Cheaters beware

[Disturbed316]

From Gamespot.com (http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6188282.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0)

Microsoft starts Gamerpoints crackdown
Major Nelson touts the opening of a new front in the war on those 'abnormally' obtaining Xbox 360 and Windows Live achievements.

By Jon Melmore, GameSpot UK
Posted Mar 25, 2008 9:51 am PT
Microsoft today announced that, as promised, gamers who cheat their way to a high gamerscore will now have their accounts reset.

Last October Xbox Live director of programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb announced the Xbox Live team was cracking down on users who didn't heed the service's terms of use. At the time, Hyrb issued a thinly veiled warning to people using "nefarious techniques" to increase their scores and obtain achievements.

"Let me be more clear: If you use tampered game saves to boost your Achievements and gamerscore, you may sign in to Xbox Live one day and discover that we have removed your gamerscore," he cautioned. "Once we do that, you will never be able to re-earn those achievements on that account. Even worse, you might have your account and/or console banned from Xbox Live."

Today, Hryb posted a message to his blog announcing the crackdown. He said those who are found to have used illegitimate game saves or account transfers to boost their gamerscore have had their gamescores reset. Furthermore, said cheaters' gamercards will now prominently display messages identifying that they cheated. Those named and shamed in this manner can rack up new achievements and points, but they can't get any of their prior points back, including ones they earned legitimately.

"Today we took action on some of the accounts we have identified as the most serious offenders," Hryb said. "Xbox Live remains committed to keeping the service free of cheating in order to maintain a fair and level playing field for everyone."

Xbox.com has also updated its system use area with information on gamerscore corrections and tampering, with the addition of a FAQ on the topic.

lol suckers

[Kane Knight]

I remember some of these guys gloating on GameFAQs. Wonder if any of them have lost their points or been banned.

[OssMan]

What is the point of cheating to have a high gamerscore? If you really really want people to think you did a lot of things then you can do it I guess, like there are no benefits at all

[Bad Company]

It's kinda Ironic they're called Achievements

[DrA]

It looks like cheaters such as myself will have to beware.

[Funky Fly]

Awesome

[Extreme Angle]

guess i'm fucked...
Call of duty 3 > got to top rank in a day
glitched elite on vegas 1 and seriously on gears of war
got 1000 in perfect dark zero in a minute.
there's more random ones but...

[Kane Knight]

Why would you cheat for GS, anyway?

[KingofOldSchool]

Why would you cheat for GS, anyway?

http://www.360voice.com/

You earn gift certificates and such for obtaining achievements. That is probably the big reason. Other than it's probably because they think having a GS of 100,000 is a major life accomplishment.

[Kane Knight]

Wow.

[Dave Youell]

Now if only Nintendo could start cracking onto folks that quite games when they are losing….

I had like 4 people cut out of me when playing Mario Strikers last night

[Kane Knight]

Now if only Nintendo could start cracking onto folks that quite games when they are losing….

I had like 4 people cut out of me when playing Mario Strikers last night

That's a problem across all systems.

[Mr Regal]

Yeah xbox live is full of quitting pussies:mad:

[darkpower]

Only issue they will have: How will they determine if you are cheating? As I've seen from some various reports and youtube videos, MS hasn't been the most accurate in the world at spotting who is being legit and who is actually cheating or doing anything obscene.

I hope they have a more adapt way than whatever they have been doing to do this. I wouldn't want ANY gamerscore deleted of mine because someone just ASSUMED I was "cheating" when I really wasn't.

[Mr Regal]

shut the fuck up you cheating rat:foc:

[darkpower]

shut the fuck up you cheating rat:foc:

Actually, I don't even own a 360 yet.

And I don't use those types of saves, anyways.

So...go fuck me. :mad:

[Funky Fly]

Well, It's unlikely I'll be nailed with my measly 1135 points. I've been putting a lot of time into XBox originals like Jade Empire and Fable lately. Already have Halo 1 and 2, and I'm hellbent on playing them to completion in order before I get to Halo 3 or that Halo Wars deal.

[Dave Youell]

That's a problem across all systems.

Granted, but I only have a Wii, so naturally I don't care about anyone else's problems

They should just ban folks for a week if there connection dips out more than a couple of times in 1 day. That should sort them out

[Extreme Angle]

Did seriously for the picture you get

[Kane Knight]

Well, It's unlikely I'll be nailed with my measly 1135 points. I've been putting a lot of time into XBox originals like Jade Empire and Fable lately. Already have Halo 1 and 2, and I'm hellbent on playing them to completion in order before I get to Halo 3 or that Halo Wars deal.

You're a cheater, Funkdafied?

Granted, but I only have a Wii, so naturally I don't care about anyone else's problems

They should just ban folks for a week if there connection dips out more than a couple of times in 1 day. That should sort them out

A simpler solution is to count disconnects as a loss for them and a win for you. Or, at least, a win for you.

[Funky Fly]

No, I don't cheat. I was saying that in response to what darkpower said about innocent gamers potentially being pinched for cheating. ALTHOUGH, last night while playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance I'm pretty sure I got credited for 2 achievements I already had.

