Gamerscore cheaters get punished and branded

by Dustin Burg { Mar 25th 2008 at 10:15AM }

Fresh from his much deserved vacation, Major Nelson sends word that last night, Microsoft dealt with Gamerscore cheaters / boosters with a highly concentrated dose of punishment.

Those gamers who Microsoft targeted as being the greatest Gamerscore abusers have just had their entire Gamerscore wiped to a more appropriate 0GS. This wipe also prevents abusers from being able to go back and earn Gamerscore from already unlocked achievements, but they'll still be able to live a pure life and earn new achievements in the future. But we have to say the best punishment of all is the fact that all Gamerscore cheaters will now carry a mark of shame (seen above) that's branded on the cheater's Xbox.com Gamercard. How fashionable. You can learn more about the punishment, how cheaters are targeted and what goes down over on Xbox.com. Also, be sure to heckle anyone you see sporting the mark of shame. Give it to 'em good, make 'em cry!

Tags: gamerscore, microsoft, xbox-live

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

DjDATZ @ Mar 25th 2008 10:22AM

Awesome stuff Dusty!

Posted over at 360Sync.com as well!

abyssal @ Mar 25th 2008 10:22AM

Ive been labeled a cheater now but i dont care because a very high gamescore just makes you look like total no life loser, with no job, no girlfriend, no ambition to do nothing in life but to play games everyday allday for months and even years for some people like those who sit on their crusty asses playing world of warcraft 18 hours a day

Kevin Gass @ Mar 25th 2008 10:24AM

when do the halo maps hit for free today?

JUICED @ Mar 25th 2008 10:25AM

Off topic, but does anyone think it would be nice to special order a xbox 360/ps3 from the company.

Example, Hello MS/Sony, I would like to order your cerrent gen console with all that it comes with but could you take out the cpu and put in a Quad-core and take out the graphics engine and replace with the ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition. Also, I would want a 1 TB hdd and a blu-ray/w hd-dvd drive together.(You know the all-n-one) Ok Mr.(Your last name) that will be........Whatever the price amounts too.

How much will it cost, if possible, does anyone think?

violenceinhd @ Mar 25th 2008 10:25AM

I wish they'd do this for every single achievement whore. GOD that'd be great!

andyg8180 @ Mar 25th 2008 10:29AM

ze mark of ze hooaarrr!!!!

SugarDaddy @ Mar 25th 2008 10:29AM

ha! That's awesome.

abyssal: You realize you just called yourself a big loser, don't you?

thisguyrighthere @ Mar 25th 2008 10:32AM

I don't get it. What's it worth to have the points for an achievement if you didn't earn it? Think about some of those crazy ones from Crackdown. It's awesome to finally do some of that stuff but if you didn't do it what is the score worth?

I'll never understand cheating at games.

There isn't anything to gain by doing it yet people still do it. It's like shoplifting dirt.

Gemini Ace @ Mar 25th 2008 10:44AM

I'm glad Microsoft did something before this got out of hand and people amassed a couple hundred thousand points...oh wait...

Tr3y MoNey @ Mar 25th 2008 10:47AM

Wait...You can CHEAT to increase your GamerScore? And NOBODY told Me?? WTF!?!

thadwhit @ Mar 25th 2008 10:51AM

@ abyssal
That's hilarious, you spent shitloads of time cheating to get a high gamerscore, and now your going to say that a high gamerscore makes you a loser. Whatever gets you through the day man.

Sam K @ Mar 25th 2008 10:51AM

I don't understand the obsession with the Gamerscore. It doesn't earn you anything -- no prizes, no xbox live discounts -- and the points are so arbitrarily assigned by games that it's not really a measure of any sort of gaming prowess. Some games allow you to earn GS points incredibly easily, while others hand out GS points more conservatively.

What's the big deal?

monkeymonkeymonkey @ Mar 25th 2008 10:54AM

How do people cheat to get a higher gamerscore? Are we talking about people who get a group of friends together to get Achievements easier, or did these people actually hack XBL some way and raise their score?

