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Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

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Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Old 01-26-11, 07:04 PM
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Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Julias Jackson is an 11-year-old boy living with autism, whose only real social interaction comes from playing online multiplayer games on Xbox Live, an activity that became more difficult when the Xbox Live team labeled him a cheater.

Autism is a neural development disorder that is often associated with a lack of social and communication skills and a habit of participating in repetitive behavior. The disorder changes the way the brain processes information, altering the way nerve cells and synapses come together. Sometimes this reorganization can lead to a person with autism excelling at certain tasks, like video games.

Julias' mother, Jennifer Zdenek, says that the boy is a particularly gifted gamer, often mastering games in three to four days, while using what I feel I should point out is the dirtiest Xbox 360 controller I've ever seen. Dirty controller or not, Julias managed to rack himself up an impressive little gamerscore.

Last week Julias logged on to play and his gamerscore was gone, and under his name was the label "Cheater". Apparently he's so good at games that Xbox Live believes he's using external aid to help him win.

His mother was understandably furious. She called and emailed Xbox Live, receiving the following email message no less than three times.

"The only actions that we take are to correct the player's current Gamerscore, and to label the player as a "cheater." This label can be observed on Xbox.com and through the player's view of their Gamercard on a console or computer that is connected to Xbox LIVE. The player can still legitimately gain future achievements. The player's experience does not change in any other way."

Future achievements can be gained, yes, but the experience definitely changes every time someone sees that label lurking beneath Julias' gamertag.

His mother will keep trying to get the error fixed, but if Xbox Live doesn't come through soon she's considering canceling Julias' account, cutting off one of the autistic boy's only social outlets.

We've reached out to the Xbox Live team regarding this story, and are currently awaiting a response. We'll update the post once that response is received.

Update: Microsoft does not negotiate with cheaters. The Live Team's response:

"Gamerscore resets are done when cheating is detected to keep LIVE fun, fair and safe for everyone. We only do them when we are 100% confident that cheating has occurred, and they are not something that can be appealed. Details can be found here - http://www.xbox.com/Live/Cheating."

Looks like the tag stays.

http://kotaku.com/5743970/autistic-b...r-by-xbox-live

-video can be found in link. Not sure how a kid his age can get a devise to mod his system? I thought you had to buy that sort of thing and if so pretty sure m.s. made a mistake labeling him.
Old 01-26-11, 07:11 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

superfro's mom was so upset that his Spider-Man Pinball scores were erased.
Old 01-26-11, 07:16 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Fucking cheater!
Old 01-26-11, 07:21 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

I just don't understand why they won't make their evidence public. Prove this kid cheated.
Old 01-26-11, 07:22 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

paging stepto.
Old 01-26-11, 07:30 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

1.) Autistic or not, if that's his life, the mother is a failure. Someone with a fragile mind like that are exactly the type of people who shouldn't be playing stuff like Dead Rising 2 (as shown in the video).

2.) Stephen Toulouse, confirmed the kid is in fact a big ol' CHEATER and obtained his achievements through external means.

3.) If I had to guess, the kid probably contacted someone who advertises getting achievements through hacking for a price. If the kid's world is XBox, chances are he has the means to purchase stuff online including sending some hacker a PayPal payment.

4.) If he's truly not a cheater, it should take him a lot less than the "200 days" to get that gamerscore back and shut up his (justified) critics.

5.) Last but not least from a gamer's perspective: "cry moar."
Old 01-26-11, 07:30 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Originally Posted by Liver&Onions
paging stepto.
He confirmed on Twitter they have solid proof he used external means and is a cheater.
Old 01-26-11, 07:32 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Originally Posted by pinata242
I just don't understand why they won't make their evidence public. Prove this kid cheated.
It's been stated they have clarified the issue with the mother. If they explained all their methods, it would give cheaters a heads up on what not to do.
Old 01-26-11, 07:41 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Originally Posted by Boba Fett
It's been stated they have clarified the issue with the mother. If they explained all their methods, it would give cheaters a heads up on what not to do.
Depends on what the evidence is. Much of a gamer's history is public information. Achievements earned online are date-and-time-tracked. Offline achievements are not, but some info can be compared with the profile (assuming it's synced with the servers periodically).

Since this is a public case and it's a social outlet, I'm going to assume he's constantly online.

That said, it should be easy for them to say "You cheated on these titles: < list of titles >"

Then people could easily look at his profile and say "Oh yeah, there's no fucking way he got those Gears of War achievements in that period of time."
Old 01-26-11, 07:43 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Anyone who kicks my ass online is a cheater in my book.
Old 01-26-11, 07:47 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Originally Posted by Giantrobo
Anyone who kicks my ass online is a cheater in my book.
Exactly. There's no one more jaded than a pissed off gamer.
Old 01-26-11, 08:04 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Also, I just realized the kid is 11-years old and playing Dead Rising 2.

