As noted on the official Team Fortress 2 blog, any player who employed a third-party idling application to obtain unlockables will lose those items over the next few days. That’s less than 5 per cent of players, fortunately. The other 95 per cent or so, they’ll get halos, as seen above.

Valve’s Erik Johnson writes that the developer will “adopt a zero tolerance policy for external applications used to manipulate the persistent item system”, something fans of collecting virtual items would be wise to adhere to.

Reader Harken was nice enough to send in screen shots of his Cheater’s Lament headwear, granting him a level one aura of incorruptibility. He also forwarded us the halo in action, sitting atop a very proud but incorruptible Pyro.

Thanks, Harken!

Incoming! [Team Fortress 2]

This character is a Level 99 with max HP and MP, and it has 9999999 Experience and 9999999 G, making it way more impressive than Koichi Sugiyama’s Level 97 DQIX character and he composes the Dragon Quest music and has being playing the actual title for who knows how long.

If the game is this easy to cheat, then maybe it’s best that it doesn’t have actual online play, no?

『ドラゴンクエスト９』 早くもチート（データ改造）の被害に遭う [オレ的ゲーム情報]

According to Xbox Live Policy and Enforcement enforcer Stephen Toulouse, Microsoft isn’t only resetting the Gamerscores of cheaters to zero, but also marking their Gamercards as cheaters.

He explains, “It also puts a tag that you’ve been caught cheating on your Gamercard. That’s a pretty big Scarlet Letter.” And we all know what happened in The Scarlet Letter: Demi Moore took off her shirt.

Show #319: Gel, Gamerscore Reset and Fight Night Round 4 [Major Nelson via VG247]

In a post on the game’s official forums, Matt “Positron” Miller addressed the issue of “meow farms”, which are missions where enemies are gathered into groups near items like exploding barrels, where they can easily be dispatched en masse, giving the players rapid experience growth for very little risk. Miller brings the hammer down, threatening to ban players who exploit the system; remove access to characters power leveled through such means; and restrict access to the mission architect for those who continuously use it for evil.

While players are reacting positively to the news, the developers are being chided for how long it took them to address this issue, which has been a concern since the Mission Architect system launched with the Issue 14 update. Reader PratzStrike, who alerted us to the issue, wonders why other power leveling methods in the game have yet to be addressed.

You can read all about the situation in the epic thread on the City of Heroes forums, conveniently located at the end of the post. You can click it after you ponder the following question: Is power leveling evil, or should players be rewarded for finding ways around the normal progression?

Abusing Mission Architect [City of Heroes Forums]

Yes, instead of doing the right thing and returning the item (”Martin Fury”, an in-game shirt), he kept it and went out on a killing spree. Because the shirt allowed the wearer to destroy everything within a 30-foot radius instantly, the user – Karatechop – managed to rack up an impossibly impressive set of achievements in the game, including the destruction of the normally-difficult character “Flame Leviathan” in a single blow.

While his account has since been banned, with Blizzard accusing him of cheating to obtain the item, Karatechop maintains that the item was accidentally presented to a guild mate of his by Blizzard, in an official Blizzard email, as part of the restoration process for a hacked character.

Who to believe, who to believe?

Regardless of who’s telling the truth, sure, he should have reported it. And the use of the item was a violation of the game’s user agreement. But on the other hand, this guy was given the in-game power of a god and used it to… rack up a few achievements. This could have been a lot, lot worse.

The Martin Fury scandal: Karatechop reveals all [WoW Insider]

This silver bullet will apparently come in the form of a patch for the Xbox 360 version of the game, which is “going through certification now”. So it shouldn’t be too far off.

While this won’t end all cheating in the game, it should certainly curtail most of it, and in the time it takes the cheatsto come up with workarounds you, Ice-T and Xzibit can come through buildings without fear of rule-breakers.

[FourZeroTwo @ Twitter]

Xbox Live’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb informed the community today that the company has zeroed out the Gamerscores of Gears of War 2 cheaters, apparently caught with their hands in the Achievement cookie jar.

“As you know, we are committed to keeping Xbox LIVE a safe and fair place to play for the more than 17 million active members,” Hryb writes on his official blog. “As part of our regular safety monitoring we have pinpointed a group of players who have unlocked specific Gears of War 2 Achievements through an unauthorized hack.”

Remember, kids, it doesn’t pay to cheat. I should know, because I definitely have never ever taken advantage of any glitch, particularly the Left 4 Dead “Jesus Room” glitch. You hear that, Microsoft? That’s the truth!

Gears of War 2 Achievement Hacking: Banning has begun… [Major Nelson]

Like any other popular online shooter, Killzone 2 has its share of cheaters. And, like many other popular online shooters, the developers are prepared to take drastic steps to stop said cheating.

