Microsoft Cheats Gamer Out Of 121,250 Gamerpoints

[Xander]

So imagine this: You're a huge gamer who bought the Xbox 360 on day one. You stood in line for over 20 hours in the pouring rain, just for Microsoft's newest console. Pretty hardcore, right? It gets better. Imagine now, with me, that over the course of the past several years, you've played games on your 360 nearly every chance you got. You've racked up a huge gamerscore, only to have it all taken away one day without ANY warning.

This is story of SlapStic reader "JackTheWhack." Jack, whose real name is Jack Barbosa, not only had a huge gamerscore; he had more than any other person in the entire state of New Jersey: 121,250, in fact. He achieved this impressive score through renting via Gamefly for games that he was only mildly interested in, while he purchased many games that he thought could give him more lasting enjoyment. Obviously, with a score that high, he WAS a MASSIVE 360 fan.

So last night, while playing Mirror's Edge, Jack received an achievement that he had already gotten earlier in the day. Confused, Jack went and checked out his Gamercard, where he discovered with considerable horror that he now had a Gamerscore of 25, and that his Gamer Zone had been changed to "Cheater." He was also unable to change his Gamer Zone to anything else. This all went down with no warning from Microsoft, and not so much as a letter explaining things once they had done it. JackTheWhack had just gotten over three years of his gaming record wiped clean. There was no trial, and there was no jury. Microsoft simply assumed that he was a cheater, and took all of his Gamerpoints away from him.

This all seems very strange, especially given the fact that Jack was interviewed last Thursday to be featured as a "Spotlight Gamer." He was told that his interview would be up on the 360 dashboard in around two weeks. So at what point did Microsoft decide that instead of being worthy of attention, Jack was a dirty cheater that deserved punishment?

Jack Barbosa is no cheater, and he called Microsoft themselves to see if he could get things straightened out. They essentially informed Jack that he was just out of luck, saying that it was "abnormal for a person to achieve an undisclosed amount of achievements in such a short period of time." Jack even tried to find out what games or achievements on his gamercard were in question, but they refused to comment.

There are things working for Jack to make it seem obvious that he did not cheat. For one, he didn't get the full 1,000 points on many of his games. Like many gamers, he simply gets as many achievements as he can before moving on to the next game if things start taking too long. So with a lot of games he DOES have the full 1,000 points, but more often he has closer to 500, or even as low as 5 for games that he really didn't take a liking to.

I came upon all this information about the situation through an interview that I did with Jack. In it, he mentioned that he was selling all of his 360 products on his Amazon.com storefront. I asked him if he would consider going back to his 360 if he somehow managed to get all of his gamerpoints back, to which he responded, "I will never return to the 360, even if a new system were to be released. I would be gone." He also went on to inform me that he will be purchasing a Playstation 3 as soon as possible and that all he wants from Microsoft is a change in their policies that will keep such a thing from ever happening to anyone else.

I find the entire thing utterly infuriating.
srouce


This sucks. Bottom line. This is actually a slap in the face to probably one of the hardest of core gamers out there.

[SuperSonic]

More likely he spent too much time playing Avatar and TMNT to get a gamerscore like that.

But still, that's a slap in the face to have it deleated like that for no good reason.
I say good on him for not taking any crap from them and selling off all his Microsoft stuff.

[Jawa]

Wow. That's really mean of Microsoft. I mean, I wouldn't like to put all of that hard work into something just to be called a cheater and have it taken away.

[M3Fox]

The message that was supposed to be sent to him: You're earning more points than Bill Gates. Therefore, you are a cheater. Well, not that, but... LOL

I think if you've achieved that many points in a timespan of 3 years, that sort of score (at 1000 credits an achievement) would be possible. What's worse is that he didn't get an explanation. I would've done the same as Jack if I knew that it had been done for an inargueable (is that a word?) claim. Switch to Nintendo! Iwata will love you...

[Jackitkong]

......ouch..... I pitty him. But then again I think some people take the whole Gammer Point thing too far. People waste hours of their lives sometimes even playing games that most people wouldn't even play just for some gamer points. Sure it's a little exaggerated but still it's not the fairest comparison of who is the best gamer if the person with the higher points got all of his points by rent bad games.....

That's the only reason I can think of why Nintendo doesn't have a gamer point thingy. At first I thought it would be cool if Nintendo had something like that, however, it wouldn't be any good if we were all fighting over who had the most gamer points, it may ruin the wholesomeness of Nintendo.... that's a maybe BTW.

Not saying that Bill Gates.... I mean Microsoft isn't at fault at all, in fact they just made the situation worst by marking him a cheater and taking away all the points that he had earn over the years. The fact that this guy was obviously good customer for these people doesn't help either....

