Does Microsoft ban accounts for games going online early?

[quote name='manthing']CheapyD has openly admitted to being a pirate on the CAGcast.

Granted it was for BSG, not games, but is TV piracy 'better' than game piracy?[/QUOTE]

You can watch TV for free all over the place.
 
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[quote name='mykevermin']$hady, this thread is where you can go and call out the OTT folks and moderators for piracy.

A mod (most likely shrike) was kind enough to reopen this topic. It's our duty to keep the conversation in each relevant to the OP, so other moderators, like LinkinPrime, don't have a reason to close it again.[/QUOTE]


Shrike is about the only one I trust to do anything by the book or the TOS on this site anymore. I just wonder how long before he gets tired of the crap.
 
[quote name='life.exe']You can watch TV for free all over the place.[/QUOTE]

Yes, but he admitted to watching new(at the time) BSG while in Japan.

All the LEGAL places to watch current TV programs are region locked. Isn't circumventing those restrictions the same as piracy?

I can also mention the time CheapyD mentioned watching '300' 6+ months before the Japanese release date.

Can you watch movies for free all over the place to?
 
[quote name='GuilewasNK']Shrike is about the only one I trust to do anything by the book or the TOS on this site anymore. I just wonder how long before he gets tired of the crap.[/QUOTE]
I'd have to agree with that. Shrike is definitely the best moderator right now.
 
[quote name='seen']I was talking with a GS employee who tried to tell me if you get a new game early and go online, Microsoft may decide to ban your XBL account. I think he was full of crap and wanted to see if any CAG's could collaborate his story.[/QUOTE]
Corroborate?
 
This is funny cause even though this thread and the leaked content thread are active right now Scribblenauts gameplay is still being talked about in the OTT.
 
[quote name='MSUHitman']Listen to Major Nelson's podcast Matt and you'll hear Stepto's story about the pirate on justin.tv from PAX. Also has your friend pirated lesser third-party games, like Transformers, or have they done high profile Microsoft games like ODST? I would imagine pirating a big first/third party title will have a higher likelyhood of banning than a lower-tier title.

Remember all the consoles banned from Live when Gears 1/Halo 3 had launch day patches and consoles were banned for pirating?[/QUOTE]

He's recently pirated Batman: Arkham Asylum, Guitar Hero 5, The Beatles: Rock Band, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. Not sure about others.
 
The problem I have with people clamoring about certain users pirating material is that there are so many different places on the boards that it is discussed that it is hard to moderate all that content. Sure the OTT has some piracy discussion, but so does the wrestling threads, music threads, and almost every thread about a movie or TV show. I can understand why some people might find it offensive that some people pirate material, but policing the boards and discussion is really hard to undertake without pissing off a lot of people. People tend to set their own standards on what they find morally wrong as well and this can cause issues.
 
[quote name='CaseyRyback']The problem I have with people clamoring about certain users pirating material is that there are so many different places on the boards that it is discussed that it is hard to moderate all that content. Sure the OTT has some piracy discussion, but so does the wrestling threads, music threads, and almost every thread about a movie or TV show. I can understand why some people might find it offensive that some people pirate material, but policing the boards and discussion is really hard to undertake without pissing off a lot of people. People tend to set their own standards on what they find morally wrong as well and this can cause issues.[/QUOTE]

These two threads have turned into a witch hunt against a small subset of the site's users pretty quickly. Even within the OTT, it's a smaller group of the people who post there that pirate games. I'm not sure if I count because I haven't been posting there as much as I used to, but I'm clean. Judging from their Xbox Live profiles, so are Lulu, Spoony, Chika, Frosty, Plume, lordwow, and Marten. So no, not everybody who posts in the OTT is a pirate.

There's also the problem of enforcement. If the site were to hypothetically ban piracy discussions, then we'd have to find some way for the limited number of mods to keep tabs on all of the site's social threads and any forums where discussion could hypothetically turn to pirating games. If we went to a user reporting system, then it'd turn into people going after other users because of personal vendettas pretty quickly.
 