CharleyTony @ Mar 25th 2008 10:57AM

I which they actually told us who cheated,, what their score was ....
would serve as a lesson,,,
as long as they dont do this to innocent people...

the idea that someone with , like 100,000 Gs would be reset to 0 Gs is crazy,,, imagine how much time it can take to get all those achievements...

did the cheaters do this overnight or have to earn em while cheating ?

Bluemanrule @ Mar 25th 2008 10:58AM

Actually, the 50k GS threshold puts you in a special club where you get a little momento. I'll never make it but it would be nice. Good on ya MS. Now, the next issue is using real dollars in the marketplace....

Quinion @ Mar 25th 2008 11:01AM

http://live.xbox.com/en-US/profile/profile.aspx?pp=0&GamerTag=stripclubdj

FINNALLY!

AnOffday @ Mar 25th 2008 11:01AM

@ abyssal:

Funny how now that you've been caught and labeled a cheater, it's lame to have a high GS. I'm sure before when you still had it you thought you were pretty sweet. Basically you're the definition of cool, huh? So how old are you? 9?

Tony @ Mar 25th 2008 11:02AM

@CharleyTony:

I don't know of many specific examples, but the most major one was StripClubDJ. I think he had the highest gamerscore in the world and now it's 0.

My impression is that they're doing this for people who are sharing saves that aren't theirs and using Gamertags across several consoles (as in I get these 10 achievements, you get those 10 and it all goes to one name). I don't really know for sure, though.

xenocidic @ Mar 25th 2008 11:05AM

http://live.xbox.com/member/Sufoor

testing...

xenocidic @ Mar 25th 2008 11:05AM

awesome!

Saccia @ Mar 25th 2008 11:12AM

So would regular users get in trouble for sending a message to these guys razzing them for being cheaters?

GamerDeity @ Mar 25th 2008 11:15AM

Sam K said...

I don't understand the obsession with the Gamerscore. It doesn't earn you anything -- no prizes, no xbox live discounts -- and the points are so arbitrarily assigned by games that it's not really a measure of any sort of gaming prowess. Some games allow you to earn GS points incredibly easily, while others hand out GS points more conservatively.

What's the big deal?

I seriously Agree with you, What is the big deal?...If your GS Means absolutely nothing why waste time labeling cheaters, I mean seriously if you take the Time to do that to people then GS must mean something. I'm no cheater But I guess you can call me a GS whore, i Search for the easy games and Wear those GS points out, But it earns me nothing it's for my personal Enjoyment, When A good game comes out And the GS points are hard to achieve I strive to get them too...So microsoft I BOOOOO you!! And violenceinhd you are just mad cause mostlikely Everyone Has a Higher GS than you Do LOSER!

h0mi @ Mar 25th 2008 11:26AM

"Ive been labeled a cheater now but i dont care because a very high gamescore just makes you look like total no life loser"

What do you think being marked as a cheater on Xbox Live gamerscore makes you look like?

Laugh laugh laugh.

Mighty Healthy @ Mar 25th 2008 11:26AM

Gemini Ace: Spot on! :-D

h0mi @ Mar 25th 2008 11:28AM

"I don't understand the obsession with the Gamerscore. It doesn't earn you anything -- no prizes"

http://www.360voice.com/challenges

There are (were?) prizes for increasing your gamer score. Last year I got free points on Xbox live for getting 1500 pts in ~2 months.

emirabal @ Mar 25th 2008 11:28AM

Interesting, reading all teh commenst it shows that people actually do care about their gamerscore even if it doesnt mean anything, think about it, we are trying to prove something with it and people ARE watching the scores.

As far as cheaters, i agree with an earlier statement, what happens when you see people cheating (Roadie run glitch in Gears - wtf), but serioulsy, do you report these people or what, i think if you want to cheat then you know there will be consequences, and now people are suffering those consequences.

