Microsoft Support Still Good

Besides the first or second Xbox 360 failure that got lost in their repair center in Texas for 2-3 weeks, I still can't complain about Microsoft's handling of the problem. I always get pretty good customer support, even from the folks over in India.

I'm also glad they still have the option to send you a special box to ship your Xbox back to them in with custom molded foam inserts. You get a box like it back and they always give you an extra faceplate.

I just sent in the request today for a shipping box.

So far, I'm still holding out for this Xbox to get repaired. I'm very tempted to run over to Target and pick up an Arcade unit for $200 and try to sell it on eBay later (or keep it). But honestly, I need to do some work on my basement and finish cleaning out my Accord to sell.

Another Xbox 360, I Hardly Knew Ye

Last week we picked up Lego Batman for Nicole and took our time getting into it. After a couple hours and two levels of the game, we picked up our first glitch; the first vehicle level crashed in the same spot almost every time. We put the game off for awhile out of frustration knowing that one of us would go back in single player mode to see if that was the problem. Since then I've been playing a few games, so we didn't think much of it.

Today I fired it up to play and it crashed in the exact same spot. So I restarted it again and got single red light. I was going to go look it up and decided to restart the Xbox one last time and that's when it hit: three red lights.

This is Xbox 360 #4 for me. I told myself last March when this happened that I would go buy one of the new Xbox's just so this would never happen again. But it's wrong. It's expensive. It doesn't solve anything. But it's Sunday and I'm pretty pissed, so who knows what will end up happening.

The repair process is started so I will be getting a new Xbox regardless, but I see and Xbox 360 Elite or Arcade in my future. I was 300mb away from filling up my harddrive anyway, so that was going to be an extra $80 online for a 60GB harddrive just for that. Might as well buy all new stuff.

I'm not going to delve into how broken Microsoft's boxes are. It's a pointless conversation that they actually just brought up themselves. "The worst is behind us," they said.

You, maybe. Us, not so much.

Mario Kart: Midnight Launch

What a bust. Here's my Twitter for the evening (in reverse chron):

thrustinj: looking for Wii Mario Kart friends. Send me your friend codes! less than 5 seconds ago from web

thrustinj: on my way home. 38 minutes ago from txt

thrustinj: happy the employees finally got back to the store. I'm still the only one here. No one love Mario Kart? about 2 hours ago from txt

thrustinj: so bored. But I'm watching a father and son panic about why the store isn't open yet. about 2 hours ago from txt

thrustinj: still the only one here. At least in hiding in my car. about 2 hours ago from txt

thrustinj: feeling Mario Kart doesn't need a launch like this. And why didn't I bring my DS? about 2 hours ago from txt

thrustinj: watching two guys with a big box walk into Gamestop. Mii thinks it's Mario Kart for the midnight release. about 2 hours ago from txt

About 30 people ended up showing up during the last 15 minutes before midnight. The store guy had a few Mario Christmas ornaments to give out as prizes, but he couldn't think up 3 "Nintendo related" questions, so he randomly threw them out to the sparsely populated queue. Yeah, we're all going to jump around like a bunch of wedding idiots. Then he told us that he had a list of upcoming Wii releases and told us that he highly recommended the new Facebreaker boxing game. I know he's never played it. So why is he recommending it. Stupid.

When I finally got the game back home, I hooked up with a co-worker and we were pretty quickly online and playing. Then after one race, my Wii gave me an error message and said I needed to restart the console. We played a few more and it did it again. I'll have to check the web and see if others are getting this error. If it happens again, I'm taking it back for another disk.

Oh well. We'll give it the weekend to see how it goes.

Surving on the Past

Having quite an extensive array of systems and games in my game room, I knew losing my Xbox 360 (for a third time) to hardware failures wouldn't be hard to get by. I've got a nice backlog of games to button up on my other systems and there's always the nice nostalgic stroll down memory lane with the real old stuff (the games the don't have endings). My friend came down to work on my lighting and electrical work in the basement and after a hard day in the dark and a nice dinner at the Wood Fired Oven, we came back to the house to take such a stroll.

So many memories of our pre-driver's license days were tied to video games. Playing games like RC Pro-Am and Ivan Stewart's Off Road immediately had us sitting in front of our family room tvs ignoring parents and homework. Moving to James Bond: GoldenEye and Perfect Dark on the N64 transported us together with friends in dirty high school bedroom eating pizza and drinking soda and sucker punching each other in the arms for cheap shots and dirty tricks.

