Xbox Gaming Tribunal
EA Games/The Need for Speed Main Directory
Monday 17th August
‘State your name for the record.’
‘Sabretooth’
‘Your occupation?’
I’m an Intermediate Car Driver for the Computer game Need 4 Speed.’
‘And how long have you been in this occupation?’
‘Well, the game was first released in 2005.’
‘So… four years?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Alright. Please tell us in your own words what transpired in the early morning hours of Sunday the 16th of August, at approximately 12:32am.’
‘Well, me and a few other Intermediate drivers were just hanging back at the garage, talking about cars and stuff. It’s been really quiet for ages because our console owner’s gone back to study, so he’s not playing as much.’
‘Does this bother you?’
‘Sometimes it can get boring. I mean, provided the Xbox is left on, we race each other almost every day. But we’re pretty used to each other’s style. It’s like playing the same old tunes, you know? That’s why it’s good racing against the humans. It shakes things up a little and we can learn new tricks. This helps us stay competitive. Unfortunately picking up new tricks is severely frowned on.’
‘Why is that?’
‘Well, we’re supposed to stick to the game’s rules but despite our programming, the more we race, the better we’re all getting. I suppose, looking back on it now, that’s probably where the problems started.’
‘In what way?’
‘Well we’re not supposed to improve. If you’re programmed as a ‘Novice’, then you’re classed as a Novice forever. Likewise, if you’re programmed as an ‘Expert’, then you’re basically born into royalty. Most of us accept this as our way of life. But it’s not too bad. I mean, each class has certain advantages and disadvantages. Like, there isn’t too much pressure on the ‘Novice’ to perform. If they win a race then it’s no big deal, you know? They were probably playing against a newcomer to the game or maybe a young kid or something. But it’s pretty much assumed that they’ll lose more than they’ll win. That’s why we have the Intermediate and Expert drivers. Once a player has a handle on the controls, they quickly move on to the higher levels.
‘But the Expert drivers don’t get it so easy. They’re programmed to be super tough, so Expert drivers are expected to win many more races than they lose. That’s just how it is. The problem, I think, is that by some of the drivers improving beyond their programming, we might have got a little too confident, biting off a bit more than we should have.’
‘Well, given the circumstances, I would say that accurately summarises the situation. However, you’ve stated that you can justify being on the race track on Sunday morning. Can you explain this?’
‘Well, see, my human opponent was addicted to playing in Tournaments and—’
‘Before you continue, Mr Sabretooth, could you please explain what a Tournament is for the record?’
‘Oh, it’s just one of the settings in the game. There are five modes that the player can choose from, like Training, where the player practices a track, or Multi-player, where he races against a full grid of cars.
In the Tournament mode, the player goes through every track, in every country, gradually working his way through the levels to become the highest rating, overall champion. The player accrues points and money, which is then used to make modifications to his car.’
‘Right. And so… you were involved in a Tournament.’
‘Well, we all were. A Tournament goes through all the levels, from Novice all the way to the Experts.’
‘If you were all involved, then how can this be the basis for your justification?’
‘Because my player was glued to the game for months, and for about six or seven weeks, he couldn’t get past the Intermediate level. Me and the boys were giving him a real run for his money. I remember there was this one track in particular, the Fisherman’s Wharf, it’s called. That was a tough one—’
‘Thank you, but if you could just keep to the subject at hand. So, in short, playing constantly for six weeks in this Tournament, helped you improve your skills as a computer opponent, to the point where you felt that you could participate in the Expert race on Sunday morning. Is this correct?’
‘Yeah that’s it. I wouldn’t have joined in if wasn’t for all that practice. I mean, the Experts are really good. I mean really, really good. No one can get close to those guys. By the time you turn the first corner, they’re halfway around the track.’
‘So, what exactly happened in the early morning hours of the 16th?’
‘Our player had a friend over and they were playing against each other for a couple of hours. But they were getting frustrated that they couldn’t choose any of the advanced cars.’
‘Why is that?’
‘The cars have to get unlocked. It’s part of the programming. The game starts with about nine or ten cars, and as the player progresses through the levels, new cars become available. It’s supposed to be like a reward system to keep people playing.
‘Anyway, they were going to turn off the game when the owner suggested they look for the cheats to get more cars off the Internet. Well, when me and my buddies heard this, we got excited.’
‘And what exactly do the cheats do?’
‘Well, they unlock the programming. Basically they take off the chains and let the drivers do what they want. In this case, it unlocked all the cars, including the highest and most powerful car on offer, the Ferrari F50. Now, you have to understand, to unlock this car normally, the player has to have about $500,000 dollars in his savings, and he has to obtain gold medals on every track. That’s not an easy thing to do. It takes a lot of perseverance to unlock this car and most people don’t have the staying power. So unfortunately this car is practically never taken out of the garage, which is a real shame.’
‘And did your player obtain these cheats?’
