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Bungie Resetting Around 15,000 Halo: Reach Cheaters' Credits

Buy that helmet fast!

Gaming Halo: Reach's "Challenge Reset" functionality is going to get you nowhere fast, if Bungie catches you. The studio has said via its message board that it is smacking about 15,000 of the "most egregious" abusers of the credit-producing exploit with a credit reset, in addition to a one-day credit ban, though the latter is being done as more of a "we see what you've been doing and you've been punished" tactic.

Cheaters who have evaded the wrist slap this time around shouldn't expect to be as lucky in the future, as an automated banning system will take over as soon as its mechanisms prove accurate enough to satisfy the studio's "high bar for burden of proof." In the words of Bungie staffer "ferrex" on the message board, "If you are thinking about getting an easy 50k credits by using this exploit, I would strongly advise you to reconsider." 
 

No Caption Provided

As Bungie has clarified in the post, you'll always be allowed to cheese Firefight for extra credits. The bot's AI won't bring down the banhammer on anyone who spends hours on end in "Gruntpocalyspe" or a rockets-only variant or anything. Using Challenge Reset to complete a challenge over 20 times, however? Yeah, that'll cost ya at some points.

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WrathOfBanja

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Edited By WrathOfBanja
@Mystyr_E said:
" Is it just me or is anyone else bored of this online already? It's only 3 weeks out and I don't have any inkling to play this again for quite awhile "
I know what you mean. I don't think I'll be coming back until they get better spawns, maps or at least some good customs.
IMHO H3 had way more replayability.
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detectivepbert

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Edited By detectivepbert

It makes sense that the armor doesn't do anything, it would make multiplayer very unbalanced, unless they had within-class matchmaking which theres probably not enough users to support or would mean waiting a long time in the lobby to get a match.   Anyways, what really matters is not credits but straight up beasting.  Gun on gun you're done!

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iKANNIBAL

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Edited By iKANNIBAL

I never understood the whole point of ever doing something like this, just like i don't understand the people who cheat to increase their gamescore. Seriously, is it really that important?.

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Vaancor

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Edited By Vaancor

You know, I've always had my complaints about the Halo seris as well as some of Bungies decisions, but man do I love how often they use the banhammer like this! Nice to see devs somewhat care.

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one_2nd

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Edited By one_2nd

Fuck 'em. Fuck 'em all!

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big_jon

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Edited By big_jon

Owned
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sanguis_Malus

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Edited By sanguis_Malus

Serves the dickheads right.

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EightBitShik

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Edited By EightBitShik
@BradNicholson: Good fuck cheaters.
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WilliamRLBaker

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Edited By WilliamRLBaker

really? lol your a day or 2 late with this news article...

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ep_driver

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Edited By ep_driver
@Mystyr_E said:

"Is it just me or is anyone else bored of this online already? It's only 3 weeks out and I don't have any inkling to play this again for quite awhile "


You are not alone. I really loved it during the beta, but after only two weeks of playing multiplayer on the retail version I got burned out. I played Halo 3 multiplayer A LOT, then got into COD and have been hooked to that franchise for the past 3 years. I think the whole "it's more Halo so if you like Halo you'll enjoy yourself" argument is pretty accurate. The gameplay just doesn't do it for me anymore. So, there are at least two of us who are over it!
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meteora

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Edited By meteora

Hahaha, suckers.

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Azteck

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Edited By Azteck
@This_Dude said:
" I'm not bored by Reach online.  The multiplayer is as great, if not better than Halo:CE.  (speaking as someone that had a network full of lan games running through his apartment building in college for Halo 1 MP)  I play everyday, and the challenges keep giving me something interesting to try and achieve each day.  Maybe i'm having a better time because I have a full team of friends that are always on and ready to go, i'm sure that makes it way more enjoyable then playing solo. "
Yup. What he said. The challenges was a genius idea by Bungie, and playing with friends will make the experience so much better. I just wish I had more friends who didn't rage over everything that goes wrong.
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petitfool

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Edited By petitfool
@OldManLight said:
" I liked this pull quote from twitter. "Bungie teabags 15,000 cheaters" "
Too right, mate.
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Edited By Advertisement
@OldManLight said:
" I liked this pull quote from twitter. "Bungie teabags 15,000 cheaters" "
Truer words have never been spoken
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Jackel2072

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Edited By Jackel2072

i made it too Lt colonel last night! i now have Kat's arm unlocked for mulitplayer. its awesome. 