I think as well as most people can attribute songs to be the soundtracks of their lives, video games are the like that too. But video games offer nostalgia on so many levels: the music, the palette of sounds, the evolving gameplay, the cheap stories, the friends we played them with. The walk down memory lane easily becomes the dive into the deep pool of our pasts. Video games will always be the preferred form of entertainment for me and my friends. Luckily technology has been able to keep us all connected even though we live much farther away from each other than before.

So, Microsoft, there's no real hurry to get my Xbox fixed and back to me. I have a huge library of memories that I really don't mind flipping through and relaxing with. Old games can be really fun because they come with so much more than just jagged graphics and 8-bit music, they come with years of memories and loads of good times.

Another (Xbox 360) Bites The Dust

This is broken Xbox 360 number 3. I've had this one for about 6-8 months.

I think if any other product had died on me 3 times in 3 years, I'd boycott them and request my money back. But with games, I don't know why it's different. Well, actually I do.

I have so many games and so much time invested into it, it would emotionally do me more harm than good. Especially since they are repairing it for free and hopefully giving me the newest model currently in production. Plus, I don't really want a PlayStation 3 as a matter of fact.

But the failure rate of these machines is by far outstanding. The industry reports figure it to be around 30%. That's roughly one dud for every three sold. For every three people you know that have an Xbox 360, one of them is going to break within 6-12 months.

Luckily, for Microsoft's sake, they've made the warranty process all too easy: Go online, fill in your info, and they send you a box in the mail. No more complicated troubleshooting phone calls to a call center in overseas. That was half the battle honestly. Now Microsoft knows how many they are getting back in, they went ahead and automated the process to save themselves money.

I guess I'll just listen to this song for awhile...drown my sorrows.

Broken Controller: I Almost Forgot

Seriously, I almost forgot that I sent Microsoft a broken 360 controller. Routing around my desk I found my packing slip from October 11. So, then I realized I haven't heard anything from them since it got to their shop.

Where the hell is my controller MS?

Ring of Fire

In case no one knows, I'm on my THIRD Xbox 360. When the thing breaks, lights around the power on button turn red and flash, creating the dreaded red lights of death.

Joystiq posted up about song remixed by a gamer, Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire, a very fitting tribute to one of Microsoft's biggest, un-confirmed plague with their new console.

Ring of Fire - by Jeromy "Doc" Adams

Digital Distribution: Kill Games More Slowly

Back in the heyday of the SNES and Genesis, you either purchased or rented a game and knew if it sucked in the first 10 minutes of inserting the cartridge and flipping the power on. It was cut and dry.

Today we live in the age of digital distribution. We still, for the most part, buy games from a store, but now gamers are fancy to updates, add-ons, and bug fixes. This is like when value meals were first created at McDonald's. You think your getting more, but really your just getting crap.

Gears of War is the best example of crap delivered to you online. The retail game was excellent. It was the Big Mac of games for the Xbox 360. It sold billions and billions of copies. I played it through, beginning to end, three times (damn that online Achievement system!). The problem was that the online game wasn't quite perfect. People found ways to cheat, exploit and generally ruin a perfect game.

This is where digital distribution kicks in. Epic Games knew they would be able to fix anything wrong with the game after it sold 10⁴³ copies. They tested the game I'm sure. But no one can possibly see how a game will be manipulated in the hands of Cheeto-powdered fingers hopped up on Mountain Dew.

Now getting it's second dose of content Thursday, June 18th. More Achievements and a fix to the way you run. Come on. The way you run? Yeah. Actually it's a fix to the first fix. A fix that the game didn't even need. Doesn't that seem like something that should have been covered well before the game was released. That's like tweaking the formula for Coke. Or re-releasing Star Wars with scenes that, back while shooting, weren't possible.

Gears of War is going to continue to stay in it's case. Why? Because the developers over-handled their product. They couldn't leave "pretty damn good" alone.

You know who should do some over-handling? Microsoft. It's broke. Fix it.

Xbox #3: The Return

Surprisingly, because I never check my Hotmail account, Microsoft is sending back my new 360 in a couple days. This is quite the change from last time, taking months to get back, to now taking less than two weeks after getting the shipping box.

It's almost kind of a let down. I had it all in my head that I was going be settling down with my old cohorts, the PS2 and Xbox (maybe some GameCube) and possibly some Wii. But with the 360 coming back soon and Forza 2 in stores next week, it looks like I'll be back in front of the HDTV again, living it up.

