Forums | MacLife

Some1 wrote:

Be interesting to see how many of those people would have gone out and bought the game, but let their impatience get the better of them.

That's what worries me.  However, if MS determined that the banned gameres were playing MW2 early on modded hardware, then they're almost definitely all pirates.

Not me of course, but then again I haven't connected to live in a while, be interesting to see if they have some way of detecting hacked firmware, or if it was just some indicator code on the disk itself.

It's simple enough.  They could embed unsigned code in the firmware or on a game disc.  Such code might be a program that tells MS "I've been modded!!"  An unmodified xbox won't be able to execute the program, and you'll be safe, whereas a modded xobox will run the code and report you to MS.  Such a program could even be streamed to your machine upon connecting to XBL.  There's really no fool-proof way to hide the fact that you've modded your box.

Rukh wrote:

I don't think you can create a new account to get around these bans. my understanding is they are done by serial number.

Make sure we're clear. These are hardware only bans. One's LIVE account is fine. That can be recovered on another Xbox and still play online. Even the hardware is still fine. M$ doesn't do anything to disable that. You can still game on it, just can't connect to live. One question would be does it kill System Link too?

I think the bans have two layers. M$ bans the S/N and MAC address. Honestly I don't think anyone has a clue on what the 360 reports back to M$. That's all best guesses. For all we know it's built into the OS to detect hardware changes. There might even be a chassis intrusion sensor somewhere that gets the ball rolling.

a) Based on everything I've heard about Gamestop, telling them might not do much good.

b) Based on everything I've heard about the Xbox 360, buying a used one might not be such a good idea unless it comes with the same warranty as a new one, and the warranty is with MS, as opposed to some third party refurbisher.

ukimalefu wrote:

The so-called "lolpyramid" bears clear signs of extreme compression and filter erosion, and clearly predates Mac|Life culture by several thousand days.

Some1 wrote:

Mr. T wrote:

ukimalefu wrote:

:lolpyramid:

Not so funny really. The hack works but it's difficult to do and requires the ID off an unbanned, legit console. Once you clone the ID onto the banned machine neither can be on LIVE at the same time. Works but isn't perfect and I'm sure M$ will ban both IDs once they make the mistake of trying to connect at the same time.

LLEVIATHANN wrote:

LLEVIATHANN wrote:

Even the hardware is still fine. M$ doesn't do anything to disable that.

I'm  wrong here. M$ also disables the HD on that console. You can move it to another but the HD will no longer work in a banned machine.

Wow, that's not even listed in the EULA.

Bren wrote:

Regarding this notion that publishers price their games higher due to all the sales they'll lose to piracy: If that's the case, then howcome console games were very expensive long before the advent of high-speed Internet and bit-torrent file sharing? If you adjust for inflation, I believe games published for consoles on optical media pretty much cost the same as they always have. I could be wrong, however, 'cause I don't shop for console games.

before the advent of highspeed broadband, consoles were generally all using cartridges. which are significantly more expensive to produce than more modern optical media.

i easily remember games for SNES being $100 or more here in canada.

Last edited by Rukh (2009-11-24 6:42 pm)

Mr. T wrote:

Here's an interesting scenario.  Let's say you have two consoles, A and B.  Console A has been modded and banned.  Console B is 100% legit.  Let's say you restore console A back to factory condition, and clone the system ID so that A and B are indistinguishable. 

Let's then suppose that both systems connect to XBL at the same time.  Microsoft can't do anything about it!  Why?  Because, MS claims no right in the EULA to ban a console that has never been modded.  And since two systems are indistinguishable, there's no way for MS to determine which console has been modded.  At the risk of banning the wrong console, MS has no choice but to allow both systems to coexist on the network.

You let us know how that goes and report back.

Unless the system ID is just the serial number which is visible on the outer shell, then to retrieve the system ID from console B, the warranty on console B would have have to have been voided.

LLEVIATHANN wrote:

Mr. T wrote:

Here's an interesting scenario.  Let's say you have two consoles, A and B.  Console A has been modded and banned.  Console B is 100% legit.  Let's say you restore console A back to factory condition, and clone the system ID so that A and B are indistinguishable. 

Let's then suppose that both systems connect to XBL at the same time.  Microsoft can't do anything about it!  Why?  Because, MS claims no right in the EULA to ban a console that has never been modded.  And since two systems are indistinguishable, there's no way for MS to determine which console has been modded.  At the risk of banning the wrong console, MS has no choice but to allow both systems to coexist on the network.

You let us know how that goes and report back.

This is just like that movie face-off, where John Travolta and Nicholas Cage trade faces, so then the good guy looks like the bad guy and the bad guy looks like the good guy, but then they have to live each other's lives for some reason and fight a lot/