Watched a video review on IGN and it looks kind of interesting, but exploring empty homes to scavenge for supplies looked kind of tedious and boring.

Did you find it to be the case?

I don't really like spending time searching for supplies by checking every chest or barrel.

No, it's the same thing

There are no restrictions at all about converting points to money. People spent money to get those points and they can't get their money back no matter if they're points or money.

It's a non issue.

Jaysonguy

They can't get their money back? Or did you mean to say that they can get their money back?

Are you saying that Microsoft can easily issue money back to point holders? Or that it's an impossibility?

How are you so certain it's a non-issue?

We can't currently convert our points into dollars and I doubt that would be an option in the future. Microsoft is not going to issue checks to zero out people's live points. I'd be really surprised if they did that.

Only thing more surprising would be if they just voided remaining points by making them useless. That would probably create some lawsuits from angry consumers if they did that.

Not seeing why they couldn't just convert the points to cash...

Tax or other financial reasons I think. Not an accountant or a tax lawyer though. It seems much more complicated and probably more expensive to convert all remaining points to cash. And there is that thing that people paid different amounts for their points. Anyways, I think the basic problem is people already bought the points with cash and then convert the points back into cash. Simpler and cheaper just to have two prices for DLC and other stuff on Marketplace? You can either pay $5 or 400 points rather then converting all outstanding points to cash. Just a feeling I have though.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/microsoft-axing-points-report-6408381

No word on what they going to do with current members who have points. Convert points to cash? I don't think they'll do that. Have both cash and point purchases? That seems to be the best way to resolve it.

Or this could be false rumor and Microsoft has no plans to add cash purchases...

It seems pretty clear that Microsoft will transfer over gamertags and (most likely) achievement points, but do you guys think Microsoft Live points will also tranfer over? I have so much remaining after the Black Friday sale, but I can't seem to find a lot of stuff to purchase. I'm naturally stingy with that stuff and don't like 90% DLC out there, and (to me at least) there actually a whole lot of Xbox Live games exclusive to the Xbox that are worth playing (almost all are cheaper on PC).

Also, the transition of Xbox Live from the original Xbox to the 360 is a good point, but from what I remember Xbox Live was a much more simpler and primitive service compared to now. You had your gamertag and your friends list, but that was about it, correct? Were there points at that time? I think not, but I don't remember (maybe there was so little to purchase that very few people actually got Microsoft points). If all three existed and transferred over, then I think I have a near-confirmation there... unless Microsoft does something crazy like not transferring over the points because accounting/tax/etc. purposes while transfering everything else. Probably several upset gamers over that, but it still hasn't been confirmed that the next Xbox won't need to be online all the time.

That's a relief. I think creating a whole new system would have a lot of people angry over having near useless Microsoft Points, and thousands of achievement points on a console that would be eventually set aside and have fewer and fewer people playing it.

Yet, you don't quite have proof since there is no confirmation on this, correct? Just want to be sure.

I asked this question because it seemed like something that (although not confirmed) is most likely going to carry-over to the next Xbox.

I've been wondering about this: will everything transfer over with the new Xbox? Or will they create a new Xbox Live where you'll have to make new gamertags, and have to purchase new Microsoft points?

I don't think the latter will happen because many users will be mad that they can't transfer their accounts over, but you never know.

Yet, if they do create a new form of Xbox Live, they can probably increase your friends list beyond 99. I remember hearing on the Major Nelson podcast that it's really difficult for them to expand the friends list beyond that number with the current platform. Kind of strange if you think about it. It'd be weird to have limited friends list on Facebook or MySpace. Most online things like that allow you to have an unlimited number of friends.

9 more days until the announcement so hopefully we'll find out soon unless they do what Sony did with their PS4 announcement where they just show the controller and some (notable) games.

I found the above link through this:

http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/oezr7/hey_rbuildapc_lets_talk_ssds/?sort=top

Is buildapc on Reddit a good source for info? Seems like it to me, but you never know.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds

Is the above just going to make things more complicated than necessary?

I had hoped it was going to be easy, but after reading the above (partially) it seemed like not as straightforward as I thought. Yet, I had a hunch that Windows 7 would make things as simple as possible considering how they have simple plug and play, etc. Just install Windows 7 on the SSD and any programs that you use frequently (including games with long loading times), and use the HDD for storage or older games and software that are not hardware intensive.