So today Major Nelson and the GSB team just announced today that they are going after all people that have cheated on there gamerscore.
What they are doing is going after all the people that have used game saves to “cheat” on their gamerscore. They are dropping those that have been flagged for cheating (not really sure how yet) down to 0 as there gamerscore. In addition to this they are also permanently flagging those gamercards with a special label to let everyone know they they are a cheat as according to Microsoft.

Now I’m all for going after those that cheat on Xbox Live as it does ruin the gaming experience of others but I really dislike this and what they are doing. Instead of going after those that actually do ruin my and your gaming enjoyment by using exploits, cheating devices (lag switches) or hacked consoles they are going after those that boost their gamerscore. And they are doing it in the harshest of ways, removal of ALL points and a permanent tag, seriously? I would be ok with this if they removed the occurrences and temporarily flagged there account but this is too much.

My other issue with this is why stop there? Why not go after those that get with others to “boost” their gamerscore? Get all the people that pay others to boost their score, because after all, isn’t that just as wrong? Lets go to x360a.org (I really love that site, I’m just using it as an example) and get all those that in all actuality cheat to boost there score by getting with others to earn achievements. And why stop here, have you had a sister, brother, mom, dad, wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, friend, or just other get a achievement for you? Well guess what, in all actuality your a cheat too. You might not be affected this time as Microsoft has stated,

Anyone who plays inside the actual game to get Achievements does not fall into the category we are taking action on

but you might want to consider this as just round 1 in the war against gamerscore cheaters, who knows, maybe next time Microsoft will call your number and you will lose everything that you might have worked for on your profile.

I say oh well. Let them do what they want to do. If it doesn’t actually effect my online experience I really don’t care about it and neither should you. Lets focus on some of the issues that are really out there instead of spending time working on things that really don’t matter to the average gamer. Lets focus on fixing that broken DRM that you guys have, the same DRM that prohibits me from playing the games that I have paid for because my Xbox 360 has red ringed so many times.

This to me is just a huge waste of time over something that to me doesn’t really matter. I mean its just a number next to your gamertag that shows what you have done on the Xbox. If you cheated, just remove those occurrences and temp stamp them as a cheater. I feel that Microsoft once again overstepped themselves and once again crossed the line. And once again, more bad press against them in a time that they actually need some good news.

This is just my opinion though so let me know what your opinion is, good or bad.

Posted by Steven Artlip (Steve519) on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 11:34 am.