Microsoft has struck out against dirty, filthy cheaters who have taken steps to boost their Xbox Live Gamerscores with Gamesave tampering. The caddish rotters are being smacked down and strung up in public! Well, on Xbox Live...
The action has been taken this very day, we are told. SPOnG's going to let Microsoft mascot, Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb, give you the details:
"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. In dash, the personal view of the gamercard will be labeled as well."
The action has been taken against gamers who have loaned out their Xbox Live accounts in order to enable others to rank them up. You can see what a cheater's gamercard will look like at the top of this story.
The cheaters can't say they weren't warned. Back in October last year Microsoft
gave us a stern talking to of the perils of cheating. Microsoft hasn't penalised cheaters to the full extent of its threat in this instance, however. Major Nelson warned cheating "can also result in you permanently losing your account... Cancelled. As in you can never get it back."
Why hasn't Microsoft gone this far? An FAQ on the subject tells us, "We believe in players reforming themselves, which is why Gamerscore correction only applies to previously earned achievements." Sissy bleeding heart liberals!
Yes, the tree-huggers out there would probably point out that permanently banning gamers from a commercial system would be (a) impossible to achieve (b) likely to lead to litigation.
As far as SPOnG's concerned, Microsoft hasn't gone far enough. Bring back the stocks! Cheaters should be publicly humiliated on Thursday afternoons in a live webcast, with zealous onlookers throwing rotten fruit and unwanted first generation Xboxes at the bastards!
And their families!
Source: Major Nelson