Hi guys,

just want to share my thoughts with you! Up to you, if you like to read...

First of all, I was always a Microsoft hater. Well, to be honest it started about 1998. I was self-employed and had to deal with a lot of frustrated customers. They had issues with their Windows 95 or 98. Sometimes it was just the installed Office, which worked not properly. These guys bought the system in my shop. So I was responsible from their point of view, thats understandable. For me I was fixing M$ bugs. Cant remember how many times I called the M$ hotline. After a few times they started to tell me, that next time I call, I have to pay! This was like giving oil into the fire. But thats the way you can behave, when you are such a big player.

I never played a lot on a PC. After fixing the PCs from other people, I had enough after of fixing my own, to get one particular game running smoothly. It was 2001, when I decided to buy a next generation console - at that time PS2. Already owned a used Dreamcast. But I wanted to get the full power! And SONY promised a lot and had this "technical advanced concept" wtih asynchronous GFX/CPU.

With my PS2 I played a lot Grand Turismo. Loved the game, but the graphics? The line flickering? No AA? The difference between the Dreamcast was not really big. I went on buying games, but was never satisfied with the graphics... The XBOX was released already and at that time the price significantly dropped. I sold my (unmodded) PS2 with all games and bought an XBOX. Still hating M$, but it was definately the better product.

The included freebie Sega GT had already better grapics than Gran Turismo. And everybody who can remember Sega GT will say "ouch" . I was lucky with my XBOX, hacked it about 6 months later. Installed the games to the upgraded HD and used it with XBMP (later XBMC) as a media player. Great! The old XBOX is together with XBMC still in duty . A LAN cable connects my living room, with my computer room. Since 2003 we almost stopped using CDs. Listening to music is this way a lot more convenient. There is no day, where this box is not running for at least two hours!

Two years back, I bought at LowYat my 360. It was already modded. Loved to play the games. Great graphics, great games. Played PGR a lot, was included as original and I used it with my 3 months free XBOX live. Started to think about becoming a paying XBOX live member!

Then the trouble began. My 360 was banned, like thousands of others at that time. Well I know broke the rules in using pirated games, but felt not fair with it. Online I only used my PGR. For me it was ok to purchase originals, when the game is worth buying. Now, after 3 months, I was sure I will never buy an original.

The box was just a year old, the drive started to make trouble. Sometimes, it declined to open the tray. But I found out it was not just that, sometimes it was really like dead. Not aware of a "drive key", I thought I can change it, when it finally dies. Now its dead, the drive key cannot be extracted. Because lack of time and traveling, my 360 was rarely used. Maybe less than 70 hours of usage. The broken part is just a damn drive, easy to change. M$ avoids successfully fixing it. Thanks! This kind of frustration might had other here with the famous RLOD. Which I might have got later, because it was one of the early machines. A known problem from M$. But again, when you are a big global player...

Looking at the PS3, SONY is not treating there customers really good as well. The PS3 is like a "supercomputer at home", with the Cell Prozessor and Rumble is not Next Gen . But today it is - they had just license problems! So many early buyers of the PS3 are now double paying, because purchasing new controllers. The first generation had hardware PS2 compatibility. Later they went on to remove all PS2 hardware from the board, to continue with software compatibility. Nowadays, we have NO compatibility. And btw the Cell Processor together with the GFX chip is not performing so great. The GFX of the 360 is still way better. In the web, there are enough testimonies from software developers, about the capabilities of this machine. Some people claim, the PS3 is way ahead the XBOX, because it was about one year later releases. But the reason of the late release was Blue Ray and technical issue with copy protection, laser diodes... Its not one year more of development in that box.

Luckily, the PS3 integrates a Blue Ray drive. The HD DVD (R.I.P) had btw. more (interactive) features. Blue Ray still tries to catch up. But even I am thinking about buying a PS3. Throwing my old TV and replacing it with an LCD, gonna need a Blue Ray player.

So the outcome will be to buy a new 360, because of better graphics, more choice of games and a lot better online gaming. Because I need a Blue Ray player, capable of doing old DVD upscaling etc., I will buy a PS3. If HD DVD would have been the winner, or M$ would integrate Blue Ray in their 360, I wouldn't need a PS3.

Feeling comfortable in buying a new 360 is difficult. My box was modded, but still feeling fooled and pity so many other, where the 360 died from RLOD!

Holger

Yes, it is. Especially when you look at the price.

XBOX 360 arcade is in europe 179.- Euro. Means RM 900.

Haha, you guys don't care when something breaks you paid for? Got used to be a victim of the industry already?

Imagine following case. You buy a car. The seller tells you, you cant do any modifications to it. If you do so, you get banned from all highways by him. You changed the radio of that car, get caught and now cant drive on highways anymore, but still normal roads. You can drive, but its takes more time on that roads. Driving in your car is no more fun like in the past, due to this limitation. You complain to the seller and he says "Bro, you broke the rules. Just buy a new car, with that you can drive on the highways again!" Frustrated you keep that car, its just a few months old.

Suddenly, the radiator brakes. The problem is obvious. The radiator from other cars would fit, but there is a special code in the old one. That makes your type of car very different form others. But because braking the rules and out of warranty, you have to throw the whole car. You are surrended from radiators which would fit. You would pay for the new radiator and its installation, you dont care about warranty. But now you are forced to throw the whole car. The radiator was too destroyed, to extract the code.

To get frustrated around M$ is easy. I bought my first computer 1983. Saw other systems, not m$ infected, more reliable and smart more than 18 years back.

But the best gaming console, when u look at the performance, is the 360. Bought yesterday a Jasper set.

Cheers

As I said, I dont care about the warranty. I am willing to pay for a new drive. Some of the Terms & Conditions doesn't meet the laws. Same goes for e.g. to the EULA, you have to sign when you install Windows. It is not compliant to european law. Dont know about the malaysian laws on that. T&C and EULA are not equal law. Different stories.

Is playing copyrighted games against the law? Selling is yes. Voids it the T&C, yes I think so. Are there people out there got banned, without playing pirated games on unmodded XBOXes? Yes, there are.

Buying/Playing DVD movies with different regional codes, than where you are living is not T&C compliant as well and definately not wanted by the right holders.

How about the RROD? Is it fair to sell hardware, where you know it will break. Even before the customer bouht one. Recently here was a posting, where somebody who worked at M$, exactly claimed this.

Ok, to bring it together what you guys said:

- Microsoft treats their customers well, there is nothing where you can blame them for, when its XBOX 360 related.