Developers Guerilla Games have issued a curt, ominous statement on the matter, which reads:

Glitchers risk losing their PSN ID altogether. We’ve been quite lenient so far but that’s going to change.

OK, so it’s not that ominous. Because there’s no money involved, a PSN ID isn’t as valuable as, say, an Xbox Live one (though, as some have pointed out in comments, they’d probably lose any and all downloaded content as well). Then again, if you’re keen enough to cheat, you’re probably self-centred enough to care about your trophies, so hopefully the threat carries weight with some of the no-do-gooders.

[Killzone @ Twitter, via Destructoid]

Eidos are understandably fans of their own games, but perhaps they’ve gone a little too far with this public display of affection. Australia’s only multi-format games mag HYPER has called out the smitten publisher for constantly voting for one of its own titles in the publication’s Game Of The Year awards.

This forum post by HYPER deputy editor, Darren Wells, explains all:

ANNOUNCEMENT: Honest votes only, please
The 2008 Game of the Year Awards are off to a solid start, with numerous votes being cast for a wide range of games. Many of you are voting and participating in the spirit in which the awards are offered, and for that we thank you. However, we ask others who are voting in an opposing manner to please rethink their actions.

As an example, we can appreciate a game publisher’s allegiance towards one of its titles, but would prefer it if an account using an “@eidos.co.uk” e-mail address would not vote for one of its own games across a number of different categories.

We realise that such motivations do not apply to the lion’s share of members and participants, but nevertheless, we do need to make it clear that we will not accept such a practice. We would like to see games win honestly, voted for by honest people.

Thank you for your time.

We usually don’t post this sort of content on Kotaku AU, but this was far too interesting to pass up.

As you might expect, the author has asked to remain nameless. The piece has also been edited for clarity, readability and flavour.

Disclaimer: Kotaku AU does not advocate the use of powerlevelling services, or the use of any service that violates the Terms of Use or End User License Agreements (EULA) of any game. If you decide to indulge in any such service, you do so at your own risk.

By Anonymous
It was after I quit World of Warcraft that I made the decision to powerlevel.

Not me personally – that would defeat the purpose. The whole point of powerlevelling is for someone else to do it. They do the hard work, you reap the rewards. Even if those rewards aren’t exactly tangible or alluring to the opposite sex.

When I quit, I’d been playing WoW on-and-off since its release in November 2004. Just like everyone else back then, I couldn’t wait for Blizzard’s very first MMO. Before WoW, the only other MMO I’d invested significant amounts of time in was PlanetSide.

It was hardly an MMO, though. For one, it didn’t have elves. Every half-decent MMO has to have elves. Without them, PlanetSide was but methadone compared to the sweet hardcore opiate that is World of Warcraft. And, like nine million others today, I shot up regularly.

But time has a funny way of, well, moving forward, and I soon realised that all those hours spent playing WoW I could have been doing a bunch of other things. Productive things. Things that weren’t just slowly incrementing numbers in a massive database.

And, for a time, I managed to pull away from its siren call. But WoW’s like a drug, right?Shopping around
My decision to powerlevel was not made in haste. The most important element I considered was my reason for going back.

That reason was my brother.

Co-op gaming is my vice, and I blame it for making the thought of grinding hellboars in the Outland with a sibling strangely irresistible. This was despite the fact that the art of killing hellboars hadn’t changed much since I’d last played (and I believe still hasn’t), so the only real difference was going to be that someone else would be enduring that painful experience with me – my brother, of all people.

I’m sure that’s a crime somewhere.

The problem was my brother was well into his 60s, churning through Zangarmarsh and Nagrand so quickly it made me weep for the poor virtual creatures that populated those simulated environments. There was no way, with my limited gaming time, I was going to catch up before he hit 70.

That’s when I realised I didn’t have to. I could pay someone to do this kind of thing. It felt evil, that thought, yet I tossed morality aside and skipped straight to the legal considerations.

I knew, of course, that Blizzard stipulates in World of Warcraft’s End User License Agreement (a document of dubious legal binding) that you don’t own your account. Sure, you own the time spent using it, but everything you do with that time isn’t yours.

That Arcanite Reaper you dedicated your honeymoon to grinding materials for? Not yours. The thousands of gold pieces resting in your physics-defying purse? Not yours either. The several hours a day you wasted cybering in the tunnel between Stormwind and Ironforge?

They are yours, actually, along with the lifetime of therapy such an activity surely entails.

Blizzard also makes it clear how it can “punish” you for whoring out your its account and it’s fairly straightforward.

It bans you.

All your its characters, items and gold become inaccessible for the rest of time, unless you can somehow convince Blizzard’s accounts and billing department that you’re innocent.

Yeah, good luck with that.

