Kindred Spirit is half of the new GameGodz, the duo that owns and runs the popular GameGodz.Com gamers site. He has been with The News Letter since its inception in 1999.

Xbox Suckz - Another Bill Gates Screwup...

by Kindred Spirit

Ok, here is a brief flash back of what is going on here, so listen up. I co-own and operate GameGodz.Com, so ya, I'm big in the Gaming, playing vidz, and being the best @ all gamez. It'z what I do, so you could imagine my surprise when a little over a year ago, Mr. Bill Gates decidez to jump into the Gaming Industry BIG Time, and releases the Microsoft Xbox. I'm thinking, hey, cool, Microsoft has made some killer gamez in the past, and now they've released they're own Gaming Console, awesome. I couldn't wait to try out the Microsoft Xbox. I was dying to play it, any game, all of the gamez, just so long as I got to play it. That was a year ago now…

Now, let'z fast-forward a little. Approximately 1 month ago, I came to Pacranch ( he's also my main graphic artist @ GameGodz.Com ) and told him I was writing an article for GameGodz.Com. He asked me what it was entitled, so I told him, and he was like wow, you have to release it on the Pacoima Ranch NewsLetter as well, so I'm thinking, hey, the more people see this, the better, right???

Once again, let'z fast-forward to the present time. Over the last year, I have played over 20 different Microsoft Xbox Platformz and have played or demo over 40 Microsoft Xbox Gamez. Let me point out some really good thingz about the Microsoft Xbox.

The graphicz on the Microsoft Xbox are incredible, without any doubt. With some gamez, I would even say far better then the GameCube or Playstation2. Why is this, you may wonder??? Because Mr. Bill Gates has money coming out of his ying-yang, and decided to pump the Xbox full of hardware far beyond what's in the GameCube or the Playstation2. Add in the technology that the Xbox Gamez were developed with, and the outcome, is insanely awesome graphicz.

So, why do I entitled this article "Xbox Suckz: Another Bill Gates Screw Up..." you wonder??? Well, I'm gonna tell you why this article is entitled that. Remember earlier when I stated that I have played on over 20 different Xbox Platformz and played or demo over 40 Xbox Gamez. Well, what I didn't happen to mention @ the time, other then graphicz, was my experience with those gamez. Before going into those gaming experiences, let me ask you a few questions...

Do you want to play a game that is going to possibly lag while playing OFFLINE???

Do you want have to play a portion of the game over again, cause it froze up???

Do you want load timez to take so long that you could go for a cigarette, come back, and it is still loading???

Do you want to wait 5 mins for the game to save, just to have to wait 5 more mins or longer till you realize it froze up on you again and you have 3 hourz of game play to go through again???

If you answered Yes to all 4 above questionz, then hell, the Microsoft Xbox is for you. But if you answered No to just 1 of the 4 questionz above, then my friend, the Microsoft Xbox is not for you, so don't waste your time.

When I first found out about the Xbox, I was dying to play. Now that I have played it, I'm just plain dead. I died from long loading waitz, even longer saving waitz, and worse of all, wasted gaming time. On all 20 different Xbox Platformz, and 99% of all those gamez that I played or demo, I had to deal with game crashes, extremely slow loading, and saving, games freezing up, and worst of all by a long shot, I even had to deal with LAG while playing OFFLINE. I mean, come on, LAG while playing OFFLINE, and I mean BAD LAG @ timez.

Gamerz who want to play gamez, don't want to have to wait for slow loading or slow saving. They don't want to have to wait to see if the game is actually going to save, or if it is going to freeze up, and have to be shut down. They don't want to have to go through hourz of game play again, because the machine froze up on them.

Let'z move on to Microsoft Xbox Live for a moment here. A friend of mine recently got a Brand New Xbox. I hooked it up for him, then we ran all the needed requirements for Xbox Live. I started to setup up his account so we could have a couple of a rounds of Unreal Tournament. Half way through the set up, it wouldn't allow me to go any further. So we shut it down, made 100% certain that everything was setup correctly, then tried again. Same problem. So we went through everything again. Same problem. We played around for about an hour and a half, and still, same problem.

Finally, I decided to call Xbox Live Tech Support, to find what out exactly what the problem at hand was. After waiting almost 2 hourz on hold for a customer representative to assist me, I got to spend almost another hour arguing with the customer representative about what exactly the problem. As irritating as it is, it's actually kinda funny that I did everything the tech support guy told me to do, and it ended up being exactly everything I tried before I even called. Guess what, same problem, still not resolved. You would think that a Microsoft Representative would know what to do, guess not.

The next day, we called again, waited another hour and thirty minutes, and got a different guy, thank god, not. The guy tells us to do everything the last guy told us to, and the same thing that we had done before even wasting our time with tech support. Same problem, once again, still not resolved. Finally, this guy tells us to go buy another controller. That's Microsoft for ya, all they want is your money, nothing else. So we figure, well, we've tried everything else, so why not. So, we go to the store to put $50 into Mr. Bill Gates Piggy Bank. We get back, plug the controller in, and OMG, it works, problem solved. To this day though, the original controller that we had, works perfectly, with no problems @ all.

What's the moral to this section of the article. If your crazy enough to actually buy an Xbox for the purpose of Xbox Live, make certain to pick up a second separate controller while @ the store, cause it seems Mr. Bill Gates had the controller's that are sold with the Xbox designed specifically NOT to work with the account setup process of Xbox Live, just so that you would have to go put more money into Mr. Bill Gates Piggy Bank.

In Conclusion, the Gaming Industry states there are 4 level of Gamerz:

Novice Gamer ( Plays under 2 hours a week )
Casual Gamer( Plays 2 - 5 hourz a week )
Serious Gamer ( Plays 6 - 12 hourz a week )
Hardcore Gamer ( Plays more then 12 hourz a week )

Well, I say that the Gaming Industry missed a level of Gamer. At GameGodz.Com we have a level of Gamer called Elite Gamer cause that's what you got to be to hang with the GameGodz Boyz. The GameGodz Boyz, and myself our livez revolve around games. We eat, sleep, think, study, teach, and talk Video Gamez, hence the term GameGodz.Com.

They say that The Xbox, and Xbox Live were designed for Hardcore Gamerz, and I agree. Cause NO Elite Gamer in their right mind would be caught wasting their time with a gaming console that is no where near the level of Elite Gaming.

My Message directly to Mr. Bill Gates:

Take my advice, get out of the Home Console Gaming Industry, before it buries you, cause this is one industry you aren't gonna be able to monopolize.

If you aren't willing to take that advice, then take this advice. For every Game that Microsoft or a third party Game Developer Designz for The Xbox, make certain that the Official Game Testerz aren't Hardcore Gamerz, but rather Elite Gamerz, and if you cant find any, come by GameGodz.Com, you'll find some there.

This article is going to have it's own dedicated Forum entitled Xbox Suckz @ The GameGodz Forumz/BBS which can be located @ http://www.gamegodz.com/forumz.