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ThePhilatron

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Edited By ThePhilatron
@WinterSnowblind:  I know what the challenge reset is and I know it's not a legitimate way to get credits. I just think that they should have made the challenges set up in such a way as to prevent this from becoming an issue in the first place and to notify the community that what they were doing was wrong before resetting them without warning. That said I still support Bungie's strong stance against cheating.
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OldManLight

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Edited By OldManLight

I liked this pull quote from twitter. "Bungie teabags 15,000 cheaters"

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skadbob

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Edited By skadbob
@KingWilly: That's the thing, it's not really free. The cR is supposed to be a currency-- albeit one with no real-world value-- that you earn with how much time you put into the game.
  
Plus... I think the flaming helmet qualifies in the "subjective value" category. 

It's not like The Legendary Edition is only available to a select group of people. It's available to everyone who would be able to buy an M-rated title. Everyone has a fair chance to get one. It's just that only a select group of people within that population WOULD see ANY value in it and buy it.
 
In any case, I was just using your logic from your car analogy to express my point.
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This_Dude

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Edited By This_Dude

I'm not bored by Reach online.  The multiplayer is as great, if not better than Halo:CE.  (speaking as someone that had a network full of lan games running through his apartment building in college for Halo 1 MP)  I play everyday, and the challenges keep giving me something interesting to try and achieve each day.  Maybe i'm having a better time because I have a full team of friends that are always on and ready to go, i'm sure that makes it way more enjoyable then playing solo.

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ShaneDev

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Edited By ShaneDev

I love that Bungie takes care of serious cheating fairly quickly. These people were manipulating the game code or the network to get cR and thus totally deserved it.  

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Rahkas

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Edited By Rahkas

Loving the ban hammer drops of Bungie and Blizzard lately

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TheHBK

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Edited By TheHBK

I dont care either way.  Cheaters suck ass but Bungie is asking for it by making the cost of unlockables so damn high.  And even then there really isn't much there.  Just a few worthy items but for you to unlock it all, you have to have some kind of dedication or obsession.

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Oldirtybearon

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Edited By Oldirtybearon
@UncertainOtter said:
" @KingWilly: There's a value to the S-Ranks on Giant Bomb. If some how there was a way to cheat the system and easily get multiple S-Ranks within a few minutes... can you imagine what the reaction would be like?  Or if you could boost your Xbox Live achievement points?  Or, if a person who bought a used, standard edition of Halo: Reach somehow managed to circumvent the system and get himself a flaming helmet? I hope you can see why that would devalue a new Legendary Edition in the real world.  If not, thank god for your naivite... and  I hope you never go into finance.  EDIT: Actually, I take that back; I DO hope you go into finance. "

The problem with that argument is that you're comparing something which is subjective in value (the value of cR and ranks) and something with objective value. People paid for the right to have a flaming head, and they should by no means have to share that with anyone else. Ranking up and unlocking armour and what not has a default value of zero precisely because everyone has access to the same set of armours and effects. I hope I'm making my point clear enough. What I'm basically saying is that comparing boosting rank and unlocks from The Armoury to someone hacking their way into obtaining goods only purchasable through a specific edition of the game are two different things entirely. One being there for everyone to get for free (eventually), and the other only for people who ponied up for the privilege.  
 
I hope that made sense. I'm running on three cups of coffee and around two and a half hours of sleep.
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Dauragon

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Edited By Dauragon

Nobody drops the hammer like Bungie. 

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DrPockets000

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Edited By DrPockets000

lol 
 
Owned

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Players_Counsel

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Edited By Players_Counsel
@wolf_blitzer85: Theoretically, those folks won't be buying DLC, so there's some small potential for lost revenue.  I recognize that: A)  that guy totally doesn't have that kind of influence over 400 people and B) even assuming a high rate of sellthrough on map packs, we're still not talking about enough money to have an impact.  I'm just saying that, just because these 400 fake folks already fake bought the game, that doesn't mean that they're still not potential sources of revenue.
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Rockdalf

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Edited By Rockdalf

When Bungie lays the smack down everyone wins.  However, automated systems worry me, as they're always flawed.

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Hector

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Edited By Hector

The forums were amazing on Friday on BNET. All the posts were hilarious!

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skadbob

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Edited By skadbob
@KingWilly: There's a value to the S-Ranks on Giant Bomb. If some how there was a way to cheat the system and easily get multiple S-Ranks within a few minutes... can you imagine what the reaction would be like? 
 