Epic parenting fail: autism or not.
Old 01-26-11, 08:10 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

If it's true about him acquiring a hack from paypal the mother is an even bigger fail. If she didn't know what he was purchasing online and monitoring his online activities god only knows what kind of stuff he's getting into online...
Old 01-26-11, 08:15 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Originally Posted by mhg83
If it's true about him acquiring a hack from paypal the mother is an even bigger fail. If she didn't know what he was purchasing online and monitoring his online activities god only knows what kind of stuff he's getting into online...
That is my own speculation, given how common it was for MW2 players who were hacking sell their services for all achievements in the game and 10th prestige.

Frankly, if it was that level of tampering they should have banned his entire console.
Old 01-26-11, 10:19 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Is there not a "count the toothpicks" Xbox Live Indie Game this kid could play or something?
Old 01-26-11, 10:31 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

As a pediatrician, I have a lot of autistic patients. They tend to really obsess over video games and are often enthralled with them and play them incessantly. (I actually tend to ascribe to the belief that autism might be exacerbated by handheld video games and other electronic devices that provide self stimulation and discourage normal social interactions.) But most aren't especially good at video games. Despite the common public perception, most autistics aren't especially gifted in any area, just more delayed in some (usually social and verbal areas) than others. Autistic savants (Rain Man) are extremely rare, though fascinating, anomalies; regular autism spectrum disorder has a prevalence rate now of 1 in 150. So as appealing as the thought is that this kid is a autistic version of the Pinball Wizard, more likely he just was so obsessed to finish/ unlock/ complete/ master some aspect of a video game that he engaged in some form of cheating. I know nothing else about this case, but unless MS thought he was cheating simply because he was playing all the time, they probably were on the right track here.
Old 01-26-11, 10:56 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Who cares if he has autism, if he cheated he cheated.


Just looking at him, I can see him paying somebody to inflate his e-peen through gamerscore.
Old 01-26-11, 11:39 PM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

He probably cheated but from what I can tell from the video...

His controller is fucking filthy....his mother is a **** for not taking better care of her child

I am not going to judge her on letting her child play a game for adults, I am guilty of that (my son and black ops) but she should take better care of her child...

(edit..he says 1500 achievements, not achievement points)

Last edited by foxdvd; 01-26-11 at 11:42 PM. Reason: I heard wrong
Old 01-27-11, 12:58 AM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Her Twitter tagline speaks volumes with the blatant advertising of having an autistic kid:
http://twitter.com/#!/ColdAssSunshine

She's blaming some guy with...just as I guessed...connections to modding in Call of Duty, that he blatantly has videos of on YouTube.
Old 01-27-11, 02:51 AM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Why is this even a story worth reporting? If he masters games that quickly, get him another Xbox and GT and do it all over again. Also, that controller is filthy! Parenting fail.
Old 01-27-11, 07:16 AM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

His hands were filthy as well. That video turned my stomach for more than just the horrible parenting displayed. How can a responsible parent proclaims that gaming "is his only social outlet"??? WTF? Get that kid some help and set down the jizz crusted controller.
Old 01-27-11, 07:25 AM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Originally Posted by foxdvd

(edit..he says 1500 achievements, not achievement points)
I was just going to post this when I saw your edit. Love the edit description. Anyway, looks like I have nearly 3,000 in 5 years. 1,500 probably took this kid more than 200 days.

Cheaters suck, so if Stepto says he has proof, I'm on his side. One less douchebag to worry about.

...and yeah, that controller is nasty.
Old 01-27-11, 07:46 AM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Seems Microsoft offered her a free month of Xbox Live Gold as a consolation and she turned them down.
Old 01-27-11, 08:46 AM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

the only reason this is a story is the autism angle. too bad the mother is a stupid twat, using that as an angle, when it's clear the kid did something wrong.

stupid media, too. "we tried to contact Xbox Live." No you fucking dolts in the media. You tried to contact Microsoft. Xbox Live is the service, not a company.
Old 01-27-11, 08:58 AM
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Re: Autistic Boy Branded A Cheater By Xbox Live

Originally Posted by Deftones
t
stupid media, too. "we tried to contact Xbox Live." No you fucking dolts in the media. You tried to contact Microsoft. Xbox Live is the service, not a company.
Not to mention it was clear the anchor had never uttered the words "Microsoft" "Xbox" and "Live" together in the same sentence before.

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