It has come to light that a number of Xbox Live accounts have faced punishment for boosting their gamerscores through nefarious means. In a most cruel form of justice, those caught unlocking achievements without actually playing games properly have had their scores reset to zero.
Major Nelson explains what his team has been up to in dealing with the "most serious offenders" who have been flagged:
The steps today takes the form of the following:
• Resetting the entire Gamerscore for an account to zero
• The account will be unable to regain all previously obtained achievements and Gamerscore, however, the players will have the ability to gain future Achievements by earning them fairly, like the majority of the Xbox LIVE community does.
• The account will be clearly labeled as a cheater for the community to view on xbox.com. You can see an example here. In dash, the personal view of the gamercard will be labeled as well.
Pretty brutal stuff, both fitting and humiliating. While I'd love to revel in the misery of so-called "score whores," I always worry when Microsoft does this stuff -- primarily because I'll never forget them banning my store-bought Xbox 360 from Live without ever telling me why, and I still to this day cannot work out what it was I did wrong.
Nevertheless, for as long as my account remains untampered with, I'd like to offer a big "HAHA" at those who just got owned. Serves them right.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
Likes
PS2, iPod Touch, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, Dynasty Warriors 3
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
61 comments | showing # 1 to 50
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
6:55 AM on 03.25.2008
| 
Unfortunately, we can't do the same for bigots...
http://live.xbox.com/en-US/profile/profile.aspx?pp=0&GamerTag=StripClubDJ
The fact that ANY cheating takes away EVERYTHING, including fairly earned achievements has to suuuuuuuuuck.
I understand that these guys "cheated," but who did they really cheat to deserve this? Is anyone harmed by people who boost their gamerscores? Does anyone even care?
I'm sure that boosting your gamerscore is still a good amount of work and these people still have to be either buying or renting games to get all of these achievements--so who cares?
There fucking meaningless points! Why do they feel the need to punish those who want a long epeen. I enjoy the concept and execution of achievement points for my own amusement...and a secret competition to pass Butmac that he doesn't know about.
Other than that, who gives a shit if someone cheats? Is Microsoft planning to do something with the millions of points people receive? Or are they just being dicks?
And you got lucky this time Jimmly
They also deserve it just for being sad wankers.
/runs
MS is operating a private business. A feature of their business is being exploited and regardless of what any of you might think about the value of that feature, the cheating renders it even more meaningless.
And what's more lame, the people who actually pay attention in some fashion to the points or the people who go out of their way to cheat in order to get them? Easy answer.
But, for most people, myself included, the value of this feature is rendered meaningless due to the lack of time involved to obtain certain achievements as well as the concept that people should play more of a bad game just for those achievements.
I personally am glad that achievements ended up nothing more than an ePeen score because it's just giving a big middle finger to the mass majority of people who own these gaming systems and don't want their gaming system to be turned into a professional sports right in front of them. Same crap happens with MMOs, and it's annoying as hell.
Just MHO, of course.
Bizzare and ridiculous at the same time if you ask me.
People have been giving up their Gamertag on a memory card and giving it to friends to have them inflate the score. There have also been services that have offered to artificially raise your score for you by playing games on your gamertag for a fee. You can specify the game and achievement with those services.
The problem is for the cheaters and hackers wanting to break into the 360, is that MS tracks EVERYTHING. If they see your gamertag pop up in California, then China, then back to California, and possibly within a 24 hour period followed by say, a 1,000+ point gain in your score, they'll probably tag you.
This deserves some praise.
To do that, (no matter how futile), and then see asswipe-McGee and pals have scores so unatainable it just takes away some of that (futile) joy.
I like achievements, because they are little milestones in a game - and help you play them a little differently, like when I smashed 15 Antlions with cars in Half Life 2 Ep. One, never would have done that without the Achievement and Gamerscore system.
http://lightrave.ytmnd.com/
Poor DJ.
POOR DJ MY ASS!!!
I would've thought they would take away all their 'cheated' achievements but apparently its ALL of them :-) so fucking great! the just punishment!!!
I haven't been on Homestarrunner.com in like... a week
It's the Cheat. He's from the website [url]www.homestarrunner.com[/url]
If you go there I highly recommend watching some Strong Bad E-mails.
not that i would
*testing testing, am i coming in clear* but if someone where..
That's a very important question that needs an answer.
But nice to see Microsoft taking care of the cheaters. For now.