Thank you Microsoft for killing what remained of my inner child. I sit here weeping at the current state of the XB360 nation. You see, after 2 years I finally got my red ring of death. Now, some may say "two years, that's AWSOME". Yet, you need to understand that I think I may only have 150-170 hours of use out of the Xbox, total. I played Gears of War alot and Lego Star Wars. Those were the main ones.

I mainly bought my 360 for one game: Mass Effect. I watched the radar for ME like a hawk, any new tidbit of information sent shivers down my spine. It was the spiritual "successor" to KOTOR games to me. Not officially of course, but I wanted KOTOR III so bad, I thought a quick character render later and within one year they could have one made on the Mass Effect engine. Not to mention, I was excited about Mass Effect because it was new. I love Sci-Fi. So every day I watched, accessed various sites to get videos, and even if they were the same I kept the higher resolution versions. Almost daily since October 2005. Flash forward OVER two years...

I go out and got a new TV, a Sharp Aquos 37" 1080p flat panel, just to see ME in its HDTV glory! Hook up the surround sounds with the 5.1 channel Dolby Digital, and the booming subwoofer. Oh this will be a thing of legend. I go, get the game from Gamestop and come home. I unwrap it, smell the inside packaging (you know you do too), and pop in the disc. I then start to create my character, and get into the game. Oh, I am drooling; the bridge is awesome, the planet battles are loud, crisp and visually stunning. Wait... why did the game lock when trying to loot a chest?. Umm... ok. Reboot. Nothing saved?

Again... I create my character, and start the game. Oh, I am drooling; the planet battles are loud, crisp and visually stunning (sound familiar). Wait... why did the game lock when trying to talk to an ambassador in the Citadel? What now? *Sigh*... reboot.

Nothing

Nothing - no dashboard

BAM! As Emeril would say... red blinking lights... NOOOOOOOoooooooo.......

Will Microsoft fix it? Sure, the warranty has been extended, but why did this happen? I laughed as all my friends sent in their XB360's, snickered when I was playing games and they could not. Now... Karma has given me a knuckle sandwich.

Wait. I know of a way... a HDD less $275 XB360 Arcade version. I go to Target to see them, and what do I see? THE ACTUAL FLOOR MODEL IS BLINKING RED!

Do I buy one? Hell no. Microsoft obviously has thought that we will continue to buy items that will just break. So when I get mine back, I will play the hell out of it TRYING to break it. I will then go to my wife's law office, and start a class action lawsuit against MS, claiming damages for ANYONE that has purchased a 360. Microsoft might have better lawyers and more funding, but I have something else on my side, MILLIONS of pissed off people who paid $300-$500 for a damn brick.

Then with my cut of the money I win, I will form a lobby group to protect the consumer rights of JUST GAMERS. Who seems to have no representation when consumer laws are made! Companies need to know there is accountability. Now, who is with me!

Either way, the insane failure rate of this generation of hardware is staggering. It's basically a PC people, if we can keep those going for 5-6 years of daily use, why is this so different? HD-DVD drive? Nope, huge amounts of RAM? Uhh no. Instead you have a normal DVD-Rom drive connected to a duel chip motherboard, 512MB of RAM with a custom ATI card with inside fans and cooling mechanisms. How is this cutting edge technology that has undergone NO quality testing over the years? Microsoft cutting corners... again.

So who's the bigger idiot? Microsoft for cutting corners and trying to save a few bucks, resulting in actually losing money on shipping and hardware sales? Or me, for expecting something I bought from M$ to actually work as intended? At least there isn't a new $299 Xbox 360 OS change that they are pushing on us to play Halo 2. Pfft... they just have not thought of a way to do it yet. It's coming.

Why are we treated like criminals first, even if we prove our innocence? Recent copywrite protection issues like Bioshock on the PC that prevent more than 2-5 installs of a game that I LEGALLY purchased is wrong. In addition the background installation of spy ware, or ad ware. We sit here and support a development house while pirates enjoy the game as many times as they want. Now, this is just a small example of development houses (or publishers) trying to ensure we pay for their hard earned work. I can't disagree. We need to buy full retail games ONLY IF you don't treat me like a criminal, by limiting my installs, installing ad ware, needing an internet connection to "Activate" the product, or launch a game that is still in Beta (Hellgate: London anyone?)

The entire thought process of "ship now, patch later" needs to be removed. I can see small patches, as there is NO WAY to test every conceivable video card, processor, ram or board combo, not to mention OS differences. It just seems to me, more and more games are coming out half finished.

ATTENTION TO PUBLISHERS - If I am looking forward to a game, lets say "Starcraft II", and Blizzard shipped a piece of junk, obviously not finished, then they deserve to get no cash from me. I would rather wait3-6 months for additional polish to ensure an awesome product, than something that locks, crashes, or does not even install (PC Gears of War). I am not an idiot, some kid (no offense to mature kids), or some guy that will just throw my cash at the latest version of a game with updated stats or fancy new colors (Any EA Madden game). I am a consumer WHO HAS A RIGHT to a product that delivers WHAT I PAY IT FOR.

