I'm opinionated, but fairly open to advice. Critique me all you want, but play nice, and don't be a lemming (read: fanboy).

• 26Jul 08

  Microsoft Corrupted My Gamertag

  On the 12th of July I made a call to 1-800-4MY-XBOX to find out why I could not access my account information only to learn that my Windows Live account had been invalidated because I had not accessed it in a long time, and since my Gamertag is attached to that account it was invalidated as well. I had spoken with two tech support people and their supervisor that day, and nobody had any answers other than to just start over. My GamerScore, unspent Microsoft Points, saved games, everything would have to be abandoned. I told them that I couldn't accept just letting it go like that, and they said they would transfer my case to Microsoft and I would receive a call within 5-10 days.

  It is now the 25th, thirteen days later, and tired of waiting, I gave them a call. The first tech support guy I spoke with asked if I would wait while he reviewed the case, and I did, and when he returned to discuss the matter with me my call was disconnected. Why this happens practically ever time I call that number is a mystery.

  So I call them up again, and I explain to the tech support guy that I manage to get a hold of that my call was dropped and then he asks me to wait while he reviews the information. When he finally begins talking to me he says that I was supposed to wait for their call, and then he tells me that Microsoft had told them to tell me in case I did call that I was to be told to start over. I told him that it was unacceptable that I had to loose everything and asked if there was anything that could be done. He said there wasn't, but if I wished to I could speak with his supervisor about it. He told me that my information had been corrupted, and that there was nothing that could be done.
  
  So I agreed to speak with his supervisor about it, hopeful that there was something, anything that could be done to salvage my time and money. The supervisor asked me to wait while he read up on my notes, and when he was finished he told me that my Gamertag had been corrupted and then very rudely told me "these things happen" and "when you use it you accept responsibility" and that "you can try to play games online and you might get lucky, but if you don't you know why". I asked him about moving my achievements, or duplicating them, about my saved games, my Microsoft points, and he said "There is nothing that can be done, oh well, what can you do?" Then he said "go ahead and call again if you want to and talk to another supervisor if you want to and he will tell you the same thing." I hadn't even asked to speak with a supervisor to begin with, so why he chose to start getting nasty with me about this was also a mystery.
  
  So my score, my achievements, my Microsoft points, my tag, all corrupted on their system, and they've told me that it's just one of those things that I accepted responsibility for by using the system. When I asked about at least getting my unspent Microsoft points refunded he said "probably not, we'll see".

  So Microsoft screws up and now I lose everything, and nothing at all will be done to fix this problem?

  • Posted Jul 26, 2008 12:06 pm GMT
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• 28Jun 08

  Happy Birthday, Mel!

  Funny coincidence. I was just wrapping up another run through Mass Effect (those pesky ally achievements) and during a shot through one of the relays for some reason I thought of Spaceballs and that line Dark Helmet had; "We're going to have to go right to, ludicrous speed!". So anyway, I was online looking up a completely unrelated movie review on IMDB and on the front page I saw the little celebrity birthday box I see Mel Brooks.

  Turns out it's the old guy's 82nd.

  

  May the Schwartz be with you!

  • Posted Jun 28, 2008 1:44 am GMT
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• 31May 08

  How Is Fallout 3 Like Final Fantasy 7?

  Every time I see a thread, comment, or story about Fallout 3 I wonder why anyone bothers anymore. The way it looks according to my scorecard is that Pete Hines and Bethesda have pretty much given the older fans the finger and are doing what they want with the series. The fans, on the other hand, continue to cry out for blood, which is understandable considering that Hines has painted himself out to be the Uwe Boll of this saga, and they (I among them) do not want to see such a great series demolished by the obvious ignorance of a new development team. Fallout was never just about story, atmosphere, the SPECIAL system, dialogue choices, or even the turn-based mechanic. Fallout was a series that was a culmination of ideas that were just executed the right way to create a unique experience.

  A good way to view this would be like examining the difference between Final Fantasy 6 and Final Fantasy 7. Final Fantasy 6 is, as I see it, a better game by a wide margin. To me comparing the two would be like comparing the Backstreet Boys to The Beetles. Sure they were both technically boy bands, but The Beetles had better music, better musicians, and unlike the BS Boys, they made their music rather than sang and danced like monkeys for an organ grinder. Final Fantasy 7 was a glitzy, shallow, poorly made mess of bad graphics and an even worse story. Final Fantasy 6 had depth, a good (not great) story, for the system it was on it was graphically spectacular, and it was a deeply memorable experience. Final Fantasy 7 had horrid music with a lot of synth that sounded cheap and had a lot of tooting in it. Final Fantasy 6 had sounds closer to a realistic orchestral experience, and is widely regarded as the best of the series.

  However you view the two games, Final Fantasy 7 was still a bigger hit, and is by many remembered as the best of the series. Why? My theory is that it's like a first love. No matter how bad the relationship was, a first love is still going to be remembered with a certain degree of situationally manufactured fondness. It was a game that introduced people to both the series and the genre, so for them it will always be the best regardless of how bad it actually was, Legoland characters on postcard backgrounds, tooting music, choppy looking combat and all.

  Which leads me back to Fallout 3. After about a decade or so, many people have come into their teen and adult years having never actually heard of or played either Fallout 1 or Fallout 2, which is a shame because they are both pretty spectacular. For many of them the new game will be their first experience in the series, and I think the folks at Bethesda are at least to a degree counting on exactly that to make their butchered product sell. The older fans have become something obsolete, obsessing over what will probably now be likely considered to have a cult following and therefore niche. It couldn't hurt their sales much, Final Fantasy 7 proves exactly that, only at least Final Fantasy 7 stayed true to the formula that made it work in the first place, whereas Fallout 3 apparently will not do much of that at all.

  Whatever the fans think, Bethesda has clearly all but dismissed them entirely and will for better or worse create what they think is best rather than what the fans actually want. I just hope that despite the terrible ideas I continue to hear coming from the developers, we actually get a game that is at least fun, even if it's a slap in the face to the people that have supported a continually disfigured series.

  If Uwe Boll ever made a movie based on The Elder Scrolls they might actually see why this whole mess is so upsetting to those of us that care the most about Fallout.

  • Posted May 31, 2008 5:59 pm GMT
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