A while back on the evening news I remember hearing about an autistic gamer playing Xbox 360. He worked hard to get a lot of achievements but cheated a few times. I think he got some download like a saved game or something from a friend. So he was labeled a cheater on Xbox Live and was unable to get anymore achievements. Now what I'm getting to is most of us here have probably cheated on a few games now and then in our lives. whether it's codes,memory card downloads with levels,characters or vehicles too hard for us to unlock or FAQ/strategy guides so...
Cheat codes can be fun stuff. Sometimes, some players want to just beat stuff up in God mode without having to worry about defending or blow level1 mooks into next tuesday with that advanced ultimate gun that's usually available only at the end of the game. What a player does in single player mode is between himself and the game. Of course, he shouldn't be crying if he breaks something because he's been playing the game in a way not intended. That's all part of things.
I have absolutely no tolerance for people who cheat in multiplayer games...they're like trolls who visit online communities with the sole purpose of making other people's life miserable. Ban 'em already I say.
Now, I don't own an XBox myself, but I am somewhat familiar with the achievement system. I like the idea of "achievements" in games and the idea is quite old. I remember old platform games like Duke Nukem giving secret bonusses for doing stuff like destroying all health powerups on a level or beating a level without getting hit once. Rise of the Triad even added funny names like a Democrat bonus for picking up all the psychedelic mushroom powerdowns (which did exactly what you'd expect them to do if taken) or a Republican bonus for blowing up all the plants on a level. But I personally wouldn't mind if those results remained local. I mostly consider high scores and stuff personal achievements and I don't need it to improve my online self esteem.
If I understand correctly, the points awarded through achievements on XBox Live don't actually do anything. You can't use them to buy new skins or levels or so, they're just a number. Some people refer to that number as an e-penis and I kinda agree. I don't really understand some people's tendency to tie their self-esteem to some online scoreboard.
If this kid (I read that story before, btw) cheated because he wanted to play his game in a way that gave him more enjoyment, that's fine with me, he shouldn't get any online score boosts or anything out of it, but it's his game. If he cheated for the sole purpose of enhancing the length of his e-dick, then he deserves to lose his score. I'm not sure if I'd brand him a cheater for eternity, but I think killing his online score is definitely appropriate here. Letting people get away with that kind of thing kills off the extremely limited appeal those online score-thingies still possess.
Should one or two cheats go on our permanent gaming records and block us from any or all achievements/trophies in games period? Or could they just block the achievement/trophy from being unlocked until it's unlocked without cheating?
If games are hardwired to brand people online just because they played through a single-player session with cheats or so, then I don't agree. It could be solved by adding a submit achievement feature that lets you submit achievements online or block them if you know you got them the unfair way. I dunno, like I said I don't own an XBox so don't know the specifics. Only awarding achievements when they were picked up the fair way seems a logical thing.
they might as well put on his permanent Xbox Live record that he was autistic or worse the r word.
That's an overreaction. If he cheated, he cheated. That has nothing to do with being autistic or not.
I mean other people will probably point out the thing about him being a cheater and that's just another way of making it easy to make fun of him.
If he cheated and people poke fun at him for that, he brought that upon himself. If they bully him for his autism, they're just mean-spirited. But I'm not sure if the latter thing is the case. Aren't you filling in blanks here?
