Microsoft is aware enough of how we play that they can label us cheaters for tampering with something as basically harmless and meaningless as a gamerscore. And that they have the power to cause those of us who are already outcast to be even further alienated, and are unafraid to use it.

I mean, it'd be fair enough to be so harsh if this were a competition where money is involved, but really, it would've been more prudent to do something a little less publicly and personally humiliating than change every cheater's name to "cheat". Even banning them at least doesn't lead to social alienation and the like from others in the hardcore community.

Banning, most likely, wouldn't end up published in the media either, because the attitude would be "move on and play something else, you little brat." Instead, it's become a public dignity issue and I understand why I'd be angry in the mother's position too. We all used to cheat in games all the time in the times before internet gaming made games massively multiplayer. Why do we suddenly think it's okay to victimise people who've bent the rules in a freaking simulation? The bland, "oh that's just fine, he got what was coming to him" reaction I see from some here is, to be frank, ridiculous.

We should really ask ourselves if it's worth humiliating someone who may or may not have a mental issue (and may or may not get unhinged or sent into a breakdown by the stigmas attached to "cheating" and the like, depending on the extremity of his autism) just to please a few die-hard fans of Live who want their names in the Hall of Fame or whatever without cheating for it. And yeah, when creating a social system, you need to consider what will happen to the lowest social denominator - the mentally ill and other minorities - because they will use it too. This PR issue is causing Microsoft trouble and rightly so, they could have done more to prevent it from ever happening.

My view is that Microsoft should deal with cheaters in a more mature manner, and give the poor kid his account back. The games should be updated and patched against the power of exploits anyway, rather than having quick socialising fixes like humiliation. The fact that people are humiliated in such a way is a pathetic showing off of the cutting-corners philosophy that is the ugliest face of Microsoft's corporate personality. That, or a show of exactly how much more growing up the gaming industry has to do. Seriously guys, get it together.
 

Fusioncode9

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Sep 23, 2010
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He cheated and now he payed the price, serves him right. Besides, at least they didn't freeze his account, so he can still play.
 

Icehearted

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Jul 14, 2009
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chinangel said:
I still don't think slapping the 'cheater' name on someone's gamertag is nice at all. Cheater or not, just take away the gamer score, don't add insult to injury.
Sort of the gaming equivalent of a scarlet letter, and I'm totally okay with that. If only "ragequitter" and "griefer" were also things that could be added to a gamertag.
 

Cid Silverwing

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Jul 27, 2008
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Inbe4 flaming: I'm autistic too.

This is what you get for cheating; you lose your score. No one cares if you have a crippling addiction to gaming or serious social inhibitions. You earn your score fair and square.
 

chinangel

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Sep 25, 2009
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Icehearted said:
chinangel said:
I still don't think slapping the 'cheater' name on someone's gamertag is nice at all. Cheater or not, just take away the gamer score, don't add insult to injury.
Sort of the gaming equivalent of a scarlet letter, and I'm totally okay with that. If only "ragequitter" and "griefer" were also things that could be added to a gamertag.
I don't agree with 'scarlet letter' type punishments. It's hard enough starting over without having that hanging over your head as well. Besides what's it going to prove? If you earn the rest of your score properly will they get rid of the 'cheater' thing? nope, so it's kind of a 'branded for life' thing, unless you abandon that gamertag and start over, which seems to be what they are going for.
 

D_987

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Jun 15, 2008
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Tom Goldman said:
snip again
http://www.thinq.co.uk/2011/1/28/autistic-gamer-cheat-after-all/
http://www.reghardware.com/2011/01/28/autistic_boy_did_cheat_on_xbox/

The family of an 11-year old gamer suffering from autism who was labeled a cheat by Microsoft has been forced to admit that the company has a point - confessing that achievements earned on his account were illegitimate.
The account Zombie Kill67 transferred from the Xbox it is normally seen on, to an Xbox in another city. The account earned several achievements for Halo 3 that can only be done online and in succession. It was clear they were unlocked out of order and offline. Earning successive online achievements out of order and offline is an impossible feat, not due to skill, but due to the technology of the system. It can only be done by modifying the account and faking the achievements."

