Marvel Comics' Punisher #1, courtesy of Comic Collector Live
After we got our answers back
from Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten regarding its newly
announced punishment for people determine to be cheating its Gamerscore
and Achievement Point systems (but before we saw your comments on the
previous post), we saw a couple of areas that still hadn't been
clarified to our satisfaction. So we whipped up a couple of additional
questions and shot them over to Whitten via Microsoft's PR agency.
Here's what Whitten told us in response to our follow-ups.
How long is the period of time during which Microsoft will affix the label of "cheater" to offending Xbox Live members?
We
intend to remove the label over time, although the original
achievements will remain reset. We don’t have a specific time frame
that we are detailing right now. In the end, it is up to the individual
player to prove that they won’t do it again.
Is the rescindment of Achievement Points done on a per-achievement basis or a per-game
basis? In other words, if someone cheated their way through half of the
campaign of Halo 3, but never finished the game before your punishment
was handed down, can he or she complete the rest of the game fairly and
still receive the corresponding Achievement Points for the second half
of the game? If not, why not?
Per achievement. If a gamer is
found to be cheating, we will erase their entire gamerscore and they
will be unable to regain all previously earned achievements. Those
members will still be allowed to legitimately gain future achievements
they had not previously unlocked, including from games where they were
found to be cheating.
***
So there you have it. Those wearing the Scarlet
"C"--once the judge-jury-executioners at Xbox Live have determined that
the offenders have sufficiently redeemed themselves by going forth and
sinning no more--will at some unspecified point in the future have the
Mark of Shame removed, allowing them to fully rejoin the community of
man. Furthermore, said punishment is on a per achievement basis,
meaning that those cheaters who haven't yet unlocked the Frequent Flyer
achievement in Superman Returns should acquire a rubber band, stat.
