Glitch Politics

Since online gaming has existed there have been those willing to use cheats, codes and hacks to manipulate the gamespace to their advantage. Types of cheating can vary, ranging from the Fifa 10 leaderboard scam, with players suddenly appearing in the top 100 after gathering 20,000 skill-points overnight, to traditional approaches like griefing and invulnerability hacks.

The latest exploit to hit the headlines comes in the form of Modern Warfare 2’s Javelin Glitch. Also referred to as the suicide bomber glitch, it allows players equipped with any kind of launcher to spontaneously blow themselves up, damaging or destroying anyone within the blast radius. Activated by a simple button combination, the Javelin Glitch has ignited a wave of fury across forums, with competitive gamers enraged by unjust deaths and tarnished rankings.

However, the makers of MW2 are aware of the situation. Infinity Ward’s Community Manager, Robert Bowling, acknowledged the issue via his Twitter feed, assuring affected players that a fix is on the way:

“Already have the coder responsible for the javelin writing a fix that will be included in the first title update.”

A few hours later, he added:

“MW2 Javelin Glitch fix currently in test. Once it’s cleared, we’ll be urging it through Microsoft and Sony certification as fast as possible.”

Whilst the creation of a fix is welcome news for the majority of MW2 players, the most interesting thing to come out of the Javelin fiasco is the contradictory responses from Microsoft and Sony. Microsoft jumped straight into the fray and dished out a no-nonsense, zero-tolerance tweet that left Xbox Live customers in no doubt as to the potential consequences of their actions. Stephen Tolouse, Xbox Live’s Director of Policy and Enforcement, wrote:

“While IW works on getting the MW2 glitch fixed, people we catch using it will receive suspensions from Xbox Live. Play fair everyone.”

This was followed up by another tweet confirming the length of the threatened ban:

“For those asking, cheating suspensions are usually 24 hours for first offense. But egregious cheating can be 2 weeks!”

Sony, however, remained silent. In stark contrast to Microsoft’s big noise, the best information anyone could wrangle concerning the Playstation Network’s stance was an unspecified Sony rep telling CVG: “I don’t believe we are banning people for using the glitch”. With no follow up statement and no reports of either restrictions or bans for Javelin Glitch exploiters, it would seem that Sony have a very different take on the issue of online griefing.

Question is, are Sony in danger of sending out the wrong message to the cyber-cheats? Is their failure to take action a result of sympathetic tolerance or indecisive weakness? The terms and conditions for the Playstation Network state that users must refrain from, “abusive or deceptive conduct, cheating, hacking, or other misuse of PSN”, and failure to adhere to these can result in, “termination or suspension of your PSN account”. Sony are well within their rights to take the same prohibitive actions as Microsoft, but they have chosen not to act.

Perhaps Sony are simply waiting for the fix to arrive and solve the problem for them. Perhaps they don’t wish to unduly penalise generally well-behaved gamers who might try the code once out of curiosity. Whatever their motivation, the message is clear: if you want to play dirty online without repercussions, then play Sony. Mess with Microsoft and, like one million hacked Xbox Live account holders before you, you may wake up to discover that you’ve only got your cheating-self to play with.