I really believe that the Xbox 360 is such a strong gaming system because of the community that is built around the Xbox LIVE service. It gives you the opportunity to play games online with or against millions of other people. But understandably people have found ways to circumvent the system to collect an unreasonable number of achievements.
StripClubDj was previously number one in the world for having the highest Gamerscore, which increases as you earn more achievements. Out of the 196 games played there were over 137,000 points that could be earned. More than 122,000 of those points were racked up resulting in an 88% completion rate with most of the games being tagged as fully completed.
As it turns out, and as many expected, StripClubDj wasn’t playing fairly. Microsoft has issued a punishment to that user and any other members who they believe are cheating. This is what they’ll find on their account now:
- Their gamerscore reset to zero
- Be unable to regain all previously earned achievements
- Be labeled as a “cheater” for the community to view
Yep, the account has essentially been reset and labeled as a cheater. But to ensure the cheaters don’t try and recover the unfairly acquired achievement points Microsoft is making it impossible to regain past achievements. StripClubDj’s profile on Xbox.com, which you have to be a member to view, now looks like this:
So why would Microsoft go this route instead of just banning the user? Here’s their reasoning:
We believe in players reforming themselves, which is why gamerscore correction only applies to previously earned achievements. This allows these players to earn achievements like other “fair” players without having to get banned from LIVE. However, any user who violates the LIVE Terms of Use is subject to having their gamertag banned.
That’s one small step for gamers, and one giant kick in the butt for cheaters!
Xbox Gamerscore Cheating [via Major Nelson & Digg]
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Tags: Gaming, Games, Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live
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I hope he likes my message I sent him
I’m sure you were nice about it.
Looks like they got what they deserve!
If they were cheating, they sure did deserve this!
Wow, you got to love the fact that they put cheater right in plain sight. Must feel like wearing a dunce cap.
“We believe in players reforming themselves, which is why gamerscore correction only applies to previously earned achievements. This allows these players to earn achievements like other “fair” players without having to get banned from LIVE. However, any user who violates the LIVE Terms of Use is subject to having their gamertag banned.”
In other words…
“We believe in making money, which is why we’ve allowed him to continue using this service. This allows him to continue feed us money like other “fair” players. However, any user who causes damage to our xbox live servers or anything that directly affects us, then we will ban that user, so that they may make another xbox live account and continue feeding us even more money.”
…In the end it’s a business, they like to have their cake and eat it too; both looking tough on cheaters, while not hurting their bottom line.
Exactly. They just want cash. MS loves cash. Give MS your cash, people.
That is definitely true, but I have a feeling most users will just purchase a new subscription and create a new account anyway. That way they aren’t labeled as a cheater. So they’ll probably get even more money by doing this, without looking mean and banning people.
Cheaters have no skills