Or if you could boost your Xbox Live achievement points? 
 
Or, if a person who bought a used, standard edition of Halo: Reach somehow managed to circumvent the system and get himself a flaming helmet? I hope you can see why that would devalue a new Legendary Edition in the real world. 
 
If not, thank god for your naivite... and  I hope you never go into finance. 
 
EDIT: Actually, I take that back; I DO hope you go into finance.
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ch13696

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Edited By ch13696

Are they going to fix this exploit after they reset the people that used it?

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Oldirtybearon

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Edited By Oldirtybearon
@UncertainOtter said:
" @KingWilly: I don't scowl at anyone with fancy cars, but if I knew that they stole the car, I probably would at least give them a look... The various customization options in the game might not have any gameplay effects, but they obviously have value. They represent investment and dedication to people, and just because that might not matter to you or me one bit, there are way more people who can derive great pleasure from showing others their "accomplishments" than there are people who don't.  People who "cheat" in this case are devaluing other people's legitimate achievements and defrauding them of their dedication and their right to this type of  fun, not to mention destroy the system which Bungie has set in place.  I don't see how hard it is to understand that point. "
It's not hard to understand, it's just something I disagree with. 
 
My achievements in Reach are my own. I'm somewhat proud of them. I don't care if someone boosted to get Lt. Colonel faster than I did, and I don't care if they got the newest armour out of it, or got the Grunt Birthday armour effect. Those are things I'll get eventually, and when I do finally unlock them, it will be all the sweeter. 
 
And yet I still don't care that someone else boosted. Nobody can devalue what you've accomplished. The only way someone can take your achievement or sense of accomplishment away from you is if you choose to let something as petty as "Oh this guy got this rank faster than I did so obviously it's not worth a damn" bother you. Again, I don't personally understand how it could bother someone else, but I suppose that's just me.
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mfpantst

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Edited By mfpantst

This makes me want to buy Reach.  I don't get off on the whole 'ohhh my rank is this' thing, but I like the way rankings help sort out good players from bad and experienced from unexperienced.  And I HATE it when someone who sucks but just wants the ranking or whatever is playing with other serious players.  Tends to ruin my fun.

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FritzDude

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Edited By FritzDude

Cheaters are for shitters. Put them back in the toilet.

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warchief

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Edited By warchief
 ./highfive 
 ./highfive 
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A_Wet_Shamwow

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Edited By A_Wet_Shamwow
@WinterSnowblind:  what they are talking about with challenge reset is when some cheaters got a daily challenge the cR would register and they would pull their Ethernet out and the challange would not be completed but the cR would still be there
 
EX: Challenge is to get 100 kills in matchmaking 
      Cheater gets 99  
       Joins game gets one kill pulls the cord 
I think the pulling the cord is what bungie is upset about
 
       


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jeanm

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Edited By jeanm

I love Bungie for doing this. All those "cheaters" complaining in the Bungie forums about how they are going to sell the game and wait for Black Ops can go fuck themselves. 
 
We don't need them right Bungie? =D 

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skadbob

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Edited By skadbob
@KingWilly: I don't scowl at anyone with fancy cars, but if I knew that they stole the car, I probably would at least give them a look...
 
The various customization options in the game might not have any gameplay effects, but they obviously have value. They represent investment and dedication to people, and just because that might not matter to you or me one bit, there are way more people who can derive great pleasure from showing others their "accomplishments" than there are people who don't. 
 
People who "cheat" in this case are devaluing other people's legitimate achievements and defrauding them of their dedication and their right to this type of  fun, not to mention destroy the system which Bungie has set in place. 
 
I don't see how hard it is to understand that point.
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GTFan712

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Edited By GTFan712

I know a couple of people who are now Recruits after being Lt. Colonels. When they found out about the Challenge Cheating, they boosted for a good 80,000 cR, and now they've got nothing. Nice to see Bungie isn't letting you get away with anything.

