[UPDATE] Microsoft Devastates Autistic Child By Labeling Him a Cheater
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
- Start date
I have a brother who is severely Autistic, and if he was able to play video games, and he was cheating, I'd want him to be treated no differently then some kid who doesn't have any sort of disability or handicap. The only issue I have with the punishment is the permanent 'Cheater' tag on his account. That's a little too harsh. I could understand if there were sentence limits on how long that stays, like a month, or six months, but FOREVER is a little too harsh. Hell, if he had committed a real crime, his sentence would be buried once he turned eighteen.
An example of someone claiming they're not cheatingSome kid on the Steam Forums said:
While this certainly isn't Valve taking action, I think they're lying somehow. No matter how autistic and obsessive you are, I believe there's a 98% chance that you won't be able to farm achievements quickly enough to start raising red flags. That's why I call shenanigans.
The reason I blame his mother for this is because it's probably her decision to take it to the media, and the "Autistic" angle is making me see red. I'm autistic myself, and I think stuff like this gives people like me a bad name.
As for the debate on "three strikes, etc." I think that's not really right. While you may encourage forgiveness, and you don't want people being branded cheats due to stupidity when they were younger, I think a zero-tolerance policy is the way to go.
I have many great friends who've managed to get VAC-bans and cite "young and stupid" as the reason, but if there weren't harsh penalties for cheating, it'd devalue the game/gamerscore, as stated above.
Case-in-point: Prestige Hacking in Mw2.
Also, I notice I'm not exactly being neat here, but I found another quote here:
There's a really nice, simple policy in order to keep cheat-enforcement manageable:Tim Goldman said:
Your account, your responsibility
If someone tampered with his account, then he should have kept a better watch over it.
P.S.
This is a part where I can say that I'm unenlightened. Microsoft's anti-cheat is automated at some level, isn't it? Because if it wasn't that'd be unmanageable, as well as very prone to human error.
I've made this post under the assumption that it is largely automated, if it isn't shame on me. Some of my points still stand though...
The one about VAC will be remarkably ignorant though.
D.S.
my friend tried to cheat, he added a bunch of achvs and tried getting free Cr in Halo Reach. Microsoft labeled him a cheater, and took away his achvs. This is no different. Microsoft knows their stuff, and if this kid was cheating then he deserves the same punishment. Equality means everyone gets punished the same.
RatRace123 said:
Eh, it's a gamer score... I just can't see why MS would be willing to dig their heels in over THIS perticular issue. In the grand scheme of things, even if the kid DID cheat, i didn't get the impression his gamer score was like one of the top ones. So who cares? it's not like he's setting the all time homerun record or anything... >.>
I can't see taking a public black eye over this, it just seems... pointless.
Quote of the DAY! You know, xbox live costs money, quite a bit of money actually. I mean, I would never pay someone to call me a cheater, so why pay to give someone that opportunity? At a certain point, it's time for mommy to turn off the magic box that makes her child cry. Every online game has bugs, loopholes, and tricks and as soon as you allow real people into your game, strangers no less, whatever happens is fair game. If you don't like it (and I don't), turn that shit off. And certainly don't pay for it, for crying out loud.drwow said:
Achievements are NOT worth traumatizing a kid like this. If he cheated that's bad and he should probably be punished, but this is a step too far. Microsoft should figure out that their Achievement points are not valuable currency that Somalian pirates would kill to obtain. They're just a tool to help people measure their e-penises. They should lighten up.
I just recently lost my entire account with over 80 000 achievies (not to mention all my arcade and DLC) thanks to a vindictive ex gf. Believe me it sucks. I don't even care about the DLC and virtual crap but I worked 3 years on that.Onyx Oblivion said:
I am sorry and this is going to sound really cruel and heartless and quite possibly inhumane but why is this news? Go to the xbox forums (if you dare) you will find thread after thread of people saying the same thing. But because this kid has autism he gets on Fox news?? And I betcha dollars to donuts M$ is going to send him a ton of swag since according to the forum mods you can't be unreset.
I really hope it is a very slow news day and that is why this article is here.
