SofaKingCool

As you are probably aware I am an xbox 360 user and a subscriber to the xbox live service.  I have been for many years and have always let the small problems that xbox live and Microsoft have pass without much complaint, until now.

I am a subscriber to Major Nelsons xbox blog, for those who don’t know who Major Nelson is, he works for the xbox live development team.  Everyday my RSS reader is filled with news about up and coming releases, demo’s and game content.  Overall this is a very good source of xbox news as it is always 100% accurate, but recently I have noticed a trend that is beginning to annoy me more and more.  That trend is Microsoft and the xbox live team only releasing content for American subscribers.

Just a couple of weeks ago I saw a post in my reader from Major Nelson’s blog announcing the “Xbox Live Marketplace Black Friday Sale”.  I was quite impressed at the range of content and games that had been discounted by up to 33%, until I attempted to download something.  I was met with a message informing me that my country wasn’t eligible for discount and it was only offered to US users.  So I decided to post my distaste on the Major Nelson blog basically saying how unhappy I was that this offer was only open to US residents.  My post was responded to by a barage of stupid people saying things like “stop whining xbox is American so of course we are going to get more stuff”.  This really wound me up simply because Xbox is marketed and sold in the UK so why shouldn’t we get a slice of the reduced price goodies?

There were other comments made suggesting that it could be due to copyright or licensing restrictions, this couldn’t be the case as two of the games are UK games and all the content is already available at full price worldwide.

This trend has continued today, I noticed that there is a nice new crappy little festive addon to the xbox dashboard, which is available in the US but nowhere else.  If this trend continues then I will be taking a trip to my local Gamestation with all my games and console and trade it all in for a PS3.

Gaming stuff major nelson, microsoft, microsoft rippoff, xbl, xbox live

As some of you may be aware, us lucky xbox 360 owners are eagerly awaiting the “fall update” to our consoles dashboard.  This new update is a total revamp for the box and will do away with the much loved “blades”.  There have been various videos floating around that show a simulated version of the new look and to be honest with you it looks great.  This however is not the reason for me writing this, it is a much more sinister reason, THE XBOX AVATAR SYSTEM.

It has been announced that we are going to be getting an avatar to customise and use on our new dashboard, it should be noted that this avatar bears more than a passing resemblance to the Wii’s Mii’s.  I can appreciate that the xbox team have spent a great deal of time making this update look as good as possible but these avatars are a step backwards for the hardcore gamers the xbox normally attracts.

It is still unclear if these avatars are compulsory but it would appear that we will be stuck with them.  Take a look at the video below to see what these new avatars will bring to the new xbox experience.

As you can see the new dashboard looks very nice but the avatars seem a little childish, in my opinion each of the consoles have a certain type of person play them for example:

• The PS3 user is normally someone who never played the original xbox and will remain loyal to the sony brand.  They care a lot on how a game looks rather than how it plays.
• The Wii users are either young families or part of the ipod youth generation and aren’t interested in how a game looks.
• The xbox user is a more mature gamer who has been around computers for a long time and is more interested in how many “online features” there are.

These are just my opinions so please don’t start calling me a “fanboi” I can see good in all three consoles but have chosen the xbox because of the live community.  I just think that the new xbox avatars are slightly better than the Nintendo Mii’s but not as good as the PSN avatars and this puts Microsoft in uncharted water!

I can see why Microsoft have done this, first they reduce the price to undercut everything else on the market then they release a more family orientated console.  They are simply trying to push the xbox into the mass market and make it accessable for everyone, whist this is good for Microsoft it isn’t all good for the xbl community.  It would seem that most users who post on Major Nelsons Xbox blog are opposed to the new avatar system for the same reasons as me.  The xbox is a hardcore gamers console and opening it up to the Wii market will only slow down the progress of more mature games.  I personally think the community will suffer when the new intake of family users start playing online, in the same way that pubs suffered when they started to allow children in them.

Link Dump
Links to various sites mentioned in this blog.

Major Nelsons Blog
Xbox
Microsoft
Wii
PS3

Gaming stuff avatars, microsoft, ps3, wii, xbl, xbox live

Uno is a great little game that is quite popular on Xbox live, I have been a fan of this game ever since I played the demo that was bundled with my original xbox 360.

Recently I have been getting more and more annoyed with the new intake of players on UNO.  Last night was a fine example of how difficult it has become to play with other gamers.  I entered the games lobby and saw a list of around 14 games,  I found a game with the style and rules that I like to play and entered.  Within 20 seconds of entering the room I was dropped from the lobby, so I thought to myself “they must be waiting for for a friend”,  so I tried to enter another game and yet again I was dropped from the lobby.  This carried on until the only games left to play were either just one player who wasn’t actually there or games with the rules and styles I dislike playing with.

I had an idea and plugged my vision cam in so I could view other peoples cam’s.  It was kind of late and with me not looking my best I positioned my camera to face my router.  It was then I discovered what the problem was.   80-90% of the the players were blokes in a varying degree of undress and when they decided to speak to me I was asked if I were female and to turn my camera round.  Once I informed my semi nude players that I was not a female I’d be dropped from the lobby.