Thank goodness he return the burn to them by selling his Bill Gates stuff.

Originally Posted by Xander Originally Posted by M3Fox The message that was supposed to be sent to him: You're earning more points than Bill Gates. Therefore, you are a cheater. Well, not that, but... LOL I think if you've achieved that many points in a timespan of 3 years, that sort of score (at 1000 credits an achievement) would be possible. What's worse is that he didn't get an explanation. I would've done the same as Jack if I knew that it had been done for an inargueable (is that a word?) claim. Switch to Nintendo! Iwata will love you... Aint that the truth. Nintendo can very well say: "It may take a while for us to produce the next revolutionary game, but at least we don't call you a cheater." And then give a big thumbs up.

Yep, that's another reason why Nintendo is win.

[Xander]

Originally Posted by M3Fox The message that was supposed to be sent to him: You're earning more points than Bill Gates. Therefore, you are a cheater. Well, not that, but... LOL I think if you've achieved that many points in a timespan of 3 years, that sort of score (at 1000 credits an achievement) would be possible. What's worse is that he didn't get an explanation. I would've done the same as Jack if I knew that it had been done for an inargueable (is that a word?) claim. Switch to Nintendo! Iwata will love you...

Aint that the truth. Nintendo can very well say: "It may take a while for us to produce the next revolutionary game, but at least we don't call you a cheater." And then give a big thumbs up.

[Jesusallmighty]

MicroSoft has the worst consumer service ever. He should have tryed to get in touch with their higher ups but that would have probly taken for ever. Maybe he just played to many games in one day and got to many achivements in a alotted time. idk but if that happened to I sure as hell would have done my best to get all the points back not just give up on 360. Probly after a month id give up on 360.

[Hacksaw Jim Thuggin]

haha, that was messed up of microsoft to do. shouldve at least brought it to his attention before they did something. and they should have some sort of way to recover his stats if they take them down.

that being said, you got issues if your gamerscore means so much to you that you use it to show off how hardcore of a gamer you are. he needs to get out more.

[Ozzy]

Microsoft is really mean for real they did that to my friend

[LiquidSnake]

Originally Posted by Jackitkong ......ouch..... I pitty him. But then again I think some people take the whole Gammer Point thing too far. People waste hours of their lives sometimes even playing games that most people wouldn't even play just for some gamer points. Sure it's a little exaggerated but still it's not the fairest comparison of who is the best gamer if the person with the higher points got all of his points by rent bad games..... That's the only reason I can think of why Nintendo doesn't have a gamer point thingy. At first I thought it would be cool if Nintendo had something like that, however, it wouldn't be any good if we were all fighting over who had the most gamer points, it may ruin the wholesomeness of Nintendo.... that's a maybe BTW. Not saying that Bill Gates.... I mean Microsoft isn't at fault at all, in fact they just made the situation worst by marking him a cheater and taking away all the points that he had earn over the years. The fact that this guy was obviously good customer for these people doesn't help either.... Thank goodness he return the burn to them by selling his Bill Gates stuff. Yep, that's another reason why Nintendo is win.

The gamer points just signify that you accomplished more in the game, and frankly provides more gratification. It feels amazing once you reach 1000 in a game.

But, I agree with Hacksaw, he really needed to have been focusing on his Gamer Score WAAAAY too much.

[ter568]

Ok i dont even know the dude but i feel sorry for him i meen realy its like if you won the lottery and they said its a phony because they couldn't pony up the cash that kinda of stuff pisses me off more then a MJ music video i meen realy some one at microsoft must have been realy pissed of at him for beating him online but thats just a theory i have in my head but for any reason that they did it they should have given him a chance to explain himself before screwing him over like that if some one works hard on something and just have to be taken away by some jealous pathetic excuse for a ahh i cant even say it im so disgusted. wouldn't you be pissed he must have been one great player i only wish i could've played him.



P.s.

sorry for the foul language that stuff just realy tcks me off.

p.s.s.

@ Microsoft you just lossed a valuable customer who loved your products you traitor and i hope you realize this because if that keeps up say bye bye bill to your cozy life say hello to would like fries with that.

[dr00]

well, until we hear microsoft's side from them instead of from this guy, it's hard to really place blame accurately.



edit: UPDATE

Microsoft has responded to this story, in the form of a letter that I received from Major Nelson himself. It reads:

Quote: Hey guys, I saw your story on ‘JackTheWhack’ earlier today. I wanted to let you know that we have investigated this situation and the evidence overwhelmingly supported an achievement reset. Our commitment to supporting safe, secure and satisfactory gameplay for the more than 14 million members of the Xbox LIVE community remains a top priority. Microsoft will continue to employ and bolster anti-cheating policies to counter such activity.

so there you have it. en continue.