On topic, I received a full retail copy of Far Cry 2 about two weeks early, directly from Ubisoft. As this was a legit copy, I took it online immediately without any action taken against me. There weren't any other players online so I quit playing online until the game came out. If it's legit, you're okay.
 
Thanks Ziv, I thought that was the answer but wasn't sure. I would have locked down this thread earlier when someone said something similar but it appeared this turned into a heated discussion about something totally different.
 
[quote name='seen']Thanks Ziv, I thought that was the answer but wasn't sure. I would have locked down this thread earlier when someone said something similar but it appeared this turned into a heated discussion about something totally different.[/QUOTE]

Ya i meant to apologize seen. It seems my initial response to your question ended up highjacking the thread.
 
[quote name='CaseyRyback']The problem I have with people clamoring about certain users pirating material is that there are so many different places on the boards that it is discussed that it is hard to moderate all that content. Sure the OTT has some piracy discussion, but so does the wrestling threads, music threads, and almost every thread about a movie or TV show. I can understand why some people might find it offensive that some people pirate material, but policing the boards and discussion is really hard to undertake without pissing off a lot of people. People tend to set their own standards on what they find morally wrong as well and this can cause issues.[/QUOTE]

I think the biggest problem we have is when mods do it and it shows up in black and white on their gamercards. IMO if you're a mod on a video game site, especially one as big as CAG, then you either shouldn't do it, or take precautions for your actions to not show up until after the game launches.

If you want to do it and you're just a regular gamer that's your perogative even though I don't agree with it. But, if you're going to do it, I think you should take your console offline until the release date, both as a precaution against having to buy a new console, and as a courtesy to your friends who see you playing and get jealous.
 
[quote name='woodcan']FYI, Stephen "stepto" Toulouse of MS gave a talk on Xbox Live rules enforcement at PAX. He said there is no automated banning system and that all banning requires a manual intervention. He told the story of the idiot who was streaming himself playing ODST on justin.tv and long-story short he banned him live during the stream. He said they were taking special precautions with ODST and were able to get a hold of each of the individuals who bought early copies at that French store and allowed them to play it early and not get banned. All others that they see they said they will ban first and ask questions later. Granted he said they do not really actively go hunting for these people but if they are made aware of them then they get banned. He said they DO NOT ban people for playing games that got release early but if they catch you that you are required to provide a receipt proof (or valid eBay auction listing) or you will get banned. Also, he said they are in contact with publishers to know if real retail copies of certain games (i.e. ODST) have even had the possibility of being sold early.[/QUOTE]

Oh, that was hilarious. I actually tuned into that stream for a few minutes, and then Stepto came in. It was magical.

He came in saying he was from Xbox Live, no one believed him. Then, after some convincing, he got promoted to "voice" status, to be able to freely talk. He then asked the streamer to connect to Xbox Live. It failed.

He then informed him that his Xbox and his GamerTag are now permanently banned from Xbox Live. This caused an up-roar by everyone there, and it was just absolutely hilarious to watch. Stepto stayed in there for probably an hour or more, just telling people off and making jokes at the stupid JTV people (not the JTV owners, the stupid people in the chat; which if you've ever watched anything on JTV, you should know how stupid 90% of them are).

He also threatened to take down the streamers page if he didn't stop the stream. He did stop the stream, but he had JTV remove it anyway, which was quite awesome on his part. Either way, thanks for reminding me of that; it was such a fantastic event to have been a part of.
 
[quote name='Galego23']
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[quote name='tcrash247']Funny that Linkin won't post in this thread.[/QUOTE]

You guys do know that harassing other users is against the site's TOS, right? Galego - I'm fully expecting you to rationalize it away, but isn't posting about Linkin in as many topics as you have (three that I've seen, maybe more) a little obsessive?

What Linkin is doing is incredibly stupid and most likely illegal, but having prerelease games on your gamertag doesn't break any of the rules here. And no, discussing them isn't either - there was never a decision reached on that, and judging from the moderator behavior it's clearly still a gray area.

