Cheaters labelled as cheaters, now easily identifiable
One thing you can always bet your house on when playing online games is that someone, somewhere, is definitely hacking.
The 'haxors', as they are commonly known by fellow gamers, use some sort of cheat or workaround to make them appear to be more 'l33t' than others.
On Xbox Live, the l33t bunch identify themselves by gargantuan Gamerscores. By sharing accounts and tampering gamesaves, certain users have been able to achieve Gamerscores unthinkable to most.
Microsoft however has been keeping a close eye on them and yesterday as it turns out was payback day. According to Xbox Live's director of programming, Major Nelson, Microsoft has identified "the most serious offenders who have violated the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use by tampering with their Gamerscore and Achievements" and has taken the following steps to teach them a lesson:
- 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 labelled as a cheater for the community to view on Xbox.com. You can see an example here. In dash, the personal view of the gamercard will be labelled as well
Ouch, that's gotta hurt. Losing all that Gamerscore is a killer-blow in itself. Not being able to regain lost achievements? That's a wounder too. Being labelled as a cheater for the whole world to see? Well, that's just brutal.
"Xbox LIVE remains committed to keeping the service free of cheating in order to maintain a fair and level playing field for everyone", adds Major Nelson.
Way to go Microsoft. In the words of all us fairly-competing gamers; those haxors got well and truly pwned!