Dadidito @ Mar 25th 2008 11:32AM

I can't wait for my friend to log on and see his cheating way in Ghost recon garnered him a nice reward. This is awesome. Good job microsoft!

jc @ Mar 25th 2008 11:33AM

I bet you'll never see thier boy KD get busted, I guess its selective of who they choose.

c_busbyuk @ Mar 25th 2008 11:36AM

This is brilliant news. Although I agree GS does not mean anything in terms of receiveing money, prizes etc its still holds a lot of information in regards to what that particualr player is about. i.e what games they are into, how much do they play them, have they got certain difficult achievements. I have a 200/200 on geometry Wars and feel quite proud that i managed to get them all legitimately.
I applaud Microsoft for doing this and if that was me (never would be) id feel quite embarassed having people see that on my gamercard.

Preston Crawford @ Mar 25th 2008 11:50AM

@GamerDeity

Here is why it's a problem. Microsoft won't admit it, because achievements have (like it or not) become part of the 360 experience and part of why some people like to play games. I am indifferent, for the most part, but I have to admit it's pretty cool to pull something off in Crackdown and just know it for your own sake.

Anyway, achievements are here to stay. Why it's a problem is because some of the achievements actually break games. I don't think Microsoft cares if someone goes and gets King Kong and blitzes the achievements. I think what they really care about are people who go onto MP games with friends and try to create scenarios where they can get achievements. That ruins things for the rest of us who think we're jumping into a normal game only to find ourselves jumping into a game where people are trying just to get achievements.

Sadly, I don't think this fixes the whole problem. The other part of the problem is that games like Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 have in-game rewards aside from achievements that entice these same gamers to do things like take turns killing each other for EXP and stuff like that.

refinedsugar @ Mar 25th 2008 11:59AM

Wow, can't say I saw this coming.

Jer @ Mar 25th 2008 12:04PM

Control? I thought it was more like a "central online community." I guess it would be a totally alien idea to someone on the GayStation Network who's never experienced something as unified as Live.

Jonah Falcon @ Mar 25th 2008 12:32PM

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2044/2360751355_174991b619.jpg?v=0

Mark @ Mar 25th 2008 1:00PM

@monkeymonkeymonkey

I think people were downloading save files where they could load it up on the xbox and get the points. So, they'd have to own the game or rent it, but they didn't have to actually do the stuff needed to unlock it.

Micheal82 @ Mar 25th 2008 1:17PM

In the words of Nelson Muntz: Haw Haw

tony bing @ Mar 25th 2008 1:18PM

This is great news i read an interview with stripclubdj and the guy is a complete asshole, glad to see he got what was coming to him :)

Ysleiro @ Mar 25th 2008 1:27PM

I hope that StripClubDJ guy was really cheating because it would suck if he wasn't and he really earned that score..

dylan @ Mar 25th 2008 2:57PM

I may sound like an idiot, but how were people cheating? I thought getting an achievement was a onetime deal, unless you are doing something like going on halo with a bunch of friends and trying to get on a vehicle level just to earn a specific achievement, but that doesn't seem like cheating to me...

Eddy @ Mar 25th 2008 3:32PM

LMAO SripClubDJ got his GS erased!! man that's fucking awesome. i got 20k GS and i only play on weekends and it's ALL LEGIT. not like those people that are in the hundred thousands. TheY" are TEH GHEEEY. it's good to see MSlabel them too, so this way, i have a topic to trash talk about :)

Chase @ Mar 25th 2008 4:44PM

I just don't 'get' the importance of a high gamerscore. Sure, it means you spent a lot of time playing a lot of games, but does it really extend that penis of yours? I think not. I have 980 inches of penetration, and that's good enough for me (and my Grunt plushie).

Alex C. @ Mar 25th 2008 9:59PM

http://live.xbox.com/en-US/profile/profile.aspx?pp=0&GamerTag=sufoor

about time..

Bryan @ Mar 26th 2008 3:11PM

HaHa!! PROD360 sucks! They have so much control over you gamers unlike PS3 which is the best. Who ever heard of people getting things taken away. I guess only on 360 Microsoft that takes control over all there gamers. Thank you PS3 for not being an indian giver. Peace out PROD Boys!!

xenocidic @ Mar 26th 2008 4:55PM

FYI these people are being "named and shamed" here :

http://xboxcheaterwatch.wordpress.com/

I tipped this, earlier today, but I guess it's on the news back burner