As you may have guessed, powerlevelling requires you to share your details with a third-party, which is more than enough reason for Blizzard to ban you. The developer rationalises that, along with the powerlevelling, it’s highly likely your its account will be used for gold farming and other activities it deems nefarious. But it doesn’t really matter, seeing as Blizzard is free to ban an account for whatever reason it likes. Looked at Rob Pardo the wrong way? That’s a ban. Looked at him the right way? Ban.

For me, I couldn’t face levelling from 1-60 again. The thought gave me stomach cramps. Brain cramps. Cramps in my hair. The simple logic of the statement “If something’s not fun, don’t do it” should have prevailed. But it didn’t.

So, I whipped out my credit card and perused my choices.

Like any shopper, I was looking for a deal. I wasn’t willing to pay any more than $US 100, give or take $US 10. After visiting eight or so different sites, I came to the conclusion that $US 100 was only going to get me from 1-50.

That’s okay, I thought, it’s past the 30-40 hump, where most people start cutting off and frying toes. I was prepared to fight my way to 60 and beyond.

First things first – I had to make a new character. I chose a Blood Elf Paladin, because I love my bandwagons, entered the world and immediately quit. My blank slate was ready to go. I like to think it was quivering, or doing something spectacular. Or sexy.

At the time of my purchase, $US 100 would get you a character levelled from 1-50, 100 in gold and a mount. I’m not sure if prices have varied much, but if they haven’t, I imagine the weak US dollar would help a perspective buyer immensely.

Most sites provided a series of packages, which in turn came with discounts. For example, 1-60 with an epic mount was common, though today 1-70 with an epic flying mount would be the new powerlevelling combo.

It was interesting to note that many of the sites looked similar, or had similar interfaces. A few even had “About Us” sections that were identical.

If none of the default packages tickled you, you could enter a level range instead. Some sites even allowed you to enter gold, honour or reputation amounts – essentially anything that requires nothing but time and grinding to obtain.

Fortunately for me, a package was available for 1-50. It was close to $US 100, and came with promises of 100 gold and a mount (not so valuable for a Paladin). Any valuable items that happened to drop during the powerlevelling process were mine to keep, and the service provided an ETA of ten days.

I was asked to provide my WoW account details, and the service recommended that I change my password once the process was complete.

Payment was done by credit card, via Paypal. I’m not sure if this happens with every site, but for the one I chose, I received no confirmation. Nothing arrived via email. As far as I knew, I’d been scammed. Which I didn’t find surprising, considering what I was doing.

It was then I realised I’d been given a number as part of the final confirmation of the order. The front page of the powerlevelling site had an interface where one could enter their number and receive details on their character. Sure enough, my Paladin was there.

Maybe I hadn’t been scammed. At least, not yet.

The Long Road to 50
Powerlevelling requires you to take some precautions. Blizzard has a few tricks up its sleeve to make sure you’re doing the right thing.

The first precaution is to not log on to your account. Most powerlevelling services are based in China, and the good ones use proxies to trick Blizzard into thinking that the connections are coming from the US. Obviously, you can’t be in two places at once, especially not two different countries.

The second precaution is to give at least 24 hours between when you log off your account initially, and when you log back in after the service is done. Some services recommended making the gap longer. That way, you can write off your IP address jumping as a trip.

There is a third precaution that wasn’t revealed to me until later, and subsequently, I didn’t follow it. But more on that later.

The day after I ordered the service, I entered my order number and checked the site report. My character had advanced to level 9. Giddy up, I thought, only 41 levels to go.

I checked again in the evening, and was disappointed to find I was still level 9. Aggravated by my lack of progress, I decided to check out a few of the service’s other customers.

During my exploration, I uncovered a trend: customers either purchased a 1-20/30/40/50/60 package, or one covering a few levels or even a single level. My grand theory was that people powerlevel past the boring bits, in an effort to keep the game fun. That or they do it in bursts to avoid drawing attention. It never occurred to me that someone could be a regular powerleveller. It certainly makes sense now.

Eventually I grew bored of watching the site report. I wanted blow-by-blow information on my character’s progress. Logging in was out of the question, but I reasoned that jumping into my account settings via the WoW website was harmless enough. So that’s what I did.

Using the Paid Transfer feature of the account management system, I was able to keep closer tabs on my character. Via this method, my character quickly climbed to level 16, and then 20. Whatever method the service was using, be it mindless grinding or efficient questing, it worked.

Progress was steady the next few days but, as expected, past level 20 the pace slowed. Two days after my purchase, my Paladin was level 24. At this point, I was feeling good – my account was still active, I hadn’t been scammed, and it was likely the character would hit 50 in the estimated ten days.

It wasn’t until the morning of the third day, when my character pipped 28, that I realised I’d made a mistake – a mistake that would surely cost me my account, $US 100, and all the cash I’d spent on the game and subscription fees.

To be continued…

Other parts to this article:

Pros and Cons of WoW Powerlevelling, Part 2

Pros and Cons of WoW Powerlevelling, Part 3