Yikes: Microsoft goes after Xbox 360 cheaters

If you're not gaming on the Xbox 360, you may not be up on the allure of Achievement points, but let's just say this is a new cottage industry, and one that is being emulated elsewhere, including the PS3 and the PC. In any event, Microsoft this week went after some of the worst Xbox 360 Achievements cheaters:

Today we took action on some of the accounts we have identified as the most serious offenders who have violated the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use by tampering with their Gamerscore and Achievements.

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.

Here's an example account Microsoft set up on Xbox.com to show what a cheater's profile now looks like. That's just mean. :)

Related: Gamerscore Corrections

Discuss this Article 3

brandon.pope
on Mar 26, 2008
Two thing I don't understand here. 1) why do people think their gamer score is so important? 2) Why does Microsoft care so much? Cheating is a part of video games. There have been cheaters forever. I remember times in Halo 2 where you couldn't go 3 games in a row without being cheated against. In this case Bungie/MS were right in cracking down. I wasn't getting my money's worth in that situation, but if someone is boosting their gamer score alone in their basement why does it matter. They don't effect anything but their own dignity. http://www.chipnit.com
sttevo
on Mar 26, 2008
YES AWESOME! Now when I'm being pwned on Halo 3 online by one of these guys I won't feel so bad. @brandon.pope: 1) I don't either, but it just is :) and 2) I get fed up when people cheat playing online. It's really annoying and sometimes discouraging to the point I can't be bothered playing anymore. I don't care about losers sitting around racking up gamer scores, but using others is bad mmkay (yes I am going through a Southpark phase at the moment).
pthurrott
on Mar 26, 2008
The Gamerscore/Achievements thing has been a complete surprise. I remember when I talked to MS in mid-2005 about this stuff, it was never seen as having a huge impact. In fact, most of it was around social engineering so that games could link up similar players for online matches. That stuff has only sort of happened (ranked matches), but the Gamerscore stuff has really taken off, creating an "Achievement Whore" phenomenon. It's unreal. On a related note, this is how you can tell Call of Duty 4 is an amazing game: It has absolutely no online achievements at all, and yet it's the number one played game online.

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