Yelling Never Works!

Microsoft announced at the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo their new take on their old Xbox 360 console called the Xbox 360 Slim. It would be smaller in stature and have a sleek black shiny finish. The system would incorporate WiFi, a 250gig hard drive, a whisper quiet mod and be equipped with ample ventilation to prevent any overheating, which was a problem with the old Xbox 360.

But this post isn't about that. It's about my recent conversation with those heathens at the Microsoft Xbox 360 support and how they basically don't get it.

I had been tossing around the idea of picking up one of those new "Slim" units. I was running out of space for saved games and my disc drive would make tons of noise when it was spinning. As it turned out, I wasn't very off the mark because not long after the thought of upgrading hit me, my machine started to take a turn for the worse. In 2009 I had an issue with the machine not reading discs. I had owned the unit for over a year and decided to get it repaired. Well, as it turned out, my warranty ran out about 1 week before I needed it. I had to have my Xbox so out came the credit card. Three weeks and $100.00 plus shipping and I had my repaired unit back in my little hands.

Then in January of this year, I had the exact same issue, the machine wouldn't read a disc in the drive. I knew immediately this was an issue. I did not hesitate to ship the unit back to Microsoft, this time under warranty to get it repaired. It arrived back 3 weeks later with a 3 month extended warranty, which apparently I either forgot about or didn't get notification on because I thought it was another full year since it was the exact same issue which they seemed to have failed at repairing the first time.

Well, as luck would have it, recently after having thoughts of abandoning my old unit started to rise, the disc drive started to fail again. This time only 6 months had passed. So I decided to call up Xbox support and see if they would repair it for free since it had only been a mere 6 months since the its last visit to the doctor. Besides, it was the the exact same issue so they should at least honor their work and try to bring some life back into my old Xbox. Especially since I wanted to trade it in at Gamestop for a new unit... shhh... it might hear me.

Alas, that was not the case. I even did that thing that all men do when they aren't happy about a call that goes against them, I raised my voice and shrilled at the poor lady on the phone about how unfair this was and how I couldn't understand why this same unit would fail in the exact same way 3 times in less than 2 years. I told her to bump this call up the line to someone that could actually help me since all she was doing was cock blocking me from my free repair.

Now, just so you don't think too ill of me I did some thinking while I waited. I'd calmed down a bit and realized the cold hard truth of the situation. No tact I took would actually work on these cold hearted people. If I wanted my Xbox fixed, I'd have to pull out the credit card and make the magic happen that way. Course I did try one last plea with the person next on the corporate ladder of denial. It too didn't work and I was reduced to telling her that their failure to fix my machine properly the last time didn't speak well of their product nor did it speak well of those chained to work benches in the bowels of Microsoft repairing broken Xboxs. Normally I'd just refer to them as untrained monkeys but i thought I'd keep her in the dark about the truth, that's me, Mr sensitive.

I hung up the phone. I didn't pull out the magic make things happen card. I had resigned myself to the fact that investing any additional money into my sweet old machine would be better served buy just getting a new machine.

Since they seem to be in high demand and the supply very limited, I had to plunk down some money to reserve one at Gamestop. Some would say screw Xbox. Don't get a new system. But I've got a ton of Xbox games, lots of friends that I like to play with on Xbox live and I can't quit all that. I have decided that this will be it for me and Microsoft. If they do release a new console system that surpasses the 360 I won't be getting it. I've had a Sony PS3 for over 2 years now and not once have I had an issue with it. I watch lots of Blu Ray movies and play a good number of games without so much as a small hiccup. If Sony can do it, why can't Microsoft? Look at the Wii. It gets abused a ton with controllers getting tossed into TVs and ceiling fans. I haven't heard of it Red Ringing or the disc drive crapping out.

Is it because Microsoft is an American company? Is it true that Americans produce inferior products that fail more often than they succeed? I guess I should ask Steve Jobs that question, huh?

How to Win at Pugs and Gearscore

This pretty much covers all my grips!

The Long Dark Time...

...before Cataclysm drops, or is it?

Recently, a couple of my World of Warcraft friends decided to create a new guild. One that would work towards recruiting people, but not the top elite. We wanted players that were interested in progression, wanted to improve their status and wanted to do it in a semi casual friendly guild.

We were pretty successful in recruiting about 5 additional people to help with our 10 man raids. We had just started working out a schedule when a slight snag hit. In the midst of our recruiting process, we also wanted to test out prospective candidates. So on a few occasions we would form a pug raid, for say Onyxia or Vault, just to see how they preformed. Well, during a Onyxia 10 man, we had issues. Not with anyone in particular, I'm sure everyone has been there, some players just don't work well with others. So, after failing a few times, the raid started to disband and during that, some exchanges took place with our guild leader and someone from another guild. That person got very graphic in the exchange and well, he got reported. That seemed to take care of the issue, except the next day after the event, our guild name got changed.

It seems that "Hardcore Pwnography" is just too offensive as a guild name and got banned. I just don't get it. How do we get banned when every day I see some pretty graphic character names running around Dalaran? Not to mention the multiple number of rude names I've seen while using the LFG tool.

The real grip about the entire affair is that Blizzard won't even tell you, they just change the name to something non harmful, like Oakstout's guild, and then, even after opening a ticket, they won't let you change it to something non offensive. You don't even get the chance to make it right. So, in order to fix the issue, everyone had to leave the banned guild and form a new guild, all the while hoping that members would see the guild message of the day explaining why everyone left the old guild. Officers had to constantly try and catch players online in order to get them into the new guild. Which made our week of recruitment kind of a problem. But luckily we've managed to gather everyone up into the fold of our new guild.