I don't see any implication of Jackson's innocence here. Microsoft is just being polite by not outright saying "he cheated".The_root_of_all_evil said:
Also, he's autistic so he is incapable of understanding emotions and he measures his worth by his gamescore?... That's not what autism really is.
I agree. The system MS use to detected gamerscore cheats is automated, therefore, they are highly unlikely to use an automated system that throws up a lot of false positives. It's based on things such as unlocking online-only achievements while not being connected to Live, or, for example, unlocking the achievement for beating the last level in the game, before you've unlocked the achievements for beating earlier levels, which again is not possible via legitimate play. Everyone who creates a Live enabled gamertag agrees not to do this by agreeing to the terms of service that they must agree to in order to use Live.gamerguy473 said:
The child being autistic is irrelevant. That's just the emotional appeal part of the story so you feel sympathetic. Remove that aspect and it wouldn't be a story at all. The kid being autistic doesn't automatically mean he couldn't have cheated either. Of course he could. Someone else using his gamertag may have cheated with or without his knowledge, but you are responsible for your own gamertag and what's done with it.
And yet another reason I don?t like game scores and achievements. The hassle they create in order to foster a ridiculous sense of competition, for having nothing better to do with ones time I suppose, doesn?t seem to be worth the 'feeling' of achievement. If I was his parent I'd have told him to create a new gamer tag or just deal with the situation and move on. Going on a news channel about something so petty is just legitimizing both of these parties in something that is completely arbitrary and in no way relevant to life. I don?t want people whining about their game scores on my news, I want more stories about kittens playing instruments, that?s what important!
Microsof are also not saying "he cheated" because they're unwilling to give away any details of how. 3 company reps and 3 e-mails to the company (I checked) don't even tell them how or where he cheated. Perhaps a chance of their mistake? Which they won't undo.AnubisAuman said:
Autistics have a great deal of difficulty dealing with change and emotions. When they're in their own special "zone", they can cope with quite astounding mental feats because they don't have to deal with the usual mental garbage that we take for granted. (There's also Savantism, but that doesn't seem to be the case here).
The three basics of autism are difficulties with social interaction, social communication, and social imagination. (http://tinyurl.com/6dxepe8)
That means that a simple score will be as great as importance to an austic as your first kiss or your mum's cookie recipie. It's what makes them feel whole. Slap a label for being a lesser person (Cheater) on top of that, and you may as well slap an "N word" on all your non-white players - it's that offensive.
Note: I'm not saying he didn't cheat - I'm not saying this wouldn't be as bad applied to anyone else and I'm not saying that it's healthy for him to be using this as his only interaction.
But yeah, Microsoft, get off your collective ass and at least let this guy remove the cheater tag, that's just fucking childish.
That sucks, but if he was cheating... I don't know. Microsoft is pretty firm about slamming down the banhammer, but hardly ever do it without good reason.
if he cheated, then fine, he doesn't deserve em.
however, Microsoft have a tendency to be over-protecive dicks who wield the ban hammer a little too loosely (I forget what it was... I think it was people who hacked CoD or something... they deleted their ENTIRE XBL account for it... or something like that...)
more info is needed
however, Microsoft have a tendency to be over-protecive dicks who wield the ban hammer a little too loosely (I forget what it was... I think it was people who hacked CoD or something... they deleted their ENTIRE XBL account for it... or something like that...)
more info is needed
I suspect PC gamers will be more sympathetic as Games for Windows LIVE is atrocious; we're more likely to believe Microsoft's system is a bugged mess that false flags accounts.
My suspicion is that the little inquisitor found bugs in something that by his perception were no different from normal game mechanics, presenting a grey area between following the rules and outright exploitation. His condition means he's less likely to be able to judge which way along that grey area the bugs lean; if it isn't outright wrong, then it is outright fine.
My suspicion is that the little inquisitor found bugs in something that by his perception were no different from normal game mechanics, presenting a grey area between following the rules and outright exploitation. His condition means he's less likely to be able to judge which way along that grey area the bugs lean; if it isn't outright wrong, then it is outright fine.