This is something that has really started to annoy me as UNO is now becoming a game full of sexual deviants who are after nothing more than men wishing to perv over random females.  I now feel if I send friend requests to the fairer sex I will be thought of as a pervert.  I suggest that these uno pervs f**k off and use one of the millions of chat sites out there to get their kicks and remember one thing…. UNO is a card game that is generally aimed at children and yes children do play on Xbox Live.

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UNO
Xbox
Pervs

Gaming stuff pervs, uno, xbl, xbox live

I love Gamestation!! In February 2007 I bought an Xbox 360 from Gamestation. I got an awesome deal on it after I traded in a few xbox original games. I even traded in the bundled games that came as part of the package at a top price.  In March 2008 I spotted a free game in the Xbox Live Arcade called TotemBall,  it was free so I downloaded it.  After about 10 minutes of playing I noticed that the xbox started acting a little strange, freezing up and generally running slow. Then it happened.  I reset the box after it froze again and when it came back on the green lights decided they would look better red.  In the gaming community this is called the Ring Of Death (RoD).  After a few phonecalls and an online repair request with Microsoft they sent some nice chap from UPS to pick up my very expensive brick.  2 weeks later it was returned all working albeit a little noisier.

Then on the 16th of September my Xbox once again changed it’s lovely green lights to evil red ones.  I contacted Microsoft to check if my warranty had been extended as they had promised and after they confirmed it had been, I once again requested a cardboard coffin to be sent so the techy bod’s at Redmond could fix my Xbox.

At this point I should back up and tell you about an E-mail conversation I had with someone at Gamestation.

—–Original Message—–
From: Rob Adams [mailto:xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxxx]
Sent: 02 March 2008 22:46
To: Web Enquiries
Subject: General Enquiry

A user has made an enquiry :

Name: Rob Adams
Email: xxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx
Enquiry: Hi,

Last February I purchased an xbox 360 from your Shrewsbury store and 2
weeks ago it suffered a hardware failure. I sent the xbox back to
microsoft for repair and I’m currently awaiting it’s return. I have
been told that my version of xbox was prone to the same fault but has
since been rectified with the newer machines. Even though the machine
is outside it’s original store warranty would I still be entitled to
exchange it for an updated model when it is returned.

Thanks

Rob

On 05/03/2008, Customer Service wrote:

Hi Rob

Thank you for your email. Gamestations faulty returns policy dictates
that if an item develops a fault within a reasonable period of time from
the date of purchase, Gamestation will offer to replace, refund or
repair the item. This does not apply to faults caused through misuse. If
a fault occurs after a reasonable period of time, Gamestation may offer
to replace or repair the item at its discretion.

Kind regards
________________________________

Jody Jones – Operations Support Assistant
Tel.: 0845 365 1275 (ext. 251)
Fax: 01904 692225

gamestation | 10 – 12 Stirling Park | Amy Johnson Way | Clifton Moor |
York | YO30 4WU

From: Rob [mailto:xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx]
Sent: 05 March 2008 19:33
To: Customer Service
Subject: Re: General Enquiry

Hello,

Thanks for your quick response.

The Xbox 360 was not ever missued or even over used, I used it for 2-3 hours at any given time about 3 times a week and it lived in a well ventilated area of my living room. Could you please confirm what a “reasonable period of time”

Thanks in advance.

Rob

On 06/03/2008, Customer Service wrote:

Hi Rob

A reasonable period of time varies from product to product and every case is dealt with on it individual basis, therefore if the machine goes faulty again visit the store with your receipt and the console and providing it is in line with out returns policies you will be able to exchange this for another machine.

Kind regards

Jody Jones – Operations Support Assistant
Tel.: 0845 365 1275 (ext. 251)
Fax: 01904 692225

gamestation | 10 – 12 Stirling Park | Amy Johnson Way | Clifton Moor | York | YO30 4WU

As you can see Gamestation were very helpful but I had trusted Microsoft would return my machine fully repaired and it would last me until they released a new console.  On a whim I called Gamestation customer services who advised me to return my Xbox to Microsoft as they would not be able to do anything as the console was outside it’s warranty.  I was unhappy with this as an explaination, Microsoft had extended the consoles warranty surely the store would have to honour it?  I jumped on the phone again, but this time called the store and spoke to the manager, I explained my problem and he didn’t hesitate to say that I could bring my old console back and he would replace it.

I packed up my broken Xbox and looked for the receipt but it was nowhere to be found,  so I dug out the bank statement showing the transaction (funny how I keep bank statements but not receipts) and took my console back to the store.  I handed the manager the box and bank statement and waited for the words “Sorry no receipt no exchange” but my luck was in as he reached for a brand new console and dumped my old one behind the counter.  I was over the moon with as I had inherited a brand new console, a fistful of arcade games, a rather pointless 256mb memory unit (I have a hard drive) and a spangly new wireless controller.  He didn’t even check the old Xbox was in the box he just handed me a new one wished me well and we were on our way.

I did decide to make an informed purchase while I was there and bought Gamestations own 2 year console warranty for a fandabadosey price of £23.99.

Link Dump:
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Red Ring Of Death
Xbox
Microsoft
Xbox Extended Warranty
Totem Ball
Gamestation
UPS

Gaming stuff gamestation, Gaming stuff, live, microsft, ring of death, rod, toem ball, ups, xbl, xbox