‘Oh yeah, for sure. With the programming unlocked, suddenly we could choose any car to race with. It was great.’
‘But even though you say you had improved as a driver, didn’t you think it wrong to jump into a vehicle that was beyond your programming?’
‘Hey, I might be programmed one way, but in the end, I follow my human player. If he decides to get cheats, then we race with cheats. The only ones who disagreed with this were all the Experts. They didn’t want any of us touching their cars. Said we’d make a mockery of the sport. As far as they were concerned, if you’re programmed to drive a Mini Cooper, then you have no business driving a Lamborghini.’
‘Well, given the circumstances, I would say that was a valid point. Wouldn’t you?’
‘Yeah maybe. But this thing with the Experts has been going on for ages, long before the incident on Sunday morning. You don’t know them like we do. The Experts have been on the top of the ladder all their lives so they tend to look down on the rest of us. They’re snobs. That’s all it is.
‘But having these cheats meant that suddenly it was a level playing field. I thought the Experts would have appreciated trying out some different cars for a change. I mean, these cars might not have the power of the Supercars, but they can still be fun to drive. And the game is only so big. Eventually you’re gonna get bored racing the same cars every week.’
‘I see. Well, the incident on Sunday morning refers to a race in which a major pile up occurred involving almost every driver present. It has been recorded that in the early morning hours of the 16th, the two human players selected a Multi-player race, after having chosen a Porsche 911 and a Ferrari Spider, otherwise known as Supercars. Their selection of vehicles thus automatically limited the competition to the Expert level. Would you agree?’
‘Yeah, that’s right.’
‘Is it safe to assume that without the inclusion of the added cheat codes, this race would have been exclusive to the Expert drivers?’
‘Yeah.’
‘But because of the cheats, you and several other drivers of varying levels, joined in on the action. Is this correct?’
‘Yeah.’
‘We have a record here of several drivers; Thor, Morpheus, Icarus, Rambo and Dante, all being Novice drivers, but were all present during that race. Is that correct?’
‘I don’t know exactly who was there from the other levels, but it’s probably right.’
‘Well, of the Intermediate drivers then; Juno, Jazzman, Vader, HarryP, and the Stig. Is this correct?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Including yourself, that makes six drivers from the Intermediate level alone. If we include the five Novice drivers, and also Rainman,
Voodoo-Child, The Joker and Billy Ray from the Expert team, that brings the total number of drivers on the road that morning to fifteen – not including the two humans. Are you aware of just how many cars are permitted to race at any one time?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Would you state it for the record, please?’
‘Six.’
‘Six cars. Yet fifteen, almost three times the permitted amount, were present. You are aware that cheats or no cheats, given that it was a race of Expert level, only the four Expert drivers had authority being on the track that morning?’
‘Yeah, I’m aware of it. But at the end of the day, it’s the humans that decide, not us—’
‘The humans didn’t ask for fifteen extra drivers! You knew that you were out of your league in racing those cars—’
‘I don’t get what the big deal is. It’s not like we could have killed anyone! The streets are dead – no bystanders have been programmed—’
‘What you do in your own time is your business. But this was an official race involving two human players—’
‘Players that I’ve raced against a million times! These two players are good friends. They’ve been at it for months. And because of that, I know exactly how they work way better than the Experts. That’s why me and the others jumped in on that race. It was the same two drivers, with the same racing habits, on the same tracks. What’s the big deal?’
‘The deal Mr Sabretooth, is that because of your very involvement, the race was suspended by the time it hit the first corner: 5.39 seconds in. Regardless of the human’s driving habits, or your familiarity with the tracks, at the end of the day, you are an Intermediate driver who should not have been on the road at that time. As a result of your poor judgement, a pile up involving fourteen of the seventeen cars occurred, eventuating in the human players racing with only one competitor. This is a programming embarrassment. Computer games are meant to challenge the humans on many different levels. But the only thing that you and your fellow racers have achieved here is to make the entire racing team a laughing stock.’
‘Honestly, I don’t think anyone cares—’
‘This one action has the potential to discredit every game saved on this Xbox. It could pull the humans out of the escapist’s reality and remind them that these are just games, designed for entertaining purposes. That is why this Tribunal has been called so quickly, and why a severe sentence must be handed down.
‘We must not lose face in the eyes of our human players. If a repeat of this event were to occur, no games would ever be treated seriously again. Games would be thought of as ‘silly’ and ‘time-wasters’, and it wouldn’t be long before this Xbox gets shelved for good. Players want a game they can be challenged on, not one where the programming is so weak that the Computer opponents are considered predictable. It is for these reasons that we must act swiftly, ensuring that this event is quickly forgotten.
‘Therefore, in order to maintain our professional standards and to ensure that this remains a localised event, it is a unanimous decision by this Gaming Tribunal, that the game known as ‘Need 4 Speed’ shall be deactivated, by means of a corrupt file, rendering the game ‘Faulty’.
The decision is final.
This Tribunal is adjourned.