Autistic kid cheats to get achievements, MS removes them.

[Hobie-wan]

Put me in the pile of people that thinks he should be punished like everyone else and shouldn't have gotten a handout. He cheated and then both he and his mother lied to everyone about it and tried to coerce special treatment. My uncle it physically disabled and I've known other people with handicaps over the years. Most of them prefer to do everything they can on their own without help so they can feel like a normal person. The ones that were lazy would have been lazy useless people handicap or not.

When I was at school my friends and I found an awesome video rental place run by an autistic guy. This was about 96-97 and the guy did not use a computer, though the place was in a small strip mall location and filled ceiling to floor with tapes. He did keep track of inventory with a legal pad just in case but he didn't need it at all. You could ask him about any movie and he could tell you whether it was rented out or not, to whom it was rented, and if it was in he could go right to it too. If you were trying to remember a movie "with this one guy that did that thing" he could probably figure it out with a few vague clues too.

[YoshiEgg25]

When I was at school my friends and I found an awesome video rental place run by an autistic guy. This was about 96-97 and the guy did not use a computer, though the place was in a small strip mall location and filled ceiling to floor with tapes. He did keep track of inventory with a legal pad just in case but he didn't need it at all. You could ask him about any movie and he could tell you whether it was rented out or not, to whom it was rented, and if it was in he could go right to it too. If you were trying to remember a movie "with this one guy that did that thing" he could probably figure it out with a few vague clues too.

Shit, I know a guy like that. He might not remember who you are or where he met you, but he can remember your birthday. It's the craziest thing.

[AmishSamurai]

I'm of the camp that mental ability shouldn't matter with these kind of things. Cheating is cheating. If they gave this kid a break, it sets a bad precedent, and other people in the future can go "why are you banning me? You let this kid get away with it!" and claim discrimination.

[dedalusdedalus]

On a tangential note, everyone knows that the finest cinematic portrayal of autistic people and video games is the classic The Wizard. I love The Wizard...it's so bad.

If Jimmy in that movie used a Game Genie to boost his performance in Super Mario Bros 3 for that big tournament, should he have gotten his ass disqualified? You bet.

It was the archetypal 80s antagonist who sought unfair advantage with the Power Glove. However, whether the Power Glove actually does yield unfair advantage to whoever wears it is another point.

Anyway, throw me in with the people who think that one set of rules should apply to everyone.

[Opa Opa]

Shit, I know a guy like that. He might not remember who you are or where he met you, but he can remember your birthday. It's the craziest thing.

There's a man who lives near me who has kinda the same "ability" (not the best word to use). He knows every phone number out of the phone book, the address, and what the person/company name is that resides there. Although, I don't know what his mental disability is technically called. The name escapes me. Could it be a form of autism?

Edit:

Im Autistic myself and well,he deserves it,he cheated,and he has to face the consequenses,no matter what you have,or what you are,

And I really appreciate your input. It adds another perspective to consider.

[Ivo]

When an autistic person can not do something you can, often he is quickly tagged as "disabled". Some posters are now giving examples of an autistic person that can do something the poster can not do - so in the end why is the poster giving this exampled not receiving the label of "disabled"?

We all have our abilities and disabilities. As I hinted to before, I think using the tag "disabled" for ALL autistic individuals is plain wrong (and using the tag "ill" or "sick" for ANY autistic individual, unless it refers to something else the individual has; it is worse if the intention is to "cure" the individual, as this is basically wanting to change the person's personality which raises ethical redflags). Unfortunately there are indeed autistic individuals whose autistic traits are so extreme and severe that they are as disabled - or more - as several physically disabled individuals.

I hope this post of mine better explains what I meant before.

Ivo.

[Ivo]

Put me in the pile of people that thinks he should be punished like everyone else and shouldn't have gotten a handout. He cheated and then both he and his mother lied to everyone about it and tried to coerce special treatment.

AFAIK, the mother lied, not the kid.

I think the issue about the kid being autistic is relevant in MS giving out the free month and a new gamer tag. The kid probably merits this special treatment, *despite* the mother having made a mess out of it.

From what I read and understand, the kid did NOT get unfair advantage against online opponents from his "cheating". It is very likely that as an autistic individual, he does not understand even now why what he did was "cheating" as it appears he did not negatively affect anyone else (that these "trophies" are so "sacred" is hard to grasp even if you are not autistic, as exemplified by this thread being started).

He should not get to keep his invalid "achievements", but I do not disagree with the leniency in this case and hopefully his mother is more responsible and explains to him what happened (and that he should not expect special treatment in general - in the majority of situations, society will not give that to him, unfair as it may be).

Ivo.

[Erik_Twice]

He doesn't deserve the achivements, so he shouldn't get them. It's also insulting to those people who got them without cheating, people who probably also include many autistic kids.

The only reason they gave him a free month is to avoid any kind of controversy. They could care less about what is fair or not as long as the mother keeps her mouth shut and doesn't complain.

Also banning you for cheating seems incredibly fair. No matter how crazy you are if you get into a restaurant and piss on every plate you should be banned even if you can't control it. Microsoft doesn't have to tolerate cheaters because they can't control it and we do not even know if he can't control cheating.

[Mendoza]

When i originally read the story on yahoo his actual cheating hadn't been proven, but if that's the case it has nothing to do with his condition, that's not even part of the equation.

Cheaters on xbox live or any other online game should be punished as much as possible.

When i think of all the boosting that goes on in MW2, and how few of those people get punished in anyway, making that game nearly unplayable at times, its hard to muster up any sympathy for the guy.

As a person with a disability I can say its never good to let someone speak for you, even if they are trying to protect you. This guy should have maned up right away.

[benderx]

Yo he used gameshark on xbox360. His parents should've gotten him a wii or ps3. I did hear about hist dirty xbox controller.