Zdenek now admits her son gave his Gamertag to an online pal so he could get "Recon Armour" in Halo 3. She says she even warned him about it at the time worried the other gamer may have been phishing for bank account details.
 

D_987

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Silva said:
My view is that Microsoft should deal with cheaters in a more mature manner, and give the poor kid his account back. The games should be updated and patched against the power of exploits anyway, rather than having quick socialising fixes like humiliation. The fact that people are humiliated in such a way is a pathetic showing off of the cutting-corners philosophy that is the ugliest face of Microsoft's corporate personality. That, or a show of exactly how much more growing up the gaming industry has to do. Seriously guys, get it together.
There're so many foolish and naive statements in this post I don't know where to begin...
How about the fact that, much like DRM, it's pretty damn impossible stop people hacking into your games; the fact the kid cheated and the rules must be upheld and the fact that the reason people cheat to earn gamerscore is to earn respect in the first place; this is by far the best solution to stopping them doing so again in the future. [That and you do realize nobody else on Xbox Live can see the cheater tag, right?]
 

Anton P. Nym

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Sep 18, 2007
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D_987 said:
Zdenek now admits her son gave his Gamertag to an online pal so he could get "Recon Armour" in Halo 3. She says she even warned him about it at the time worried the other gamer may have been phishing for bank account details.
Sigh. Recon claims another victim, dammit. That was one heckuva failed attempt to acknowledge folks helping the community.

-- Steve
 

Chris^^

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Mar 11, 2009
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if they had a legitimate reason then I really don't see the issue, autistic or not cheating is simply against the rules and people need to respect that. It'd annoy me if they caved in and gae them all back just because of the kids autism..
 

Bender Rodriguez

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Sep 2, 2010
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No reason to hate whoever did this, you can bet he or she feels it.

On the other hand i wouldn't mind testing out my new boots on him/her.
 

Anti Nudist Cupcake

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Mar 23, 2010
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Who cares about achievements? I play a game to enjoy it, i'm not grinding through it like it's a chore to get the highest rank and make me feel like i'm better than you and eventually not be playing for fun altogether.
Not that i'm implying YOU guys are like that, it's just bizarre to me how there are actually people who stopped playing games for fun, and now just play because of a zombie-like urge for the highest level or achievement or whatever.
My friends play wow, I asked one of my former-wow players why the others enjoy it so much and he said that it's definitely not for the fun anymore.
 

Jeffro Tull

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Sep 27, 2010
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Ok. Here's another angle to look at. We are not sure what games this kid played. Is there a possibility that this child participated in an action that would be considered cheating, without realizing that his actions would be considered as such? When a child is autistic, he/she has little to no comprehension of the social ramifications of their actions. In other words, the child is able to understand facts and figures well above most, but is either socially awkward or simply cannot relate to social concepts that are quite basic to the rest of us.

That being said, there is a possibility that this kid found a way to "artificially" raise his score in order to unlock achievements. If we go into the type mind frame that I described above then we can see that he may have seen this merely as a more efficient way to achieve his goal (ie. raising his score to unlock an achievement). He would not see this as cheating necessarily since he was able to do all of this within the confines of the system that was already in place.

Another possibility is that he simply found a way to achieve such a score. If he expresses the same characteristic that are common in autism then he would see a level in a different way than we would. It is probable that he would be able to break a level down, so to speak, and find the most efficient combination of actions in order to rake up the highest possible score that he can figure. A level in a videogame is essentially a problem solving exercise if you break away any emotional attachments you have, and look at the structure of the level/map itself.

Microsoft should probably drop the label they placed on this kid, and give the child a firm warning. There are many factors that could be in play in this isolated incident.
 

D_987

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Jeffro Tull said:
Ok. Here's another angle to look at. We are not sure what games this kid played. Is there a possibility that this child participated in an action that would be considered cheating, without realizing that his actions would be considered as such?
See post 556 - it's pretty damn clear cut considering she knew he was cheating all along, there's no way you can possibly argue they didn't know what they were doing could get him in trouble...

To be honest I don't think that's even the whole story, that's just one example of a clear cut case - others have reported the kid had suspicious achievement unlock times in a number of games.