If you go to a doctor for an MRI and the machine breaks, are you penalized? I sure as hell hope not. If you are, that explains why healthcare here in America sucks more than anything in the world. Hmmm... Maybe I am on to something!

So I say, just start supporting your local PC game pirate. They OBVIOSLY are doing something right. I mean, did they pay for Gears of War for the PC just to have "wargame-4live.exe encountered some weird error and needs to close"? No they didn't. So why should I? Why buy a retail game that is broken? Pirate it, download it, and if it does not work, hey, at least you're not out $60 each time. If it does work, EVEN BETTER! You can install it as many times, and on as many PC's as you want. For me I play almost everything offline, I don't need multiplayer.

So switch to the "Darkside". It will save you your soul in the end, and perhaps even keep your faith in the game industry going, while those of us see our dreams stomped when all we want to do is play games.

*The above rant is aimed mainly at getting out frustrations because no one will ever read it. Even if they do, no one has the power to do anything other than publishers. They only want one thing from me, and I don't make enough of it per year to show up on their radar. In all seriousness, when a game comes out, perhaps we need to wait while others go through the growing pains, watch the forums, and see what install issues are happening. If you have to, don't buy the game. Prove to the publisher that we won't stand being treated this way. DON'T pirate, that is why we are here in the first place.

What is it about an online single/multiplayer game that makes it fun? Whether it is an MMO on a PC, or a single player game with online components like SOCOM, or something on XB live? I have only played a few online games and found them to be… well… painful. I played Counter Strike then wondered why I kept dying all the time. I played Command and Conquer: Generals and Warcraft III and got my @$$ handed to me. Even tried Age of Empires: AOK, Empire Earth, Unreal Tournament 4 and Rise of Nations, all losing horribly. So I asked myself, “Do I really suck this bad at online games”?

The answer was cloaked in mystery for a few months. After awhile I found something called “hacks” and “trainers” for some of these games. Then wondered why people would even use them. What is it about our society that we NEED to be the best, and brightest to be worth something? Why take the enjoyment out of my game, so you can cheat. Does fragging me for the 10th time with a cheat to shoot through walls, and saying “n00b you sux0rz, I am 1337!!” make you feel like a better person? Or getting a money hack to build a grand army make you smarter than I? Perhaps in your mind. I stopped playing on B.NET and other online games because I was sick of trying to play honestly, and getting shut down.

Then I found MMORPGS. Now these games were designed to be played online, so I figure there should not be any real hacks. I played E&B, DAOC, Lineage 2 and FFXI.. How wrong I am. DAOC had a video of some guy flying all around the world, . No need to take a horse, and some people with HUGE amounts of Platinum (most valuable game coin). E&B had some guy in PVP that mysteriously only took about 80% less damage than other ships, with gigantic damage output. Lineage 2 not only had PK (which I think is one of the worst things in an MMO), but people are selling in game cash in the amount of 200 Million Adena !(L2’s money system) Now FFXI has fishing hacks, Gil campers, and even your occasional (but more common in recent weeks) thieves. You find an MMO, there is a hack/bot/macro program out there for it.

What pleasure do you gain out of stealing items, hacking game files, or setting a macro so you can leave your PC for hours/days at a time so your character can fish/hunt all while unattended? Why even play? Do games hold any fun for you? So you cheat to make things easier or to get a “one-up” on some other poor sap out there. Perhaps it is not for personal “fun” but personal gain.

Sites like IGE will reward you with real life cash for in game currency. Sites like this will reward cheaters, hackers, and questionably moral people with real money to keep doing what they do best. Ruin games for honest people. If anyone has played FFXI, how hard is it to camp NM? Or to get coffer items (items required for special job specific armor). What about the price of some spells/armor/weapons? 2-3 Million dollars for a staff? Who can afford that? People who either cheat, bot or steal. There are some players who have the most expensive gear you can find, did they get it honestly? I would say 80% of them did not. They either paid an online site to buy in game currency, or they hacked/cheated to get it. So now not only does our society tell people it’s ok to be the best at ANY cost, but rewards them for it. Sites like IGE are not the problem.. the people that go there to buy/sell items/money are.

“Hey, beg, borrow, steal, hack, or cheat anyway you can!! We’ll even pay!!

Now… NOT everyone cheats. There are the occasional players that try very hard, and sink large amounts of time into the game to be the best they can. THESE are the people who make online games fun. Too bad, they are a dying breed. It’s too bad that game companies go through great lengths to add multiplayer aspects to some great single player games. When all that happens, is people find a way to cheat just to see their names on top.

Will this change? No. Companies will continue to make online capable games, and the same people will continue to cheat, or hack to make their experience either a personal or financial gain. I still think the game world will ALWAYS need great single player games. Don’t ruin things with adding online components to already great games. Why do companies think that a game will not be successful unless it can be played online?

Oh well. At least I know I don’t cheat. I may have 35 losses and 6 wins in Doom 3 Multiplayer, however those 6 are REAL. Tell you what, lose the hacks or cheats, play fair.. and we'll see who comes out on top. If I lose.. fine. If you lose.. I bet you will go ballistic because you are not used to losing. Let's see whos '1337' then.