The point of the topic wasn't to demonize any particular users - it was to verify something that a GameStop employee did.

Like I just said, if the site tries to enforce this it's going to turn into a witch hunt. I guess that's already begun.
 
[quote name='Gothic Walrus']These two threads have turned into a witch hunt against a small subset of the site's users pretty quickly. Even within the OTT, it's a smaller group of the people who post there that pirate games. I'm not sure if I count because I haven't been posting there as much as I used to, but I'm clean. Judging from their Xbox Live profiles, so are Lulu, Spoony, Chika, Frosty, Plume, lordwow, and Marten. So no, not everybody who posts in the OTT is a pirate.
[/QUOTE]

This is true. Some of us are fundamentally opposed to pirating.
 
What everyone else is saying is correct. Just like the Halo ODST leak issue, as long as the copy is legit, it's a street date issue with the store, not the consumer. You'll be fine. However, I do wonder how they can tell if the game is an original or not. Do they check for modded consoles, or what?
 
[quote name='Malik112099']http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219957[/QUOTE]

By "explicitly stated," he meant 1800 votes that were close to a 50/50 split. That thread turned into a trainwreck of epic proportions pretty quickly anyway; I suspect that if the same poll and same conversation was held now - a year later - the results wouldn't be the same.

I still stand by my statement that a decision was never reached. If you need proof of that, look at the uneven enforcement. No two mods handle piracy threads the same way, and there have been plenty of visible threads that didn't see any action (Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, I'm looking at you). While the site does have a rule, it's pretty clear that enforcement comes down to the individual moderator...which makes the rule worthless. If a decision had been reached, don't you think that CHeapyD would have communicated that to the mods, and enforcement would be more even across the board?

I guess if you guys really wanted to you could try and talk one of the moderators into seeing things your way, but given how many of them have posted in either this or the thread in the off-topic forum, I think it's safe to say they know how you feel.
 
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Wow this is quite an interesting thread right here.
It obviously seems that playing a game early that's retail is fine. However with pirating, since that is illegal, that of course is not ok. Regardless, people are going to pirate. Heck, the main idea with pirating to me is to be able to get a full license or copy of something and if you like it, purchase it. If not, then uninstall it.
 
[quote name='freshzen']Don't reviewers play these games online before release all the time?[/QUOTE]
Yes, but MS knows the reviewers gamertags. I think they only people that get banned are the ones that just blatantly say they got it illegally like the justin.tv guy.
 
[quote name='MicrosoftGuy']Wow this is quite an interesting thread right here.
It obviously seems that playing a game early that's retail is fine. However with pirating, since that is illegal, that of course is not ok. Regardless, people are going to pirate. Heck, the main idea with pirating to me is to be able to get a full license or copy of something and if you like it, purchase it. If not, then uninstall it.[/QUOTE]

It pretty much NEVER works like that. If they like the game...they already have it, whats the point in going out to buy it? I dont know anyone that has ever downloaded something, liked it, and then said, "hey, I'm going to go buy this now". Its, "this game rocks, but I already have it right here, no need to go and pay for it now", every single time.
 
[quote name='freshzen']Don't reviewers play these games online before release all the time?[/QUOTE]

They play on development boxes and have special non-retail discs that only work in those systems. You often hear reviewers talking about playing through a game twice* so they can get their achievements on their personal gamertag.

*once on the dev box for review and after buying a copy

[quote name='SEH']It pretty much NEVER works like that. If they like the game...they already have it, whats the point in going out to buy it? I dont know anyone that has ever downloaded something, liked it, and then said, "hey, I'm going to go buy this now". Its, "this game rocks, but I already have it right here, no need to go and pay for it now", every single time.[/QUOTE]

I've done that with music in the past, but we're talking $10 not $60. I haven't downloaded music illegally in years but if I was on the fence about an artist I'd d/l their album. If I liked it I would go buy another album by that group so they were getting something. Sure they got hosed on that first album that I d/l but they did get a sale out of it in the long run when otherwise they wouldn't have.
 
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