Having gotten that little obstacle out of the way, we decided to get our new recruits and some raiding newbies together to try taking on some 10 man content. First task was to do the weekly raid, to kill Noth the Plaguebringer from Naxxramas. No problem there, even after picking up a non guildie hunter to finish out our 1o for the raid. We then moved on to try 10 man Trial of the Crusader, which went better than expected, since some members hadn't seen much of that content. We did wipe a few times, but we still managed to learn from the mistakes and eventually took down Anub. Several guildie's got some decent upgrades while a good many of us only needed badges and practice. We then successfully took down Onyxia in our premade 10 man and then slaughtered 2 bosses in VoA before we called it a night.

The guild goal is to do Ice Crown. A lofty goal, probably, but after our successful night out, not something out of our grasp. Next week, we are going to get our feet wet and see how we do against the first few bosses in ICC. Who knows, we may just come away with very nice prizes, which is my hope.

On a personal level, I did pretty good at my first attempt at raid healing. I need to not stand in the fire and learn where I need to run when I have certain debuffs like the poison from Acid Maw. I do have a lot of raid knowledge but only from a tank's point of view, which is very very different from a healers. But even though I didn't do great at healing, I do know that I can make adjustments and should perform much better on my next outing.

I don't plan to be back tanking anytime soon. Healing probably will be my preferred class for some time, even after Cataclysm is released. It is so challenging and that is what I want from my MMO these days. I'm not saying that tanking isn't hard, but once a fight is learned, it pretty much stays the same. The only factors that can change a fight for a tank are the DPS and if they behave, then its the same old same old. But with healing, its never the same. You don't know how much damage will be dealt out to the tank or dps. You never know when someone is going to have a bad night and get stuck in the fire or not know how to get a debuff off. It's is never a dull moment, which is just fine for me. I'm tired of easy mod.

As you can see, things are going very well. Things have picked up. Raiding prospects have somewhat improved and I'm having a great time with friends. I just hope Cataclysm doesn't screw all that up.

Cataclysm, the birth of Blizzard's next MMO.

Cataclysm will not be just an expansion with a few new zones with new races to explore with, but a complete reworking of World of Warcraft. Not just a revamp of characters stats , new class/race combinations or even the ability to use your flying mounts in the Old kingdoms. World of Warcraft will be a completely different game with different rules, different graphics and different game mechanics.

The question is, are players really ready for it?

Defense, weapon skill and MP5 go away. Attack power will be gone on most items. Spirit will only be found on healing gear and spell power to be limited to weapons only. Intellect will now provide spell power, which should have been the case since vanilla. This is just the tip of the changes with added value stats like armor penetration to still be decided at a later date. Gear obviously will be altered to fall in line with these stat changes or eliminations, certain gems will get color changes to suit a more appropriate scheme. And these aren't even the more drastic changes. There will be new class/race combinations, certain talent trees will get redefined and changed all the while moving Blizzard's game in a different direction.

In short, Blizzard isn't just changing WoW, they are recreating WoW. Making it more simplified for the stat crunchers? Maybe? Finally realizing that concepts at launch no longer work with their player base? Also possible. Or are they trying to continue the trend of recruiting the lowest common denominator of player to play their game? A fact that hasn't been lost on those using the recently developed Looking for Dungeon tool. Or is it just some evil plot to get people to keep playing overly simplified MMO, hoping that in the near future their boredom will force players to seek out something a bit more difficult and complicated. Something that has that Blizzard trademark and feel. Maybe Blizzard's yet to be named future MMO?

Whatever the case, Cataclysm will change WoW. Maybe into the MMO Blizzard had hoped for when they first sat down at the drawing table so many years and subscribers ago. Maybe into something no original player will ever recognize as their favorite first MMO. But change is what will come with Cataclysm, but down deep, I doubt it will be for the best.

The American Rock Project

I present, the American Rock Project!



Enjoy!

The Losers!

Today was 1/2 day cinema day. Meaning, I took a 1/2 day at work and went to see the LOSERS!

Well, I was faintly interested in the movie. I figured of all the stuff out there, that I could go see without my significant other, this movie would be just the thing. I figured it would have some decent action, descent actors and one very hot actress! It's actually based on a DC/Vertigo comic of the same name. I am or rather was a huge Vertigo comic fan back in the late 80's, early 90's but this particular comic never crossed my path. That being said, all I really knew about the movie was what I was seeing in trailers and various geek podcasts!

So, I had no expectations. I just hoped, I wasn't wasting my $7.00 matinee cash on something juvenile and or gawd awful!

Well, the movie was both funny and action packed. Parts of it seemed a bit silly, but it is based off of a comic book so I didn't hold that against them. The writing wasn't too bad, considering I laughed pretty loud at most of the jokes. The plot isn't too hard to follow and if you've ever seen any picture where a group go up against a major bad guy then you pretty much know the flow of this movie. There were some obstacles thrown in but not many red herrings. There was never a "WoW, I had no idea!" aspect to the movie, but for an afternoon flick that was a get away from work, lose all your troubles kind of movie, it was great. It was much more entertaining than that bloat that was Alice in Wonderland and I happen to be a fan of both Tim and Johnny's work.

However, this is a guy movie. Insert disclaimer here (that statement is kind of loaded because there were only 5 people in the theater, one of them happened to be a woman and she did laugh as loud if not louder than I did at times.) I whole heartedly enjoyed the movie and plan to buy it when it comes out on Blu-Ray in 3 or so months, if not sooner. I felt the same about Live Free or Die Hard, another silly, yet action packed movie that is nothing but a popcorn eating affair.

So two thumbs up!

Xbox Live Party

Tip for the Day!

When in an Xbox Live Party chat, the most important thing not to ask is:

"What are you wearing?"

Even if your looking at your friend's avatar when you ask.

By the way, sorry I asked!