Guitar Hero II, just when you and I were becoming well acquainted again. Sorry, old chap.

Life Outside of Gaming

Obviously the website is based on this very statement. Where gaming actively takes a back seat to at least one or two other things: my health, my marriage, my home, my job. I could easily make a list of those things that outweigh the importance gaming. But the idea is that I love gaming so much, I choose not to. The idea alone makes me wince.

But when your primary source of gaming is ripped away from you, you quickly go through the stages. Having done this once before, I quickly made it to the final stage and have moved on. I've actually done it many times a week, but I still consider marrying a woman with whom I must share the television a mark on the "win" side than the "loss".

I've moved outside. Small jobs around the house are getting done quickly. Trees trimmed, lights installed, debris cleared and dumped. It also makes me appreciate my gaming collection. Guitar Hero, NES games, my dusty DS is getting played. I'm reading books that I've bought and never read.

What will happen when I get my third 360? If I get it back at the end of the month, I'll own Forza Motorsports 2. That alone places my ass back in the couch for hours at a time. Nicole will get some resistance when she goes for the tv remote.

But for now, I'm going to enjoy life outside of gaming. The 360, obviously, isn't my sole gaming outlet, but when you don't have steak, the potatoes just aren't as appetizing and the main course.

Onward, To Xbox #3

Yes, once again, it happened.

Though I am happy to report the process is much, much nicer this time around. Nintendo-nice. A short call to "Kevin" put me right in touch with the 360 support supervisor and I was quickly on my way. It might have had something to do with this happening to me before, but I also think MS has revised it's rat maze: the path to the cheese is much less convoluted.

Also this time around, I'm going to write down my serial number, something I had not done previously. But with a shipping box coming to my house and hopefully a 360 well on it's way, I won't have to worry about losing anything. Official boxes probably make warehouses much less cumbersome and tidy.

The Return: Xbox 360

So there it was, a small white non-descript box on my front porch. The day had finally come. Two months of waiting was finally over.

I dropped the box on the floor like a child with a new Transformer on Christmas day. I ripped off the tape with a smirk on my face and envisioned what I knew was in the box being in my hands in a matter of seconds.

I plugged the 360 up to it's cable umbilical cords and pressed the "Play Xbox 360" on my Logitech remote. The familiar sounds and colors were all there.

I slapped on my new Christmas present Halo 3 face plate picked up the controller. I wondered through the new Live updates and downloaded the game demos I'd missed over the past two months. It's going to take a long time to get reaquainted. It's serial number is different, so says the paper that accompanied it in the box. A new 360...a better 360 than the one I had before.

Tomorrow is Gears of War multi-player co-op over Live. Hardcore. It's Test Drive Unlimited. It's LEGO Star Wars II.

Comfort has set in. Sleep will come a little quicker tonight.

360 in 3 days

As much as the Halo novel has been captivating, and as much as I haven't touched any other video games in the past two months, I'm really looking forward to getting this stupid box back into my life.

If I finish the book tomorrow, I really do plan on playing some Killer 7 and tuning up my new drift car in GT4. Maybe even get in some Need for Speed Underground 1 in.

But that will all take a back seat when the 360 comes. I've been waiting for years to be able to play on Live with my friends. Once my original Xbox got booted off Live, I knew it would never happen. But finally the stars and moons have aligned and a generation of console gaming later, two friends own Xbox 360s, a copy of the same game, internet connections, and Live accounts.

Whoever said playing games online was easy never met any of us.

My Xbox: 360 Phone Home

I finally got the call.

A strange phone call from a Pennsylvania phone number revealed a Microsoft customer service lady who asked why I refused the delivery of my newly fixed 360.

As if I hadn't already told two other people at Microsoft.

So I cleared up the confusion, again, and verified my address, again, and she said my magic box would be here in a few business days.

So short of me taking another vacation this week, I'll be back online and being a COG in the Gears of War.

UPS Sucks, Xbox returned to Texas

Well, there's really not much more to say than the title. Instead of leaving me a package pick-up notice or just dropping the thing on the door without regard to my "Don't leave packages at door" sign, UPS sent my 360 back to Texas post haste.

So tack on another two days for Microsoft to re-receive my 360 again so they can ship it, which adds yet another 2-5 days.

Bahh... what will I do to pass the time.

