Autistic kid cheats to get achievements, MS removes them.

[Ivo]

FWIW I was responding to the fact the guy was autistic and the fact disabled was mentioned in the thread already. Video rental guy I spoke about obviously acted a little different than most people, but he was amazing and it is cool that he found a way to use his talent.

I did not intend to "target" anyone, just clarify my viewpoint and justify it better:
1. ALL autistic individuals are disabled (wrong IMO),
2. SOME autistic individuals are disabled (correct IMO).
I think there are those who disagree with 1. and some disagree with 2., and in both cases it is damaging for those that are incorrectly labelling. This is not a question of "politically correctness" even, as many autistic individuals are likely to be blunt themselves and thus not care particularly about P.C.

I do not look down on any posters of this thread!
I think there is a lack of information about the issue. Some of the definitions amount to splitting hairs as well, like the question on whether it is a disability (depends). If I thought anyone here had bad intentions my reaction would have been different. I just wanted to inform

Ivo.

[ZeroAX]

Got to love how many pages this thread has made it to. That's racketboy for you

I'm going to agree with how MS handled it. BTW many people seem to not have payed any attention to the fact that the mother was mad cause her son was branded as a cheater. It's hard to convince a non gamer why it was wrong (and I'm going to have to agree with non gamers on this one. Achievements are useless and kind of sad, but if you want to discuss this send me a pm, or make another thread).

I understand where most of you are coming from though, and as I said MS handled it as well as any company could. I just still think it's something I would have personally allowed and not mind.

[fvgazi]

Got to love how many pages this thread has made it to. That's racketboy for you

I'm going to agree with how MS handled it. BTW many people seem to not have payed any attention to the fact that the mother was mad cause her son was branded as a cheater. It's hard to convince a non gamer why it was wrong (and I'm going to have to agree with non gamers on this one. Achievements are useless and kind of sad, but if you want to discuss this send me a pm, or make another thread).

I understand where most of you are coming from though, and as I said MS handled it as well as any company could. I just still think it's something I would have personally allowed and not mind.

I am in the boat with he's guilty. I've been working with Autistic / Asperger adults for several years now and the last thing they need to learn is they get handouts for doing something wrong. They are people that have the same rights and consequences as all of us.

I do however find it funny that MS had his account labeled as CHEATER. Seems childish to me. They should have just suspended his account or taken away the stolen achievements.

[Flake]

I do however find it funny that MS had his account labeled as CHEATER. Seems childish to me. They should have just suspended his account or taken away the stolen achievements.

Are you kidding? Labeling these kind of miscreants 'cheaters' in so public a manner is the best response. If someone is going to cheat to get achievements that have no actual value other than that perceived by the people who place such importance on having them, how better to actually punish them than to give them the label 'cheater'? It has the same subjective importance as those achievements did in the first place.

[flamepanther]

I'm not going to comment on the rest of the thread up to this point, but I think it's important to point out that one of the most important things an autistic kid needs more than other kids do is structure. They need rules and schedules, and they need to know that the rules are enforced consistently. At the risk of playing armchair psychologist here, it could actually have been slightly harmful to this kid's development if Microsoft had decided that the rules don't apply to everyone.

[ZeroAX]

I'm not going to comment on the rest of the thread up to this point, but I think it's important to point out that one of the most important things an autistic kid needs more than other kids do is structure. They need rules and schedules, and they need to know that the rules are enforced consistently. At the risk of playing armchair psychologist here, it could actually have been slightly harmful to this kid's development if Microsoft had decided that the rules don't apply to everyone.

I believe you are actually playing keyboard psychologist

[fvgazi]

I do however find it funny that MS had his account labeled as CHEATER. Seems childish to me. They should have just suspended his account or taken away the stolen achievements.

Are you kidding? Labeling these kind of miscreants 'cheaters' in so public a manner is the best response. If someone is going to cheat to get achievements that have no actual value other than that perceived by the people who place such importance on having them, how better to actually punish them than to give them the label 'cheater'? It has the same subjective importance as those achievements did in the first place.

While it may sound good, you are doing nothing to teach the wrongdoer. It's just being a bully. If he violated MS terms his account should be suspended. He shouldn't even be allowed to play online. Being branded does nothing to promote good behavior. In fact, he may actually be more prone to cheat in the future, ESPECIALLY if he's autistic and views the world in concrete terms. What better punishment than "if you can't play by the rules, then you can't play at all"?

I'm not sure the right way to deal with the situation, but I think branding is counter productive. Children don't wear dunce caps in school anymore, why should people wear them on the internet?

Recently in NY, people getting arrested for DUI were having their mugs put on a "wall of shame" to try and deter people from drinking and driving. It doesn't work. Some of the people weren't even inebriated and then had their pictures placed on there for public humiliation.

The whole problem with this is if someone is accused of hacking/cheating and they actually weren't, MS has now forever tarnished their reputation.

[saturnfan]

It is not like Microsoft knew he was autistic before taking away his achievements and labeling him a cheater. So by allowing him to start fresh with a new gamer tag is an appropriate response to the situation since he did in fact cheat, but probably wasn't aware or fully understood the consequences.

/thread