Kiss Your Gamerscore Goodbye
March 25, 2008 11 Comments
Some gamers are so obsessed with that little string of numbers that show up under their rep on their Xbox Live Gamercard that they utilize external tools to tamper with their achievements. In other words, they cheat. All of that effort simply for a number that doesn’t mean a thing in the real world. I can understand someone wanting to have a respectable gamerscore to show off to the gaming world. There is nothing wrong with being proud of your legitimate achievements. But if you are cheating in order to get that elusive high gamerscore, your plan backfired today.
Major Nelson announced that they are hunting down (and have already caught) the most serious offenders who are guilty of violating the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use by tampering with their gamerscore and achievements. Just what are they doing to these dirty cheaters?
- Their gamerscore will be reset to zero
- They will be unable to regain all previously earned achievements
- They will be labeled as a “cheater” for the community to view
Does it mean every single cheater will be caught and brought to justice? No. Major Nelson clearly states that they have been focusing on the most serious offenders. You have to start somewhere though and I think that is the perfect place. Hopefully this will also deter people that haven’t been caught yet to clean up their act.
I should point out that Microsoft is kinder than I would ever be. They could have easily permanently banned their accounts but instead are opting to give them another chance. Let’s hope those gamers take advantage of that fresh start and start playing fairly.
Wow, sounds like they took a page out of Bungie’s book.
They get a fresh start of 0 score, but are unable to unlock any achievements that were previously unlocked on that account. If these accounts had the near 300,000 gamerscore that some of them did, there aren’t many achievements out there left for them to unlock….
Hahaha! nothing like being labeled a cheater for the public to ridicule you. I think thats beautiful.
It’s a wise decision to embarrass them by labeling them as cheaters and reseting their accounts to 0, than to just permaban them. Now they have to live with their mistakes.
This just seems to me like KP had a say in this.. LOL.
It is such a KP thing to do :)
Hehehehehe… Knuckles Dawson told me about this back in January. I’m rather surprised this has taken as long as it has to come together.
How embarrassing for the cheaters… I love it. :)
Just like the times when people were coated with tar and feathers and forced to walk through the entire village, embarassment is sometimes so much better than punishment…
Hope you don’t mind me linking my blog here: http://xboxcheaterwatch.wordpress.com
I’m trying to maintain a Watch List of all the cheaters ;)
About time Micro$oft did something about this!
Initially I did not like Gamerscore and Achievements when I first got my 360, but I have to admit the concept has grown on me.
At current writing my score is 2567, I got my 360 back in January. It’s not a huge number but watching it grow is kind of a neat little reminder to myself how involved I’ve been with the games I’m playing. A lot of games I just play and don’t worry about too much. I do try to get at least 1 achievement before giving up on a game, which has been a real challenge, but seeing that one achievement means I undoubtedly gave that game a chance.
The actual achievements have been the push to get me to try things that I might not think of myself. I also look at what other people do and it says something to me about how they like to play games. What kind of challenges do they enjoy? Are they just a completionist?
Cheating in this context just makes you a liar in my book. I don’t care about your overall Gamerscore, it should be nothing more than a combination of how much time you like to play games on the 360 and how long. Trying to convey any more importance than that has got to be one of the saddest ego strokes I’ve ever seen.
I heard about this in my clan’s podcast and it was hilarious. It’s about time these darn cheaters know their place. And hopefully this stops it somehow.