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Published on January 26th, 2011 | by Bryant Kazmerzak, Contributor

20

UPDATE: The Kid WAS Cheating!

[The final word on this matter can be found here -Shaddz]

So you remember that kid I was talking about? Sure you do, the post was made not even two hours ago.

Well, after posting the article in question, I linked it on Twitter to Stephen Toulouse, AKA Stepto, Director of Policy and Enforcement for Xbox Live, like I said I would. I am, after all, a man of my word.

This was his response:

Damn. Here I was all for a young gaming savant, ready to take up arms to defend this kid’s kick-assery, and it turns out that he and his parents played all of us.

So, hats off to the Xbox Live administration. You did your job, and it was a job well done. Bravo Zulu.

It goes to show that it is probably worth it to ask, “Is a lawful neutral company with as public a face as Microsoft going to drop the hammer on an autistic child without a damn, DAMN good reason?“

I think tonight we have found the answer.

And like I said, I am man enough to admit when I am wrong. I will reserve name-calling for later, when I am falling asleep, reflecting on the day.

Thanks for reading.

-Shaddz

Twitter: @Shaddz

Stop Lying and Tell The Truth!

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  • Chalito

    “Is a lawful neutral company with as public a face as Microsoft going to drop the hammer on an autistic child without a damn, DAMN good reason?” Be careful with that argument, if we stop verifying when they do stuff like this, with that logic they could get away with anything. This time they were right. Next time they might not be.

    • http://gamingtruth.com CamGT

      You’re right Chalito, it would be wrong if the punishment goes unverified. But let me play the devil’s advocate here. MS has strong methods to detect whether or not people are cheating on XBL which, I don’t need to tell you, is a product they designed and it was created with this anti-cheating method in mind. They never had to justify themselves for the thousands of people who illegitimately acquired achievements before. Is it different now that the target is an autistic child?

      • Chalito

        Nope. They have to justify themselves not because the kid is autistic, but because he claims (or her mom does) he DIDN’T cheat. It’s MS who should be responsible for showing proof that the kid cheated, and not the other way around. Again, I’m not saying the kid didn’t cheat. He can be a cheating little asshole for all I care, but it’s the company who should prove it, as they’re the ones making accusations. And the fact that they’re a huge corpo with lots of ressources and a product designed for that only makes them more responsible for their actions and makes it more important that they prove what they say is right (because, as the cheat filters are a product they sell to people to get them on their network, and to the game studios to get them to code games for their platform, it turns out they DO have a pretty big reason to show their cheat filters as a great, effective tool.. which makes it very important that they act as transparently as possible on issues like this.

        • http://twitter.com/Shervyn Shervyn

          Disagree completely. It is Microsoft’s product and they let you use it. As a private corporation they don’t have to let you use it. If you are in violation of their terms and policies as they choose to define it they can and will punt you. In fact as long as they return any unused portion of your XBL Gold membership they can technically punt you simply because they feel like it. If they believe that by their standards the kid was cheating then they should punt him. If you don’t like it you have a simple answer, don’t give your custom to Microsoft.

          • Me

            Well, not buying XBox products is exactly what I’m going to do. Accusing people of cheating without giving any evidence is bad enough, but this whole thing can be bad for this autistic child. It’s just a game, and achievements really don’t affect gameplace, but they mean a lot to this kid because he’s autistic. Even if he cheated, MS should be much greater and give him back his achievements. It’s just a game!

            It’s possible he cheated willingly.
            It’s possible he cheated but did not even realize it.
            It’s possible he did not cheat.
            I expect to see Microsoft’s proof that he cheated. As a player I want to know they don’t make mistakes. If they made a mistake, I expect them to apologize and repair the damage. Until any of this happens, no more of my money will go to XBox related products and services. That Kinect I was going to buy in a month or too – not gonna happen.

  • pc

    GWB should have just used twitter to let everyone know Sadam really did have WMDs and it is “comfirmed”

  • Michaeljcorliss

    How is this confirming anything? Microsoft basically said the same thing when they stripped him of his achievements the first time. “Yes, he was cheating” isn’t confirming of anything, other than the fact that Microsoft’s position is that he was cheating.

    • http://gamingtruth.com CamGT

      Yes it’s true that MS didn’t offer a lot of details to how they picked up that he was cheating, but countless cheaters have been removed from XBL. MS claimed to use the same methods to detect them as they did the child.

      • Sdfsdfdsf

        And how do you know these secret methods work? How do you know they don’t make a mistake once in a while?

  • Jef

    You’d think that if he could cheat on an electronic game – then he should keep his achievments altogether. What the hell difference does it make? He must have worked hard to figure out the system enough to allow him to cheat in the first place – bravo for him!

    I don’t play any electronic games at all – so I am looking in as an outsider, but if he can beat Micro$loft, then all the more power to him!

    • emily

      But he didn’t beat them. You only deserve to get away with it if you don’t get caught. Laws of the cheating world that.

  • Todd Grigsby

    And the proof was….? Oh, right, M$ doesn’t need proof. Here’s your Fanboi sign…

  • Christheobaldis

    or on the other hand, Do you think microsoft would own up to the mistake after making one????

    • maus

      Irrelevant, there was no mistake. The method the kid used is all over the net, if you want to look.

  • http://twitter.com/LeafsCentral LeafsCentral

    I think you don’t care about journalistic integrity and sold your soul. I don’t need proof. You’ll believe me because I posted it on the internet. You’re the best pal.

  • Guest

    How is this proof?

  • maus

    I don’t think any of you people claiming that the kid is a savant understand how achievements work, and how the cheat works.

    The kid got a massive amount of achievements in a very short period of time. These achievements are earned by quckloading from a card, not playing the game.

    Instead of playing a game and never missing a life and being an actual savant, getting the achievements maxed out in say 4 hours, the kid gets dozens of them in less than 5 minutes.

    You really should look up what the kid’s being accused of, it’ll make more sense.

    Oh yes, and the mom’s now admitting to cheating on the account, but claiming that HACKERS inflated her poor innocent boy’s gamerscore.

  • Pingback: Follow Up: Autistic Boy’s Branding Justified? | GAMINGtruth.com

  • Anon

    This page layout is so bad that I used view source the read the comments.
    Scrolling is nearly impossible with this (feature rich?) environment.

  • Pingback: Weekly Round-Up: Autistic Cheaters | GAMINGtruth.com

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