Halo 2 Cheater Videos

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I guess those of you who visit regularly have noticed that the site has not been updated... I don't play Halo 2 much anymore due to the fact most of my friends list has disappeared with the release of the 360. If you are over 18 and play regularly, feel free to send me a friend request on Live. I have Halo 2, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat and Dead or Alive Ultimate 2. I'm the official #1 Jann Lee on DOA, by the way ;). At any rate, keep checking back if you have any of those games, because I will be adding footage from all of them now! If you are intersted in purchasing the rights to this site, send me an email with an offer. All offers will be considered. As you can see this is a very high traffic site. For those of you who are curious what the Great Phreaktor looks like: Search for me on Gamertagpics.com... Until next time- Happy gaming!

PHREAKTOR'S BLOG 10/09/05

This is not about getting rid of 2 month trials, permanently banning everyone, or beating modders and standbyers with short rubber hoses. Take a moment and read the entire blog.

Two month free trials are the root of the continuing epidemic. Cheaters are banned, but the offenders return to the service almost immediately through the use of a trial subscription. Obviously the free trials have a legitimate purpose.

Two month free trials are for people who want to try out the service for a short while before deciding if they want to pay for a $50 year subscription.

They are not for people who want to cheat or let their lesser skilled friends piggyback off of a player who is more skilled than what his trial account level is. This takes away from the credibility and integrity of matchmaking and the experience points system. It is also a parasite on the morale of the whole Halo 2 community.

Here is my simple solution:

Limit the amount of 2 month free trials per Xbox, household, or credit card. I think 2 is a fair limit. Microsoft can differentiate between a yearly or monthly subscription and a 2 month free trial. How else would they be able to generate the automated email denoting that the trial period is almost over and that there is an impending charge to the credit card on file?

Try on this scenario:

Let's assume Microsoft has updated their customer database to track the usage of trial subscriptions. Someone attempts to register their third consecutive 2 month free trial. The registration is denied and the following message is displayed:

"Sorry, only two (2) free trial periods are permitted per user. Please purchase a yearly or monthly subscription to continue using your Xbox Live account. Thank you for trying the service."

Now for the Bungie/Microsoft solution:

Let's assume Bungie/Microsoft are linked through a software with a functionality similar to the automated "Banhammer." A first time user who genuinely wants to try the service registers the Gamertag "Gamer101". Microsoft tracks the usage of this 2 month free trial and punches a hole in the virtual two-punch ticket of that Xbox, credit card, or household. "Gamer101" is immediately fowarded to the Bungie/Microsoft "Banhammer-like" software and permanently banned from ranked games with the same access as a guest.

Voila! No more modders or standbyers in ranked games! Who is going to pay $50.00 every time they get banned?

The only thing I question about this is the possibilty to limit a Gamertag to guest access. I talked to Achronos from Bungie about it, but I didn't ask this specific question. I emailed Xbox Live on three different subject options and got the same generic form letter from the same guy as a reply.

What do you think? Go post in the forums!

Once again, I have a special tip for those of you that have read this far. If you want to totally avoid modders or if you just hate the new maps, try this. Older Xboxes have a hard drive that makes a noise similar to a computer's hard drive when it is loading information from memory. You can hear when you are going to play a new map and back out in the pre-game lobby! This is how it works:

Enter matchmaking and listen very closely to your box when it is at "1" in the searching for players screen. If you hear that distinct whine, it is going to be a new map where you could very likely be modded.

Immediately back out to the pre-game lobby and wait for the noise to disappear. If you go back in and you don't hear that noise, it is an old map and the only things you have to worry about are standbyers and network bridgers! This nearly foolproof! Take some time and practice it so know know what noise to listen for. See you next week with more helpful info.

PHREAKTOR'S BLOG

What's up fellow Halo 2 players? Let me take a second thank all of you for the support over the past year. It's the only thing that keeps this site up!

As you can see, I have made several changes to the site and I will continue to make more as I learn more about HTML. Please post any suggestions or ideas you may have in the forums section above. Hopefully by the time the Xbox 360 debuts, this will be a site for any type of Xbox related videos. The cost of the domain name is not cheap and your donations are welcome.

At any rate, let's get on with my boring weblog, shall we? I haven't been playing as much as I used to due to the cheating and general crapiness of the Halo 2 community in general. Who is teaching these kids to be so hostile and racist? I come across the N-bomb dropping 20 year olds and "Screaming Elmos" almost every other game. I would love to work in the Microsoft/Bungie banning department because I would make sure these little troglodytes never got back on the service again. We need to do something about the 2 month free trials. That's where the heart of the cheating/jackass epidemic lies.

Who does Microsoft think they are fooling? These people are not getting "banned". Their Gamertags are, but not the people behind them. This is the current process:

1. Cheater creates a new account to level up his piggybacking friends (Who also need to be banned because they are the main reason modders are still around.) They play most of a day, cheating numerous amounts of legitimate players who would have won otherwise.

2. Cheater gets "permanently banned" from matchmaking by Bungies auto-detection software with in hours. They are, however, still allowed to use the service to play custom games. Whooo boy is that punishment intimidating!

3. Cheater whips out a 2 month free trial from his seemingly endless supply, creates a new account name that totally mocks the system, and proceeds into matchmaking looking for your hard earned experience points.

What exactly has been accomplished? Absolutely nothing. Until Microsoft decides to put their financially stable foot down and ban these dishonest people in a manner that prevents them from returning to the service, the cheating will thrive. Now, of course, not all modders are the kind you will see here. I actually have a friend on Live that has two boxes- one modded and one stock. He NEVER uses the modded box in matchmaking to cheat. He just sets up custom games to play with friends when everyone wants to fly around on plasma turrets, shoot out Spartans, and the other million fun things you can do. These guys I don't have a problem with and the custom games are a lot of fun.

Now, if you have read this far, you deserve this little tidbit of information for combating standbyers in Head to Head. I have not had much luck with this in Team Slayer, but it works nearly every time in Head to Head. The only requirement is that you have a reasonably strong connection speed. I have about 400 KBps upload and that is considered decent in the world of online gaming. If you are being standbyed by your opponent repeatedly, and eventually you go to the "bluscreen of death", do this: Hit the standby button on your modem 4 seconds on 4 seconds off for about a total on 20-30 seconds. It will keep you in bluescreen, but while this is happening, the host/cheater is lagging out of the game. I wouldn't BS you about this-IT WORKS. I was originally against touching the button for any reason, until I saw how weak Microsoft's policy on policing cheating was. You don't use this to get kills, you use it to get rid of the person that is standbying you. The best part is that you get the experience points you would have gotten if the noob had played legitimately. I'll post a few before and after Game Links as proof of this working when I get a chance.

My theory on why this works is that the auto-detection software reads the extra lag in the bluescreen as the standbyers lag and auto-boots him. I feel you need a stable connection for it to work because you have more time to hit the button where as someone who has a slower connection would lag themselves out.

Anyway, thank you, faithful reader, for enduring my rant and I'll be back next week with some more updates... be sure to tell your friends about the site!






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