[OssMan]

One time in Call of Duty I got this challenge for killing a guy in midair except he was standing on the ground. Goodbye XBox Live

[Funky Fly]

Oh shit son! :eek:

[Kane Knight]

No, I don't cheat. I was saying that in response to what darkpower said about innocent gamers potentially being pinched for cheating. ALTHOUGH, last night while playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance I'm pretty sure I got credited for 2 achievements I already had.

Ahh.

Well, I doubt you're gonna see an issue anyway. People are likely going to get cracked down upon if they abused it for thousands of points or whatever. Glitches happen, and I doubt they care about a couple of 20 or 50 pointers anyway.

[OssMan]

The worst shit though is in some crazy huge games like Oblivion where it needs a ton of memory and you do everything to get an achievement, but you don't get it. Like I beat the Mages Guild quest but they never gave me the achievement so I had to do the last part again and it recognized it on the second time. Granted I saved about 300 times during the quest so I didn't have to go back much, but it would suck for someone who didn't save.

[darkpower]

For FF and KK, I might need to explain what has happened before in the FF11 world to explain that it has a possibility to happen elsewhere (I pray that this is NOT the case, but I don't have a 360 even, so I don't know for sure):

The Game Masters can check logs, check what you do in the game, do whatever. However, they really do not have a leg up on what you're actually doing in the background (as in, what other programs you are actually running). Therefore, if they see something unusual (like you getting the pull on a notorious monster unusually fast or you getting gil strangely, there was a glitch found with the latter that made you get gil illegally, though it was VERY complicated to pull off), you know they are going to look into it. However, without knowing what you're actually doing (maybe you're just that good at pulls or had Provoke on a macro or you were able to get something sold for a fucking LOT of money), they can only assume that you're running something you shouldn't be to do that (they see certain patterns in people that really do cheat like that, so they can recognize when something like this is going on). So they would probably look into it.

HERE'S where the issue comes in: 1. Who goes to look into it and to warn the player or takes action against said player, 2. How is the TOS going to be interpreted, and 3. Who reports said player. Normally in FFXI, the GMs won't do anything unless another PC calls a GM to investigate (they have lately been investigate on their own, but usually it's only on a call from someone else). Who you get to actually investigate is sometimes all the difference. There are some GMs that think they are above the system and will reign down on you without giving you a chance to plead your case (don't laugh, I've seen people complain about a few GMs that have been fucking pricks to some people). Usually the GMs are really friendly and will allow you to explain what happened, but there are always going to be a few that will really think they know what's going on and won't even do the proper looking into things. This goes into what they think you did, whether or not they could consider what you said or did a violation, and who was calling you.

Case in point on the third what was threatening to call one on me a few years ago. Then, there was a BIG problem with MPKs (mass player killings, when a player would lure a group of aggressive mobs and the warp to their home point, knowing that a one or more PCs would be in the path of the mobs "trip back" to where they were before. If they saw you during the trip back, then you're pretty much dead since you're probably not at a high enough level to do anything to them (and being killed means an EXP penalty, which could also result in a level down). However, there are times when you legitimately are trying to escape and do not know have any bearing of where you are or who's around you (especially when you have a mob who can really fuck you up). Such was the case with what I was doing in a zone. Was trying to get away from this mob that was kicking my ass. I ended up warping, but didn't know that there was a party camped nearby (even then, it wasn't too near the mob to make it want to go after them, I was assuming, I remembered once it happened where this particular party was). The mob went after them once I warped back. I never once thought at all about doing a MPK (just wanted to get away with my points intact), but this guy decided that I had intentionally did that and begun to threaten to call GM on me (claiming he did). I explained my case to this guy, but he wasn't about to believe ANYTHING except what he thought I wanted to do, regardless of the MANY times I told him that it was that I was just wanting to escape. Fortunately for me, I (1) Never got confronted by a GM (it was an empty threat, I guess), and (2) I had a friend who was also speaking on my behalf and knew I wasn't one to do something like that. Square-Enix has since fixed this behavior by making mobs do a "fade-warp" back to where it was before it gave chase (thank GOD). But if this guy would've actually called a GM, and if it was one of those GM that wasn't going to even care what MY side of the story was (or even want to listen), then I would've been screwed (and SE has a bad rep at customer service, so that would've ended badly).

(BTW, don't let this give you a bad interpretation of GMs on that game. They are for the most part REALLY nice and will help you if you need it with something they are supposed to help you with.)

God, I've typed too much, but things like this could happen on XBL. There could be bad interpretations of what they think is cheating, they might not even look into if a complaint is legit from a player or just some noob trying to get back at someone from losing to that person. And, I hope no one on the XBL police is like this, there could be some assholes on that squad that may think they are above the system and above fairness.

That's really what I'm getting at with MY fears on that. Yeah, I really talked, but I'm usually good at lengthy explanations, so there.

[Kane Knight]

...Do I even need to explain the difference?

[El Fangel]

Morning KK :wave:

[darkpower]

...Do I even need to explain the difference?

I hope there IS one.

[Kane Knight]

Aside from the very fact that we're talking about the scope of one game?