Bravo, Bungie! A Commentary on Glitching (aka Cheating)

Today, the folks at Bungie did something awesome and reset the credits of people taking advantage of a glitch in Halo: Reach.  As Bunjie’s post about the issue put it, the glitch “allowed players to complete a Challenge 20+ times via intentional network manipulation (i.e., disconnects.)” and thereby continually earn credits for it. *For those of you who don’t know, credits are basically currency in Halo: Reach, which you can use to buy armor and armor effects*
My boyfriend, BigJones, was one of the people who got their credits reset, and also got a one-day credit ban.  Others I know who got the credit reset are a handful of 12-year-old players we know from our hometown who we often play customs or matchmaking with.  All of them were guilty of taking advantage of this glitch.
What do I have to say to them?  I told you so.
The day my boyfriend discovered this “glitch” (which I unabashedly call cheating) online and began using it, he asked me if I’d like to do it for some quick credits.  I said “no,” of course, because I’m a very big fan of not cheating, and I told him so.  That sparked an argument between us because, as my boyfriend puts it, “It’s just a glitch; it’s not cheating.  If Bungie really cared, they’d do something about it.”  But, nonetheless, he stopped doing it after a day (but not before telling his super-obsessive-Halo-playing-group-of-12-year-old friends about it.  I just told him, “They will do something about it, though.”
And now that they have, it’s a hot-button topic for me and BigJones.  He’s not mad that his credits are reset, but he believes that Bungie took something “small” way too far. His argument is that this glitch didn’t hurt anyone, so why is it a big deal?
Well, it’s cheating.  I’m glad Bungie did what they did, and I don’t think they were too easy on everyone.  Think of it this way.  At most colleges and universities, plagiarizing a paper gets you expelled.  No second chances.  But, it doesn’t hurt anyone; it just helps you.  With my boyfriends’ logic, since plagiarism doesn’t hurt any other students, you shouldn’t get expelled.  But Bungie didn’t ban anyone from Halo: Reach permanently (which they could have done); they went easy on people!  So your credits reset, so what?
If credits are that important to you, you really need a life.
Or maybe you shouldn’t have taken the risk of getting your credits reset in the first place and earn them like the average person does: by enjoying the game, not taking advantage of it.
So bravo, Bungie!  I hope this at least teaches some glitchers their lesson!

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