Lost and Found: An Xbox 360 Story

This morning I woke up to expect a missed call from Microsoft, one they had promised me the day before to work out this whole missing 360 ordeal. Instead I got two strange emails from a weird Xbox address. They both said the same thing: that they had recieved my repair request.

This was interesting for multiple reasons. One being they either were officially starting some kind of seedy internal investigation or that they finally found my 360 and the process was starting.

I could only dream, right?

Well this afternoon I checked my email again and got this: a letter of beauty over which no other text based email could triumph.

Dear Customer,
We have received your Xbox at our service center. It is our priority to process your Xbox in a timely manner and to get it back to you as good as new. We will contact you as soon as we are finished so you can get ready to get back into the game!

Thanks,
Xbox Customer Care

I may be jumping the gun here, but I'm pretty sure this is on the same level as, "You wife just came out of surgery and she's going to be fine" and a "no, this is a real check for $1,000,000. Congratulations".

See, good things come to those who wait...and call tech support 10 times in four weeks and beg and plead to talk to a supervisor.

2nd Xbox 360 Get!

I'm really not that "happy" about it, but thanks to a fellow sucker...I mean "buddy", I'm now the reluctant owner of an adopted Xbox 360.

A quick deal handled over text messaging and two hours later I was in Target. I was really having a problem with my inability to live without the system. Maybe it wasn't so much the system itself, but being on top of the new things coming out for it. Being not able to purchase things for it. Not having it sit in my entertainment center. Not having a dvd player in on the LCD HD tv.

So hopefully, the best scenario would be that Microsoft will call me tomorrow and tell me they did indeed find my 360 in their receiving warehouse and that it'll get shipped back to me by the end of the week.

Sadly, pessimism prevails.

Worst case scenario is that I bought another 360 and Microsoft will know it. They won't do a thing to help replace my 360, even though it's their fault they registered my 360 wrong and took down my information for the repair wrong.

I must have been the point-oh-one-percent that got screwed by the system. Let's just hope that Microsoft plays nice and helps me out.

Friendly Reminder

Last night, while playing NFSU, I got a little reminder in the form of a telephone call on why I was playing that old game in the first place.

As if summoned upon me by some higher power in Redmond Washington, EB called to remind me that there was going to be yet another game that I would soon own and be incapable of playing. My collector's edition of Gears of War was in.

How timely.

All of the sudden I realized that playing a game 4 years old was not of my choosing, but out of necessity. As if I was frozen in a lab and awoken in a time where all I had were ancient relics of a console era long past. The controller felt dusty. The graphics seemed from 1980-something. I was sitting there, a shell of a gamer.

It's only a few more days until I can official call the post office to track my package in the system. Had I really gotten the address wrong? Did some repair tech see the mistake made by Customer Service and get a free, albeit broken, 360? Would I really have to stare at a game I spent $10 extra on to get the collector's edition really sit on a shelf?

Oh how the body aches.

Microsoft to Me: Stop Calling Us!

After a final call last Friday, Microsoft told me to basically stop calling them about my 360. The only reason I ever really started calling was to bug them and see where it was in the repair process. But the Xbox customer service guy getting all of my information wrong really made me paranoid. That, and the fact that they still hadn't received my 360 yet.

So I'm going to wait a full third week before calling again if I don't hear anything from who ever is on my repair case.

Oh woe is me.

Xbox 360 Repair Follow-up: I'm Screwed

Well, almost.

I decided that today would be a good day to call Xbox customer support and see if they even got my Xbox in and how long it would be until it's fixed. I gave the csr my repair number and he came up blank.

Nothing. Nada.

I was expecting my worst fear to be that it hadn't gotten there yet, not that there was no record of my problem at all.

To make a pointless and very long story short, I end up waiting an hour to talk to a manager at 4-my-xbox and we start getting some things straightened out. Apparently my serial number was taken down but is wrong, I didn't get package tracking from USPS, my Xbox wasn't registered (see the first post) and that I'm not going to hear anything from them until Tuesday.

So hear is a note from me to you: when you have to get something repaired that costs this much do the following:

1. Confirm all your info before hanging up
   
2. Call back later to confirm the repair before shipping
   
3. Get package tracking
   
4. Call back again to confirm the repair
   
5. Hell, call one more time. They are always different people when you call.

Needless to say, I'm pissed. They did tell me they knew who took the first problem call. I'm hoping with intent to follow up with a good, healthy, given-in-English orifice reaming.

I'm so glad I didn't ship the harddrive with it. So glad.