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WinterSnowblind

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Edited By WinterSnowblind
@KingWilly said:
" @WinterSnowblind said:
" @KingWilly said:
" @MadThad0890: So how'd they cheat exactly? You earn cR to unlock purely cosmetic odds and ends from The Armoury. There is no benefit and no advantage there. So the question I pose to you is who exactly are these "cheaters" cheating? "
Cosmetic or not, it still ruins the experience for everyone else.  For most players, it will take quite a long time to rank up to Lt.Col and it will be quite an accomplishment when you finally do.  That's been completely cheapened by people cheating, when the real players do make it that far..  it now means nothing. "
How does it ruin your experience?   Unless you're the kind of person who scowls at someone for having a fancy car, I don't see how someone getting flashy shit faster than you or having a higher rank than you ruins your game. None of the bonuses you get in Reach do ANYTHING to the gameplay. This is not like MW2 where there were real cheaters exploiting heinous glitches. This is just people wanting to rank up quick and get cool stuff to customize their Spartan.  You can see why the vitriol is silly, surely. "
If somebody stole that car, would you not scowl at them?  Being a higher rank is fine, cheating to do it is the problem.
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NTM

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Edited By NTM

So many cheaters. Battle against the Starcraft and Halo cheaters, I want to see it.
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rawrz

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Edited By rawrz
@KingWilly: They cheated because they earned credits  by resetting the daily challenges so that they can complete the same challenges multiple times a day. Sure what they unlock with those credits is only cosmetic but they still got them in illegitimate ways so they cheated the system.
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Oldirtybearon

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Edited By Oldirtybearon
@WinterSnowblind said:
" @KingWilly said:
" @MadThad0890: So how'd they cheat exactly? You earn cR to unlock purely cosmetic odds and ends from The Armoury. There is no benefit and no advantage there. So the question I pose to you is who exactly are these "cheaters" cheating? "
Cosmetic or not, it still ruins the experience for everyone else.  For most players, it will take quite a long time to rank up to Lt.Col and it will be quite an accomplishment when you finally do.  That's been completely cheapened by people cheating, when the real players do make it that far..  it now means nothing. "
How does it ruin your experience?  
 
Unless you're the kind of person who scowls at someone for having a fancy car, I don't see how someone getting flashy shit faster than you or having a higher rank than you ruins your game. None of the bonuses you get in Reach do ANYTHING to the gameplay. This is not like MW2 where there were real cheaters exploiting heinous glitches. This is just people wanting to rank up quick and get cool stuff to customize their Spartan. 
 
You can see why the vitriol is silly, surely.
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Jinstarwing

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Edited By Jinstarwing

Its not cheating until you get caught
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WinterSnowblind

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Edited By WinterSnowblind
@cide said:
" Only 15,000 people reset? Only the most extreme cases reset? How does such an easy exploit slip past Bungie? "
There's nothing they can do about it, without punishing people who chose to play offline.
 
@ThePhilatron said:
" While I agree that resetting cheaters is a great idea and I'm glad that Bungie has decided to take a proactive role, I really think that they should have done a better job of ensuring that these exploits were not able to be beneficial in the first place. I'm also not certain that they should consider the exploit in question a cheat without due warning. "

The "exploits" that most people have been using to farm credits are fine, you're allowed to do them as much as you want.  Constantly restarting missions with the target locater, farming grunts in grunpocalpyse, etc..  What the 15,000 who were reset were doing was reseting or disconnecting after completing challenges (which award heavy cR bonuses) allowing them to constantly complete them.  If this happens to you once or twice by accident, you'll be fine.  But the people who were repeatedly doing it in a short time frame have been punished.  There's absolutely no way you could keep doing it by accident or without knowing what you were doing.
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George_Hukas

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Edited By George_Hukas

Only 15,000 people reset? Only the most extreme cases reset?

How does such an easy exploit slip past Bungie?

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JoelTGM

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Edited By JoelTGM

aw poor cheaters, better luck next time

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Ramone

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Edited By Ramone
@KingWilly:  Credits also allow you to rank up. They are basically XP.
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DarthB

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Edited By DarthB

Personally I think cheating is a waste.  Does it really make you feel better?  I like accomplishing my achievements n such the good ol' fashioned way, by actually doing it.  I only have one S ranked game on giantbomb so far, I'm hoping that within a month or so Halo Reach will be my other S ranked game.

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WinterSnowblind

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Edited By WinterSnowblind
@KingWilly said:
" @MadThad0890: So how'd they cheat exactly? You earn cR to unlock purely cosmetic odds and ends from The Armoury. There is no benefit and no advantage there. So the question I pose to you is who exactly are these "cheaters" cheating? "
Cosmetic or not, it still ruins the experience for everyone else.  For most players, it will take quite a long time to rank up to Lt.Col and it will be quite an accomplishment when you finally do.  That's been completely cheapened by people cheating, when the real players do make it that far..  it now means nothing.