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

[Alone Disciple]

Am I the only one here who thinks this story 'blurb' is missing the 'meat' (i.e. details) here?

How many achievent points are we talking about in 200 days? Are there strange hours being logged into account? What is Microsofts theory? Were the achievments every 10 minutes, racking up something like 500 in one day? Is it even possible to rack up the points in question in this time frame?

I can't seem to budge from this very open middle ground.

This whole article just seems terribly vague as reported here.

 

[Hybridwolf]

Remove the Autism. It then becomes a kid getting upset over losing his gamerscore. This happens all the time with Microsoft never explaining why, but they happen to get someone with Autism and a story comes out of it. Sorry kid, but they don't discredit you because you happen to be autistic, they discredit you for cheating.

 

[dtthelegend]

This is an exerpt from the Xbox Live User Agreement

"The Service is offered to you conditioned on your acceptance of all terms in this contract. By selecting "ACCEPT" below, you are representing that you are 18 years old (and have reached the ?age of majority? if that is not 18 years of age where you live), the information you provided to Microsoft during Service signup is truthful and accurate, and you are attaching your electronic signature to and agreeing to all terms in this contract."

First off, Hes an 11 year old posing as an 18 year old online. Not only that, the games he plays (in the video) are all 18+.If hes going to play in big boy town, he should be able to A: Be responsible with his account and B: Be able to handle punishment if he isnt.

Second, This child may not be telling the entire truth. Microsoft does not just dole out these labels to everyone.To microsoft, this boy is User 100000010 whos achievment score went from a very small number to a very large number very quickly - not an autistic child from Seattle. Sucks that they had to use that ploy for news tho.

 

[Lyri]

Why do we care about someone being branded a cheater?

Is it because he's an autistic child? That's the only reason I see for it to be reported over the probable hundreds of other cases of people who have the same action done to them.

 

[C95J]

I feel sorry for him, more so because I know how it feels to have gamerscore taken away from you. dunno how much he had, I only had 30,000 and it was of course a much bigger loss for him.

 

[HotFezz8]

PR fuckup microsoft, a 30 yerold who lives with his mother: fair target.

a 11 year old autistic? not so much...

OT: its not relevant why it happened or whether he deserves it. this will hurt microsoft more than it will hurt him.

 

[Booze Zombie]

A little context would be nice... but we're stuck here with nought but news room gossip, really.

 

[KalosCast]

Is him being autistic any relevance to the story beyond it makes it easier to say mean things about Microsoft (because that bandwagon totally needs help)?

 

[Woodsey]

Kind of a dick move by MS.

Even if he was cheating, I don't think they need to berate an autistic, 11-year-old kid for something that is obviously important to him - and important in a way that most of us wouldn't "get".

Also, I though autism most commonly resulted in people do things very specifically, so it does then seem a little odd that he'd cheat instead of doing it the normal way.

 

[Dexiro]

What I want to know if whether he cheated or not, and what Microsoft are accusing him off specifically.

 

[The Hairminator]

I don't think Microsoft would label him a cheater without sufficient proof, but what do I know. Might be a mistake, but then it should be cleared up by now.

 

[UnnDunn]

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

The big red flag is if your profile has achievements that can only be earned while online (Halo games have a lot of these) but do not have an Acquired date on them.

Achievements earned offline will say "Acquired" with no date. Achievements earned while connected to Xbox Live will show the date they were acquired. If you have an achievement such as a Halo Reach Xbox Live achievement, and it has no date next to it, it means you were not online when you earned it. Since it's an achievement that requires you to be online, the only way to have earned it offline is to have cheated.

They will also look at factors such as if you earned every single achievement across several games in one day, but this isn't as conclusive.

They can also track your historical Achievement trends, and spot aberrations that raise flags.

 

[Jumplion]

I'm probably going to sound a bit cruel here, and other people probably pointed this out already, but the only reason why this is news is because the kid is autistic. If it was a regular kid complaining about his unfair "cheater" status, people would go "suck it up".

I know, I know, some autistic people have those obsessive tics (I guess you'd call them that?), so I guess his was collecting achievements. Still, I can't help but be a little cynical over this. It still sucks and I hope he gets his achievements back, of course.

 

[KalosCast]

Even if he was cheating, I don't think they need to berate an autistic, 11-year-old kid for something that is obviously important to him - and important in a way that most of us wouldn't "get".

He didn't get berated, he got the exact same treatment that everyone else gets in that situation. Being autistic doesn't magically make you immune to the rules that you agreed to when signing up for a service.

 

[The Hairminator]

OT: its not relevant why it happened or whether he deserves it. this will hurt microsoft more than it will hurt him.

Of course it's relevant. They have rules they must follow. And it shouldn't hurt Microsoft, they didn't do anything wrong here, I'd say. But I doubt people will realize that.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

Microsoft has the right to steamroll kids when ever they feel like it. Right? Isn't that in the contract? They can pretty much do what ever to your account if they feel like it?
So really the kid is just whining. Yeah it's terrible to not feel for him, I hope he can get it rightfully turned back, but look at what he's complaining about. Cheating in a video game. And Mircosoft can detect that stuff pretty well. So he very well could be lying.
But the takeaway point is: Tough Toenails if he doesn't get it back. They don't need to do anything.

 

[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.

I agree in general, but highly obsessive behaviour over trivial things is a common theme for those with Autism.

That, and difficulty relating to other people.

Oh, I understand fully what it could mean to an autistic kid.

I was thinking more about the "regular" people out there. The ones in their late teens and the adults... who compulsively borrow and rent as many (oft crappy) games as possible just so they can watch their score rise.

 

[nofear220]

Don't know what I'd do if all my achievements disappeared. You know how long it took to get 87,000 without resorting to shitty movie games for easy gamerscore?!

A lot of time and money spent in the basement?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

PS: Do we know the kid is autistic, or do we just have his mother's word for it?

There's a video attached to some other posts that's in their format, so I'm not surprised the Escapist doesn't want to take it. He's quite obviously ...feck, I don't know the PC term anymore...he's autistic.

What does cause problems though is the Miranda-like detail of the EULA. The reason that this story is a story is because of his autism, granted, but the EULA itself cannot - in all good reasoning - be agreed by him. Or any other person with a mental/emotional impairment. He's 11, with a emotional age of about half that (If autism follows true to form), why the hell are you getting him to sign a legal contract saying he'll behave or you'll take his toys away?

Yes this case may be getting more than it's milage because he's autistic, but there's still a case in there even if he wasn't.

 

[putowtin]

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.

I get giddly everytime I can walk across a room with out falling over (I'm disabled) should people start calling me a cheater because I walk with a stick? (not trying to start a debate here just trying to give a real life example)