Gamesaving

Gamesaving is the practice of sharing and uploading other users' game information for the benefit of progressing through a game or unlocking achievements. Although this term has cross platform use, The Primary use of the term is associated with the Xbox 360. Gamers who use this method of gaming are known as gamesavers. Many gamesavers use this tactic to climb leaderboards such as MyGamerCard, a Microsoft Community Developer.

Spotting Gamesavers

Although the practice has become more sophisticated in recent months, determining whether a player has legitimately earned a score is fairly simple. Many difficult games have been available for upload (especially import titles from Japan which were uploaded by former #1 player, Rance6). Gamesavers usually upload full 1,000 point saves on games that are difficult and time consuming to beat. The most commonly gamesaved games are Ridge Racer 6 and Rumble Roses XX.

Gamesaved achievements typically do not bear the time stamp found on all achievements unlocked while connected to Xbox Live.

Reactions

While the practice is GeneRally Frowned Upon by the gaming community, neither Microsoft or the online leaderboard sites have exercised editorial discretion to eliminate cheaters from climbing the leaderboards. Famous among the legitimate gamerscore community, Kaens Gamesaverless Leaderboard lists the best known legitimate top 250 gamerscores. Microsoft are powerless to react as they don't have an official leaderboard, and even the badly rated games are brought by gamesavers to gamesave with.

Attempts to Stop Gamesaving

The June 2007 console update banned hundreds of consoles that were identified on the 360gamesaves.com website. These consoles were prohibited from any future save sharing. Major Nelson recently announced that Microsoft May Be planning on doing something AbOUT the gamesaves issue.

The Problem Evolves

Unable to stop the practice of gamesaving, or editorializing online leaderboards, The Xbox community suffered yet another indinity, when, in 2007, the gamesavers, led by a small group of hackers, started hacking into the Xbox 360 operating system and manually unlocked achievements. It is believed that the actual game disc isn't even necessary to access the achievement information.

High level hackers are now selling the gamertags at premiums exceeding $2000 on popular Internet sites, such as eBay.

See also

• Cheating
• Modding